ERPadmin's Grad School Journey

forestgiant · February 2012

erpadmin wrote: »

the guy actually wrote a presentation on how Apple is better than sliced bread and presented this to a bunch of other academics in Canada. Between that, and he made it a point to point out on his personal web page that it was written on a Mac. I don't care if he's biased toward Apple, but I don't want to buy an iPad and iPhone just to get an A in his class.

Apple fanboi masquerading as professor. Yikes.

But this is post grad, so make sure your course evaluations are CC: to the department heads. They tend to take student reviews a little more serious bc you paid tuition in cold hard cash.

Turgon · February 2012

erpadmin wrote: »

I'm with you on this, but I had to call him out on his bias towards Apple. I wish I hadn't, because as I did some homework on the professor, the guy actually wrote a presentation on how Apple is better than sliced bread and presented this to a bunch of other academics in Canada. Between that, and he made it a point to point out on his personal web page that it was written on a Mac. I don't care if he's biased toward Apple, but I don't want to buy an iPad and iPhone just to get an A in his class.

My "revenge" will be when I do my final review, regardless of what grade I get. The only negative issue I have on this class is that he makes students infect PCs with Quicktime because that's the format he has for his lectures. O-M-G, it is the slowest piece of garbage ever. I can't wait to uninstall it.

But yes, I will be a heck of a lot more conciliatory until the class is over. I was very conciliatory in my response to him, but I just couldn't bring myself to agree with him on that issue.

I wouldn't get hung up about it. The guy likes Apple. If you want to take him on over it, defend your arguments in class and one to one logically. At the same time if you think the human factor will come into play, and it always does to some extent even though in a pure sense as an academic he should welcome debate..then avoid being perceived as an irritant in class, turn a good piece of work in, and move along.

forestgiant wrote: »

Apple fanboi masquerading as professor. Yikes.

But this is post grad, so make sure your course evaluations are CC: to the department heads. They tend to take student reviews a little more serious bc you paid tuition in cold hard cash.

I dont think the OP need to buy an Apple product to get an 'A'. Course evaluations once you have your grades and degree under your belt and tread lightly.

veritas_libertas · February 2012

forestgiant wrote: »

Apple fanboi masquerading as professor. Yikes.

But this is post grad, so make sure your course evaluations are CC: to the department heads. They tend to take student reviews a little more serious bc you paid tuition in cold hard cash.

LOL, so typical though. When I supported my professors they would always talk about how much better it would be if we used Apple products instead of PCs.

erpadmin · February 2012

My professor did respond. As theGrinch predicted, he pretty much ignored my facts and went on how Eric Schmidt is evil because he stole from Apple when he sat on Apple's board. Pretty much Google is bad because Steve Jobs said so in his autobiography...

In any event, I don't want to turn this thread into an Apple/Android debate. I will let my professor have the final word on that and just focus on this week's assignments (both for his class and ISP.) Believe me, there are bigger fish to fry, and I don't wish to appear like an irritant (nice one Turgon) to this guy.

joshmadakor · February 2012

erpadmin wrote: »

...and he made it a point to point out on his personal web page that it was written on a Mac.

Wow.

Good luck with the class and the program!

erpadmin · February 2012

Well, I worried for nothing. Got an A on my assignment for Organizational Behavior. If I can do that four more times, I got my A in the course, which means I'll be working overtime tonight.

I'm in Atlanta right now for WGU commencement. I do have three things that have to be done before I even put on the Cap and Gown on Saturday. In fact I invite all of you to watch me walk and a few hundred other graduates walk.

February 2012 Commencement | Western Governors University | Online University

Some of you know my name, and I wish I could say publically who I am, but for obvious reasons I won't (otherwise, I could never be candid about work...or other things) Though in PMs, it's always cool.

Still, I will be dealing with several hours of sitting down. I'll be back up north on Monday. (Didn't want to immediately run out....though if it was Salt Lake, would have been a different story and even with that, it would have been to Vegas to cleanse myself. LMAO. )

I am loving life right now.

I am starting to think the hardest thing about graduate school...is paying the bill. NJIT is not a school that justs hands out As like it's candy....I don't care what anybody says. As long as deadline's are met, and you follow instructions, the courseload is really not a problem...even if the professor you get is hated on sites like "ratemyprofessor" which I think is a bunch a bullcrap anyway.

erpadmin · February 2012

Well, as usual, I ended up getting a cold on my trip. It got really, really cold down in Atlanta, and this is by Jersey standards, not what the locals considered cold. Heck even TWC was saying it got unusually cold down there (though I was not surprised....and if I was, I shouldn't have been.) I'm back home now and now can get back to work/school.

