My A.T. Still University Experience : academics

A Video Email from My Dean

SteveFoerster — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:42:00 GMT

“When we speak of 'the higher education community,' it's not just an expression... We really are a community of learners, and we take care of each other.” — John Peters

A.T. Still University is split up into a number of schools, including two osteopathic medical schools, a dental school, a school of allied health, and my school, which is the School of Health Management. Today I received an email from the interim dean of SHM, Kimberly O'Reilly. It wasn't send just to me personally, it was a note to all of us in the school. Interestingly, the email directed us to Dean O'Reilly's message as a video on the SHM web site, an interesting use of multimedia, and a very welcome development considering that I've remarked in the past on how ATSU doesn't take good enough advantage of online audio and video.

Even more interesting, she called on students and alumni to make our own videos and send them in, to help ATSU recruit students. She explained that she made a video for us in part so we could put a face to the name, and hoped some of us could respond in kind. That's an exciting challenge, and I'm looking forward to taking her up on it. I already have a videocamera (one of those cheap ones from Flip, but it ought to be good enough for this), and I figure this should be a good excuse to get familiar with some of the multimedia studio tools that come with Linux.

Another interesting fact about my dean is that she was one of the first graduates of the program that I'm in now. I realize that if a school has too many faculty members that are its own alumni that this considered a problem, because it means there's not enough diversity of training among the faculty. But that's not the case here, and it's good to know that the person who's running things there really knows what I'm going through.

Next up, I get interviewed by the Sacramento Bee newspaper about my recent critical comments about UC Berkeley's call for a federal bailout of top tier state universities.

Image courtesy of g_kat26

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Taking Fall Term Off

SteveFoerster — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:57:00 GMT

“There comes a pause, for human strength will not endure to dance without cessation; and everyone must reach the point at length of absolute prostration.” — Lewis Carroll

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of my fourth term. At the last minute, however, I made a serious decision: I decided to sit the Fall term out and resume my program for the Winter term that starts in late November.

I have a number of reasons. There were a few details that I hadn't had tie to get in order before the start of the term. I haven't filled out a FAFSA for this academic year yet, for starters. Without them having my current financial aid information, I'd have had to come up with the tuition money another way, and that would be challenging and inconvenient. I also hadn't ordered my books yet, and while it doesn't take that long for them to come, even if I get them sent from the library, it's still something that is ideal to have in order before the first day of the term.

Another matter is that I have an external reviewer from whom I haven't heard in some time. The doctoral committee structure for my program is that I am assigned a committee chair, and then back in my first term I recruited two external people to review and approve my dissertation chapters as I go through the program. I need to follow up and check in with them both, as well as my committee chair, and especially try again to get some comments on my draft of my first and second chapters from the external reviewer who hasn't been in touch.

I also have additional things going on at home. My twelve year old son came to live with us over the summer and I'd like to have the time needed to help him get situated at his new school. He's taking eight courses this year when he's used to taking six, and one of them is Mandarin Chinese, which sounds like it may be challenging. Meanwhile my wife is starting law school, and that's a big adjustment for all of us. I'm excited to keep making progress with my program, but having more capacity to be useful at home seems like it would be a good idea.

However, just because I'm not enrolled in courses this term doesn't mean I can't make progress on my dissertation. I have the comments from one of my external reviewers about my chapter one and chapter two that I still need to incorporate. I can also put together a draft of my chapter three — the two courses I just finished both included a number of assignments that are designed to fit into that forthcoming chapter. It's one thing I continue to appreciate about this program that the coursework assignments are specifically designed to be relevant to the dissertation.

The process for changing my plan was very easy. I simply called my academic advisor and she sent me to a short online form to fill out. I did so and got an email from the Associate Dean that included a link to click on to confirm my change of enrollment. Now that that's done, I fill out another short online form to re-enroll for the Winter term. No fees or nonsense, it was very straightforward.

Next up, speaking of the FAFSA, how much should college cost, anyway?

Image courtesy of adobemac

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A Quizzical Look Ahead

SteveFoerster — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:08:00 GMT

“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” — George Bernard Shaw

So my revision came back from the Writing Center with a seal of approval, meaning I'm in much better shape. Now that I'm halfway through my second semester and am finally really into the groove of what I'm doing with my program, I decided to check out my ADP, or academic degree plan, that I was sent at the beginning when I first enrolled. It's the plan I'm to follow during my entire time with the program, which is pretty neat because it means I know from the start what courses I'm taking all the way through.

