Florida Metropolitan University under investigation

I wrote that for profit universities have a place in higher education and they would facilitate to make higher education more dynamic. Though I briefly mentioned about structural problems of for profit institutions, I was pretty optimistic about profit universities in general. Now I am wondering whether I have to rethink.

State launches investigation into career university

Jane Meinhardt

Florida's Attorney General's Office is investigating Florida Metropolitan University.

FMU has four campuses in the Tampa Bay area.

The university is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corinthian Colleges Inc., a for-profit company based in California.

The publicly traded company (NASDAQ: COCO) stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday that it received "an investigative records subpoena" from the State Attorney General's Office on Nov. 17.

Source - Tampa Bay Business Journal

Florida Metropolitan University (also Florida Metropolitan University) states that they are in compliance with applicable regulations, but when SEC launches investigation, the business is doing something problematic. It is rare that SEC investigates just because they want to obtain information or understand how the business operates.

The subpoena apparently involves FMU's (also FMU) advertising and marketing practices. Many for profit institutions' (companies) advertising and marketing practices have problems; it is unfortunately not inaccurate to say that advertising and marketing are done in such a way that they manipulate consumers, in this case, potential students. Advertising and marketing have changed fundamentally over the last 10 years or so. Advertising and marketing are so much more sophisticated today; for profit institutions (companies) hire psychologists. They experiment different patters. They conduct elaborate research in order to get a certain response from consumers (in this case, potential students). Given resources that many companies have, consumers are often no match; they can be manipulated. It seems that the dark side of for profit institutions can be seen in for profit universities as well.

Capella University Scam

#1 online university in terms of the size is University of Phoenix (also University of Phoenix) and #2 is Devry University (also Devry University); I wrote about these two universities in this column. #3 is probably Capella University (also Capella University). There are number of happy online students, but there are also number of unhappy online students. Many of those who enrolled in University of Phoenix and Devry University complain about the quality of the education that these universities provide, and many of students who enrolled in Capella University complain about the quality of education that the university provides. Many even claim that Capella University's education programs are scam. Since there are a fair number of complaints, I'd like to reference some websites and some claims, though they do not necessarily reflect my opinion. "Crapella University Sucks" is probably the prominent website that claims that Capella University is a scam. The website lists lawsuits filed against Capella University, and the following is one of them.

Former Student Claims Online University Discrimination

June 30, 2005

A former student claims online University discriminated against him on the basis of his disability, and dismissed him from the university after he sought reasonable accommodation. Read the Complaint in La Marca v. Capella University now pending in the United States District Court for the central district of California.

Click here for the Verified Complaint

An article about this case appeared in the August 4th issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education

Click here to View this Article

Source - Thomas & Associates

The lawsuit is not directly related to the quality of education; nonetheless, I reference the lawsuit to give you some idea of what information the website, "Crapella University Sucks" provides and what kind of lawsuits Capella University are defending against. CapellaUniversitySucks.us is another website.

While the purpose of the column is to make reference to information about Capella University scam (if the university did such a thing) so that those of you who are thinking about enrolling in Capella University can be better informed, I make a reference to the following comment because it is factually correct and it is posted on one of the trusted news sources of higher education, "The Chronicle of Higher Education".

I guess I want to clarify some things. As a former employee at an online university, I can tell you that online universities such as, AIUonline, Univ. of Phoenix, Capella University, Jones International University, Touro University, and CTUonline are all accredidate by regional accredidators. AIUonline is accrediate by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, so the degree you receive from here or the other schools listed above are valid degrees. However, one could argue that the curriculum is not on par with traditional universities, given that most of these programs are on a very accelerated pace and the requirements to be accepted are having a hearbeat and a wallet, although you do need to have a certain GPA. For example, you can earn a graduate degree in as little as 10 months. But, that's probably a different conversation.

Source - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Summing up:

Number of lawsuits have been filed against Capella University, and many students are unhappy about what they got after they paid the tuition; this is a fact. However, Capella University is a regionally accredited online university. This is also a fact. I highly recommend that you check sources referenced and other sources before you make a decision about whether you study at Capella University.

