Attending AIU Online

Graduated One Year Ago

2010-06-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

I passed all my classes at AIU with flying colors and have a beautifully-framed diploma hanging in my hallway. It was a good experience overall, and I believe I would do it again. I had a good variety of teachers and students in my classes, and was able to make some new virtual friends. My classes were done in April of 2009 and I officially graduated in May, just over one year ago.

Since then, I have loaned some of the great text books out and stored the rest, archived all my papers and moved on with my life. My focus on school during those ten months unfortunately distracted me from some parts of my personal life, which I let get out of hand and have spent the past year trying to put back in order, with varying degrees of success. I don't blame the schoolwork, but it was a factor!

I no longer am working at the family company, or anywhere outside the home, for personal reasons. I am enjoying the time with my son and looking forward to being a foster parent in the very near future. Someday, in another season of life, I hope to put my hard-earned MBA to better use.

This will be my last post on this blog. I will probably delete it in another year or so, but you can follow me at http://www.livinginkentucky.blogspot.com.

Best wishes to all you hard-working mothers trying to get through school!

I love marketing!

2008-09-21T17:56:00.002-05:00

To those who may happen across this blog - so sorry to have written more often. May this be a testament to the astounding loss of personal time that working full-time while going to school causes.

My last class was economics...and I got through it with good grades and a headache. Numbers just hurt my brain, but I have no trouble with the concepts. I specifically was interested in the international trade part of the class, as well as anything that could be applied to my current business.

The current class is marketing management, and is much more suitable to my interests. The textbook is great, and my professor, Jose, has a great little accent that makes the live chat sessions (i.e. classes) more bearable. My brain has been absolutely churning with ideas as I read the book, and I only hope I can remember some of them when it comes time to implement a new marketing strategy. I have really learned a lot in this class and am excited that the assignments have led me to form an actual marketing plan for my business, not just some made up stuff like I did for the first class (Juicy Red Tomato company? puh-lease!)

I am really amazed at the number of AIU students who don't seem to put any effort whatsoever into the assignments. I just finised critiquing the marketing plans for the others in my small group (4 other, plus me), and I spent 15-30 minutes per critique. Then, I read the 2 that had left critiques of mine. They consisted of about two sentences each, with absolutely nothing constructive in them at all! I was disappointed, since I would actually like to know what could be improved. The ones receiving my critiques are probably going to think I am overly critical or obsessed with my homework...both of which are partially true. :) Oh well.

One more week of this marketing class, then is my long awaited week off! During that week, I will head to an out-of-town board meeting for a couple of days, then onto my vacation, which runs into the first week of my next class.

I'm still excited to have this opportunity to get my MBA, but the novelty has worn off and now only the hard work is left. One more class to go before I'm halfway through!

AIU E-zine, New Class and iPhone

2008-07-24T10:41:00.003-05:00

Got an email today letting me know that AIU has an E-zine - see it here: http://www.aiuonline.edu/aiuzine/issue40/new.aspx

Also got my acceptance letter and student ID in the mail today. LOL - I guess they were waiting to see my grade in my first class before accepting me. I don't know if that's standard or not, but the timing suggests that it is.

Last night was my first "live chat" with my new professor for international economics. I must say that I preferred his method more than the previous professor. He set up the desktop differently, and used voice chat on his end so he didn't spend his time typing. He also allowed us to privately message other class members instead of limiting it to "everyone" at once. The only thing I didn't like better with his methods was that it was less interactive in the chat - he only asked a couple of questions requiring answers, and those answers were painfully obvious. Perhaps he will ask more questions as time goes on - there was a lot of introductory, welcome to the class type of stuff last night.

This class holds live chats Wednesdays and Thursday evenings instead of Tues and Thursdays, and the times are different. It still works out to where I can attend most of them. Another difference is that the group project, which every session has, will be in week 4 instead of the last week of the class. Unfortunately, this is when I will be at another trade show (GenCon, Indy), which could prove difficult. I'm not running a booth, though, so as long as I can get good internet access I should be able to work it out.

One last, quick topic for this post - I got an iPhone! The 2nd generation, with 16G and the white back. We ordered this particular one because it is in the least demand and would arrive the quickest. Apparently everyone likes the black ones better. Of course, once I purchased the $20 piece of gel with screen-protector (sticker), mine looked black, too.

