Academic Chain of Evidence

Imagine learning your degree will take one more year to finish because you did not take a class that was not in your program of study.

Imagine learning your degree will take one more year to finish because you did not take a class that was not in your program of study.

A colleague arrived at a milestone in her efforts to complete her doctoral efforts. All that was left was to do her research, write and defend her dissertation. Meeting with a university academic advisor in January she was told that she was missing one class – “Doctoral Research Orientation.” She could not start her research until this class was completed … and the course is only offered in the Fall semester.

MAINTAIN AN ACADEMIC CHAIN OF EVIDENCE

Fire investigators are trained to maintain a chain-of-evidence when they take samples from a fireground. They need to show the court that the fire department established and maintained secure control of the item from the time it was picked up to the time it was presented as evidence in a courtroom.

Universities and colleges struggle with changing academic requirements that impact graduation. Many are adopting on online audit system that tracks student progress through an approved program of study.

A program of study outlines the courses you need and the order you need to take them. The program of study will also identify other requirements to be qualified to graduate when the program of study is completed.

The online audit system handles 80% of the problems that occur when applying for graduation. The extensive and complicated academic records generated by firefighters and paramedics require a personal academic chain of evidence.

ADMISSION INTO A PROGRAM

Keep your acceptance letter and a copy of the Catalog for that academic year. The College Catalog is published every year, providing a detailed description of rules, regulations, programs of study, description of classes and faculty roster.

Your program of study is established through the College Catalog that covers the first semester you start taking courses. If you change majors, save a copy of the College Catalog that covers the semester you started in the new major.

DOCUMENT ALL CONVERSATIONS COVERING YOU PROGRAM OF STUDY

Save all emails, if the sender is admissions@myuniversity.edu get a name and title.

Follow-up every face-to-face and telephone conversation with an email summarizing your understanding of the content and the next steps to be taken.

Academic staff and faculty change. My colleague worked with Dr. B when she started her program of study, but he left the university a year ago.

Academic programs change. The missing “Doctoral Research Orientation” course was not part of the program of study when she started the Ph.D. program four years ago.

You are the best advocate to @getthedegree. A documented academic chain of evidence can make it easier for the college or university to process your unique program of study so you can graduate on schedule.

My colleague had to appeal to the Dean of the school to start her dissertation research immediately instead of waiting another year to start.
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Up to 20% never finish their first online class. Get 5 success secrets. @getthedegree

Every semester I would watch 12 to 20% of the new students in my paramedic degree completion program fail to finish their first online course. They struggled to keep up in class, eventually dropping or flunking the course or withdraw from the university.

It was not a new experience for me. Creating an online fire science program for a large fire department was equally painful, with 16% of the students not finishing their first class. This is no way to get to your academic goal.

“5 Shift-Work Scholar Secrets” provides information that will lead to your success in completing college online classes.

The five practices in this e-book are distilled from counseling hundreds of working firefighters and paramedics as they worked to achieve their academic goals.

You can download your copy of this ebook by signing up in the “Sign up for the ‘5 Shift-Work Scholar Secrets’ ebook” box found on the right side or scroll down your screen.

Signing up to get the e-book will sign you up for a weekly email and special offers as we develop a Shift-Work Scholar Success Academy in the next couple of weeks.

Mike

Warning – uncontrolled electrons

Upgrading this site to provide a free e-book and start a subscriber list. Have seven different components that have to work together.

Version 3.5 works, but it requires you to enter your name and email TWICE to get the “5 Successful Online Practices” ebook.

Working to make it simpler … official rollout between Christmas and New Years.

Anticipate a bunch of edits as I work through this.

Mike

Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information

Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names

Stanford History Education Group Working Paper No. 2017-A1

56 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2017    Date Written: October 6, 2017

ABSTRACT

The Internet has democratized access to information but in so doing has opened the floodgates to misinformation, fake news, and rank propaganda masquerading as dispassionate analysis.

To investigate how people determine the credibility of digital information, we sampled 45 individuals: 10 Ph.D. historians, 10 professional fact checkers, and 25 Stanford University undergraduates. We observed them as they evaluated live websites and searched for information on social and political issues.

Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names. They read vertically, staying within a website to evaluate its reliability. In contrast, fact checkers read laterally, leaving a site after a quick scan and opening up new browser tabs in order to judge the credibility of the original site.

Compared to the other groups, fact checkers arrived at more warranted conclusions in a fraction of the time. We contrast insights gleaned from the fact checkers’ practices with common approaches to teaching web credibility.
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Wineburg, Sam and McGrew, Sarah, Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More When Evaluating Digital Information (October 6, 2017). Stanford History Education Group Working Paper No. 2017-A1 . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3048994

Is it plagiarism if I found it on the Internet?

The challenge of properly using references when writing an academic paper.

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition.

