admin, Author at UofL Online Programs

Guest Post: Perspective from a Masters in Higher Ed Student

By admin | May 26, 2016

As a first generation college student, going to college was never a “given.” When I graduated high school, I began working full-time, just as everyone else in my family did. After working for several years, I realized that my family’s path was not my path, and that I wanted to further my education. So at the age of 25, I enrolled in classes comprised mostly of 18-year-olds. While this experience was terrifying in many ways, it made me realize how important education was to me, and it ultimately motivated me to continue on to graduate school after completing my bachelor’s degree in English.

After finishing a master’s in English, I found myself in a job that I was not fully satisfied with. I wanted to advance my career, but I needed to continue to work full-time. The University of Louisville’s Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration (MAHEA) program was the perfect fit for both of my needs. All of the jobs that I wanted to apply for required this degree, and the ability to take it online allowed me to juggle graduate school with a full-time job. Since enrolling, I have moved into a position that better suits my interests, and I know that my career prospects will only continue to grow from here.

Having completed a “traditional” face-to-face master’s degree, I was curious about the differences that I would experience with the online format – would the classes be more challenging? Less challenging? Would I really be able to engage with my classmates and professors? Fortunately, all of my fears were dispelled during my first semester in UofL’s online MAHEA program. I have found the coursework to be rigorous, the professors to be responsive, and my classmates to be both diverse and inspiring.

One of my favorite aspects of the MAHEA program is that I can tailor the coursework to my goals and work environment and apply it to real-world scenarios. Each course has a culminating assignment, and for most of the classes, it is possible to focus this project on my specific area of interest. For example, I am interested in tutoring services, so for my final project for the Research Methodology course, I designed a writing-center-specific research study. Similarly, for the History of the American University’s final project, I researched an artifact I selected from the earliest American writing centers.

The quality of the courses is due in large part to the applied expertise and dedication of the professors who teach them. They are the same professors that teach on campus, and they put forth the extra effort to make sure the virtual environment feels as much like a community as a traditional classroom does. Many of the professors provide weekly feedback on discussion board posts, and they are all very happy to answer questions via email. While online classes are certainly more self-taught than traditional classes, I know there is always someone that I can reach out to for guidance and assistance if I need it.

Weekly discussion board posts also help me connect and stay engaged with my classmates, and making these connections has been the most surprising benefit of the online program. When I was considering enrolling, I only thought about the courses and the professors–not who would be learning in these courses with me. Yet, because the classes are so diverse–and include people of widely different professional and academic backgrounds from all over the country–the weekly conversations are rich and complex and aid significantly in my overall understanding of the material.

Ultimately, the online Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration has helped me grow both professionally and personally. I have enjoyed the program so much, that I am planning on applying for the PhD in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development after I graduate in 2017. Although I am not yet sure what position I will end up in when I finish the PhD, I know that the MAHEA program has given me the foundation necessary to pursue a wide variety of career paths. If you are looking for a way to advance (or start) your career in higher ed, I can’t recommend this program strongly enough.

Rethinking Organizational Challenges

By admin | May 18, 2016

How One Course in the MSHROD Online Program Delivers Surprises—and Results

“This course surprises people.” That’s how Dr. Denise Cumberland sums up Organizational Analysis, one of several required courses in the Master of Science in Human Resource and Organizational Development (MSHROD) online program at UofL. Officially coded ELFH 662, the course sets the groundwork for much of the content the program offers professionals who are advancing their careers and expanding their HR expertise.

“It’s about rethinking how to approach organizational challenges,” says Dr. Cumberland. “The course title is very broad, but the core objective is to help students uncover what’s going on below the surface when problems or opportunities occur in their organization.” These issues can range from low employee morale, loss of productivity, lagging customer satisfaction scores, declines in membership, to whether a firm should incorporate some new service element or new product. “We business people tend to be very solutions-oriented,” Dr. Cumberland continues, “we want an immediate solution—a silver bullet. This class shows students that you have to take a step back and understand that what you see on the surface is the symptom, not the cause.” She adds, “This entire class is about going deeper than our first assumption about why a problem exists.”

What surprises students is the value of stepping back and asking questions to discover the underlying root cause of the issue. To illustrate this point, Dr. Cumberland uses a restaurant analogy. If patrons are scoring the restaurant badly or posting poor reviews, management might immediately assume that the team member is to blame. A costly training program might be implemented. But the real issue could be much broader: long waits, operational challenges, the temperature of the dining room. Instead of “our staff should smile more”— a simple, reactionary response — managers need to consider the broader picture. It may be the pace of the work, a lack of incentives or simply understaffing certain times and sections. To uncover the true cause of customer dissatisfaction, empirical data must be gathered. It must be processed and reviewed. And it must inform recommendations that underscore the real challenges and broader issues at play. “Before you apply a costly intervention, you need to consider all angles.”