The cool thing about AIU Online is they have a mobile site, which they call "MobiClas". I put that on my homepage (or whatever its called) of the iPhone and tried it out. Works beautifully! I can see my professors contact information, announcements and assignments. You cannot view the library, upload assignments and such, but that would be extremely difficult to do on such a small screen anway. Kudos!

One class under my belt

2008-07-14T18:42:00.002-05:00

So this week is break week, which is great news! I really need a break (see my personal blog). After five intense weeks of my first online class at AIU, it is done.

The final assignment was a group project, which went much more smoothly than I expected. We had someone step up to be the group leader and I helped him organize the division of labor and did some proof-reading, in addition to my portion of the paper analysis that was required. It was pretty much completed more than a day before it was due, which was amazing to me, since I haven't turned in a paper that early on my own.

Overall, I would say the class was a success. I earned good grades, a bit higher than I actually expected. My husband was great at helping out with our son on the weekends so I could get my assignments completed. And most importantly, I learned a lot - about online learning AND the subject matter of the "business decision making" class.

My next class will be "Economics for the Global Manager". I have already received my Microeconomics and International Economics textbooks, and they are intimidating. I'm going to attempt to get a jump start on the reading this week so I won't feel overwhelmed next week.

Everyone, have a great break week!

Caught up

2008-07-07T21:21:00.003-05:00

Not only did I catch back up in classwork, but I even turned in my assignment on Saturday and had all day Sunday to...well, I would love to say relax, but in reality I started reading this week's texts and worked in the nursery at church. Regardless, it was a much better day than it could have been.

This is the final week of my first class at AIU. During the final week of most classes, a group project is assigned. My group has 5 members, and we haven't yet heard from all of them. However, time is short so we have chosen a leader and a paper to critique, and even divided up the work as evenly as possible. I always get nervous with group assignments, because my grade is tied to the work of others - and in this case, complete strangers!

We have a plan to turn it our portions by Friday night so our leader can compile everything on Saturday. I volunteered to proof it on Sunday, which hopefully won't be difficult at all if everyone has done their part. We have a contingency plan in place, as well: if we don't have agreement with other member by Wed. night, we will re-assign their portion to someone else so the work gets done.

On top of the group assignment is a 7 paragraph written "speech" that we are to each post to the Discussion Board. Better get crackin'!

Correcto-mundo

2008-07-01T19:22:00.002-05:00

My prediction came true. I managed to get my discussion board assignment done during the trade show, but due to the fact that I basically took over as "second" in the finance room at Origins Game Fair I was unable to free up enough time and energy to even begin researching the paper that was due last Sunday night.

I feel terrible getting behind like this, and even missed two classes, but have managed to watch the re-runs of those today, and turn it part one of last week's assignment. Part 2 will have to wait until tomorrow, as the library has decided to not work this evening. Not good.

So, behind as I am in schoolwork, you can only imagine how the house, yard, and laundry are looking. I've got two days to whip it all back into shape because Friday is my birthday and I'm going to visit family in Tennessee. Saturday and Sunday will be committed to finishing this week's (unit 4) assignments, then I'll only have one more week of this class, and 6 more weeks before my first week off. I probably shouldn't be looking forward to that already...but I am!

My predicitions on Online Learning at a Trade Show

2008-06-23T21:09:00.005-05:00

You can tell that the later it gets in the day, the less creative the titles of my posts become!

I got my first grades last Thursday, and was pleased. I don't think Unit 2 (week 2)'s assignments will earn as good a grade, but at least my power point preso was pretty! :)

I'm leaving for a trade show (Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH) tomorrow, and while my reading for class is completed, I will have to work on my assignments on the road/hotel/convention center. I'm predicting that the quality will suffer. Perhaps I can use the results as a small-scale research project for class. :)

I won't be back until the following Monday night, and will most likely miss at least one class due to travel. I hope I don't get behind! That has been a constant fear of mine since beginning a few weeks ago. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and it kills me to not get it "perfect"...which of course it never will be. I have accepted that, so technically I must be a recovering perfectionist. LOL

Class attendance has continued to be low, but class participation from attendees is pretty good. I feel like I'm answering more questions than others, but perhaps that is only my perception. I really do learn more by answering questions (especially when I'm wrong) and asking them then by staying silent. I highly recommend attending all your classes, and not watching the "rerun" (archive), in order to get the most out of your online learning experience.

