College After 40

Site Review: Free College Classes

2012-02-10T09:21:00.000-06:00

The other day, I ran onto this website that I found very interesting. Of course, it’s the name that hooks you, but, believe it or not, the name rings true.

http://www.freecollegeclasses.org/ provides a wealth of information about courses from MIT, Stanford, UC Berkley, Carnegie-Mellon University, Tufts and others that you can take for free. Yes, free. You can actually have access to almost every class offered by MIT for free.

So, I’m sure you’re asking, “What’s the catch?” That was my initial response. I figured this was another website that was trying to hook you into filling out a form for online courses from a “matching service”, but it wasn’t.

Here’s the catch. You can take any course that MIT offers free of charge. You can also take any number of courses offered by the other universities mentioned free of charge. You will not get credit or a degree from those universities for your course completion.

… But, if you are attending another college or university, you may be able to get credit from that university. All of this information is available through links at this site.

More importantly to me, the coursework is available. I spend a lot of time educating myself. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, to me, the learning is more important than the piece of paper you get at the end. Having over 2000 courses from MIT available to me is a boon.

Now, there are several other helpful things on this site for college students and educators. If you’re doing online research, they offer 100 Wikipedia Alternatives and 67 Google Alternatives for Internet Research. There is also their list of the 100 Best Education Blogs (and no, I’m not on the list … yet).

On top of that, there is an expanding list of articles pointing potential students down the path to their chosen careers. The site is also clean, simple and easy to navigate.

If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to check out this site and explore the wealth of knowledge available to you. They’ve done all of the research for you. Now, all you have to do is enjoy.

Am I Really This Old?

2012-02-09T09:36:00.000-06:00

My dad used to play Honkey Tonks before I was born. He loved Ray Price, Buck Owens, Marty Robbins and the like. I grew up listening to Country and Western music on the radio in his truck and at get-togethers where he and his friends would play.

My mother listened to ‘50’s Rock and Roll. She loved Fats Domino. She loved “Walkin’ to New Orleans”. I would play all of her old 45’s and albums every time I got the chance.

The one thing musically that they had in common was their hatred of the music I listened to as a teen-ager and young adult, Heavy Metal and Hard Rock.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I don’t listen to as much Heavy Metal as I used to. I’ve realized that most of what I called Hard Rock is now considered Classic Rock. I’ve also started listening to a lot more Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and the like. When I do find new music that I like, most of it is what is now considered Country.

So what does this have to do with going back to college? Ok, I’m getting to that.

In most cases, when you go back to college as an adult, even if you take online courses, you will find yourself on a college campus interacting with traditional (read as “young”) students. This may leave you feeling a little out of place.

Now, I like to think of myself as observant. What I have noticed about my fellow “adult” students is that they typically fit into one of two categories. Some try to “fit in” with younger students and some try to avoid them at all costs. In my opinion, neither strategy works very often.

Here’s what I’ve seen: If an adult tries to dress or talk like a teen-ager, they often become the target of ridicule by the very same students with which they are trying to “fit in”. No one wants to see you dressed like Lady GaGa or Katy Perry anymore than you wanted to see your mom dressed like Madonna or Cindy Lauper. It doesn’t matter how “in shape” you are. It doesn’t work.

On the other hand, total avoidance robs you of an opportunity to get a more current perspective and an opportunity to influence the younger generation. You know, I have to think that my dad would have benefitted if he could have ever learned to appreciate Metallica, but he didn’t. Occasionally, I would play him parts of songs and ask him what he thought. Quite often, he would like it until he found out who it was. Then he wouldn’t. He missed an opportunity to learn more about me because he avoided my music.

I think the best approach is to find a middle ground. Find shared interests that allow you to interact with traditional students without alienating them. I don’t know how many “youngsters” I’ve introduced to Don Williams and Glen Campbell. At the same time, I found that I actually enjoyed Skrillex and Tinie Tempah. I’ve also had the opportunity to know some great people that I otherwise wouldn’t.

Online Courses and Instructor Feedback

2012-02-08T15:25:00.001-06:00

Returning to college, I found taking online courses to be more convenient and flexible. This flexibility allowed me to work around my everyday commitments. I didn’t have the restriction of a set class time and I could get a lot of the work done ahead of deadlines, which allowed me to spend larger blocks of time with my family.

