10-16-2022, 06:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2022, 07:04 PM by ReyMysterioso.)
"Could you tell me how the classes are better/different at HES compared to the others? I mean, what sets HES classes apart from say ASU? The professors? The environment? The material?"
Sure, so I'll try to compare/contrast.
U. Memphis: Took 3 free classes. Very autopilot. Somebody does grade your stuff but there's no REAL feedback of substance. No interaction with instructors or classmates. I could not tell you who the heck the instructors were. There were names but you never got any sense who they were. Brightspace platform. Dysfunctional school. Took six months to get an answer on how you get credit for the free classes. (You basically can't.)
Texas A&M Commerce: BAAS program - Took 2 classes as an admitted degree candidate. Classes were pretty much identical experience to Memphis - autopilot/no interaction. But the student advisor is A++ for whatever that's worth.
Jacksonville State U.: Took 2 free classes: Limited interaction with instructors, zero interaction with classmates. They make announcements, send you emails identical to the announcements, one or two give a prerecorded lecture or message in a video. All of them have a picture so you at least know what they look like, unlike the folks at Memphis or TAMUC. Easy quizzes with multiple attempts. No writing. Easy/no real rigor. Some of the content is really interesting. Canvas platform.
COSC: Took the required in-residency cornerstone & capstone in the Business program. Limited interaction with instructors. Writing projects, weekly discussion board posts, assigned reading. HIGH interaction with classmates on group projects. In the grand scheme of things, it all felt like the lowest-quality resources of any school I've done except for ENEB. Outdated blackboard platform and outdated message boards. Boring readings. Instructors felt like they were going through the motions and just making a paycheck. I never recommend COSC to anyone. There's no way to say this without sounding harsh, but the quality of the other students was questionable. Perhaps I just had bad luck with my cohort, but I didn't feel like I was in classes with other smart, capable students contributing to our collective education.
ASU: Took 11 classes through Universal Learner. Classes are all on "autopilot." Classes used to be on white-labeled Edx platform but are all moving to Canvas. High-quality resources! Excellent videos. High-quality instructors know their subject and are good at teaching it - although you have limited-to-no interactions. Innovative interactive "lab" elements. Many classes work in a creative project for a participation grade (only 5% of overall grade) that leaves it wide open to produce any kind of creative multimedia work you want. I thought that was a neat aspect. No real interaction with other students. I recommend ASU Univeral Learner to anyone and everyone who'll listen because the value is great.
ENEB: Total garbage. Kinda scammy. You just fill out template assignment papers, then them in and get a grade from some anonymous rando. That's it. That's the program. There's some very outdated content in there but there's no point in reading it since 100% of the grade is the single paper-project per class..
HES: There have been three types of classes in my program. All on Canvas.
1. Asynchronous with pre-recorded video content, yellowdig discussion board posts, quizzes and a paper. In these, the pre-recorded content was very high quality. They would shoot them on location at actual places in which the subject matter historically happened and explain a lot of social context of the era. You really learned a lot. The videos would sometimes have prominent guests the instructor would talk to such as nationally known statesmen and accomplished writers or scholars. These require at least one live zoom meeting interacting with instructors. Your feedback on the paper is detailed and thorough. So I would say relatively low student interaction, medium instructor interaction.
2. Synchronous or Asynchronous optional. So there's a weekly live zoom class you can choose to attend. It gets recorded and you can watch it later if your schedule conflicts with being able to attend live. Constitution & The Media was this format. The instructor was a Supreme Court clerk during some of the very prominent Court decisions we studied and talked about the events from personal experience. He is a very accomplished attorney, federal special prosecutor and scholar. A lot of Supreme Court goings on were happening during this class coincidentally and we would frequently ask him questions about current events. His insights were fascinating. VERY high instructor and classmate interaction. Class was by far the most rigorous I've ever had anywhere.
3. Synchronous. This is the majority of the classes' format. Weekly mandatory zoom meetings with lectures and/or workshops. Discussion board posts. Numerous writing assignments - some graded some not. Some in-class. Some homework. (In-class was never graded but always interesting.) Some writing assignments would be spontaneously added and not in the syllabus, so you got a little extra challenge. But you could always learn something from the different approaches you see other students take. Very high instructor interaction/classmate interactions. Instructors are very supportive and want to see you succeed/grow. It varies a little, so some are better than others. None are bad (so far), and the good ones are REALLY good. And the student quality is higher than anything I've experienced anywhere else. Every other higher ed situation I kinda felt like maybe I was the smartest guy in the room. At HES I feel like the dumbest. People that come here are sharp, bring a wealth of experiences. Many of the older students are very successful in their careers. Some are just getting started and you might be more of a mentor to them. The vast majority of the students bring positive attitudes and are invested in each others' growth and all want to see each other succeed.
So in a nutshell, compared to all the other college experiences I've had, HES has had the most immersive, the most positive and supportive learning environments, and also the most rigorous and challenging, and most rewarding. There is also more extracurricular support. I added one guy from COSC on Linkedin and never talked to him again. I have otherwise never connected with any other student from any other school. But at HES, there are dedicated facebook groups for programs, for HES in general. Whatsapp groups form for classes. I've become good friends with several classmates. We text each other all the time, give each other advice. I even ended up buying the current student president's autobiography, haha. He had a really "interesting" life. A great comeback story of overcoming drug/alchohol addiction.
I wasn't sure at all what to expected when I started my higher ed journey online several years back...but whatever I wanted out of college/learning experience, HES delivered it and more. And I can't say that about any other school I've taken classes with.
