University Corner: University of Phoenix
MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 5 (July)
Q: To begin with, can you please provide an overview of Phoenix’s niche in military education?
A: The military division came into being on March 1, 2004, designed to serve the educational needs of active duty military, guard, reserve, military spouses, veterans and DoD civilian employees. Through the online modality and at traditional campuses in Europe and the Far East, the military division currently serves more than 41,000 students around the world, and has more than 1,000 employees that embody more than 4,000 years of combined military experience.
Q: What sets the university apart from other institutions?
A: Our mission and our adherence to it. We work hard to provide access to higher education opportunities that will enable students to develop the knowledge and skills to achieve their professional goals, improve the productivity of their organizations, and provide leadership and service to their communities. Our mission is student and society oriented and we work hard to ensure that the success of our students also means an improvement in their quality of life, as well as the overall quality of American life.
The university has been cited several times as having the largest minority student population of any institution in the U.S. We provide access to students regardless of geographic boundaries as well as giving the students the ability to continue to work fulltime while earning a degree.
Q: Distance learning and online technologies are certainly growing nationwide, especially among military students. Has the university seen an increase in online enrollment?
A: The University of Phoenix launched the online campus in 1989 long before the advent of the Web interface that has made the Internet ubiquitous and essential to everyday life. The online campus started small and grew slowly but steadily, until the dot com revolution in the early part of the 21st century when enrollment literally exploded. Today, the enrollment of the online campus accounts for about half of the entire student population or in excess of 200,000 students. The university is able to accommodate this large increase in students by making our processes and systems scalable, by keeping the students first in all we do. And because teaching online requires specific skill sets that are not necessarily suited to all people, the university ensures that all online faculty are trained specifically for the virtual classroom.
Q: What do you think are some of the most effective online classroom tools?
A: The real key is the accessibility of materials. All materials necessary for successfully completing a course are available electronically and accessible via the Internet 24/7. These materials include selected readings from the e-book collection, which consists of more than 600 digital textbooks.
In addition, all students have access to a number of learning assets online and that are available any time they want them. Students have access during their entire degree program to the online center for writing excellence and the center for mathematics excellence. The university has implemented both centers to assist students increase their skill sets at the time they need it the most.
Q: What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing higher education today?
A: This is a critical time for higher education. For the first time in history, the coming generation is in danger of not being as educated as their parents. Unless action is taken immediately, a gap of highly skilled professionals will exist that will not be filled until access to higher education is increased for more than just the traditional students who go directly from high school to college to live and study on campus. Those students make up about 27 percent of the current undergraduate population, and yet most institutions still organize curriculum, schedules and services around this small minority.
Forward-thinking institutions realize that we must address the needs of the next generation of learners, those who must work, who did not go directly to college from high school, and may have family obligations and responsibilities. Change is coming, but progress can be slow.
Q: How is the University of Phoenix ready to meet these challenges?
A: The University of Phoenix is addressing the challenges head on. By implementing the university orientation, the university meets the first administration concern of assisting students to completion. The orientation is free to students and differs from traditional orientations in that it is designed with non-graded assignments that give the participants an inside look at what they can expect after enrolling. Students are also given the opportunity to acclimate themselves to the type of classroom in which they will be enrolled. This is critical for many of those students enrolling in online classes, but it also gives all students firsthand experience with the accelerated learning format.
In an effort to keep college affordable, the University of Phoenix offers courses at times and via methods that allow students to complete their degree programs in less time and while they maintain full-time jobs. Students do not forfeit wages and their families do not suffer monetarily from the loss of an income while the student completes their degree program. Further, we offer a standard $250 per credit hour rate to military students and their spouses in baccalaureate programs, and a 20 percent discount for those in graduate programs. ♦