My A.T. Still University Experience : goals

Unexpected New Doubts About Continuing

SteveFoerster — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for the past and fear of the future.” — Fulton Oursler

The other night I was having trouble sleeping, and as I lay awake in bed I started thinking about my program at A.T. Still University and that in another month or so I would be returning to it and my hiatus would be over. While I was thinking about that a few things that I suppose have been floating around in my subconscious mind for a while finally took form. Specifically, I'm not sure that I want to return to my program at ATSU next term because I'm no longer entirely sure that this program is the one for me.

I realize that in the last year or so I've said many complimentary things about the school, the program, and the people who make them happen. I should hasten to reaffirm that those things are all true, and that I still feel that way about them. So let me explain what this new doubt is not about:

It's not about A.T. Still University as an institution. They've had their growing pains, and they've changed out their leadership a bit, but overall that they're able to managed their strong growth is a great sign. I think they're an interesting school with an exciting history that's done well to branch out into related subjects to healthcare, and that has a bright future.
It's not about my program. Especially for an American doctoral program, it's very cleverly designed, and the way the coursework and research are integrated is a model of which other schools should take notice and emulate when designing their own doctoral programs for practitioners.
It's not about the people on my dissertation team. Dr. Mac has been nothing but supportive, and Dr. Summerfield's comments have been invaluable. It's true that Dr. Lanou has been pretty quiet, but then she's a busy person with a lot going on, and I could have been making a lot better effort to catch up with her.

In part, it's about my topic. By the end of my first term my topic had to be concretely decided, and in that haste it ended up becoming something that went from being focused on distance learning, to being something focused more on motivational differences. The truth is that I'm much more interested in the former than the latter, but one thing I do know about motivation is that it's something you need to have in spades in order to finish a doctoral program.

The other part is that when I was deciding a year or more ago, I passed up an intriguing opportunity, to do a doctoral program that was entirely research-based through Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, South Africa. I have a very strong interest in the developing world, and their Dean of Informatics was very supportive of the idea of my doing research as an external student through their institution, and I actually really liked him. He even told me about their e-Innovation Academy that was set up precisely to support the sort of interdisciplinary postgraduate research in fields like education and technology that so appeals to me. Recently I've realized that I think about that program as the one that got away.

I thought that once I chose a program that would be that, I wouldn't look back and wonder whether I had made the right choice. But now I feel unexpectedly uncertain, and it's not very convenient. It was a very tough decision to make in the first place, but I figured that once it was made I'd carry on and never actually stop to think that maybe I'd made the wrong decision, certainly not wrong enough that I'd go back to start, especially after three terms.

But it seems I was wrong, and I'm not sure what to do. I have a little time to decide, but not forever. In part a reason not to jump is that I'm afraid of being a jumper, that if I do then a year from now I'll just feel like doing it again. I really don't think that's the case here, but it's something to consider. Either way, some serious pondering is in my immediate future. Comments, as ever, are welcome.

Next up, uncertainty of a different sort as I comment on what might change for students of Penn Foster College as their school is bought by Princeton Review.

Image courtesy of EL1998P71

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Update on Running

SteveFoerster — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:00:00 GMT

“Run like hell and get the agony over with.” — Clarence DeMar

Last month, I wrote about my new running program. My goal was to progress steadily from being a complete couch potato to being able to run for thirty minutes straight over eighty days. The idea was that I would go out for thirty minutes, alternate between running and walking, and slowly add running time and subtract walking time until there wasn't any walking time left. I drew up a schedule for how quickly I would convert walking minutes to running minutes, so that after eighty days there wouldn't be any walking minutes left and I'd be running for thirty straight minutes.

Well, it turns out that I didn't stick to my schedule for adding running minutes. I was on track for the first five weeks or so, and it was a renewed challenge every time I upped the pace. But one day, maybe three weeks ago, I had reached the two and a half minutes when I supposed to go back to walking, and I just didn't want to. So I kept running, and that day I added five extra running minutes, and never consulted my schedule again. From that point I pushed myself to do as much running as possible. This wasn't without consequence, in that I got blisters on both insteps, but that was as much from wearing the wrong socks as anything else, and they've mostly cleared up.

So anyway, after that point I added a few running minutes every time I went out. A few days ago I ran for twenty-two minutes, then walked for three, then ran for five more, so when I set out yesterday evening I was hoping that I'd be able to reach my goal of thirty straight minutes, and I did!

I realize we're all pressed for time, but I'd really encourage anyone who's trying to balance work, family, and elearning to consider doing something active like this. Spending just thirty minutes didn't really knock any gaping holes in my day, and the increased energy I've felt has more than made up for the time I've spent. Moreover, my family tells me that that I'm less stressed and disagreeable since I've been running, and that's important considering how much I need their support to accomplish everything I've set out to do.

So the next question is where I go from here. I've lost a little weight doing this, although not a whole lot, just ten pounds or so. I plan to keep running thirty minutes at least every other day, while doing a better job of watching how much I eat, something I've also tried to do during this period of time. It's really good motivation to pass up that snack when you know you're going to have to carry it around with you the next time you run! Hopefully with a few months of that I'll have gotten rid of enough excess baggage that I can just worry about maintenance. I certainly hope so — I can't imagine too many people would listen to a porky doctor of health education!

Next up, I look at another way to deliver distance learning.

