American InterContinental University - Information Technology concentration in Project Management

AIU is what you make of it...Really

By: obandel (In Progress) on April 12, 2008

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Value:		Technology:

Review:

I am in the last throws of my Masters degree program in IT with AIU.  I have read a lot of reviews online regarding this institution (negative, bitter, good etc) and I have come to conclude that AIU is generally a good school, perhaps not the best and lots of room for improvement.  
My particular areas of concern was the quality of the faculty and instructor feedback.  Instructors' bio seemed solid but assignment reviews by instructors were less than academic, instructor comments were too simple, vague and not constructive.  After course submissions are graded, students have no way of knowing what areas they have done well or need improvement (such APA, formating, sentence structure, paper theme etc).  Of course as a graduate student I am able to self critique my work but I expected some informed and intellectual perspectives on coursework submissions by students.  Comments such as "you did a good job" don't suffice.  Overall, I found the experience extremely challenging and intense.  This program requires effecient time management and strong self-discipline to succeed, it is certainly not a cake walk as some have suggested.  
The Discussion boards I thought were productive and refreshing.  The collaboration technology was perhaps the best experience.  Overall it is a good school and I think in the wake of the SACS suspension and subsequent reinstatement of accredtion status; AIU Online has improved tremendously in terms of quality of service and course delivery.  The main problem as indicated earlier was instructor feedback and student course work review.  Graduate programs are meant to expand your horizons and expose you to new thoughts, trends, technologies etc and provide you the resources to research and learn about things you primarily would never have known.  if you failed to learn something it is likley you did not take advantage of all the resources available.  I personally learned a lot in the MIT program particularly in the Object Oriented Application Development and Project Management courses.