Week 2

2008-06-19T20:24:00.002-05:00

I finished my Discussion board assignment yesterday, in hopes of getting ahead. Then I ran into some snags trying to get started on my paper...which is actually a power point presentation. I've dealt with pp preso before, but never had to make one from scratch, so I spent an hour learning how to use MS 2007.

Looks like tomorrow I'll be learning more about tomatoes and why managers tend to leave their current companies.

I'm headed to a trade show next week and am afraid I'll get behind, but suppose it will all work out in the end. I'm pretty excited that I received my first grades today, and they were good.

Sorry I can't write more interesting things at the moment - I'm pretty tired.

One paper down...

2008-06-16T21:02:00.002-05:00

and one per week for the next 9 months to go!

I spent about 13 hours over the weekend working on my first assigned paper, which was a 5-7 page research paper on the first five steps of business research.

I learned a lot about tomatoes! Much more than I ended up using in the paper, but such is the bane of research papers, right?

On the upside, I turned it in around 6pm when it was due by midnight, so I was able to enjoy dinner and a movie with my husband without stressing about schoolwork.

I attended my third class this evening and it was the most interesting thus far. Unfortunately, my son is still awake. I tried to put him to bed early to prepare for class, but it backfired horribly. At least he was quiet, except for the screaming when I took him back to his room repeatedly, so I was able to concentrate on the conversation (live chat).

Back to the bedtime fight...

My outlook is improving!

2008-06-13T11:27:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I completed reading the final half-chapter of my text for this week (Unit 1). I performed as many of the example problems as I could, to try and get a complete understanding of the process of "Research Methoods for Business" (Sekaran, 2003). I feel like I did learn something useful!

I also completed my first Discussion Board (DB) assignment. I was uneasy with what I had written, so went online to see what the other students had posted thus far. I felt that what I written was at least as thorough, so went ahead and posted it last night just before my second class. While I was in the spirit of the DB (and my husband was occupying DS age 3), I also posted replies to a couple of the other students assignments. We are expected to, and receive points for, responding appropriately and thoughtfully to one or two other student's assignments. Note - this only applies to DB, not papers we turn in!

After a short break, it was time for class. I attempted to load the Live Chat room, and there was...nothing. I figured out my internet connection had crapped out, so went to reset the modem and router (we have a small network at our home).After a few minutes, things were back to normal - except the chat still wouldn't load. After trying several times, I knew I had to get help or completely miss class, because it was already 15 minutes into it.

I asked a classmate if he was in the room, via instant messaging, which oddly enough still worked. He said he was, so I IM'd Technical Support, and although it took about 10 minutes, they got me fixed up. I had to delete browser history and cookies and such.

So I arrived 30 minutes late to class, but I was there. :) There were many fewer students attending this one, and we all got to answer the Dr.'s questions. It was a good class, I think. I also missed a few minutes toward the end because my horse got through the fence and was eating grain out of the "secure" container on my front porch! I rounded him back up and rest the electric fence before finishing up the class. They never knew I was gone - that's the beauty of online learning!

Next step is to plan and research my first paper, which is due by Sunday night.

Press Release from Project Working Mom

2008-06-11T22:09:00.004-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: J.F. (I've omitted contact info for privacy reasons)

Kentucky Mother Receives Project Working Mom Full-Ride College Scholarship Out of 50,000 Applicants
Inspiring Story of Sacrifice and Determination to Provide Better Life for Family

Hoboken, NJ – June xx, 2008 – eLearners.com, a web resource offered by Education Dynamics, today announced that Witten, a working mother from Kentucky, is the recipient of the Project Working Mom full-ride online college scholarship. Mrs. Witten was selected to receive one of the $2 million in scholarships from among more than 50,000 applicants because of the obstacles she has overcome in the pursuit of her educational dream. The scholarships are being awarded as part of Project Working Mom, a national scholarship initiative conducted in conjunction with American InterContinental University, DeVry University and Walden University, to help working moms overcome the barriers of time, money and confidence through online education.