Finally giving it this close perusal, I noticed that next semester I'll have two courses that are seemingly Master's level. One is HEd 600, Foundations of Learning. The other is HEd 601, Instructional Design and Program Planning.

Now, my Master's is in Education, so I like to think I'm already conversant with the foundations of learning. But I also specifically took a course in Instructional Design, so another thing I like to think is that I don't need to take another one, if it's meant as an introduction to the subject.

I'm unsure how to approach this. I'm scheduled for 76 semester-hours, and the minimum in this program is 60, for those who have a Master's in Health Education specifically from A.T. Still University. I could ask simply to be exempted from these courses so I can move more quickly through my program. If they say yes, that's ideal. But if they say no and instead want me to take other courses instead, then I'll have made things harder on myself because actually taking those courses should be a walk in the park.

I know: that sounds terrible, right? Shouldn't I be gung ho to learn as much as possible and therefore to take as many courses as I can? Well, sure, in theory. But I have a lot I want to do with my life that involves putting this education to good use, and besides, these courses aren't even remotely free — I'm keenly aware that the day of having to pay back student loans will someday be upon me and that my overall burden, while less than many people's, will be sharply felt by my monthly budget.

So I'm going to think this one over for a few days. The start of the next term is eight weeks away, and in the meantime it's not like I don't have a lit review to complete!

Next up, I eventually do submit that lit review.

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The DHEd Program's Admissions Selectivity and Academic Rigor

SteveFoerster — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:01:00 GMT

I was recently a number of questions about the admissions process and academic rigor of my program, the Doctor of Health Education at A.T. Still University. Since I'm at the end of the first term of my program, so I think I'm in a position to answer.

The program does seem to have pretty open admissions, which I noticed when I was in the application process. When I first wanted information from the school, I contacted the director of the Doctor of Health Education program, and in our correspondence she seemed nothing but encouraging. When I submitted my materials it seemed more to satisfy requirements than actually to be evaluated – I never had much of a hint that I'd be denied admission unless I were actually unqualified.

But then I remembered that competitive admissions makes more sense in a classroom setting than it does online. With distance learning, there aren't physical facilities to use up. And when it comes to faculty members, unless the number of applications is truly unmanageable, there's little reason not to keep hiring to accommodate increasing demand.

And while I'm not in a position to have the real numbers here, I really doubt the number of applications for this program have been unmanageable. As a doctoral program, only those with a Master's are qualified to apply, and right there that's a pretty limited pool of prospects. Moreover, its subject matter may be keenly interesting to me, but I realize that it's not the sort of thing that will interest everyone. In other words, I expect that the selection process is done more by the applicants themselves, who hold off if the program isn't a good fit, leaving the school in a position to accommodate the remainder.

But that's just what I think based on having been through the application process and seeing that my classes aren't overloaded and my instructors don't seem to be too harried to give us the attention we need. If someone's concerned about their admissions process, I think that's a perfectly legitimate question to ask the school itself, such as the director of the program.

My peers in the program seem to bear this out as well. The program has a pretty strong emphasis on peer review of the materials that we develop, and while the comments I've received from classmates have run the gamut, many have been insightful and have contributed to my ability to improve the assignments that I submit. Of the three online programs I've taken, I'd rate my classmates in this one as the most accomplished and professionally experienced.

The other question was whether I felt the program was sufficiently academically rigorous. I'm satisfied with the level of difficulty I've had from the two courses I've taken so far.

One is my first Research course, where we covered a lot of ground quickly, including deciding on the problem statement and subproblems of our projects, discussion and selection of various research methods for our projects, recruitment of our two external reviewers, and so forth. Basically this course begins the dissertation process, something that most doctoral students don't do until two years into their programs. Not bad!

The other was the first of two courses the program requires on Finance in Higher Education. I was in pretty good shape in this course, but mainly because I had previous experience in this area. If I hadn't had experience I think I'd have found it pretty challenging, and even as it was it was critically important for me not to fall behind.

One important thing to add on the subject of rigor is that unlike in some programs my instructors at A.T. Still University understand the difference between rigor and inflexibility. When I've asked in advance for an extension it's been granted, but when I've turned in work that I know could have been a little more thorough, I've lost points. And that's the way it should be – in both regards.

Next up, I reflect on the past semester.

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