Online universities cannot offer life style

Online universities cannot offer "Life style"; I feel like I am stating the obvious, but it's pretty important, so I'll point this out. Studying business online and get MBA; studying online enables you to keep working full time. You will earn MBA in 3 years, and MBA will enable you to take your career to the next level. Managerial position, higher income, design a project instead of just follow what your boss tells you to you. All sound great, and marketing pitch like this isn't exactly a lie. Many online universities offer MBA. You can keep working full time if you study online because you have very flexible schedule. MBA (or any other online degree, online associate degree, online bachelor degree, master or PhD) probably gets you to earn more. More interesting job tasks. It offers you a lot. However, there is one thing that online universities cannot offer, that is "life style." There are number of differences between studying online, in virtual classroom and studying in physical classroom. In addition to that, there is a certain life style that you live when you go to a traditional university. When I say life style, it does not just mean partying or procrastinating at a coffee shop. Intelligent stimulating conversations with fellow students. Discussions with professors and other faculty members. Make friends and meet people. Rare books sold at book stores around the campus. Reading club, dance club, hiking club, Karate club, etc. The package really makes three years, four years or often longer worthwhile and makes it a memorable time in your life. That is something online universities cannot offer.

When is lecture video search coming?

Internet search giant, Google, is apparently in discussions with CBS for video search and on-demand video. While I understand that Google is a public company after all and the company's main objective is to generate profit, it is rather disappointing that the company does not seem to be enthusiastic about providing education content to the public, specifically, lecture video search and on-demand lecture video. Not just Google, but all other companies seem to lack enthusiasm toward education. All public companies have obligation to serve their shareholders, but I just wish that they behave a little differently. If profitability is absolutely essential, perhaps, the government can give incentives. For example, Google gets tax deduction as they enable university lecture video search. As I mentioned in this column, a couple of universities already offer free online education, and free online education includes lecture video. There are substantial amount of lecture video, and I am quite certain that this benefits a lot of people. People are more educated; this improves productivity and improves economy. Even if the government allows tax deduction, over all benefits in the economy will pay back for tax deduction given to a couple of companies, Google, Yahoo and maybe Ask. This is not a very complicated scenario, and it would be really great if the government, public companies or both lighten up a little more.

It is perfectly ok for the University of Kansas to teach creationism and intelligent design

Univ. of Kansas takes up creation debate

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Creationism and intelligent design are going to be studied at the University of Kansas, but not in the way advocated by opponents of the theory of evolution.

A course being offered next semester by the university religious studies department is titled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."

"The KU faculty has had enough," said Paul Mirecki, department chairman.

Source - seattlepi

US university system is one of the best university systems in the world, and it is partly due to the fact that there are variety of universities for students to study at. There are private universities, national universities, state universities, city universities, religious universities and for profit universities. Given the current US university system, the University of Kansas's decision to teach creationism and intelligent design only adds a choice for students. If they prefer not to study the subject, they can take other courses. If they prefer that the university not teach creationism and intelligent design, they can study at some other university. There are number of universities just within the state of Kansas. However, the decision to teach creationism and intelligent design at a high school can be troublesome because students do not have many choices to begin with. Ted Forstmann, Chairman & CEO, Children's Scholarship Fund, claims that US high school education is monopolized by US government, and that is a fair point. It is rather dangerous for US high school to teach a certain doctrine since it does not facilitate to think and analyze freely.

For profit university

Previously were there private universities, national universities, state universities, city universities and religious universities. Many online universities are for profit universities; this has added another category in the list of US universities. For profit institutions have been criticized severely after we saw scandals such as Enron and WorldCom; movies like The Corporation criticize structural problems of profit institutions and they make good points. We have to wonder if for profit university is a viable model and if the university can provide quality education. I think that the honest answer is that we don't know the answer yet. While criticism on the structural problems of the for profit institution is more than fair, I think that it is too quick to say that for profit university cannot provide quality education. It is possible that for profit university cannot provide the best quality education in the world; none of for profit universities can become like Harvard, Stanford, Yale or Northwestern. However, I am pretty optimistic that for profit universities find its niche.