Witten is a mother of a three-year-old and is hoping for another child or two in the near future. She currently owns a business with her husband and brother-in-law and wants to expand the business to provide more jobs in her rural Kentucky town. To help with this goal, Witten feels marketing skills are a top priority and she wants to go back to school. The only thing that has held her back from pursuing an advanced degree has been the costs and distance; to go to a traditional college campus it would take her an hour or more each way.

Witten says her son makes her want to make this world, country and her own little corner of the globe a better place. “I believe the key to making positive changes is to keep learning,” said Witten in her Project Working Mom essay. “I believe with the knowledge that comes with earning a MBA in marketing under my belt, I will be able to make great strides in our business and therefore our community, through creating new jobs.”

When Witten found out she was a Project Working Mom scholarship recipient she said she felt relief and excitement that she gets to continue her education for free. Witten will pursue an online MBA from American InterContinental University and as she continues her journey she offers advice for women in similar situations.

“Don’t give up on your dreams,” said Witten. “Have patience and keep working your job, caring for your family and giving back to the community. Opportunities will come, as long as you are open to them.”

Witten is one of 42 women to receive the Project Working Mom scholarship. Each of the Project Working Mom scholarship recipients will receive a scholarship to complete an online degree program at no charge. The overwhelming response and the stories of sacrifice and determination from the applicants have been a stark reminder of the struggles working moms face in balancing life and work and how online education can help people achieve education goals.

“An online education is the perfect fit for these working mothers and other adults trying to juggle raising a family, work and a college education. By studying online, students overcome the barriers of time and distance to make education fit into busy lives,” said Terrence Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer for eLearners.com, the website leader in connecting prospective students with online education.

Census data shows that most working mothers start college, but life’s demands and the barriers of time, money and confidence do not allow them to finish. Seeing a need, Project Working Mom was formed. Visitors to www.projectworkingmom.com will find a comprehensive interactive website with online education resources and a community of women who can share their stories and experiences.

“This campaign has opened our eyes to the demand for financial aid for working moms and the vast number of women who would love to go back to school to get the career they’ve always wanted, but don’t have the money to make it happen,” continued Thomas. “We’ve played a small role in helping women get a fresh start and have been so inspired by the amazing stories of sacrifice and determination we’ve received; we can’t wait to read their success stories.”

Due to the eye-opening demand from this campaign – more than 50,000 entries – Project Working Mom plans to kick off Project Working Mom II in June to provide another opportunity for working moms to get their college tuition paid. eLearners.com hopes to raise more than $2 million in scholarships for working moms for the second campaign and plans to award the scholarship recipients during the back-to-school season.

eLearners.com, sponsor of Project Working Mom, is a comprehensive online database of programs and information for students interested in pursuing their education online. It offers tools and resources to determine if attending an online college is right for them, including the eLearners Advisor, an assessment that measures whether an online education is a right fit. eLearners.com also offers a fast, easy to use scholarship database containing more than $14 billion in financial aid. The database includes awards from the freshman to the graduate level, and categorizes them by local, state, national and international scholarship opportunities. The database can be found at http://www.elearners.com/scholarships/. For more information on Project Working Mom, visit www.projectworkingmom.com/.

Editor’s Note: Deleted for privacy

Reading takes time

2008-06-11T21:54:00.003-05:00

Like I said, finishing my reading of the text was my goal on Tuesday. Now its 10pm Wednesday and I still have 1/2 a chapter left. Its not for a lack of trying, though.

A note for those of you getting an MBA - allow an hour per chapter to read and comprehend. Add another 30 minutes or more to work out the problems, think about the discussion questions and read the supplemental appendixes when necessary. This means the 5 chapters I am to read weekly will take approximately 7-8 hours. Wow.

Today I worked on my business an hour, read an hour, worked an hour, read an hour, ate lunch, went to the office and worked until dinner (in-laws on Wednesdays!), then came home and put DS to bed, and read another hour and half until I hit a problem I couldn't figure out in my tired state.

