Mini-Rant on Excelsior

[sanantone]

It's so annoying that Excelsior doesn't list specific degree requirements right on the degree pages. How hard is it for them to do this? You have to navigate to the catalog, which is not easy to find for those who aren't familiar with the website, and scroll through it. By the way, they just updated their catalogs.

[bluebooger]

for an online school you'd think they would have the perfect online catalog/registration/information/billing system

but I think their web site is really bad

for example, you log in and you're presented with 2 pages
My Home | My Details

uh, what's the difference ?

[Exfactor]

This is something I complained about before, which is the mess that is EC website. I find it to be so strange that an online college with over 40,000 students would have such a terrible website. Its takes going though 10 pages just to find a simple answer. However, I will say I found their student portal (myexcelsior) to be a little more organized than the other schools I applied to in the big 3 (my opinion). However, their websites needs a total overhaul. There library and online writing lab is designed quiet nicely though. Excelsior OWL

[UptonSinclair]

One of the biggest issues I see with the Excelsior system is the lack of course equivalents. Everything is ambiguous. With TESC, they tell you on their website that a given exam with transcribe as a given course. At Excelsior, they tell you an advisor will review the course and decided where it applies. This makes it very difficult to plan a degree with outside resources.

I would also love to see a "what-if" system where you could see how your credits would apply to a different degree plan. Without a course equivalent system in place, this is impossible. Instead, I have changed degrees 5 times and waited for a new MAP.

At this point, I wish I would have saved all of my previous evaluations to build a spreadsheet of where stuff applies.

[UptonSinclair]

It's so annoying that Excelsior doesn't list specific degree requirements right on the degree pages. How hard is it for them to do this? You have to navigate to the catalog, which is not easy to find for those who aren't familiar with the website, and scroll through it. By the way, they just updated their catalogs.

I wanted to share a technique I use to estimate course equivalents. If you look at a given course on the Excelsior website, you will find a list of how that course applies toward the various degrees. Comparing the course description with any given exam or alternative source gives a decent estimate of how the course will apply.

For instance, on the following page, Organizational Behavior transcribes as Business credit for business majors but counts as a social science for liberal arts majors.
Organizational Behavior

[Ralf1958]

I took two courses online from "Big E", and THEIR website problems cost me a totally missed assignment in the first class (didn't really affect my grade), and missed the FINAL TEST in the second class (Learning Behavior). In both cases I did not see any links (or working link) to the work. Fortunately my work was "A" level, so I finished with a "B", even after completely missing the final exam. When I reported the problem, everyone pretty much ignored me, and pretended that it was my fault. As a result, I am not taking paying good money to take more booby-trapped classes through them. I'll take them elsewhere, and have them transferred in.

[Leebo]

I just finished my first Excelsior course, and every assignment was listed in the syllabus, in the associated week. Are you saying these assignments and their due dates weren't in the syllabus or they weren't in the Assignments page?

[Exfactor]

I just finished my first Excelsior course, and every assignment was listed in the syllabus, in the associated week. Are you saying these assignments and their due dates weren't in the syllabus or they weren't in the Assignments page?

I concur with this statement, every assignment that is due in a course are listed in the syllabus, which a student can access before a course even begins. I ran into only one problem during my courses where an assignment was not listed; however, the professor emailed every student, and posted on blackboard repeatedly during the week so every student would know to submit that assignment.

[bricabrac]

I've also experienced and heard about technical difficulties at TESC. If the assignment submission link was broken, I would have sent the document to the instructor via email. And the exam can be reset if you notify both the instructor and testing department. They could have even sent you a paper test if necessary.

But the OP said they ignored his/her correspondence? Wonder when exactly you contacted them regarding the exam? They really wouldn't excuse you for the first assignment since I'm sure the email was working.

Just you know Excelsior is not the only school to experience technical difficulties. There are always solutions to these types of problems. If the instructor went dark, the testing office would/should have corrected the error.

[EI2HCB]

I concur with this statement, every assignment that is due in a course are listed in the syllabus, which a student can access before a course even begins. I ran into only one problem during my courses where an assignment was not listed; however, the professor emailed every student, and posted on blackboard repeatedly during the week so every student would know to submit that assignment.

I have taken four courses so far at Excelsior, their website and courses do need some attention. However since the syllabus is "final" template on each course you need to follow along with the syllabus like your life depended on it. If there is an assignment due the syllabus and depending on the professor course announcements may carry a notice. I've contacted Professors about discrepancies in the syllabus/course content well in advance of any deadline and gotten them resolved. The "tech" guy who sets up the courses doesn't proof read them or follow links at times and there should be a beta testing group that test that sort of thing but so far the professors have been on top of their game when it comes to getting stuff resolved. When I was at really expensive Strayer I had an exam die on my last question and neither the school nor the professor would allow me the five points or ability to retake a test. I got an A in the class but I don't trust Strayer since then. I can say that I don't have any trust issues with Excelsior regarding content or resolutions.