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University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

uopeople.edu

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Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#241

Post by watwut »

novok wrote: post #210
BeetleB wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Writing and communication skills are absolutely necessary for career growth. The power of persuasion is directly linked to the ability to communicate your ideas well. I've updated my original comment to reflect that I was referring to writing and not general communications in general (although I wrote it more broadly). I've seen people really value presentation skills and PPT. Persuasion on 1:1 and via presentation…

At large tech co that pays well, writing is very important for career progression: 1. You often have to write design docs to communicate what you are making and gather feedback. These documents if badly written won't be as well received. 2. At many companies, you have a million things to work on, so in a way, you get to choose who you work with at some level. If someone communicates badly to the point of annoyance, i…

> 4. To get fame as an engineer, you often should write compelling blog articles. Badly written blogs tend not to be read.

I could go step by step, but really? This sounds to be so far out of reality. There is reason engineers dont write blogs - they dont matter.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#242

Post by watwut »

jabits wrote: post #206
BeetleB wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which field(s) of engineering do you talk about? What are the highest level(s) of promotion the persons who don't write well reach and continue to work in? Electrical, computer, and SW. I'm not saying communicating well is not needed. I'm saying writing well is not needed. What I've seen: A good presentation (including PPT skills) is much more valued than writing. Decisions are usually made because of them, not bec…

You must be joking, or else work with very low caliber people. I don’t consider people for positions who cannot write well, and certainly know that most successful people do write well. Really, can you take a poorly written engineering spec or RFP seriously? Just in case you are serious, counterpoint for others who may not know, all forms of communication are very important to succeed and move up.

> I don’t consider people for positions who cannot write well

But that is your personal preference enforced only where you personally can enforce it. That is not imply your decision making is typical for industry.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#243

Post by jimnotgym »

querez wrote: post #185
Zircom wrote: post #57

So this seems like a good time to ask, does anyone have experience with University of London's online degree and how US employers feel about it? I've been eyeing it for a couple years now and was wondering if anyone either has experience directly with this program, or at least can speak more to how US employer's feel about degrees from overseas. https://london.ac.uk/sites/default/files/prospectuses/comput... https://…

This may be slightly off-topic, but if you're looking at online/distance-learning offers from the UK, the OpenUniversity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_University ) is very well known and well respected, and has decades of experience in doing this.

I will second the OU, both me and my wife got access to higher education through the OU and successfully transferred credit elsewhere. It was still cassette tapes and books back then, but those materials were excellent. The difference I see now is that the funding is not as good from the government for UK learners. I didn't pay a penny for my courses.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#244

Post by alfonsodev »

non-entity wrote: post #122
traverseda wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presume that my accomplishments stand on my own, and the only thing getting in my way is that I don't qualify for a VISA under NAFTA. What I'd need would be a > Baccalaureate or Licenciatura degree; or Post-Secondary Diploma or Post Secondary Certificate and three years' experience. Now you and I know this is pretty much just a sheet of paper, but what's the cheapest/easiest way for someone who already has profession…

> but what's the cheapest/easiest way for someone who already has professional accomplishments to get that sheet of paper? WGU might be that. it can be incredibly cheap (compared to your average bachelors degree) if completed quickly and I believe it's regionally accredited, so I imagine it qualifies you. Now what a hiring manager will think of it is debatable.

I'm reading in admission requeriments "Students must demonstrate math readiness through successful and verifiable completion of a pre-calculus, calculus, or higher-than-calculus math course from an accredited post-secondary academic institution or WGU-approved third-party provider." Do you know where to make those coures online ?

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#245

Post by thatha7777 »

MattGaiser wrote: post #54

They branded this wrong. University of the People stands out front and centre as different and sketchy as the name makes you think of protestors in a park waving the hammer and sickle and handing out diplomas for life experience.

That’s a pretty interesting interpretation of “we the people” filled with political undercurrents.

I think your underlying assumption is that only an “exclusive” university can provide a good education, and not something en masse. I think UoP is explicitly trying to challenge that assumption.

