Stolen from a FaceBook chat about the "new" Unity. All names removed.
Question:
"Has anyone gone through the online GIS program and/or the grad school who would be willing to chat to a potential student?"
Answers:
"The level dog work from the online students was about the same as high school freshmen. I was absolutely appalled by the work being submitted by most of the people in the online program. The real unity professors literally would not have even accepted the work these people turned in."
"Like bad as in bullet lists of raw data in a final capstone paper. Or only 2 pages written with zero formatting."
"....the teachers were doing no more than assigning reading and assignments. No face to face time or video lectures. You were basically paying to teach yourself everything with little to no viable feedback. Of course, there were a few exceptions, but the majority of the online classes taken were awful and not worth the money whatsoever."
"....my class spent all 5 weeks writing one paper. And it was insane how bad some papers were with 5 weeks to work on it."
"I took a gis class online and would not recommend it the software doesn’t work unless you have perfect internet and a computer that can handle it."
"I can contest to what xxxxxx said. I took a GIS online and ended up almost failing it because halfway through the program just stopped working with my computer. The only help the professor could provide was turning my computer on and off again. Online Unity is a joke!"
"So I recently did the graduate course in another study and quite frankly- I don’t think I would recommend it. I do not feel at all prepared for the field I chose and I felt the courses were basically self taught."
"....the few online classes I took through unity with adjunct professors were horrible… just like how xxxxx is describing. Not a single zoom session, absolutely minimal feedback, and just ‘click through’ assignments. BUT my final online class with unity was with xxxxxx and it was a completely different experience. We had interactive zoom conferences, xxxxx was SO involved and available, and I got so much out of the course. We built off of our assignments each week and it was fantastic. I think the professor really can make a difference in these online courses. It’s so sad that Unity let so many of our amazing tenor professors go when covid hit. THEY were what made Unity so special."
"....the whole point of going the online route, for Melik, is about cutting costs. The way you accomplish this is by paying someone to design standardized courses and then paying pennies to adjuncts, some of whom are marginally qualified, others are quite qualified, but have other jobs and are only going to put in what they are getting paid to put in, to be "instructors". (They are often more like proctors than actual instructors.) Colleges that do online courses well often have their regular faculty teach online and they are paid like the actual professionals they are, so they invest their time and effort into supporting the students. But, this means that the online course isn't cheap to deliver, which defeats the purpose for Melik. So, for the time being, the few courses still being taught by the few remaining regular faculty will likely continue to be good experiences. But, I have no doubt the fact that they are too expensive will be their doom."
"This thread hurt my brain. I have nothing but high praise for all my classes I enjoyed there. It makes my gut sick to think that unity isn’t the same institution I had the pleasure of attending between 2011-2015. Formative years of my personal and professional life and no new student will experience what I did."
"....agreed, 2000-2003. Unity was empowering, well thought of, prepared me as not only a environmental professional, but also as a good human and citizen."
"I am so saddened that this is where things have gone"
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