Using Online Tools to Enhance the University of Phoenix Experience

When I first began my experience as a student at the University of Phoenix, I was pleasantly surprised at all of the tools provided to help enhance and further my education.  Videos, books, tutorials, articles, labs, and even virtual workplaces are offered as part of the online school experience at no extra charge.  In this particular post, it may seem as though I'm showing a bias for the school.  I promise to remain objective in my overall description of my educational experience, but this is one particular area that I find extremely helpful.  Why?  Because even if the school's reputation becomes (or remains) tarnished, these tools provide students with a second chance at career success.

Regardless of a chosen degree program, there are an array of certifications that can enhance your career search.  For example, a student seeking a degree in networking may find the Comptia A+ certification to  be quite a useful resume bullet.  And we could nearly all benefit from becoming Microsoft Office certified, given the suite's wide utilization.  UoP offers an online library that features books covering a broad range of subjects.  I often find the "For Dummies" books particularly helpful, and I've been able to locate one in the online library for every subject I've searched so far.  They also include an array of other useful books, including "The Missing Manual" series and many others.  Access is also provided to all textbooks utilized in the classes, even if one it is not a part of a selected career path.

But the University of Phoenix library doesn't stop there.  Students also have access to a variety of interactive tutorials to help enhance their educational experience.  Personally, I decided to use one of these to brush up on my HTML skills.  The tutorial uses real examples to walk students through each segment of code, then allows them to complete certain sections along the way.  Using this tutorial, students slowly build their coding skills until they are comfortable enough to draft a full HTML document.

However, some care needs to be taken with the expectations of the University of Phoenix online tutorials.  Apparently, the University maintains each tutorial's existence once it is live.  I originally began using an HTML tutorial that taught a number of tags now  considered deprecated (in fact, many of them have been deprecated for quite some time).  Students should always check the publishing dates for each tutorial, as there are few other ways to tell if a tutorial for a subject that you are brand new to is outdated (fortunately, I had already studied the basics of HTML before).


I was also intrigued by the "virtual organizations" offered from the online classroom.  While I have not yet tried these for myself, they promise to provide real-world experience to prepare students for real-world workforce issues.  Customer satisfaction, employee relations, and problem solving are just a few of the new skills that students can practice.  Again, I haven't actually tried this yet, but will provide more information once I've had a chance to do so.  If these virtual organizations fulfill the promises, they could go quite the distance in enhancing the University of Phoenix experience.

Student workshops are another useful tool offered online.  These workshops cover a specific subject or area, such as a Microsoft Office program.  The setup is very similar to an online course.  All materials are provided through the New Classroom, just as all other University of Phoenix classes.  Over the course of three days, an instructor will provide instruction for students to follow while offering a forum for students to address the teach and each other with questions or comments. No credits are offered, but they do provide an excellent opportunity to learn a new skill.

This just lists a few of the enhancements of the University of Phoenix experience.  I wanted to show that there is more to the school's online programs than a potential student may have otherwise considered.  Or, perhaps I am just attempting to make myself feel better, given the state of the school's current reputation.  Either way, the online tools do offer a unique opportunity and may even help students find a new source of income while pursuing their degree.  While UoP does seem to be working hard to repair their reputation, the future remains uncertain.  Hopefully, these tools will offer a "plan B" should things take a turn for the worse.  And if they instead improve, my resume becomes even more impressive upon graduation.

Several Months into my University of Phoenix Experience

I took a bit of a hiatus from this blog for a couple of reasons.  One, I have been incredibly busy (partially my fault, as I should have waited until after summer to get back in school).  Two, I wanted to delve deeper into the University of Phoenix experience so that I could provide better insight for aspiring students.

As mentioned above, my schedule has remained quite busy since returning to school.  As such, I have continued to complete my coursework online, which was not part of my original plan.  However, that has already hit a bit of a snag anyway.

One aspect of the University of Phoenix experience I have discovered is that you must choose to take classes either online or on campus; you can't choose both.  The University of Phoenix previously allowed students to switch between online and on-campus classes seamlessly, but this created more problems than it helped (according to my student adviser, who didn't really elaborate).  Of course, you can change your mind at a later time, but attempting to do so too often will prove detrimental.

Admittedly, the dynamics between online and on-campus courses at the University of Phoenix is one aspect of the school that I did not research as thoroughly as I should have.  At my previous college, we could choose from a mixture as often as we wanted.  As such, I just assumed that the same would be true at UoP.  At first, this was inconsistent with my plan, since the proximity of one campus was quite convenient for me.  However, that campus has since closed anyways, forcing me to stick with online courses for now.

Like most aspiring students, I have experienced concern regarding an entirely online degree.  And while this has not proven ideal in the past, the world is changing in accordance with technology and companies are taking note.  I have spoken with a few hiring managers who have told me that it would not interfere with a candidate's chances if they complete their coursework online instead of on-campus.  In fact, some have even said that they prefer to register their own employees with online coursework when sending them back to school, since it facilitates a less hectic schedule.  Of course, there are still hiring managers that frown upon degrees earned online, especially at for-profit universities, as in a story from US News and World Report.  However, these types of degrees do seem to be gaining traction.  University of Phoenix recently received a prestigious ranking from Linked in, and this article explains why that matters.