Btw, I have a hunch that if we valued “life experience degrees” more than “law degree at Harvard” the US Congress would be a better legislative body

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#246

Post by wisty »

themodelplumber wrote: post #40
dart600 wrote: post #33

Hi. I attended this school and then got accepted to another more standard institution, which I applied at the same time to. The new institution, learning I had been attending U of the P, promptly told me that U of the P credits would not transfer. Universal transferability in question, I opted out. I did enjoy meeting people from all walks of life, all over the world. However, I also saw a grossly wide range of educa…

> could not grasp the idea of plagiarism being unethical I remember experiencing this at a private religious university. At the time, my hyper-religious mind was blown to see students outright cheating in the Testing Center. Since then I've been exposed to additional perspectives on plagiarism. It is an extremely deep and nuanced topic. A few years out of school, I ended up mentoring and then teaching college student…

How is this different to the following?

"Using counterfeit money is arguably OK because some of the people who use it might need it, or see the need to earn a living as a needless waste of time as long as there's idiots who'll accept fake currency".

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#247

Post by brainwipe »

querez wrote: post #185
Zircom wrote: post #57

So this seems like a good time to ask, does anyone have experience with University of London's online degree and how US employers feel about it? I've been eyeing it for a couple years now and was wondering if anyone either has experience directly with this program, or at least can speak more to how US employer's feel about degrees from overseas. https://london.ac.uk/sites/default/files/prospectuses/comput... https://…

This may be slightly off-topic, but if you're looking at online/distance-learning offers from the UK, the OpenUniversity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_University ) is very well known and well respected, and has decades of experience in doing this.

Another vote for OU; I haven't attended but from an employer perpective, OU grads have had excellent depth of knowledge.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#248

Post by michaelt »

watwut wrote: post #241
novok wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At large tech co that pays well, writing is very important for career progression: 1. You often have to write design docs to communicate what you are making and gather feedback. These documents if badly written won't be as well received. 2. At many companies, you have a million things to work on, so in a way, you get to choose who you work with at some level. If someone communicates badly to the point of annoyance, i…

> 4. To get fame as an engineer, you often should write compelling blog articles. Badly written blogs tend not to be read. I could go step by step, but really? This sounds to be so far out of reality. There is reason engineers dont write blogs - they dont matter.

The proviso there is "to get fame"

Technical accomplishments only make you famous if people know about them - if you want to become Joel Spolsky or Bruce Schneier or John Carmack or Donald Knuth then either you're going to have to publicise the evidence of your brilliance, or someone else is.

Plenty of people don't particularly pursue fame - you can make plenty of money and get plenty done without it. But if fame is your goal and you hope to achieve it through code alone, I challenge you to name the maintainer of grep or openssl or the linux kernel bluetooth subsystem without looking it up :)

There are other routes to getting your accomplishments known, of course. Sid Meier and Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds aren't famous for blogging.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#249

Post by GordonS »

dart600 wrote: post #33

Hi. I attended this school and then got accepted to another more standard institution, which I applied at the same time to. The new institution, learning I had been attending U of the P, promptly told me that U of the P credits would not transfer. Universal transferability in question, I opted out. I did enjoy meeting people from all walks of life, all over the world. However, I also saw a grossly wide range of educa…

> However, I also saw a grossly wide range of educational professionalism in the students

Your specific example of plagiarism is odd; I'm not sure what's difficult to grasp there. But wide ranging dedication (or professionalism if you prefer to call it that) is pretty standard at brick and mortar universities - it's pretty standard for a subset of people to prefer the partying and socialising aspects, and also pretty standard for quite a lot of people to drop out altogether.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#250

Post by idoby »

mathnmusic wrote: post #231
idoby wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally all of these ideas are ones I've had for years in the education space. I'm glad someone is actually doing them.

You might also be interested in what I'm building at https://learnawesome.org : A rich learning map of educational resources, augmented with tools like spaced-repetition or notes with bidirectional-linking and project-based learning cohorts with peers and mentors.

Looks very cool, thanks
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