Baker College - BBA Management

Bad Experience

By: Anonymous (In Progress) on February 23, 2009

Materials:		Teachers:
Institution:		Support:
Value:		Technology:

Review:

I was previously a student at Baker College Online. I left because, I grew frustrated with Baker College's unrealistic and insensitive method of delivery.

Students were required to submit 2 'substantive posts' 5 to 6 days a week. This was analogous to a traditional student going to the same class 5 to 6 days a week and actively participating each day. To compound this burden, I found that few of the instructors actively facilitated discussion. Sometimes I was relegated to a form of discussion board trivia or simply paraphrasing relevant text. Imagine how difficult the 10 to 12 posts per week were when taking courses such as algebra or accounting. The lack of instructor facilitation did not prevent them from deducting participation points for missing a daily post, or for the post not being 'substantive' enough. One instructor (with a bachelor's degree) made up for his lack of credentials by grading extra hard, which means that even if I had 13 weekly posts, a few just weren't 'substantive' enough. 
 
It gets worse. Since Baker College is in Michigan, they are on Eastern Standard Time; which means that their students across the world are also on Eastern Standard Time. I was in Washington, which meant that I had to do all of my participation by 9 pm. That was never less than 24 posts; 36 when I took three classes. Those posts were in addition to all of the assignments which were also due by 9 pm.
 
Due by 9pm, 12 EST, meant that exclusively. There were few instructors that allowed late work. I just didn't understand that at all. Were there instructors waiting until midnight to grade papers? When I brought this to the attention of a dean and a professor, they both said something to the effect of 'although east coast students have more time at the end of their day, you have more time at the beginning of yours.' I countered that, just like them, I wake up when it is dark, go to work, and get off at 5 pm. The difference is that east coast students have 7 hours to eat dinner with their families, perform course work, and perform other activities. I had 4! 
 
They were also quite insulting with the amount of transfer credits awarded for military training. They gave me a whopping 8 credits. By contrast, my new school gave me 32! I was going to tough it out for one more semester to get my associates degree, but then it hit me; I had 88 credits and still needed 5 more classes for an associates! 

The worst part about their technology was that none of it was intertwined. For class, I had to log into Blackboard. To register, I had to log into the Solar System. To use my email, I had to log into Baker Webmail. The school library, which you can only get to through the Solar System still required an additional login!