It is possible that I will later switch to courses at another somewhat local University of Phoenix campus.  I would primarily like to do this to facilitate better networking.  While the online system features the PhoenixConnect networking platform, it doesn't seem to be heavily utilized by students.  I'm not sure why this is, but I still think it would be easier to connect with other students that I interact with in person anyway.  However, I am unsure of how this will affect the addition benefits of the University of Phoenix's online course experience.  Currently, I gain access to a plethora of educational materials that can easily enhance my value in the workplace (the details of which will be covered in my next post).  I'm not sure if these are more limited to on-campus students.

New Class, New University of Phoenix Experience

So one class has ended and another has just begun.  I managed to earn a 96 overall in the intro class and am now taking PHL 251/Critical Thinking.  Unfortunately there wasn't really a break between the classes, and with the 4th of July coming in the midst of this course's start, I found myself struggling to keep up.  As expected, the format of this online class is quite similar to the last, so I'm definitely getting a feel for what to expect during my University of Phoenix experience.

As with my last class, this one includes electronic reading reserve learning activities each week.  I'm beginning to think that this is typical of any UoP class.  These tasks will direct the attention of students to some articles within the school's online library, carefully chosen to supplement the course's subject matter.  It will also usually include some search terms for students to use as part of their own research.  As with most tasks and assignments, a discussion board is included with the reading task.

As my class moves into week 2, I have learned that we will be placed in learning teams and tasked with the development of a team charter.  This continues the heavy emphasis that collaboration is placed on the University of Phoenix experience, and a new activity for me personally.  I am hoping that I can really get a sense for the teamwork methods utilized by the school.

One of my next goals for the University is to expand my financial aid.  I'm currently using federal student loans and also received a little FASFA grant money for this school year.  Apparently, it was more than the total cost of my tuition, because I recently enjoyed finding a $1064 check in the mail as "leftovers" from  my financial aid.  Driven by this, I have decided to explore more scholarship opportunities, and the UoP website features plenty of sources for additional funding.

I have learned that networking is among the many keys to success in the modern economy and am always searching for new opportunities to connect with other professionals.  The school offers PhoenixConnect, an online platform that facilitates this process as part of the University of Phoenix student experience.  I plan to explore this tool in much greater detail and will cover my thoughts and experience in the next post.

Documenting my University of Phoenix Experience

Three years after graduating with an Associates Degree in computer programming, I have chosen to return to school to pursue a Bachelors of Communication with an emphasis on journalism.  Since I live near Atlanta, GA, I had an array of options to further my education.  However, I also live a busy lifestyle and needed a school that could accommodate.  Like many other student adults, I chose the University of Phoenix.  However, it was no secret that the school's reputation has been called into question in recent years.  As such, I decided to blog about my University of Phoenix experience.  My hope is to assist others in making their decision from the first-hand experience of a student.

As of now, I am currently in the final week of my first class, which I am taking online.  University of Phoenix assigns its students to one class per five week period, each of which begins on Tuesday.  A broad subject  relevant to the course is covered each week, with required learning activities and assignments grouped under sub-syllabuses of the main syllabus.  These are easy to keep up with, as students can check off an activity as it is completed.  A discussion accompanies each, encouraging and requiring students to discuss the topics among themselves.  eBook versions of the required textbooks are also included within the online classroom, so there's no need to purchase those separately from your tuition.

Great emphasis is put on collaboration, and each student is placed within a learning team.  The teams are encouraged to discuss class materials, help review each other's work, and, sometimes, collaborate on a project together.  I have worked with academic teams in the past, but University of Phoenix enhances the experience with additional detail.  If the group is to collaborate on a project, the team must draft a charter.

The online resources are as useful as they are expansive.  A full eLibrary is included, complete with ebooks, articles, tutorials, workshops and videos.  Popular publications, such as the "For Dummies" books, are included.  The materials have already been reviewed prior to inclusion.  And you can even research subjects that are completely unrelated to your major.  This is probably the area that I am most impressed with so far.

Other alumni students have stated that the coursework seems rushed.  It does go by pretty fast, but I think that's mostly due to the fact that you are only taking one class at a time, and they have to fit your cumulative classes within a certain timeframe for full-time status.  So you only need to focus on one subject at a time.

Having transferred with an Associates degree, I already had most of my core classes out of the way.  So, my first class (which I'm pretty sure is a universal one for all students) is GEN/201 - Foundations for University Success.  It focuses on various attributes of successful people, including time and money management, collaboration, different types of intellects, having students identify their strengths, and so on.  Some of the information was pretty much common sense, but I still found much of it to be useful and relevant.

Overall, I would say that my initial University of Phoenix experience has been a positive one.  Of course, I'm still in the early stages, and have yet to see how much value my degree will have in the business world.  I remain optimistic and will add more details about my University of Phoenix experience and the general flow of things in future posts.  I'm sure there will be more topics to cover at later times.