Category Archives: Distance Education

Pilot in Command

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I have owned about 45 flight simulators. Flight Sims seem to be my favorite program to run on a computer. I have watched aircraft flying around for most of my life. I even read several books by Gordon Baxter about flying. I have looked into flight lessons many times, but one time I actually went flying. There used to be an ad on the back cover of flying magazines for learning to fly with Cessna so I called them and was told they no longer had this service, but recommended a private airfield that did, the Colonel James Jabara airport in Wichita, Kansas. I called, made an appointment, and showed up after work two days later. I was as nervous as a cat. A very young guy was to be my flight instructor and we walked out to a seven-colored Cessna 150. He started doing the walk around inspection and so did I. He asked me what I did in the United States Air Force and I told him Crew Chief of F-16’s, he told me to finish the walk around. He taxied the aircraft, took off and almost immediately gave me control of the yoke. I flew around, without any help, for almost an hour before he took control of the plane and landed it. He then explained that he had never allowed that much flight time during a first flight and said that I was a natural. I went back to flying flight sims with the knowledge that I had the goods to be a pilot.

MA Ancient and Classical History

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Covers the broad sweep of European history and provides a foundation in historical theory, trends, and concepts for further study of topical history at the graduate level. Topics include Greek civilization through the 4th century B.C., the fall of the Roman empire, the development of the Ottoman culture, and the Crusades.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this concentration, the student will be able to:

  • Explain and critique Ancient Greece’s political, economic, social, and intellectual movements.
  • Explain and critique Roman history from its beginnings until the Age of Constantine including the political and social developments in the Republic and the early empire.
  • Examine and appraise great Byzantium leaders, the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, the recapture of Constantinople from the crusaders, and the impact of Byzantium culture on Western intellect.
  • Explain and assess European social, political, economic, and religious institutions and cultural and intellectual phenomena in the light of the changing historical environment from the end of the Ancient World to the Renaissance.
  • Explain and assess the medieval church and rise of the Renaissance papacy; growth of humanism, including painters, architects, and sculptors; city-states and monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire; religious upheavals of Protestantism; Anabaptists; the Catholic Reformation.

 

HIST 501  Historiography

HIST 500  Historical Research Methods

 

HIST 531  The Greek Civilization

HIST 532  The Roman Republic and Empire

HIST 533  Late Antiquity and Byzantium

HIST 534  Medieval Europe

HIST 535  Renaissance and Reformation

HIST 597  Graduate Seminar in European History

HIST 611  Ancient Warfare

HIST 643  The Ottoman Empire

 

HIST 691  Writing a Thesis Proposal

HIST 699  Master of Arts in History – Thesis

An MA in something….

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How does one choose what to do a Masters degree in? What your parents did? What your highest GPA was in? Where the market requires more people with Masters degrees? What feels good? What you didn’t spend enough time working on in your Bachelors degree? What your friends think you should do? What your counselor or spouse thinks you should do? If you can afford it or not? Just what exactly??

Journey

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When I was young I wrote stories about climbing trees, playing with a friend, and playing with my dog. All of these stories ended the same with my mother walking in and the narrative would just stop. You’d think someone would have noticed this, but no one cared. I never wrote a book report for school, not even one. I graduated high school with no real plans besides becoming a mechanic. Right after high school I had an epiphany and for about a month I though long and hard about writing for car magazines. I had been reading Road & Track for three years and was also reading Hot Rod magazine. A lot of thought and not one word written down about it. In the service I found myself buying lots and lots of books, but only reading sporadically. When I was 25 I read A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and was inspired to become a writer. Sporadic reading and writing ensued. I pursued a BA and chose the testing out method for various reasons and almost never wrote a paper until the last class. I took three classes that required writing: College Writing; Research Paper; and the final Capstone. After I retired from working on airplanes I wanted to take a certificate course @ UW in Genealogy, but my wife talked me into pursuing a Certificate in Writing. I didn’t feel like writing anymore. Now I have returned to work and the only thing I want to do is to retire again. So here I am, a writer that doesn’t write.

I don’t think my problem is that I do not want to write, but that I have no ambitions.

Testing Out

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Give the BA in 4 weeks website a read to see how this method of education works. I found this website very early on and it is somewhat dated at this point.