Accredited online degree

If you are looking to study online and get an online degree, you probably hear and read a lot about "accredited online degree". I'd like to explain what it is in lament terms because "accredited college degree" is not something you hear so often. Suppose that you live in New York city and that you do not have any college degree. Suppose that you decide to go to college and get a degree one day. Suppose that you decide to go to CUNY (City University of New York) City College. You simply do not think about "accredited college degree" because schools that you hear and read about are generally accredited. All CUNY schools are accredited. All State University of New York schools are accredited. All Cal State (California State) schools and UC (University of California) schools are accredited. IV league, Pac 10 and all schools that you hear and read about are accredited. This is why the term "accredited" sounds so foreign. You start hearing and reading about the term "accredited" all of the sudden when you start looking to study online because not all online schools are accredited.

"accredited" simply means that the school is accreted by a regional accreditation body, which is recognized by US Department of Education. There are number of accreditation bodies, but generally speaking, truly "accredited" means to be accredited by a regional accreditation body; in other words, the school is accredited like all other schools (Harvard, Yale, University of Michigan, etc.) that you hear about.

iPod's contribution to online education and Podcast

One of problems of online education is connectivity. Unfortunately, infrastructure is still very primitive, and connectivity isn't that great. Also "broadband" isn't really broad; we still cannot watch video comfortably. For example, if you watch streaming video at Stanford Graduate School of Business, View from the Top Speaker Series, video gets interrupted quite often. We even have problem listening to audio sometimes. Podcast was introduced in this environment in order to address the problem of connectivity by downloading data at once instead of streaming it. There are literally tens of thousands of Podcast shows today, and there are Podcast shows related to online education as well such as Technology and Learning. But Podcast's bigger contribution to online education is to address the problem of connectivity. As I mentioned already, connectivity is not that great. The infrastructure has improved dramatically since early 90s; however, we are certainly not at the point which we can comfortably access audio and video content on the internet, which is the platform to enable online education. Podcast addresses this problem; it's a very simply solution, but Podcast makes lecture videos and audios much more accessible.

Devry University

I wrote that University of Phoenix (also University of Phoenix) and online education are almost synonymous and it's fair to say that University of Phoenix (also University of Phoenix) is the most prominent online university in US. Close number two is Devry University (also Devry University), and I don't think that many argue with that. I cited comments made on University of Phoenix (also University of Phoenix) and added my thoughts when I wrote a column about University of Phoenix (also University of Phoenix). I will take the same approach again; I will cite comments made on Devry University (also Devry University) and add my thoughts.

There was a report about some cat's having received an online college degree a while ago.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Jerry Pappert isn't amused, since Colby is a pet cat and a Texas-based online college allegedly gave the feline a degree for $399.

"I filed this lawsuit to stop a massive illegal spam campaign that not only defrauded consumers and employers, but damaged the reputations of numerous Pennsylvania businesses across 24 counties and a government office," Pappert said Monday.

Pappert's office used the pet cat to investigate an alleged scheme designed to promote and sell bogus online academic degrees.

Source - Cat Gets MBA Degree, NBC10

JumpHook.com mentioned about this, and one of its readers responded as follows.

Everyone knows college pussy is the best pussy! But seriously, it is wrong to use your pussy to get a diploma. Haha I joke, but I always knew DeVry graduates were pussies.

Source - JumpHook.com

Aside from rather vulgar language, the response is pretty typical. There is a widely adapted perception that Devry University is an online university that essentially sells online college diplomas; they do not provide any real education.

There was an online discussion about computer science education at Philip Greenspun's Weblog, and one of comments made was as follows.

The type of curriculum you describe would be appropriate at the Devry Institute of Technology.

We don't train auto mechanics or plumbers at prestigeous 4-year universities, so why should be continue to train code monkeys in this way? Actually plumbing or auto repair is probably a more lucrative career path as these functions are inherently difficult to offshore.