The good part is that I am interested in the material and understanding it, although my mind does tend to wander off at times. When that occurs, I usually catch myself before my eyes have read much farther and go back and read it again. Its amazing to me how my eyes can feed the words to my brain and they stay there a second before fleeting - all without me even realizing it because I'm thinking about something completely different. Please tell me I'm not the only one this happens to! :-)

Other notes for today:
Got my first email from my student adviser, and boy does she like to get it all said in one email! It was really long and included 5 attachments. Better thorough than not, i suppose.

Got a call yesterday from my admissions adviser saying she thought this blog was "very cool". Thanks, Emma!

Received a proof of the press release about Project Working Mom for my local media and edited it. I will put the text in a separate post, as it is lengthy.

Advantage of Online Education for MBAs

2008-06-10T13:30:00.002-05:00

http://www.careeredonline.com/proofsources/pdf/Online_MBAs_make_sense.pdf

This is a well-written two-page article spouting about the places your online MBA will take you, the pay increase and promotions you might expect and how current and future employers will perceive you with this advantageous degree.

Interesting enough, but I have to wonder if it will affect my situation at all. Probably not in the short run, but perhaps if we sell our family business in the future and I want to continue working it will be of personal financial advantage. In the short run, I am doing it for the profitability of the business itself.

Live Chat

2008-06-10T09:48:00.003-05:00

What most would consider "class time", AIU calls "Live Chat".

My first experience with this was last night from 8-9pm CST. The professor was there first, and I logged on about 10 minutes early to make sure everything would work properly (computers and I don't always get along!). He welcomed us and said we would start at 8.

And so we did. A few more welcomes and hellos all around, and he got straight into what I would call "How to use an online classroom". He went over all relevant aspects of the Virtual Classroom, most of which I had already figured out. He also covered how to use the Library, which was new to me, as was using the webmail through Outlook. The Microsoft outlook exchange, I believe it is called, is actually quite cool- just a mini-version of the the real thing that can be logged in and out of from any computer.

Most of the students participated by asking a question or two..then there was Maureen. She seemed to enjoy trying to answer all the questions before the professor, although she didn't always agree with his answers. Even argued with him on a couple of points! Another student named Kevin called her out on it, but it didn't make a lick of difference. My guess is that there is probably always a "Maureen" in every class.

I mentioned that I already felt behind in the class, and Professor said that for this course, most people feel lost for the first 4 units. That means 4 of the 5 weeks of this class I could very well feel behind! Not very encouraging, but at least I know I'm not alone.

I did read a bit in "Research Methods for Business" last night and this morning, and I must say that this book by Sekaran is an easier read than the other text. My goal is to get the other 3 chapters read in this book today, and to begin my first assignment tomorrow.

First Impression of Assignments

2008-06-08T20:23:00.002-05:00

YIKES!

I was told upfront that I would need to do one project per week, and with Marketing being my major I figured that would have to be a paper. So the paper due this coming Saturday was not a surprise, but the length being 5-7 pages was. In addition to the paper, I am to compose a 4-5 paragraph letter in APA format to post on the Discussion Board. This is also due Saturday by midnight.

Also, in the first week, I am to read 5 chapters. Needless to say, once looked this over I got a bit worried about the time needed to complete everything in a timely fashion.

Did I immediately crack the books?

No.... I continued digging around the Classroom area of AIU Online, of course! I found the aforementioned Discussion Board and introduced myself in the appropriate area and read about the other students in the class, which was all very interesting. Afterwards, I found the area of the classroom that has additional materials needed to complete the learning process. Since I was unable to resist playing the Unit 1 video, I actually watched it all the way through and understood most of it. I went through the interactive questions and got them all correct! I love that even when the answers were correct, it had a button to press called "Why?" - as in why did I get this answer right? Very cool for good guessers like me. :) Another cool thing I discovered in this area was that I can download audio or a/v into iTunes and sync with my iPod to take the video presentations with me!

That was Friday. Now today is Sunday and I have completed one chapter in one book and am about halfway through Chapter 1 in the second book. I am planning on completing the reading by Tuesday afternoon at latest and working on my Discussion Board question on Wednesday. (Tuesday night is reserved for dinner and a board game with a couple of friends!).

Wish me luck!