Many colleges run student papers through a program like Grammarly or  TurnItIn to check for potential plagiarism. This is how TurnItIn works:

  • Submitted work is matched against a database of previously submitted work from every institution which subscribes to Turnitin, (including international institutions); current and archived internet pages and databases of books, journals and periodicals.
  • Turnitin does not detect plagiarism: it is text-matching software which provides an “originality report” on what proportion of a student’s submission is original (not matched to other sources) or unoriginal.
  • Turnitin also offers an online marking tool – GradeMark, allowing teachers to add text-based comments and marks to assignments submitted to Turnitin.

A recent syllabus from a FESHE certified college course provided this guidance on the course research report: The report will be graded on subject matter, grammar, spelling, and originality. There is absolutely no allowance for plagiarism, or cutting and pasting of Internet material.

Dartmouth Institute for Writing and Rhetoric has an excellent and comprehensive resource on Sources and Citations at Dartmouth. It discusses why learning to cite sources is an essential part of your education, with many examples and a great section on “Quality of Sources.”

What has been your experience with plagiarism?

Post a comment below or email mike@companycommander.com with you questions.

Are your papers in order?

Firefighters bring more sources of transfer credit than any other group.

Shortly after I was appointed director of the Fire Science Program I met with the community college counseling office. I was learning the process to submit students for graduation.

There was a perceptible shudder when I introduced myself. “Firefighters are always a challenge.” The counseling director explained that the paper forms they used to process graduation applications had space for 4 sources of transfer information.  (It was a long time ago – before electronic student records.)

Some students will graduate with our degree but including coursework completed when they were in the military, took a CLEP exam, and/or attended another educational institution. Many fire science students were bringing twice as many sources for academic credit. The counseling office needed to create an addendum transfer credit form.

I routinely submitted graduation applications with six sources of transfer credit. The record number was 17 sources. That pattern continued when I moved to the university and ran a bachelor degree completion program.

Firefighters bring more sources of transfer credit than any other group of students. That means we need to make it easy for academic counselors and program directors to approve transfer credits early in your shift-work scholar efforts.

GET YOUR TRANSCRIPTS NOW

You need to order official transcripts from every place you went to get college credit, including the places where you registered but did not finish a class. Send the official transcript to your academic institution and request an unofficial copy be sent to you.

Each college or university will have a place to request a transcript, some will offer it on-line.

Let’s look at the sources for your academic credit:

Military: ACE credit for military experience – Joint Services Transcript

Academic institution: Each has specific website/process, this includes Public, private. for-profit, federal and military academic institutions.

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF EDUCATION (ACE) COLLEGE CREDIT RECOMMENDATIONS

Does my technical training receive ACE credit? You can look it up in the National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training. Here are some fire-based organizations have received ACE college recommendations:

  • National Fire Academy
  • California Department of Forestry – Fire Academy
  • Fire Department of New York City
  • Illinois Fire Service Institute
  • Fire and Rescue Training Institute, University of Missouri
  • Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute
  • Texas Engineering Extension Service
  • Virginia Department of Fire Programs
  • West Virginia University Fire Service Extension
  • Bergen County Law and Public Safety Institute

Having completed a technical course with ACE College Credit Recommendation does not guarantee that your college or university will accept the credit. Each institution can have a different policy or procedure based on their needs and goals.

DO IT NOW

It may take a couple of weeks to get the transcripts delivered. Getting all of your transcripts sent to the college/university and meeting with your academic counselor early will provide a clear pathway to your graduation goal.

University of Phoenix closing campuses

The Phoenix New Times reports that the for-profit University of Phoenix will phase out on-campus enrollment and teaching at around 20 locations, according to employees and internal discussions. The locations in question include full-fledged campuses in Detroit, Tucson, El Paso, and Albuquerque, along with smaller learning centers in San Bernardino and Woodlands, Texas.

The list assembled by reporter Joseph Flaherty include:

  • Colorado (ALL)
  • Florida (ALL)
  • Michigan (ALL)
  • New Mexico (ALL)
  • Utah (ALL)
  • Augusta, GA
  • Chula Vista, CA
  • Columbus, GA
  • Costa Mesa, CA
  • El Paso, TX
  • Honolulu, HI
  • Oakland, CA
  • San Bernardino, CA
  • Tucson, AZ
  • Virginia Beach, VA
  • Washington, DC
  • Woodlands, TX

These closures come after a February 2017 announcement of the elimination of up to 170 full-time faculty members.  That announcement was made two weeks after the University of Phoenix was part of a $1.1Billion sale of the Apollo Education Group – taking the enterprise private.

Phoenix is the Capital of For Profit Education

According to Joseph Flaherty at Phoenix New Times, Phoenix  has become the center of for-profit higher education endeavors. University of Phoenix and Grand Canyon University are based in the capital city.

Flaherty quotes sociology Assistant Professor Tressie McMillam Cottom (Virginia Commonwealth University): “For millions of people, the time trap makes a for-profit college your only practical choice for labor market entry, stability, or mobility,” Cottom writes. A new credential can seem like the only way out of a dead-end job, and an army of enrollment counselors can guide you through intimidating loan paperwork.

