Thread regarding University of Phoenix layoffs

The classes are no easy. If faculty change grade to grade that was not earned shame on you. Just sick about shat people post on here. We are far from diploma mill. Sign up for program and you will see these are lies. Someone who cares.

Students don't fail courses- they just stop attending. UOP students typically have struggled in high school- often dropping out. The sheer magnitude of the program- courses every 5 weeks, writing papers, participating is tough and then pile on cost. At some point reality sinks in about the cost and student loan burden and they have to bail before it gets worse.

I honestly don't think UOP admin cares if people graduate. They just want enough incoming students to cover for those who don't continue.

So the evaluator would start teaching your class and take over the lesson plan? How does that even work without looking like a (somewhat funnier) SNL style skit?

I taught at a local campus and several times had an evaluator participate and take over the class discussion. It was very unprofessional.

I was pressured to change grades by advisors all the time. The Utah Campus was a joke.

@VIICZdx-1yac, even when you allow for eight years, the numbers are pretty bad.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018college-guide?ranking=2018-rankings-national-universities

@Befuddled

The graduation rates are calculated in such a way they put UOP in a bad light. Graduation rates are measured by the percentage of people who graduate within a 5 year period after starting school (if my memory serves me well). If a person starts, then stops, then starts again or for some other reason doesn't graduate within that time frame, then it engrosses the ranks of those considered not to have graduated. The problem is how the metric was constructed.

Few students at UOP fail a class if they at least complete participation and upload assignments each week.

Can someone please explain to me how a university that is allegedly a diploma mill and so easy that everyone passes (or gets passed) is - by the same people saying that - also accused of having really bad graduation rates, so not enough students pass?

That makes no sense whatsoever, unless there’s another agenda somewhere .....

I tend to deal with students who fail classes multiple times a day. They’re usually calling upset about having to pay for a retake of a course or that their Financial Aid is going to be delayed.

Isn't that the whole point of University of Phoenix. Its supposed to be easier than real college

@oep, @cza,

Yes, that's exactly what's happening. Assignments are autograded. Facilitators are responsible for posting in the discussion threads, promptly answering questions, and transferring assignment scores into the gradebook. The real problem comes from class sizes. A typical undergrad class now has over 50-60 students. So facilitators basically give the illusion of a legit education when in reality this is a type of MOOC. The net effect is to cut in half instruction costs.

In the classes I taught before the layoff a while back, they did not compel us to pass students; however, we had to do everything within our power to make sure that students were submitting assignments, no matter how tardy. The curriculum designers make the classes so easy that it is virtually impossible to fail. The students basically do one quiz or worksheet per week over a 5-week class. It could not be easier unless they were literally selling the diplomas. And now I hear from people still work there that the assignments are starting to be self-graded, so there's not much for a faculty member to do except read the endless piles of drivel they call "participation." It's gotten very bad, but I guess that's why Camden calls it "sub prime."

The OP narration doesn't ring true. Nobody will burst into a classroom and take over the discussion. So, the students contacted the (by then fired, no doubt) facilitator afterwards to decry the situation? No way that happened.

Having said that, nowadays there is a clear push to ensure students pass from one course to the next. I disagree with this practice because it'll erode whatever little quality/rigor still exists in the UOP's programs.

@VIICZdx-hkp, have you ever heard of a consumer watchdog?

It is certainly Beyond unethical for someone named Camden to butt into a private company's affairs when he/she has no affiliation whatsoever

It's not illegal for you, but it is unethical. It may be illegal for UoPX if the student is using federal funds (FAFSA fraud). A UoPX professor (at a campus that has since closed) told me about this several years ago and she was pushed out for doing the right thing. Her peers were bullied into changing grades. Over the long term, the system collapses.