The obvious caveat here is that I'm comparing a grad program to undergrad classes.
Sure, so I'll try to compare/contrast.
U. Memphis: Took 3 free classes. Very autopilot. Somebody does grade your stuff but there's no REAL feedback of substance. No interaction with instructors or classmates. I could not tell you who the heck the instructors were. There were names but you never got any sense who they were. Brightspace platform. Dysfunctional school. Took six months to get an answer on how you get credit for the free classes. (You basically can't.)
Texas A&M Commerce: BAAS program - Took 2 classes as an admitted degree candidate. Classes were pretty much identical experience to Memphis - autopilot/no interaction. But the student advisor is A++ for whatever that's worth.
Jacksonville State U.: Took 2 free classes: Limited interaction with instructors, zero interaction with classmates. They make announcements, send you emails identical to the announcements, one or two give a prerecorded lecture or message in a video. All of them have a picture so you at least know what they look like, unlike the folks at Memphis or TAMUC. Easy quizzes with multiple attempts. No writing. Easy/no real rigor. Some of the content is really interesting. Canvas platform.
COSC: Took the required in-residency cornerstone & capstone in the Business program. Limited interaction with instructors. Writing projects, weekly discussion board posts, assigned reading. HIGH interaction with classmates on group projects. In the grand scheme of things, it all felt like the lowest-quality resources of any school I've done except for ENEB. Outdated blackboard platform and outdated message boards. Boring readings. Instructors felt like they were going through the motions and just making a paycheck. I never recommend COSC to anyone. There's no way to say this without sounding harsh, but the quality of the other students was questionable. Perhaps I just had bad luck with my cohort, but I didn't feel like I was in classes with other smart, capable students contributing to our collective education.
ASU: Took 11 classes through Universal Learner. Classes are all on "autopilot." Classes used to be on white-labeled Edx platform but are all moving to Canvas. High-quality resources! Excellent videos. High-quality instructors know their subject and are good at teaching it - although you have limited-to-no interactions. Innovative interactive "lab" elements. Many classes work in a creative project for a participation grade (only 5% of overall grade) that leaves it wide open to produce any kind of creative multimedia work you want. I thought that was a neat aspect. No real interaction with other students. I recommend ASU Univeral Learner to anyone and everyone who'll listen because the value is great.
ENEB: Total garbage. Kinda scammy. You just fill out template assignment papers, then them in and get a grade from some anonymous rando. That's it. That's the program. There's some very outdated content in there but there's no point in reading it since 100% of the grade is the single paper-project per class..
HES: There have been three types of classes in my program. All on Canvas.
1. Asynchronous with pre-recorded video content, yellowdig discussion board posts, quizzes and a paper. In these, the pre-recorded content was very high quality. They would shoot them on location at actual places in which the subject matter historically happened and explain a lot of social context of the era. You really learned a lot. The videos would sometimes have prominent guests the instructor would talk to such as nationally known statesmen and accomplished writers or scholars. These require at least one live zoom meeting interacting with instructors. Your feedback on the paper is detailed and thorough. So I would say relatively low student interaction, medium instructor interaction.
2. Synchronous or Asynchronous optional. So there's a weekly live zoom class you can choose to attend. It gets recorded and you can watch it later if your schedule conflicts with being able to attend live. Constitution & The Media was this format. The instructor was a Supreme Court clerk during some of the very prominent Court decisions we studied and talked about the events from personal experience. He is a very accomplished attorney, federal special prosecutor and scholar. A lot of Supreme Court goings on were happening during this class coincidentally and we would frequently ask him questions about current events. His insights were fascinating. VERY high instructor and classmate interaction. Class was by far the most rigorous I've ever had anywhere.
3. Synchronous. This is the majority of the classes' format. Weekly mandatory zoom meetings with lectures and/or workshops. Discussion board posts. Numerous writing assignments - some graded some not. Some in-class. Some homework. (In-class was never graded but always interesting.) Some writing assignments would be spontaneously added and not in the syllabus, so you got a little extra challenge. But you could always learn something from the different approaches you see other students take. Very high instructor interaction/classmate interactions. Instructors are very supportive and want to see you succeed/grow. It varies a little, so some are better than others. None are bad (so far), and the good ones are REALLY good. And the student quality is higher than anything I've experienced anywhere else. Every other higher ed situation I kinda felt like maybe I was the smartest guy in the room. At HES I feel like the dumbest. People that come here are sharp, bring a wealth of experiences. Many of the older students are very successful in their careers. Some are just getting started and you might be more of a mentor to them. The vast majority of the students bring positive attitudes and are invested in each others' growth and all want to see each other succeed.
So in a nutshell, compared to all the other college experiences I've had, HES has had the most immersive, the most positive and supportive learning environments, and also the most rigorous and challenging, and most rewarding. There is also more extracurricular support. I added one guy from COSC on Linkedin and never talked to him again. I have otherwise never connected with any other student from any other school. But at HES, there are dedicated facebook groups for programs, for HES in general. Whatsapp groups form for classes. I've become good friends with several classmates. We text each other all the time, give each other advice. I even ended up buying the current student president's autobiography, haha. He had a really "interesting" life. A great comeback story of overcoming drug/alchohol addiction.
I wasn't sure at all what to expected when I started my higher ed journey online several years back...but whatever I wanted out of college/learning experience, HES delivered it and more. And I can't say that about any other school I've taken classes with.
The obvious caveat here is that I'm comparing a grad program to undergrad classes.
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