Virtual Classroom - Syllabus

2008-06-06T10:49:00.004-05:00

My first class is Business Research for Decision Making. There are 2 textbooks that will be referenced during this 5 week course, and the content is a bit intimidating. (The information about the books is on the Syllabus page in the classroom.)

However, that intimidation doesn't compare to how I feel after reading how this professor grades and what all will be required of me during this class. I have read the welcome, looked over the grading scale - then took a break to start this blog. I am now looking over the Syllabus itself, which is lengthier than expected.

It includes the course description and what is expected of the students. The expectations include what we should learn, how we should learn it, how to participate in the class (Discussion Boards), how to turn in our assignments and so on. Here is an excerpt:

"Every Unit has from 2 to 4 Assignments. Instructions for each Assignment are provided within the unit topic identified for each week. Each Assignment concludes with a deliverable product. Deliverable products may range from a paragraph narrative, a paper, a PowerPoint Presentation, programming code, an analysis of the Assignment, to an HTML Web page. These deliverable products are evaluated using the course evaluation methods."

That is the tone of the entire page - cut and dry. Of course, that is always to be expected in such a situation, much like reading a handbook.

Also described on the syllabus page, as well as in the Student Handbook, is AIU's definitions of plagiarism, cheating, and the participation expectations. The professors office hours and all contact information is there as well.

There are many parts to the Virtual Classroom - next up: Assignment List!

Scholarship to AIU Online

2008-06-06T10:12:00.001-05:00

Today I was allowed to go into my Virtual Classroom at AIU for the first time. I'm a bit hesitant about going to school online, just as most people are hesitant about new, unknown territory.

The technology is good and I have not experienced any technical glitches at this time. The admissions department has been helpful in making sure that the whole enrollment process went smoothly and that I always knew what to expect next. I really appreciate that, because I'm the type of person who likes to know where she stands. My textbooks and "Publication Manual" arrived on time, as did the software needed for this course.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a smoother start in going back to school.

So, who am I? For my personal life, visit livinginkentucky.blogspot.com. I'll put the highlights here, for those of you just wanting to read about attending AIU Online. My name is Laura and I am a 30 year old, married for 8 years with one 3 year old boy. My husband and I own 2/3 of our family business, and are looking to grow it to greatness. We both have BS degrees from Western Kentucky University and have been out of college for sometime. I graduated with an Agriculture major in May of 1999 and have not had any formal classes since that time. I consider myself to be a good student, as I always received high grades. Perhaps that is due to my perfectionist tendencies, or maybe I simply test well.

Why do I want to continue my education? I have developed an interest in marketing over the past 10 years of working in retail. Now that we have owned our business a while, we would like to take it to the next level and know that lack of marketing knowledge is holding us back somewhat. As I have taken on the role of "Retail & Marketing Supervisor", I feel that I must educate myself in order to succeed. Money was our largest obstacle.

So, how are you paying for school? By the grace of God. I happened to be forwarded an email about Project Working Mom and filled out the application, including an essay. Out of thousands of applicants, only 40 scholarships were awarded - 10 to 4 different universities. I had to choose the school before I completed the application, and chose AIU for the 10 month MBA program. I am proud that I was awarded one of those coveted scholarships, and am determined to make this work for my life.

This scholarship will help me improve my business, which will improve my family's lifestyle and allow us to grow and possibly sell the business in the future. If that happens, having an MBA should drastically improve my chances at landing a great job with good pay. Truly, having an MBA payed for is the chance of a lifetime.

I hope to update this blog several times a week, sharing my online learning experiences with others. I would love to hear from my readers, so don't hesitate to leave a comment - good or bad!

Let's begin the journey.

(For my original post on my personal blog about the scholarship I've received, visit http://livinginkentucky.blogspot.com/2008/05/won-scholarship.html.

I don't want to discourage those who have not been awarded a scholarship from following this blog - I probably will not mention it again. I do, however, feel that it is relevant to my experience at AIU.

I also want to mention that I have had some contact with the Financial Aid office, and it seemed they were going to be really helpful as well, when I told him I had won the scholarship. He was genuinely happy for me, confirmed the sort of scholarship it was, then said that department would not need to contact me further. Yippee!)