Source - Philip Greenspun's Weblog

Devry University is not recognized as a real university. Devry University is often seen as a training school or a vocational school.

Perhaps they will be replaced by DeVry Institute-type ventures: places that make no real claim to "universal" education, but simply to professionalization and training. Certainly Cortland, with its emphasis on teacher certficiation and sports-related education, clearly is interested in moving in that direction. But the strange thing is that not all of the students seem interested in professionalization. Many of them, particularly in Arts and Sciences, are not particularly excited about graduating and working for some corporation.

Source - digital digs

The university's public relations department probably has much work to do still, but students at Devry University seem pretty enthusiastic. One of CS students talk about his programming course enthusiastically in his blog.

"Structured and Object-Oriented Techniques (An Introduction Using C++)", 2nd Edition, written by Andrew C. Staugaard, Jr., published by Prentice Hall. Nowhere near as humorous as the Llama Book. A good start on C++ nonetheless. (Is that a word? Or is it none-the-less?) A required textbook for my classes at DeVry University. I fell in love with C++, and after the classes ended, my interest didn’t. Now that I have a stable job, I want to complete the textbook. Yea, I’m a geek, deal with it.

Source - Careless Thought

Also Devry University offers wide variety of courses, and they are one of selected universities that show up in IT trade shows to explain their offerings to IT professionals.

DeVry University was the only major educational institution present. Nicole Smith, Manager of Corporate Development, was on hand to answer basic questions but she wasn't able to convince a professor or two to come out on a Saturday to provide information on technical aspects of DeVry's offerings. Their course descriptions (PDF) do list some Linux/Unix courses including C/C++ programming but you will have to contact one of their advisers to get a better idea. Some of these may be available through their online classes.

Mad Penguin dot org

DeVry University is thriving.

After a few dot-com-era bumps, online education is back and bigger than ever. But so is corporate influence and bottom-line pressure. As distance learning grows into a $5 billion a year market -- up 38 percent in 2004 alone -- virtual classrooms are no longer the sole province of dot-coms and for-profit schools like DeVry and Phoenix. Top universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Duke now offer full credit for online courses. On campuses nationwide, distance learning is moving out of the pedagogical fringe and into the institutional mainstream.

Source - xplanazine

Summing up:

University of Phoenix and Devry University are very similar in the sense that both are very successful for-profit universities, a lot of people criticize the quality of education that they provide, yet many students are quite enthusiastic about their study and they are proven models of sustainable for-profit online universities. It's probably fair to say that Devry University is structured more like a training school or vocational school, but Devry University is fully accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, so if nothing else, you will get a college diploma from an accredited university as you complete your study.

University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is the most well-known online university in US; it is probably the most well-known online university in the world as well. University of Phoenix is the biggest online university and enrolls over a hundred thousand students. When someone talks about enrolling in an online university, he often means enrolling in University of Phoenix. Online education and University of Phoenix are almost synonymous. Therefore, it is appropriate for me to write about University of Phoenix in this online education column shortly after I set up the column.

To be objective, I reference some of comments made on University of Phoenix, and then, I add my thoughts.

I have been searching the Internet for months trying to find a distance marketing PhD. So far University of Phoenix (online) is the only available option, but I have not heard a great deal of positives about their courses at that level, and was wondering if anyone knew of any other 'distance' PhD programs in marketing?

I understand that there may be times where you need to live/study at the actual university, but moving away 'full-time' to a specific school is not an option right now.

Thanks for any help you can offer. Email me at dana[at]danavan.net, or leave a comment. Thanks!

Source - Dana VanDen Heuvel

I'd risk saying that at least half of those who have heard about University of Phoenix doubt the quality of education that the university provides. The comment referenced is a pretty typical take on the university.

In the summer of 2000 I began an online Masters program at the University of Phoenix. I wasn't expecting too many bumps in the online road. After all, I regularly spent time on the Internet; I used chat programs and newsgroups and my job title, District Instructional Technology Coordinator, had me firmly entrenched in all that was new and cutting edge. Or so I thought.

