Capella University

Date: Aug 03 2007
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
I have 3.5 yrs. of education at the University of Washington and Seattle University and dropped out of school in my senior year to take my first job. After 20 years in the workforce I decided to make a commitment and complete my undergrad. degree but traditional learning institutions are not geared towards the working professional.

Capella was my preference due to their undergrad. degree program in project management. I have a PMP, ScrumMaster certification and am studying for my lean six sigma black belt test (ASQ.org). Capella's course content is aligned with the PMBOK (PMI.org), which is a great baseline to build fundamental project management experience. I am not disappointed with the faculty and course content.

Contrasting my brick and mortar experiences with Capella is night and day. At the UW most of my classes were taught by TAs, while the professors worked on the "publish or perish" paradigm. What I learned at the UW had very little application to success metrics in the work place. An additional point, I made 3 attempts to return and complete my degree by rearranging my work schedule to attend the UW. Due to my real world experiences I was often asked to contribute to the class and critique curriculum gaps. I was used as the bridge between ivory tower and the real world.

From my perspective, assuming the online University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, as is Capella's case, I would much rather have the schedule flexibility of online content and benefit from the experiences of other working professionals.

People often forget that education is a for profit business. Traditional brick and mortar learning institutions need to defend their market position just like any other business. Even when confronted with a global economy and the growing demand for "virtual team" skills, many traditional Universities push their market strength, face to face education… Approaching online degrees with skepticism and interjecting doubt in to the market.

The analogy, if 5% of internet users engage in unethical practices, should we assume all internet users as unethical? If 5% of online Universities are diploma mills, should we assume all institutions offering online training and degrees as fraudulent? The point is, do your home work, find both sides of the story and don't base your decision upon half-truths.

Another point: If you work for a multi-national company, does your project grind to a halt until you schedule an in person meeting? Or do you leverage e-mail and video/conference calls to lay project/product ground work and even reach team consensus on issues/decisions? How about dealing with a crisis in another state or country, do you wait to schedule a face2face meeting before using crisis management and root cause analysis? Critical thinking and problem solving skills need to be applied and developed across a continuum of situations and environments.

Both institutions teach the student to "learn how to learn." Is your learning style spoon feeding or an independent motivated learner? No matter which University you attend if you're not proactive about selecting a higher learning institution that meets your personal and professional needs, you will ultimately get what you deserve. A very frustrating experience…