In any event, all of my assignments have gotten completed for both ISP and Org Behavior and I'm awaiting for my second assignment for Org Behavior. If I can get the same grade on this one, then I only have to worry about the next three assignments (plus the required discussions.) I'm hoping I can get "A"s my next assignments so I can just focus more on ISP and planing out the next term (summer).

LinuxRacr · February 2012

This is great ERP! Congrats on the commencement, and keep up the good work.

erpadmin · February 2012

Well, I got my grades for current assignments.

So far for ISP, I am at 100% (yay). For my second assignment in Org. Behavior, I'm at 95%. (Got 95 on both, and I'm assuming that's gonna be an "A") I'm still participating in the discussions, so I'm hoping to do three more assignments at 95 (or higher) and then I'm done with the writing. He only wants 5 out of 10 (even if I did all 10, only the five highest will be counted, so it's best to get those out of the way early so I can focus more on ISP and work...but I would still have to participate in class discussions.)

What's curious is he hasn't released the third assignment yet. This could mean that since most of us did well (or well enough) he may just spread out the final three and focus more on the lectures. Which is fine because I'm caught up to everything but this week's lectures (will do finish that up by Friday.) So far, everything is moving along...only 10-11 more weeks to go and then it's off to the summer term, when I plan to both finish off my graduate certificate (the graduate equivalent of an A.S.) and formally apply to the MS program.

At the end of the term, I will share some of the articles that I had to read. Some have already validated what I already knew regarding IT and business, and would add value to perhaps your own way of dealing with IT. But the early feeling of being overwhelmed has pretty much dissipated.

erpadmin · February 2012

Well...I'm no longer at 100% in ISP anymore......got burnt with a quiz. 30 questions at 1/2 a point each. According to math, I got four questions (out of 30) wrong, which gave me a 87% (or rather, 86.6%). After the grade was posted by my professor, I was at 92% (B+). Figured I'd bang out the extra credit, of which I got 100% on that, which brought me to 93% (A). I have to do a better job at marking down stuff from the textbook that might be in the quiz. These quizes are harder than any Microsoft Pro exam, even and especially when they're open book.

First of all, you get a series of five questions. You have to answer them before you proceed to the next series. Once you proceed to the next series, you CAN'T go back to the previous series. So you have to make sure that the questions that were answered are what you want before you proceed. The quiz was friggin an hour.....I had to take the whole hour. LOL. There were a couple of ones that I had to make educated guesses on (it was not easy to find them in the book and also Google helps some of the time, but not all....these quizes were really designed by masochists knowing the game...lmao.)

We're in a pilot version of Moodle, the open-source course delivery product. My other course uses an older version. Some of the kinks in the implementation of Moodle had previous quiz takers' grades shown (including mine.) What made me take the exam so quick was that there were thoses who took it before me that got 70s (70 and 77) as the highest scores shown. My 87% pretty much took the number one spot. Of course, once the professor was notified (not by me...I knew people would have issue with it), that got taken down.

It's funny, as I was typing this I remembered I could review the quiz to see which questions I got wrong. Those were the ones I had to guess. A lot of them I did know though, but was using the time to verify it (it is open book, non-proctored.)

But so far I'm doing as well as I can in both classes. I'm hitting a wall with one assignment with Org Behavior, but I know once I can clear the wall, I'll be banging that guy out. Gonna see what happens tonight. But I look forward to that first week in May when this semester is all over and I can take at least one class in the summer (shooting for two, but I gotta see if this particular class will be available; I'm hoping that it will be.) If I can take the two courses, and do well on those as well, I get my Graduate Certificate in Management of Technology, which would be nice to have, but I think I'm going to stick that in my degree holder I got from WGU and stick it in my drawer.

erpadmin · February 2012

Man....today was a brutal day, or rather yesterday as supposed. I got my Org. Behavior assignment done, took a nice break and finished up another assignment for ISP. The Org Behavior assignment was brutal. I spent the entire two weeks researching a favorite company's culture. But this one had to be done in a very specific way. While I was able to do that for my first two tasks, this one was left kind of vague and I had to do a lot of running around on the Net to get this done. Dissecting any company, piece by piece and then tying it all together is a bit hard when you don't work for the company, but I think that was supposed to be half the fun. It's gonna be interesting what grade I get on it, but when I get it, I'll either be very happy or very pissed (only because I spent more time than usual on it.)