At the end of my first week "in school" I was panicked, confused and overwhelmed. It quickly became apparent that this virtual schooling was not going to be easy. To my colleagues, I am known as one of the most methodical individuals in my school district, yet in the online classroom I was disorganized.

Source - Faculty Resistance: E-Learning (A Working Paper) by Roger Goodson, Ed.D.

Many of those who study at University of Phoenix have hard time adapting to a new classroom (virtual classroom) environment. Also many of those who study at University of Phoenix are working adults, meaning that they are the generation that they did not grow up with the internet, but they adapted the internet in high school and in college; studying online without the presence of physical classroom is great a challenge to them.

Many students studying at University of Phoenix question the quality of education. Many complain about the university's expensive tuition. There are hundreds of other complains made by former students and current students. However, I skip mentioning about specific complains for now, partly because I will cover those later in this column and partly because it wouldn't be too difficult for you to search for those complains.

Now I will look at more positive sides of University of Phoenix. It is true that having the name "University of Phoenix" on your resume is not commanding as having the name "Harvard", "Yale", "Stanford" or "MIT", but

For instance, the University of Phoenix and other similar institutions are private for-profit firms supplying higher education, and have had a great deal of success in some aspects of the market. Though they are not truly competitors with the top U.S. universities, that do compete with community colleges and other lower-tier public and private colleges, showing that markets are quite capable of generating innovation in higher education.

Source - Becker Posner Blog

University of Phoenix is a very innovative university. It is probably fair to claim that University of Phoenix is the online higher education pioneer, and University of Phoenix has proven that the internet is a platform capable of offering higher education without the presence of physical classroom.

Beginning first with the highly successful University of Phoenix more corporate online learning institutions are springing up, and not only in the USA; this is a global phenomenon and as a result it can be hypothesized that this may result in a net loss of international student enrollments for a number of colleges and universities. This will be particularly true for smaller institutions that do not have strong associative links with foreign universities. Up until recently many private sector universities, including Phoenix, have focused primarily on marketing to an adult (older) working population. This focus is changing and a number of these universities are now either considering and/or gearing up to target traditional undergraduate students. This is a high growth industry that will continue to grow. Smaller, private, enrollment-driven (market-driven) universities may be particularly threatened by the incursion of the online universities. It is predictable that this source of competition for students will increase in the future and many will have to close due to dwindling enrollments, associated revenues and fragile endowments.

Source - Faculty Resistance: E-Learning (A Working Paper) by Roger Goodson, Ed.D.

Furthermore, University of Phoenix has revitalized US higher education. Historically, US has had a healthy higher education environment. There are private universities. There are city universities (such as City University of New York). There are state universities. There are national universities. There are also religious universities. There are for-profit universities as well, and many of all these universities offer degree programs online like University of Phoenix. Students have number of choices available.

Summing up:

There is much more to write about University of Phoenix, but I'll wrap up here, since I just want to introduce University of Phoenix in this column entry. Given the importance of University of Phoenix in online education, I'll like to write about the university again in near future in this column.

Some may think that I describe University of Phoenix too positively, but the university is undoubtedly the most significant school in online education. That's a statement of truth. Also online education would not be what it is today without University of Phoenix. They probably have much work to do to improve the equality of education, but University of Phoenix and online education are almost synonymous.

UC Berkeley offers free online education, too

I was referencing the education column "QuickLinks - e-Learning" in my last column, and I found that the column mentioned about Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare (OCW). OpenCourseWare is probably the most well-known and the most extensive free online education, but other universities offer free online education, too. The most notable one is probably, webcast.berkeley, UC Berkeley version of online education, so to speak. webcast.berkeley offers lecture webcast for free; you can watch lectures offered at one of the finest universities in the world. Though most lectures are from science and engineering courses, many courses make entire lecture series in the semester available. Some of other free online education materials are as follows:

• Stanford Graduate School of Business, View from the Top Speaker Series
• Rice University: Live Webcasts & Archives
• Princeton University: WebMedia - Lectures

Online Degree is a commodity

Reading various comments made on online degree, I can confirm that there is a widely adapted perception that online education is a commodity.