While there are some success stories from for-profit higher education, Professor Cottom’s description in the Atlantic article The Coded Language of For-Profit Colleges appears more common:

The more likely story is the student who finishes with high debt or more debt than their salary can absorb—say, a nursing assistant. Or the student who doesn’t finish, perhaps the most vulnerable of all students. She has debt, no degree, and all the burdens that made her likely to attend a for-profit college in the first place. For these students, the problem of inequalities in access and outcomes is clearly a consequence of lower ed’s expansion.

The Troubling Appeal of Education at For-Profit Schools

Mastering Threaded Discussions

Threaded Discussions are one of the most common teaching techniques within on-line programs. The professor posts a open-ended question on a discussion board and every student responds to the question. In addition, the student responds to other student posts within the thread. It is an on-line form of an in-class discussion.

How do you know if your responses are great? How does the academic institution assure consistent grading?

The University of Maryland University College is the largest academic institution providing on-line programs, with more that 248,000 worldwide course enrollments using thousands of full and part-time faculty members. They struggled with how to evaluate on-line participation as their legacy distance education programs moved into on-line digital classes. In 1999 MarylandOnline.org was founded to promote and support distance learning.

Student Checklist

MarylandOnline provides a comprehensive student checklist, these 3 items are relevant to threaded discussions:

  • Buy all required text and study materials and READ THEM!!
  • Be able to communicate through writing as this is the primary vehicle you’ll be using to “talk” with your classmates and professors, as well as when you complete assignments to be handed in to your instructor.
  • Participate! Think before you contribute your ideas, comments, and perspectives on the subject you are studying and read what your classmates have to say. Be respectful of differing opinions as there is rarely only one way to do anything. Give positive feedback freely and negative feedback with kindness.

 

Most of these courses are set up as modules or weekly assignments. I recommend that shift-work scholars start your activity by reading the threaded discussion questions first. As you complete the assigned reading and student activity you can look for elements in this module/week assignment that can be used in answering the threaded discussion question

 

Respect the Rubric

MarylandOnline expanded to Quality Matters, establishing a rubric of on-line course designs and standards. A rubric is a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria, or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor. There may be 5 or more criteria categories.

Here is an criteria example for a threaded discussion, under the criteria category “Expression Within A Post”

  1. Does not express opinions or ideas clearly, no connection to topic (poor)
  2. Unclear connection to topic evidenced in minimal expression of opinions or ideas
  3. Opinions and ideas are stately clearly with occasional lack of connection to topic
  4. Expresses opinions and ideas in a clear and concise manner with obvious connection to topic (excellent)

In courses developed under the Quality Matters best practices, the syllabus will provide a detailed rubric for each type of assignment. Shift-work scholars should determine from the syllabus or the professor what rubric is applied to threaded discussion.

What has been you experience with threaded discussions?

Email mike@companycommander.com with you questions.

Scheduling for Success

Many shift-work scholars struggle for success when they say they will only study while on duty.

The semester has started and it is time to get “schooled.” Here are 5 suggestions to make your efforts successful.

1. Treat college classes like another part-time job

Most of you have calendars with work schedules that are projected six to twelve months in advance. Take that calendar and schedule time to work on your college classes. This is especially important with online classes, where the lack of a weekly face-to-face meeting allows assignments to slip into the no-credit zone.

2. Plan on 3-5 hours of work every week for each course you are taking

Students that are taking their first on-line college class report needing much more time to complete the weekly assignments than in a face-to-face course. In place of the lecture, students have to read and write more each week in an on-line class. Often students are required to post messages and respond to weekly discussion questions that requires a close reading of that week’s assignment.

3. Find multiple study spaces

Shift-work scholars are on-the-go. You need to find a couple of study spaces where you can focus on getting the course reading and writing done. Coffee shops, bunk room, library and bookstores are four common choices. I still miss the Border’s book chain – did a lot of work in their stores.

4. Do not only study while you are on duty

Many shift-work scholars struggle for success when they say they will only study while on-duty. I understand when you say “… if I have to do this for a promotion, I will only do it on their time.” It works if you are on a daywork schedule in a station running 2 calls a day – it fails when you are on shift work or at a busy station.

5. Schedule interim goals for papers or projects

Many classes have a project or paper that is due later in the semester, often near the end of class. As the professor I learned to provide intermediate deadlines to avoid the student missing the assignment or doing an all-nighter and delivering an incomplete paper.

Here is an example with a major research paper due November 14 in a class that ends December 12. Paper requires 2,500 to 3,000 words with 15 references written in APA format. Worth 25% of the final course grade. Here are the intermediate deadlines:

September 26 – Submit topic for approval

October 10 – Provide initial references

October 17 – Provide initial outline

November 14 – Send paper to professor

You can set similar goals for yourself to make sure you stay on top of the assignments.

What questions do you have about success as a shift-work scholar?  Email mike@companycommander.com with you questions.