This course, though, is not just about hypotheticals. As part of the course content, students look at their own organizations … the places they work, the churches they attend, the volunteer organizations they support. They tackle issues ranging from turnover to customer complaints to ineffective fundraising efforts. Most importantly, they look past the “blame game” and put together a solid assessment of what’s really happening: what’s causing the problem, or where an opportunity may lie. And best of all, students get to see the results of their work by applying it to the organization they’ve chosen to analyze.

As one of Dr. Cumberland’s students, Kristi Jones, commented, “I don’t think the effect of this class would have been the same if we were only taught the concepts in class. That’s what I really enjoy and value about the MS HROD program as well. It was great to see that what I was learning in class would make a real difference in my organization.” Another ELFH 662 student phrased it this way “My biggest take-away was learning how to analyze a situation and how to identify the gap between “what is” and “what should be.” Dr. Cumberland says “my joy is hearing students discover the underlying issue and I’m especially grateful when students come back and tell me that they were actually able to fix the problem because the data that they had gathered and analyzed provided the organization with reliable information upon which to develop more focused solutions.”

As each student’s individual analysis unfolds, the online format facilitates group work and peer review. Students are arranged in “pods” of four to five people. They trade ideas about their issues or opportunities. They gather advice from each other—fellow students help make sure a student is not making an assumption. Fellow students support one another by reviewing the investigative tools each student develops and they help each other to address the issue from multiple angles. It’s a peer support network that works well.

“Ours is a very unique online class,” concludes Dr. Cumberland. “Think of it as a webinar. We meet once a week for 90 minutes. During that time I can create smaller groups where students can talk to peers. We explore topics and review the readings. Everyone has access to me and to each other. It is an active world where students are connecting with their peers while learning on a very personal level. And the results are always rewarding.”

The MSHROD program attracts a broad spectrum of professionals, representing almost every capacity under the human resources umbrella. Many people are involved in training, hiring or talent management, while others come from marketing or operations. It’s a diverse group, but one assumption generally connects them as they walk in the door: the myth of the immediate fix. “It’s always more systemic than they realize.”

Learn more about UofL’s MSHROD program—and courses like Organizational Analysis—by clicking here.

Paving the Pathway to Success: Advice from the Field

By admin | May 16, 2016

UofL’s Master of Science in Civil Engineering Offers Online Courses Designed to Develop the Next Generation of Civil Engineers. Here’s Highlights for One of Them.

There’s a place for theory in every learning process. But for a career in civil engineering, it’s the “hands on” tasks – seeing projects evolve from design to construction to completion – that challenge and inspire.

UofL’s Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE) degree embraces this approach by delivering coursework that directly translates to the projects students will encounter in their careers. The structure of the course, the content it delivers and the kind of professors selected to teach … each is chosen with this in mind. The practical application of knowledge not only attracts engineers to the program, it keeps them at the top of their game long after they’ve graduated.

The MSCE online degree is available to professionals who currently hold a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. Students can chose to focus their studies in public works or facilities engineering, with a specialty in geotechnical, transportation, structural or water resources. A variety of courses are offered within these specialties.

Paving the Road to Rewarding Careers

Among the many courses offered, CEE 665-50 – Pavement Design stands out for its structure and “real world” application. The course, led by Professor Brandon Shelley, studies the design of flexible and rigid pavements, base courses and subgrades. It explores the effects of loading on pavement life, investigates pavement distress and rehabilitation and introduces students to the many details of pavement management systems. Pavement Design has traditionally been the program’s largest online course and is often the first class a student will take—making it an introduction to online learning as well, and the ways the program collectively presents a cohesive structure and schedule.

Professor Shelley has taught this course for nearly six years. As an adjunct professor, he’s also full time as transportation engineer for Louisville Metro Government. “Engineering students like having adjunct professors.” Shelley says. “We have experience in the field. We can bring in particular insights from the kind of work we do daily. Many students are coming from similar work experiences, so there’s a kind of camaraderie, an understanding of practical knowledge.”

Shelley’s work with local government reflects the kind of life experiences other adjunct professors bring to the program. Many are researchers or environmental consultants. Others work within organizations like the Department of Transportation and the Louisville Airport Authority. “You’re getting the benefit of career expertise, direct from qualified professionals,” Shelley notes.

Coursework that Applies to All Specialties

This kind of expertise is beneficial to all engineers, no matter where their specialty may be: transportation, structural, geotechnical, or water resources. But there are certain course that are a “catch all” for these specialties, and Pavement Design is among them.

“We cover topics for each of specialization,” says Shelley. “Students may have a particular focus but they get to see how pavement design is applicable to every specialization. We want to make sure all students are comfortable with it and see how it touches every area of civil engineering.”