Over the next 10 years, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will move all its existing coursework on to the internet in a project called OpenCourseWare (OCW) . The first group of courses are set to be published on the internet on 30 September, including subjects like anthropology, biology, chemistry and computer science. There will be no online degrees for sale, however. Instead, it will offer thousands of pages of information, available to anyone around the globe at no cost, as well as hours and hours of streaming video lectures, seminars and experiments.

Source - QuickLinks - e-Learning

MIT currently does not offer any online degree program, nor has she announced any plan to offer online degree programs in the future. If MIT decides to do so, it does not mean that MIT starts selling online degree programs. However, the referenced column suggests that offering online degree programs is equivalent to selling online degree programs. This is a common perception though.

A Labour MP has condemned a failed online degree scheme as a 'shameful waste' of tens of millions of pounds of public money. Dr Ian Gibson, who chairs the science and technology committee at the Commons, called the UK's e-university 'an absolute disaster'. The online university - called UKeU - was set up a year ago but failed to attract enough students. The plug was pulled on it in February and it is being quietly dismantled.

Source - QuickLinks - e-Learning

It is true that number of universities invested substantial amount of money in online education, but many of them decided that their online education does not have future and they stopped investing and terminated all programs related online education. I live nearby University of California, Santa Barbara, and the university has an extension center. The extension center started offering online courses several years ago, but they stopped offering these courses within a couple of years. This is one of many examples. Nonetheless, the fact that number of universities' investment did not come to fruition does not imply that online degree has no value; many universities simply could not come up with a sustainable online education model this time. It is a bit of stretch to come to conclude that no university has come up with a sustainable online education model, and also it is a bit of stretch to come to conclude that ones offering online degree programs are simply selling online degree programs to generate profit, i.e., treating online degree as a commodity.

Responding to various views on Online Education

I just mentioned that I switched from my custom format to Blogger to write these columns. This is the first column that I actually write about online education. Perhaps I can start from responding to various views on online education today.

What is the value in an online education? I see college being useful and valuable based on the social connections that emerge and the atmosphere. You don't really get that from an online education, do you?

Source - AaronWall: Professor of Peanut Butter

I don't disagree with this, and in fact, I heard and read many of these comments. I also heard how expensive University of Phoenix's tuition is and how so many students filed lawsuits against Capella University because the university did not provide quality education that they promised to provide. There is probably a certain truth in what have been said about online education. However, I also believe that it's a bit silly to dismiss the value of online education just because it does not provide what education in physical classroom does not provide. Online education has made education much more accessible, and this is a fact; even if you live in a remote location, given the access to the internet, you can receive education. Even if you have kind of work schedule that you simply cannot arrange to go to school, you can receive education. Education that you receive is not exactly the same; in fact, it is probably fair to say that you receive less-quality education (if you only receive education via through online education alone). But this still does not change the fact that online education has fundamentally changed your accessibility to education.

Here's a more positive and progressive take on the internet and online education enabled by the internet.

• Education is about conversations.
• Schools consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
• Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
• Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
• People recognize each other as such from the sound of this voice.
• The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

Source - Scott Adams

My take is that we have a long way to get to this point, but this is close to online education that I envision. Today's online education is probably not exactly about conversations; today's technology sets certain limitations. However, there are a lot of interactions in online education.

I'd like to start exploring online education here in the coming weeks.

Changing the format of "Articles on Distance Education"

I am changing the format of this "Articles on Distance Education". Previously, "Articles on Distance Education" had its own format, which was very similar to blog. However, there is really no reason why "Articles on Distance Education" needs to have its format. It is probably more beneficial to visitors if I switch the format to that of regular blog, since many visitors are probably more familiar with the format. Also blog powered by software such as Blogger allows visitors to post comments; this would make "Articles on Distance Education" more interactive (I will be using Blogger by the way). Blogger also offers advanced features, so it is probably best to make the switch.