Bachelors Degree in Business Management

by La Shanna
(Palo Alto, Ca 94303)

I attended University of Phoenix to obtain my B.S. in Business/Management. I found the level of the course work to be very inconsistent. There were many courses that were challenging depending upon if the facilitator made it challenging. The facilitators that made their courses easy were very easy graders and more than likely they did not read the assignments submitted by students. The material provided in textbooks was very useful but the courses could be easily completed without them.

The one element that I did not enjoy was working Learning Teams with other students. Students work together in small teams of 2-4 students; in many cases you cannot control who you work with. The quality of the course materials was acceptable; I can say that I learned enough to pursue a career in Business. The e-textbooks were very easy to read; for the most part facilitators never require students to read excessively like traditional colleges.

Professors (facilitators) were very inconsistent in terms of their commitment. There were some excellent facilitators who took their job seriously. Unfortunately there were some facilitators who used this job as an opportunity to provide minimum or subpar performance to their students. Most of the facilitators are professionals in their respective field of expertise and they use their knowledge to teach courses at University of Phoenix. The faculty and administration was supportive to me as a student.

There is interaction with fellow students in the Learning Team Forums where students work together on projects. Within the team environment we exchange personal contact information such as phone numbers, emails, etc. I have contacted a few students offline and we have interacted on Facebook also.

The online tools that were provided were math tutoring centers (and various tools for statistics courses), plagiarism checkers, online forums, citation generators, the online library, and e-books.

Distance learning was a perfect fit for me as a full-time mother; I also work and home I have no time to go to a traditional campus. The cost was the least of my concerns because it was my personal objective to obtain my degree. I believe that I got a good quality education; however, I have concerns about the quality of the facilitators providing a good learning experience for students in the future.

I would recommend that current or prospective students maintain a positive attitude and avoid taking breaks in their education because it will be difficult to get back on track. There are more benefits to obtaining a degree online than on a traditional campus.

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