“For example, transportation engineers may design road layouts, while structural engineers may be designing the bridges they cross. Water resources engineers impact the design of both, based on the effects of hard surfaces on drainage and drainage systems. And geotechnical engineers inform them on how we know what serves as suitable soil for a roadway.”

The course focuses on state and national standards, emphasizing Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and national requirements in pavement design and construction. “We pull information from a wide variety of sources, including highway design manuals that are used in the field every day. The general focus in on Kentucky best practices and design considerations for roadways; with airport pavement design, we review FAA guidelines. Students get to see different agencies and different design standards.”

A Capstone Project with Practical Applications

The course culminates in a design project. The content and presentation expectations is crafted to mirror the private or governmental design projects students will encounter in their careers. “Each student must choose a roadway in Kentucky, assess it, and provide a significant written report and oral presentation,” says Shelley. “I want them to consider all angles. What’s going on with a potential redesign? Stresses? Type of road? What do you need from outside engineers? Should it be flexible, like asphalt, or rigid pavement? Maintenance and rehab—how do we account for that? Is the design forward-thinking and cost-effective from a future maintenance stand point?”

The summary presentation is then delivered as if it was being delivered to clients, including a peer review and assessment from other engineers—just as it would be in “real life.” This capstone project may seem daunting, but it is ultimately rewarding too. It delivers an exact model that engineers will use later in life, as Professor Shelley has seen time and time again.

“Students always come back and say ‘Brandon, I was just surprised with a pavement design request. I was able to take everything you gave me and knock this out … I had no idea what we did in course is what I would be doing out in the industry. Thank you!’”

“It’s always rewarding to hear back from students that say ‘this class was so helpful,’” adds Professor Shelley. “I take student feedback very seriously. My course is always evolving because of it.”

Interested in UofL’s Master of Science in Civil Engineering—and more courses like Pavement Design? Learn more about the online experience and available online courses on the UofL Online Learning website.

UofL Online Nursing Program Offers New Curriculum for a New Era of Healthcare

By admin | April 21, 2016

Take Your Nursing Skills to the Next Level with UofL’s Redesigned Curriculum

The nursing profession with the healthcare landscape is changing. Are you changing with it?

With the University of Louisville’s online RN-to-BSN program, recently ranked among Top 10 most affordable online programs in the nation among public or private not-for-profit schools*, you can prepare for the future of nursing. Our comprehensive curriculum is redesigned to emphasize a suite of key competencies that the industry most demands, now and in the future.

Population Health is shifting the paradigm away from “public health” as nurses have always known it, and making sweeping changes to the healthcare delivery model along the way. UofL understands this trend, and has created a responsive curriculum that develops nursing expertise in key areas like population health, care coordination, case management and community health and intervention. The program has evolved to offer a greater emphasis on the skills employers are looking for as they shift from in-patient nursing to community-based intervention and care models.

Some of the BSN courses have been combined and restructured, while others, such as population health and nursing leadership and health policy, are new to the program. Courses such as symptom management, health promotion and proactive health care shift the focus from the hospital setting to anticipate the need for nurses in community-based settings like health education, outpatient and retail services, school programs and many others.

Best of all, the program is designed to save students nearly $5,000 in tuition annually, for total tuition savings of more than $14,000 per program.

The School of Nursing at UofL has redesigned the RN-to-BSN program offered completely online for registered nurses with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Nursing Diploma, preparing them to reach their professional potential for improved salaries and a broader range of employment opportunities. The program also aligns its goals with the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that 80% of nurses earn a BSN degree by the year 2020.

“The UofL RN-to-BSN program allows working nurses to obtain a baccalaureate degree at their own pace and with the benefit of support from the university’s excellent faculty and student services,” said Marcia J. Hern, Ed.D., C.N.S., R.N., dean of the UofL School of Nursing. “This ranking offers exceptional value for their education dollar.” Hern added.

The UofL program, which was honored with a ranking of ninth in the nation for affordability, value and curriculum, requires completion of 31 core credit hours. Students enrolled in the program also have the opportunity to document their experience and prove their competencies, and build a Nursing Portfolio which can earn them 30 additional credit hours, tuition-free. Saving nursing students tuition dollars is a major focus of the program’s redesign and the portfolio project gets students closer to their graduation faster.

Working students may complete the program in as few as 5-semesters, on a part-time schedule.

“The affordability and convenience of the online education platform combined with the strong support of award-winning faculty and access to all university support services makes the online RN-to-BSN program ideal for nurses seeking a baccalaureate degree” Hern said.

Get the Skills You Need—with the convenience of UofL’s “Top 10 ranked” BSN degree online. Learn more about available online programs on the UofL Online Learning website.

*Ranking provided by AffordableCollegesOnline.org

Author: admin