My Ashford University Experience : BA

10 Traps, Pitfalls and Shortcomings of Earning a Degree Online Part II (6-10)

Cajun — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:56:00 GMT

This is part II of a two part series. (Click to view part I.)

6.) Technology. Technology is an inevitable part of being an online student. Using new, unfamiliar software and mastering the art of using it skillfully will become essential. If you are still carrying a pager, use a rotary phone, are afraid of a fax machine and believe scientific calculators are still over $100.00 you may need to reassess your ability to adapt quickly enough to learning via an online format.

7.) Will power. Also called grit, guts, stamina or courage. You must have the ability to get knocked down and get back up. You have to be able to motivate yourself, likely nobody else will do it for you. If you get an “F” on an assignment you really worked hard on, it’ll knock the wind out of you. But you have to get tough, work harder, be objective and keep slugging away. Nobody is likely going to be cheering you on, nobody will beg you to do the work, nobody will care if you drop out or fail other than you and possibly close relatives. It’s up to you to get it done. You have to be able to accept failure and move on. You have to be able to overcome your shortcomings and keep growing. You have to accept the fact that you are nowhere near perfect and get over yourself enough to get better. You have to have will power. Campus based students will have to have some of this but they will also have the support of a peer group and the knowledge that their friends are sharing their experience. You on the other hand are going to go it very much alone by comparison.

8.) Self -discipline. Self-discipline is not will power, but it is a close cousin. The difference between will power and self discipline is that will power is what motivates you. Will power is the voice in your head that tells you go get up and keep going when you’ve been knocked down, the thing that keeps your feet moving underneath you when you don’t think you can run anymore. Self-discipline is the fore knowledge of what you need to do, making a plan and sticking to that plan no matter what. Self-discipline is the ability to delay pleasure in the knowledge that the sacrifice will pay in the long run. Will power is the drive where self-discipline is the map. One without the other is useless. You have to be self-disciplined. You will not have the peer support or pressure to show up to class every day like your campus-based peers will have. You will not be meeting friends in study groups at night motivating you to do so. Your success and reaching goals will depend 100% on your ability to envision what needs to happen and stick to the plan.

9.) Reading comprehension. You will have to read everything you learn likely. Where your peers can sit through lectures and hear the information, you will have to read it. Where your peers can reinforce the knowledge imparted to the class through discussions, you will have to read and write about what you are learning. It is likely that you will be required to have a higher level of reading comprehension than your campus based peers because it is the primary if not the only means of communication in online learning. You likely will not have auditory reinforcement of the information like sitting through a lecture. You will not likely have the visual of seeing the information being demonstrated on a chalkboard. With rare exception all the information relayed to you will be via text and graphics, nothing more. You will have to learn to comprehend what you read. This will include skillful note taking, learning your reading comprehension limits (we all have them) and develop a means of overcoming your shortcomings. For example, I find it hard to concentrate on a text for over 30 straight minutes without a break. Otherwise I am reading, but not comprehending the text. The more precise and dry the material, the shorter my attention span is. As such I take careful, easily referenced notes and take a break of 5 to 10 minutes at least once every half-hour without fail. That is what works for me, you will have to develop a plan that works for you.

10.) Communication through writing. This is a shortcoming for many, many people. I revise reports daily as part of my official duties in the workplace and I continually see people who struggle in the area of communicating effectively in written word. You would not be alone in this struggle. I too have spent and continue to spend minutes upon hours upon years developing my writing skills. It is an art form that few people if any, ever perfect, yet one that must be mastered to a high level of competence in online learning as this will be your primary if not only means of expressing your thoughts and engaging in the communication process. You may have a way with words and wit in person, but translating this onto the page is a struggle I believe most people, myself included engage in.

Well there you have it. I hope this post does not scare you off of attempting a degree online, but there are things you need to be aware of before committing your time and money to such a momentous undertaking as earning a degree online.

I welcome any comments, questions or suggestions you may have here or email if you prefer.

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Hey you management/administration students and wannabes! Are you ready for this?

Cajun — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT

Have you ever heard the phrase “It’s lonely at the top”? This phrase has been repeated for years and years because basically it’s true. Being the boss sometimes means making tough decisions about people who work for you. The fallout usually includes rumors which don’t even resemble the truth followed by speculation and then eventually judgements made about your character (for good or bad) regarding the situation. As manager you generally are not even to discuss the matter by which others seem to draw their conclusions about you, therefore there is nobody to defend you or your actions and intentions should they not be popular. There may be times as a manager that you even have to let someone go, give someone a reprimand, hand out a reduction in pay, turn down someone for a raise or even demote them. These are never easy decisions to come to and no decent person ever enjoys being in the position to do such.