Unfortunately, I have also experienced a negative side of online courses. In about 50% of the online courses that I have taken, there is little or no feedback from the instructor.

Your syllabus and course documents are posted. You complete your assignments and upload them into Blackboard, or some other website. Your grade, often much later, magically appears in the “grade book”. You are left to guess what you did well and what you could improve on or didn’t understand.
Now, I understand that instructors are busy. I understand that they are often pressed for time when grading assignments. I also understand that they are getting paid to teach me, and part of teaching is giving feedback on performance.

I look at it this way: If I do well on an assignment, it only takes a few seconds to jot down something like “well-written, you have a good grasp of the subject matter” in the comment box when grading the assignment. If I don’t do well on an assignment, I deserve (because I’m paying for it) to understand what I need to do to improve my performance and understanding.

In one of my recent semesters, I had one instructor in an “easy” course that could not even reply to email questions concerning the ambiguity of her course documents and assignments. I also had one instructor in a “difficult” course that not only replied quickly to email questions, but would send encouraging emails on his own when you did well on an assignment. You can’t tell me that the first instructor could not have at least given feedback.

Here are my thoughts: If you have the opportunity to take courses face-to-face with your instructors, do it. In my experience, instructors are much more engaged with their traditional course students. If you need the flexibility of online courses, try to get feedback from advisors and other students on which instructors to choose.

Thinking Ahead

2012-02-07T10:22:00.000-06:00

I’m going to give you a really great tip that I’ve never heard once from a college counselor. If you plan on pursuing a Master’s, it pays to think ahead. Does that sound like life-changing advice? It is.

Now, I can’t really take credit for this one. It came to me from my very good friend, Lee, who went through this before me. Lee has given me a lot of insights and this is one of his best.

If, like me, you are currently back in college working on undergraduate work, then, despite the advice from your counselors, you need to do some research of your own. In my case, I am working on a degree in Business Administration in hopes of pursuing an MBA.

My original approach going back to college was to visit with my advisor and try to fill in holes in my degree plan to satisfy my BBA degree. Based on Lee’s advice, my new strategy is to review the requirements of my current degree plan and those of the MBA to determine what courses are available to me now that satisfy both.

Basically, it works just like “dual credit” courses do in high school. By taking courses now that satisfy future requirements, I shorten the time required to earn the MBA. To me, that’s life changing.

Back to College, Part II: Shared Experience

2012-02-07T09:43:00.000-06:00

One of the fun and interesting things that came out of returning to college was sharing the experience with my oldest daughter. As I have mentioned earlier, I have a 20-year-old daughter, Briana, who is 6 hours away at college. We have always been close, but sharing this experience has brought us even closer.

I guess it only makes sense, but Briana and I have very similar interests and aptitudes. She loves to argue (and is good at it!). She’s very good at influencing (and manipulating) people. She tends to take a leadership role. She loves history and she’s a great writer.

All of this has added up to a perfect fit for both of us. If I run into something that I’m either not familiar with or don’t understand, Briana is the first one I call. If either of us needs a proof-reader, we don’t have to hunt to find someone we trust with the job. When Briana needs advice on dealing with her sorority sisters or roommates, I am there to share my experience. Most importantly, we can each learn from the other’s mistakes, without having to make them ourselves.

Here’s the best part. A lot of parents I know have a hard time finding something to talk about with their teenage/college-age children. I never, ever have that problem. Briana and I talk almost every day and don’t have to worry about running out of topics – Studies, instructors, work, relationships, career planning – We have an endless list.

I know that not everyone returning to college has college-age children to share this experience. If you do, don’t smother them, but don’t miss the opportunity to make the most of it.

Why Did I Want a Degree, Anyway?

2012-02-06T19:49:00.000-06:00

To be honest, I didn’t. When I first went to college back in 1987, I wasn’t very concerned with a degree or with learning. I had just graduated high school as an “honor graduate” and was enjoying the freedom of being “on my own”.

I really didn’t know what I wanted to do and when an opportunity to make $30,000 a year without a degree arose, I jumped at it. Despite the success and six-figure salary that followed, it’s still one of my biggest regrets.

