Do "Certificate Programs" have grades and homework assignments? (skills, degree)
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I looked into completing a career based "Certificate Program" at a local Community College to move ahead in my career and I was shocked at the number of these career programs out there. But I got concerned when I attended a class in one of the certificate program and found that there was no homework required, no grades (other than Pass/Fail) and no tests. Basically to get the certificate all you had to do is show up for class and warm the seat and be there 70% of the time during the term.
The students refused to participate in class or read the material between classes because they did not want to put in the extra effort. They also worked together during the break to try to figure out how many classes they could miss and still get credit. They just wanted the certificate, and were not interested in the learning. They warned the teacher that if he made the class to hard they would give him a poor rating in the instructor evaluation and get him fired!!! OMG!! What a sad state of affairs!
Is this typical to other certificate programs found at colleges? Do "Certificate Programs" have grades and homework assignments?
thos so called career programs are nothing but a certificate saying you went to their school. Most of them aren't worth the paper they're on. Check with US Education to see if the "school" is accredited. Also be warned, a lot of employers don't believe in those so called career certificates either. You go to the schools, they promise you a job, yes, you get one, one of their prerequisites for graduating is most of the time a six month internship, "at no pay" sometimes you get hired afterwards, most not. The business goes on to get another free employee and let the "intern" go. They all have some kind of out of school work.
I looked into completing a career based "Certificate Program" at a local Community College to move ahead in my career and I was shocked at the number of these career programs out there. But I got concerned when I attended a class in one of the certificate program and found that there was no homework required, no grades (other than Pass/Fail) and no tests. Basically to get the certificate all you had to do is show up for class and warm the seat and be there 70% of the time during the term.
The students refused to participate in class or read the material between classes because they did not want to put in the extra effort. They also worked together during the break to try to figure out how many classes they could miss and still get credit. They just wanted the certificate, and were not interested in the learning. They warned the teacher that if he made the class too hard they would give him a poor rating in the instructor evaluation and get him fired!!! OMG!! What a sad state of affairs!
Is this typical to other certificate programs found at colleges? Do "Certificate Programs" have grades and homework assignments?
This sounds like continuing education. The classes are not "real" credit classes like regular college classes that you would take to earn a degree. Certificate programs can be continuing education classes or they can be made up of real college credit classes. I guess this one is continuing ed - and I think that's the issue, not that it's a certificate. Continuing ed classes are generally made up of older students and adults who already have full-time lives and jobs, and little time for homework or studying. Often they are focused on a career goal they are trying to achieve. I find that my continuing ed students almost never do homework or study, and there is little I can do to motivate them to do it. After all, I can't give a grade other than pass/fail, and the standards to pass are mostly just to attend a certain percentage of the class. However, I usually get good participation in class and I think the students want to learn - they just don't want to do a lot of work for it. I have never heard of anyone threatening to write a bad evaluation if the teacher made the class too hard - that's very strange. In all my years as a teacher I've only had students complain about not learning, never that the class was too hard. Perhaps it's just a bad bunch of this particular certificate program is not working the way it should.
The certificate programs at the spousal unit's college involve the same classes as the degree programs. They're pretty much there for the student who wants to pick up some, say, computer programming skills or a child care certification without having to go back and take all the English or science classes required for the degree pathway.
It depends on the school and the course as it does sound like continuing ed.
I took an online Six Sigma course for over a year which nearly killed me.
I took a classroom photography course which I could have slept thru.
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