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Around the Neighborhood in Eighty Days

SteveFoerster — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:38:00 GMT

“We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.” — Jules Verne

Working parents who go back to school have a lot of demands on their time, and often personal fitness is one of the things that falls by the wayside. When you have a bunch of kids around, a boss to please, and you're running out of time to submit that assignment for class, it can be really tough to find time to go jogging or cook a healthy meal. Even when you're vegan!

I know this one all too well, as I went back to school to finish my Bachelor's in 2004 and I'm still a student five years later. I was never great at monitoring my snack intake, so this prolonged period of relative inactivity hasn't been great news for my waistline. (Or rather, it's been great for my waistline, which means it's been bad for me!)

Anyway, I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and do something about it. I saw a number of web sites about going from no running at all to running thirty minutes at a stretch, and that sounds pretty good. But there are two issues with the way those sites describe their approaches on this. First, they all advise to run three times a week, and it seems like they're only doing that because you need a day off after running, but if they say "every other day" it won't fit into a seven day week very well. Second, they boost the amount of running every week, in some cases pretty aggressively. I want to make some progress on this, but competing in a 5K by the end of the summer isn't my goal here.

So I considered both of those issues and have designed my own schedule. I'll run every other day, and add slowly to the amount of running every eight days until I've gone from only a little running to being able to run for thirty minutes straight. More specifically, during the first eight days I'll run for six minutes and walk for twenty-four. They'll be split evenly so that I'm running for a minute, then walking for four, and repeating that sequence six times. In the next eight days, I'll run nine minutes out of thirty. The eight day period after that, I'll run ten minutes out of thirty. From there, I'll add two and a half minutes to every eight day period until after eighty days I'll be running for thirty minutes straight. Perhaps a table would help:

Eight Day Period	Minutes Ran	Minutes Walked
First	6	24
Second	9	21
Third	10	20
Fourth	12.5	17.5
Fifth	15	15
Sixth	17.5	12.5
Seventh	20	10
Eighth	22.5	7.5
Ninth	25	5
Tenth	27.5	2.5

And after those eighty days, that means running for a thirty minute stretch. Or at least it looks good on paper. I did my first run today, six sequences of one minute of running and four of walking, and it went all right. Throughout all this, I'll only run every other day. On the opposite days I'll walk for thirty minutes, so tomorrow I'll walk for thirty minutes. And I'll take it from there and see how it goes.

Next up, I quit my job, but it all works out very well thanks to UltraLearn.

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Full time... and then some!

SteveFoerster — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:44:00 GMT

“Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.” – Robert Anton Wilson

The Doctor of Health Education at A.T. Still University consists of alternating semesters. First you take two normal three semester-hour courses, and then you take a three semester-hour course and a seven semester-hour “Dissertation” course. I just finished one of the former, but as of Monday I started one of the latter.

This is actually a pretty heavy load. Many schools consider nine semester-hours per term to be full time for graduate programs, so I expect that a semester working full time and taking ten semester-hours will be pretty intense. It occurred to me to ask whether I could take the Dissertation course by itself and end up with two extra semesters of normal courses, but not until after I already had this schedule set and I guess now it seems to be a little late to change things. As I've mentioned, I had a problem with burnout at one point during my Master's program, and I don't feel that, at least not yet, so from that perspective I think I'll be all right.

It doesn't help that I really don't know exactly what to expect from my Dissertation course. I know I'll be done with chapters one and two of my dissertation by the end of it, but I gather that the course is differently structured from the normal coursework. I guess I'm about to find out!

As for the other course, that's called “Proposal Presentation”. It covers such things as grant writing, as I expected, and that makes a lot of sense as this is a very useful skill for a university administrator. Interestingly, however, the course also seems to cover business plan presentation. I like that, since entrepreneurship is an area of special interest for me, but I have to admit it's a surprise (albeit a welcome one!) to see it in this program.

So that's what's on tap for the next tem weeks. And as if this isn't enough, there's not much of a break for me after this, because A.T. Still University fiendishly offers four semesters per calendar year. Because of this, it's possible, although challenging, to do two academic years per calendar year. And that's what I'm doing. And why am I doing things this way? Some might say that it's so I can finish everything by the end of next year. But the real reason is much more simple – I'm doing it because I'm crazy!

Next up, I get some bad news in that there's a tuition increase headed my way, but conclude that it could be a lot worse.

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Motivations and Goals, Part II

SteveFoerster — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 05:02:00 GMT

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk.” – J.C. Penney

It occurs to me that I may want to elaborate a little on why talking about personal goals is so important when explaining why I chose the program at A.T. Still University over all the others.

We get a lot of people on the eLearners forum who ask what academic program they should consider. Often times, they’re not asking about specific programs, but rather broad categories, or even just “I’d like to get a degree in something. What would be good?”

That’s not the way I see higher education. A degree (and the education that goes into it) isn’t a goal in and of itself. It’s simply a tool that helps one achieve one’s goals. So, when people talk about the program that interests them, I’m always interested to know why they chose it. Specifically, what can they do with that degree that they can’t do without it?

For example, let’s say I want to start my own business, so I do a Bachelor’s degree program in Small Business Management. The goal isn’t to get the degree; it’s to start the business. The degree program just makes that possible.

So if you find yourself looking at a particular program, ask yourself why you’re considering it. After all, you can’t travel the right road if you don’t select a destination!

Next up, I have committee members!

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