I guess what I’m getting at is this. Do I want to go back to school to say I have a piece of paper? Do I want to go back to school to learn something new? What do I want?

I mean, truthfully, if all want is a degree, I can get a degree pretty easily from any variety of diploma mills. Again, truthfully, to a lot of employers, it doesn’t really matter where you get the degree, but rather that you have one as an employment criteria.

What’s important to me (and should be to prospective employers) is what I learn. Regardless of a degree, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then what good are you?

I worked for one of the largest companies in the world. One year, this company hired any and every graduate from the CEO’s alma mater. In one week, three new assistant managers showed up, fresh out of graduation ceremonies. One lasted three days. One lasted a few months. One lasted about a year. Not a single one was prepared for what they faced in the “real world”.

My point is, if you’re considering going back to college, do it for the right reasons. If all you want is a degree, then get it the fastest and easiest way possible and move on. If you want to learn, make the most of your opportunity.

The Language Barrier, Part 2: Instructors

2012-02-06T16:45:00.000-06:00

You know, maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised about today’s high school graduates and their mastery of the English language. It appears there is good reason for their ignorance or apathy, whichever it is. If you can’t expect good grammar and spelling from instructors, how can you expect it of students.

Every semester, hundreds of thousands of instructors at colleges and universities across the nation and around the world prepare and distribute well-prepared course documents that set the guidelines and standard by which their students will be measured. So, why in hell would some instructors not even use “Spell Check”?

I’m not kidding. Did they not see the little, red, squiggly line that appeared as they were typing these documents? Of the last four courses I took, I did not have one syllabus that did not include spelling, capitalization or grammatical errors. I’m not talking about one minor mistake, but rather enough that I, as the student, began to question the credibility of my instructors.

On top of this, when I called my instructors’ attention to their mistakes, not a single one sent out a corrections, but three of the four did respond to my emails. Of course, their emails were worse than their documents.

Maybe, I’m asking too much. Should I really expect instructors to set an example for their students? Should I really expect instructors to care about their credibility with their students? Should I really expect anyone to use something as cumbersome as “Spell Check”?

I think so. I think instructors should exhibit the traits that they expect from their students and I think those expectations should be high. After all, we’re paying to learn and don’t we learn more from actions than from words?

The Language Barrier, Part 1: Students

2012-02-06T16:35:00.000-06:00

One thing I discovered going back to college was that most current students, straight out of high school, don’t understand English. For that matter, most of them don’t use it. As part of one course that I took online, students would post discussions to an online discussion board. Postings to this board were graded as part of the course, and the instructor made it clear that grammar and spelling would be scrutinized.

I have two daughters. One is 16 and one just turned 20 and is currently in college. Based on this, I felt that I had a pretty good grasp of how students communicated. To my relief, my daughters must be the exception to the rule.

I guess that’s why it surprised me to read other students’ posts to the discussion board. If the instructor asked for a 300-word response, not including restating the topic, at least half of the posts would be one or two lines restating the topic. Another twenty-five percent would meet the 300-word requirement … restating the topic. Amazingly to me, around thirty percent of all submissions would be written in “text message” format. OMG! WRUD!

It kills me! I don’t claim to be an expert on grammar and spelling, but I would be generous to say that twenty-five percent of all student posts to that board were college level responses.

Now, I know that many adults text as much (or more) than their teenage counterparts. I just hope that if you are considering going back to college, you know the difference between an assignment and a “tweet”.

Back to College

2012-02-06T14:42:00.000-06:00

Going back to college at age 42 has been interesting to say the least. Like a lot of folks, I went to college straight out of high school, but did not complete my degree. The farther along I was in life, the more I regretted it. Though I did well for myself without a degree, there was always that part of me that wished I had finished.

My job paid me six figures, but required about 60 hours of my time each week. Both of my daughters were active and involved in sports and school, taking up most of my remaining time. I thought about trying to squeeze some classes in somewhere, but I just never got around to it.

Finally, at age 42, I decided to do something about it. I put aside some money, I quit my job and I enrolled in my local college. This site will share some of my thoughts and observations from doing so.