Comments on: Library school 0.5?

By: Carol Wayne

Carol Wayne — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 13:02:50 +0000

I attended University of North Texas in Denton and I can say that there are similar problems.
I honestly felt that they were trying to grow the program without really understanding the kind of backup that a long distance program needs. It was very hard to talk to someone if you had a question. Many, not all, but several professors took days to get back to me. My biggest disapointment was my advisor whose only response was “look on the website”. I finally complained to one of my favorite online profs and she offered to become my advisor. She was a great help.
Now in the schools defense, I am an older returning student and had done my undergraduate degree the old-fashioned way…in person. So I was not as comfortable with the online process.
I think though, that the powers that be underestimate the level of support online students require.
Also, I think online searching should be required as well as some work in social networks….none of that was even mentioned.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:57:23 +0000

Jessamyn, I never actually made the original list of student concerns public. In some ways, I feel as if I am treading on a very slippery slope here. There are some bad feelings about all of this – and I don’t feel comfortable making other people’s problems/issues public. When I initially started writing about this whole thing, my point was about how difficult I was finding it to get involved. That being said, I can expound on some of the issues – those that I have revealed throughout my time at Southern. Some problems are lack of faculty responses to emails, lack of faculty interaction in class, time lags on grades, assignments never being graded, and lack of services for distance student. These are all issues that I have discussed. Many distance students feel a general lack of support – and have no clue where to turn. It can be quite disheartening at times!

By: Meredith Farkas

Meredith Farkas — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:55:07 +0000

Hmmm… I don’t remember myself where I’ve read about the issues, because she’s been writing about this stuff for so long. You may just want to ask Jennifer on her blog. I’m such an agitator, that if I were in this situation, I’d just post the letter on my blog as an open letter.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:47:37 +0000

I hadn’t really read about this before, btu I’ve been clicking through her website trying to figure out where she lists the issues she’s having with SCSU and I keep finding updates that refer to the issues wihtout listing them. Could you possibly point me to the blog post [or wiki] where she spells this stuff out? I hope she has good luck getting someone to pay attention to her, but MAN is that an uphill battle.