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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

#271

Post by orzig »

pugio wrote: post #172
d0gbread wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you willing to share more about what you're working on? It sounds interesting. One language app I tried for a few minutes was a VR app that put you, for example, on a train, and you had to have a relevant conversation. It was cool, not sure how effective because the GearVR I used at the time made me sick too quickly.

(Disclaimer: Most of what I say here has caveats and qualifications – hard to capture full nuance in a comment's space.) One of the distinguishing features of computers is easy simulation. Humans learn well by direct, tight, interaction with a system – poking at a thing to see how it works. Tight feedback loops are how we quickly build intuitions. Explorable Explanations [0] are a great extant example of what I mean,…

This is fantastic. Not that you’re lacking in ideas, but as you mention the value of simulation I wanted to ensure that you had seen this historical case study: https://obscuritory.com/sim/when-simcity-got-serious/

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

#272

Post by SkyBelow »

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…

>there were a number of classmates whom could not grasp the idea of plagiarism being unethical

It might help to define what form of plagiarism you encountered as there are some behaviors that count as plagiarism (at least were counted as such back in my college ethics class) which I never found any valid reasoning for. I have no difficulty understanding the ethical issues of passing off someone else's work as your own, but you can also plagiarize by passing off your own work as your own.

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

#273

Post by hnkramd »

Hello to HN in general and those who know more about the University of the People. I have a question... I've been a Web Developer for 7+ years. I'm in my mid-30's. I never graduated college, and definitely went for the wrong reasons. I'm fully employed, but I've always wanted to land an engineering degree (software engineering most likely), and I'm wondering if this University would be a good option. I know little about it, but it seems like some of you know much more. Can anyone comment on if this would be a good fit for me for a college run in my mid-30's?

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

#274

Post by zoomablemind »

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…

> And promo is often based on leadership of projects. And how do you become the leader of projects? You write compelling documents.

This sounds somewhat idealized. As much as writing well is an asset, the understanding and ability to navigate office politics is what increases one's chances at career advancement. In the simplest form, just doing what the boss wants/expects one to do, not doing the unwanted things. No matter big or small company, a lot of subtle things that are said and done matter more, than the ways things are put in writing.

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

#275

Post by non-entity »

barry-cotter wrote: post #252
non-entity wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, It's the University of Colorado Boulder Masters programs hosted through Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/degrees/msee-boulder https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-of-science-data-scie... The fact that they're masters programs with performance based admissions make them even more suspicious to me, but if you're looking for bachelors programs like this I think the ASU bachelors hosted Coursera also has such…

How far do they go on the performance based admission? Must you have a Bachelor’s to be admitted? I’m currently on my last year of my Master’s and did not fulfill the usual entrance requirements but CEFIMS will let you into their Master’s programmes sans Bachelor’s though there is a bit of hoop jumping and it’s difficult to do it in the two year minimum for students who start with a Bachelor’s.

Nope, there's no bachelors degree required. I was actually pretty surprised by this when I first heard about it and I emailed them. In part of their response I quote:

Our program aims to make admission less bureaucratic (no degree, no GRE, nor recommendation letters, nor statement of purpose required), but we still are appealing to students who have the near-equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree, whether through academic study, years’ of industry experience, or, being self-taught to a high level. This is a rather rigorous program at the Masters level, equivalent to the content taught for many decades in our on-campus courses, but presented in slightly smaller pieces and in 8-week sessions, rather than 16-week semesters.

I have heard of people getting entrance to a Masters program without an bachelors degree, but not in technical disciplines and definitely not in a manner this open.

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

#277

Post by SkyBelow »

wisty wrote: post #246
themodelplumber wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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".

The issue with counterfeit money is that it devalues the worth of all other money.

But given who holds the majority of the money being devalued, given the extent that money is already being devalued for the benefit of some at the expense of others, and given that the idea of taking a relative to wealth portion from the group for the benefit of the poor is a form of redistribution the group already engages in regardless of the consent of the giver, I think you can easily construct an argument that it is not immoral to use counterfeit money as long as you pick the right targets.

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

#278

Post by kubanczyk »

michaelt wrote: post #248
watwut wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

As they say, if you are trying to get rich and famous, instead try to just get rich. Chances are it will suit you pefectly.

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

#279

Post by jki275 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #203
jki275 wrote: post #138

Nationally accredited. Not regionally accredited. Hence useless for academic purposes.

Stanford CS is not accredited at all. Is it useless for academic purposes?

Stanford doesn't need accreditation. Neither does Harvard. You're not seriously comparing the two, are you?

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

#280

Post by jki275 »

uopeoplestudent wrote: post #169
jki275 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can certainly get emails that talk about "we'll give you advanced standing" or some such bs, but credits don't actually transfer. You're deluding yourself, as people who go to these dead end institutions often do. You're of course free to do so, but if you think you are actually going to a real university, you're going to be in bad shape. Of course all this ignores the fact that the curriculum isn't adequate. Red…

> You're deluding yourself, as people who go to these dead end institutions often do. You're of course free to do so, but if you think you are actually going to a real university, you're going to be in bad shape. I am curious. Why do you think I'm deluding myself? What do I stand to gain? I've already stated elsewhere that my pursuit of this degree is purely for the love of learning. I've also stated that I already h…

You probably benefit, we don't know who you are. It looks to me like you're shilling. You're a new account that exists solely to shill for your school that advertises itself as free but isn't, and advertises itself as accredited but isn't.

ymmv.

And I don't know what you consider "prestigious", I don't consider WGU prestigious.

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