I call InstantCert.com the best $20 per month in education. I recommend joining ASAP to find out the latest on distance education. Take a good look at the thread called Specific Exam Feedback after you join which discusses what is on the tests, how hard the tests are, what to study and what not to study, etc…in essence this is all about the fastest and cheapest way you can possibly go to get a degree in this day and age.

A good method: Join InstantCert and see what all of the various plans are that people have both worked out and followed. Start by getting your transcripts together and then knocking out both CLEP and DSST tests toward your goal. When you have got about 60-90 semester credits under your belt go ahead and contact a college and throw all of your credits at them because by that point you will be mostly done.

I have way more education websites at home so feel free to send me an email and ask any and all questions.

Dave

How To

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I “tested out” of college. I “went” to Excelsior College in New York and I graduated with a BA in Liberal Arts; my GPA was 3.7.

The best books for non-traditional education are: Accelerated Distance Learning: The New Way to Earn Your College Degree in the Twenty-First Century by Brad Voeller, Bear’s Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning and Bear’s Guide to College Degrees by Mail & Internet by John Bear, PhD & Mariah Bear, MA. It is possible to get an accredited Bachelors, Masters, or PhD non-traditionally for a fraction of the “brick-and-mortar” cost. So gather up all your old high school and college transcripts, licenses, certifications, military records, any training you have done on the job, any documentable information from life events, and get started. Anybody from 18 to 118 can do this!

Best Distance Schools:
http://www.excelsior.edu Now has life experience credit.
http://www.cosc.edu Still awards credit for GRE Subject tests.
http://www.tesc.edu Life experience credit.

Best Tests (there are others):
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html CLEP: 3, 6, or 12 credits in a sitting, all lower level. $77 + proctoring fee.
http://www.getcollegecredit.com DSST: All are 3 upper or lower level credits. $80 + proctoring fee.
http://www.excelsior.edu ECE: Upper and some lower level credits, now have many online classes as well. $275 or $95.

This is how I started testing: Get a copy of CLEP by Barrons. Circle all the right answers using a medium pen. Read only the question and right answer, do one test at a time: Humanities, Social Science/History, Natural Science, and College Math (this one may take some actual study). Excelsior will award 24 semester credits for these 4 tests. Then start taking the individual CLEP and DANTES (DSST) tests: Use InstantCert and read 1 or 2 books in 2 to 4 weeks (or sooner!!) and take a test. There are over 50 to choose from. The discussion boards on InstantCert are invaluable for non-traditional education.

The Tools:
http://www.instantcert.com $20/mo CLEP, DSST, and ECE “flash-card” test help and a discussion board with people who have taken these tests!
http://www.free-clep-prep.com/clep-difficulty-list.html Difficulty comparison of the tests as well as study resources.
http://www.degreeforum.net/off-topic/15669-free-mit-classes-2.html Free schooling.
http://www.123collegedegree.com great overview!
http://www.rea.com books for individual test subjects.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/ Lectures from the best professors on tape/CD/DVD; wait for frequent sales!! Buy these used at ½ Price or from Amazon. Amazing…really amazing.
http://bain4weeks.com explains the gist of all of this stuff.
http://www.scholar.google.com best for looking up academic papers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page the online encyclopedia is much better than it used to be.
http://www.textbooks.com is my newest find and you can rent textbooks there!
I also use Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ultimate Reference Suite DVD

ANY questions, just ask!

My Tests

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BA in Liberal Arts @ Excelsior in 2014

I completed 25 tests: CLEP: Humanities/600, Natural Sciences/530, Social Sciences/History/570, American Literature/65, American Government/59, Intro Educational Psychology/59, English Literature/64, US History I & II/70 & 69, Human Growth and Development/57, Intro Psychology/66, Intro Sociology/59, and Western Civilization I & II/67 & 60; DSST: Business Ethics and Society/432, Civil War and Reconstruction/71, Criminal Justice/434, Intro Modern Middle East/65, Organizational Behavior/65, Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union/65, and Intro World Religions/475; and ECE: Abnormal Psychology/A, Psychology of Adulthood and Aging/B, Research Methods in Psychology/B, and Social Psychology/C.

Capstone in Liberal Studies/A

AA in 2010 from Excelsior.