Edgewood College/UpGrad DBA; potentially $11,250

[lidel]

Just curious are the quizzes open book or proctored ? Also has anyone reached the dissertation phase yet? I am curious how they split the work for each of the dissertation courses.

Hi,

The quizzes are open book, as was the test. The quizzes are honestly pretty easy and are like free marks, in my opinion. If you have read the unit, there should be no problem. The test that I took was an open book and still super challenging for me. 

I don't think anyone is in the dissertation yet, as the program is new. It is split into the final four courses, each termed "Applied Doctoral Research" with a different course number and focus. These last four are eight weeks each in length. For me, this starts in May. I believe the first is focused on the official prospectus submission, the second is the proposal, the third is where you do the research, findings, and conclusions, and the final course is the presentation and defense. 

They encourage working ahead so you can hit the ground running. I have a working prospectus, proposal draft, and a lot of my methodology for my survey in place, as well as some contacts with collaborating organizations. I realize there may be some curveballs once the process starts, and I intend to document it here as things progress.

I hope this helps.

S

Thank you for sharing; how long is a typical class in weeks, and how many courses can you take at once?

You're welcome. I'm happy to help. 

In the UpGrad system, the courses are six weeks in length, and you only take one at a time. Aside from three one-week breaks throughout the program they are back to back. If one course finishes on the 31st, the next starts on the 1st. If you enroll directly through Edgewood, you can take multiple courses at a time, and I think they are seven weeks long with longer breaks in between.

S

Good to know; how are the quantitative analysis and research courses? Are they very statistics and mathematical-based ? Also, how would you rate your average weekly study and workload? Does the workload consist of a lot of weekly textbook reading, or is it more like reading scholarly articles?

The quantitative courses were very statistics based. You are expected to be able to perform all of the work manually and will have to show that in the assignments. Aside from specific questions asking you to show your understanding, you can have a data management package to do most of the heavy statistical lifting. I used R, but you have other choices. 

Everyone is different, but I average about 10 hours a week overall on the workload. For me, the workload is relatively comparable to that of my MBA program through HAU. 

Some courses have a lot of scholarly reading; some have very little. Some have texts, some do not. Most of my reading is front-loaded as each course is broken into modules you can take at any pace. Usually, there are six or seven. I tend to spend most of the first couple of weeks digesting the provided lectures, academic journal articles, and textbook materials (it varies by course), then focusing the rest of my time on the assignments, returning as needed to the written work. 



S