Capella University - Online Education at Its Best
Written: Jun 08 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great education, good interface, flexible schedule, responsive faculty and staff
Cons: Can be expensive
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for an online school, make sure your search includes Capella University. It suits my needs and it could very well suit yours.
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| Jellyn's Full Review: Capella University |
After being laid off, I started looking into continuing my education with graduate school. Attending a brick and mortar school seemed like too much work. Me, lazy? I'd actually missed the deadline for fall semester at any of these schools. In addition to that, most required GRE scores and letters of recommendation. The former I didn't have and wasn't too thrilled about the expense and hassle of acquiring. The latter is just a bother all around, especially when you don't know any relevant professional people very well.
Other Online Schools
So given all of those factors, and my preference for doing things online, I started looking at online schools. I looked into University of Phoenix Online and American InterContinental University (AIU) Online. Their websites weren't very helpful. They didn't tell you very much about the available programs or details that a prospective student is really interested in knowing. They required you to contact an admissions officer (ie, a salesman) to learn more details. Then they give you the hard sell. I was receiving phone calls and Emails from these places even after I made the decision to go to Capella instead.
Why Capella?
Capella on the other hand had a website that told me much more of what I wanted to know. It looked to me to be much better designed and useful. I figured if I was going to be studying Information Technology at an online school, I'd better go with the one with the best-designed website. My interactions with the staff were also much more positive. I didn't feel as much like they were trying to sell the school to me. In addition, Capella had a variety of Information Technology programs that sounded interesting. As a bonus, I could start taking a class the very next month. In short, it looked good and seemed to have what I was looking for. It's also accredited, by the way. That's something important to look for in online schools. I also did a little research, though not extensive, to make sure their accreditation was genuine and from a reputable body.
Programs
I'm currently enrolled in the Master's program in general Information Technology. There are also IT specializations for management, development, and security. In addition, they have some certification programs and undergraduate programs. Outside of Information Technology, they also have a School of Education, School of Human Services, School of Psychology, and School of Business (this is paired with Technology).
Semesters and Classes
I've been taking courses at Capella for about 2 years now. I have one year left. There are 4 3-month long semesters each year. Each course runs about 12 weeks, with a one week break before the next semester. I take one class a semester, but if you have the time and money, there's no reason you can't take more and speed up the process.
Capella does not use online chats or webcams. The courseroom is basically a forum or bulletin board, though with extra functions. This means that you can log in whatever time of day you want, whatever day of the week you want. The way it's generally run, though each class will vary, is that there are 2-4 discussion questions each week, and possibly 1 assignment. So, a general schedule might be:
Sunday-Tuesday: Do the readings. These are usually from a textbook, but can also be online articles or webpages.
Wednesday: Post your reply to the discussion questions. These should be about 300-500 words each.
Friday-Sunday: Read other learners' posted answers and reply meaningfully to at least two or three of them.
Sunday: Post your finished assignment.
That's a rough schedule. There's no reason you can't post sooner in the week, and you can even get ahead for the next week if you want. Most of the learning really occurs during the discussions, so you should really read most of the responses and join in as much as possible.
There is also a course project that's due by the end of the course. Some courses will have you working on bits of it throughout the course, so that by the end you're mostly just putting it together into a cohesive whole. Usually the course project is about half the grade with the discussions and any assignments being the other half.
The Courseroom
Capella switched to an entirely new courseroom since I started and have constantly made updates to it. I've been very pleased with the speed and functionality of the courseroom. It relies on Java, so doesn't require any special software or downloads. Most computers will already be equipped to handle it and you may even have little trouble logging in from a library or internet cafe, though I haven't tried either. Here are some of the features of the courseroom:
Discussion Area: Where all the discussion takes place. If you've ever used an online forum or bulletin board, you'll be familiar with this.
Assignments Area: Where you submit your assignments and check for a response and grade from the professor. There's also an option to have these viewable to other learners.
Profiles: Where you can find photos and bios of the professor and other students in the class.
Email: This is in-courseroom Email.
Syllabus: Sort of a short outline of the course.
Learning Units: Here is where to find the readings, discussion questions, and assignments for each week. There's also usually a 'Learning Unit's Presentation' which is an introduction to the week's topic.
Announcements: For anything important the instructors want to tell you.
Grades: Obvious enough; your grades so far in the course.
Calendar: This is a calendar with important deadlines marked. I don't use this.
My Progress: This tracks when you log in and what you do while you're there. Interesting, but I haven't found much use for it.
My Files: Sometimes you'll need to upload a file in Microsoft Word or PDF format. This lets you manage all the ones you've uploaded, even from previous courses. Rather annoying, actually. Maybe I should clean that out.
I've found the courseroom very functional, as I've said. You can sort the discussion questions in a variety of ways, opt to only see unread posts, search by author, and other things. There are places throughout where you can export the content or information if you'd like a copy for yourself.
The Faculty and Staff
I've found the faculty to be very knowledgeable and usually quite responsive. Most of them will join in the discussions, sometimes as the instructor in the course, but also sometimes as equals and professionals just discussing the topic. You can talk to them directly with the in-course Email. Some in the past have offered the option of phone calls, but I've never made use of that.
There are also lab assistants you can contact via Email or phone for help on assignments. I haven't actually had too much luck with them. They don't seem to be as knowledgeable as they'd need to be to help out someone studying IT at the Master's level. Or perhaps their areas of expertise just never meshed with the information I needed from them. Still, they did reply fairly quickly and tried to help.
For other issues, such as financial aid, or course enrollment, I have made phone calls to the University. My calls have usually been answered promptly and my questions answered or issues resolved. They're also pleasant and friendly to talk with and clearly want to make sure the person calling is left satisfied.
Money
This is the big issue for me. If you were in the military or are currently employed somewhere that will reimburse some of your tuition, then you'll be pretty set. Me, I've had to take out graduate student loans. They're piling up. Capella does not offer a lot of scholarships or grants, though I think there may be a few. There also isn't an opportunity for workstudy, except perhaps if you happen to live near Minneapolis, where the school is physically located.
Some classes require expensive textbooks or software, but if you shop around online, you can usually get the cost way down. DO NOT BUY FROM THE UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE. Not books anyway; you can get them for half the cost or less from other places.
Other Downsides
At first, I was told that I'd have to take three undergraduate classes to get me up to speed. My undergraduate major was in Comparative Literature, but I had taken some computer science classes and had some professional IT experience. I successfully argued myself out of having to take one in computer programming, but was stuck with databases and networking. So I took the databases course and then they decide to tell me.. whoops, we're not supposed to give out federal financial aid to graduate students only taking an undergraduate course. So they decided that since I couldn't afford to take two classes at once, they could just waive that other undergraduate course.
That wasn't the only time they seemed to run into federal regulations trouble and had to correct themselves. It used to be that after the fifth week of instruction, we got a break week off to catch up, get ahead, or take a breather. Then they said that federal regulations require a certain number of weeks of instruction and they can't do that anymore. Hopefully they've sorted out all these regulations and are now complying with them, or the federal government may leave me high and dry without a Stafford Loan.
Summary
The website is very helpful and detailed, to prospective students and current ones. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to find what you want, but once you learn your way around it's easier. The courseroom is very functional and classes are flexible for any schedule. I feel like I'm learning quite a bit and I think expectations are high, but meetable. The faculty and staff are both very good. The main downside is money, but that's true of most educational institutions. Look me up in a year and hopefully I'll have that graduate degree!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Jellyn
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Location: New Hampshire
Reviews written: 210
Trusted by: 47 members
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