Recently a friend of mine poured his heart out to me because during his few years as manager, he had to fire someone for the first time ever. He couldn’t eat or sleep for 2 days before it was to be done, his wife told me privately that he was being tormented by what he had to do. He eventually talked it over with me and debated questions like “I wonder if there is anything different I could have done” or “I wish I would have done this instead”. Naturally he struggled not so much with his conscience, but with his humanity. No decent person likes to see anyone suffer and no decent person ever wants to be viewed as the source of that suffering, especially around Christmas. He asked me “does this ever get easier?” I told him “no, it doesn’t, but you have to look back at their performance, which led up to this point. Satisfy yourself that you did everything in your power to correct their destructiveness to their own career, once you determine that you have, then realize that you have not fired them, they have fired themselves.”

This brings me to where the educational portion comes into play. You are most likely going to school to get ahead in your career. Doing so will mean that eventually, you are likely to end up in authority over others as a manager, supervisor or whatever. To this end you will be placed in charge of people’s very livelihoods, how they keep the lights on, a roof over their kids heads and food on the table. It doesn’t get any more personal than that. This attitude of “it’s just business” is crap, don’t ever believe it and don’t ever manage that way. When you do your coursework you need to realize that the skills you are learning and the knowledge that you are expected to have will affect people’s lives, especially when you are a manager. Don’t give a 2nd rate effort in school and don’t do it once you’ve arrived. Learning and working hard should become a lifestyle, not a goal that once attained is forgotten. One day you may be looking at the ceiling in the middle of the night, about to have to fire one of your employees and if you have any decency at all you will be asking yourself questions like my friend had. Your education should make you a better manager. It should give you skills and habits that you use to get the best out of your people and if you can’t you may find the answer to “did I do everything I could” to be most unsettling. However if you are serious about your education and apply your skills, commitment to excellence and your humanity in every situation and give 100% to your employees, you will sleep somewhat easier at night.

Make sure that you understand that graduation does not mean that you stop working hard and stop learning. Like in school you will learn something everyday and likely something from everyone, as a result you will increasingly become a better and better manager. Your employees deserve your best efforts. A terrible manager says, “they work for me” whereas an excellent manager says, “I work for them”. As an managerial or administration student you are making a commitment. You are either committing yourself to be a crappy manager in it for the money (don’t worry you’ll blend in, the world is full of them) or you are committing yourself to servant-hood. If you are a servant-oriented manager, you will find that when you have to make tough and unpopular decisions you are able to live with yourself just a little better.

Now go study.

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Are the Liberal Arts Dead? How about some feedback?

Cajun — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 06:47:00 GMT

It seems that in today's world whenever you ask someone what their major is in college you will almost certainly never hear "liberal arts". Nope, it seems that liberal arts has been relegated to "would you like fries with that" status among professional majors such as Business, Accounting, etc. In my last college I noticed that of the 300 to 400 graduating students we had 6 or 7 that had a liberal arts degree. I remember specifically because there were about 40 of us Criminal Justice majors sitting directly behind them and whispering "I guess they couldn't make up their minds" or "I bet every single one of them has managed to cram 150 or more credit hours into a 120 hour degree". Of course we giggled and poked gentle fun at our allegedly less decisive counterparts, but recently I've been researching a liberal arts education and I do see a lot of well rounded wisdom in choosing that route.

Of course many people think that a liberal arts education is less academically challenging since you are not required to declare a major in a specific field, like psychology, but can at many schools pick from a wide array of electives. Another joke I have heard is that liberal arts grads enjoy their education during school whereas other majors, like business, enjoy their education after graduation. I have no idea if this is true, I doubt it but I would bet there is something to that line of thought otherwise why would so many people share this misconception?

So are the liberal arts dead? I don't believe so and personally I kind of like the idea of a well rounded liberal arts education, but primarily on a personal level. I have no idea about professionally. But after all, school is not necessarily about hard and fast skills that you keep with you forever, instead it is about learning how to learn. Being able to conduct research, think critically, etc. Do not the liberal arts teach just that?

I'm curious as to what you guys think?

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