The ISP assignment was a no brainer. Quick and easy analysis of a Businessweek article and how it relates to IT, etc. I didn't particularly like this article compared to the first one I had to read. But my critique intelligently reflected that. Now I have to respond to four more analyses but I have a couple of weeks for that though it'll probably be done by the middle of next week.

Now I can go to bed.

Yay.

erpadmin · February 2012

WOO HOO!!!!

Got another 95 on my paper for Org Behavior!!! TWO MORE papers to go and then it's just discussions on til the end of the course!!

I can intelligently describe the organizational culture of Microsoft, and I don't even have to work there.

The one paper that helped me out a lot when I had to give a story about how Microsoft got to be Microsoft was this paper below:

Why OS/2 Failed: Business Mistakes Compounded by Memory Prices." Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Economics 10 (2009), 28-37.

(You can google it, it's a nice, short PDF.)

I actually remember OS/2 Warp and thought it was a superior O/S compared to Windows 95. But I needed an academic source that would tell my story in an objective manner. This paper and author did the job for that, because that's exactly how I remembered it!

I am happy as punch right now.....this paper seriously beat my butt.

Of course, there were other sources, but this one I wanted to share, to give people an idea of how Microsoft got to get so big in the first place. Very appropriate for discussion.

UnixGuy · March 2012

Good luck with your MS ! Great thread

thenjduke · March 2012

Good luck on things my friend. I have decided that I am going to be attending NJIT come June. It is going to be alot of fun. I finally finished WGU. No more work for the next 4 months

ComputerDiva · March 2012

I too just finished WGU..... Starting the summer semester at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, MS Information Systems. I opted not to stay @ WGU for my Masters, obviously.

erpadmin · March 2012

UnixGuy wrote: »

Good luck with your MS ! Great thread

Thanks. I even started looking at a couple of doctorate options myself. I might go back to the thread you started for that one. [Two of them from B&Ms and are Ph.Ds...no D.SC or anything.]

thenjduke wrote: »

Good luck on things my friend. I have decided that I am going to be attending NJIT come June. It is going to be alot of fun. I finally finished WGU. No more work for the next 4 months

Call me....you changed your number and while I think you texted me your new one, I lost it. I'll PM you as well.....

ComputerDiva wrote: »

I too just finished WGU..... Starting the summer semester at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, MS Information Systems. I opted not to stay @ WGU for my Masters, obviously.

Probably for the same reasons I didn't stay at WGU. I'll say this for WGU; it did its job and I tip my hat to WGU for doing it so well.

Hopefully, you will write about your own experiences at UMBC (BTW I met the DBA/ERP administrator who runs PeopleSoft there. No more Banner for you. LOL. But they're also a Windows shop, like my shop.)

While I'm here, might as well update my progress. I got another 6/6 on my ISP initial post for the second discussion. I also wrote two responses (out of the required four) but the other two are not due until 3/20. I have time...this article is a lot easier than the first one, so I can finish my responses during my lunch break.

I also met with my team via Skype conference (non-video...pretty much a chat room on Skype. I actually preferred that, because I can save chat in case anyone [including myself] needs to be held accountable.) I asked our de-facto team lead to recap the action plan (she's a PMP and it was not by accident that I ended up on her team...lol.) I'm responsible for providing a lessons learned (as we all are) and answering the book's case questions. Without the usual fluff, it came out to three and a half pages, but I have to provide some finishing touches to that. While each team member is responsible for our individual assignments on this case, we pretty much all have to disect the others' work and then come to consensus. We got until the 16th of this month, so I have more than enough time to hand that in to the group.

My only issue with team assignments is people feel they can just come to a meeting late, etc. I stressed hard that I would like deadlines honored as if they were from the professor himself and if someone is late, they're put up for "firing." Yes, stuff comes up, last minute stuff at work might come up, but if we all agree to a time, it should be honored. The group is cool though, and I had to try to not sound like a d-bag about it, but others agreed with what I was saying, as we're all professionals. But I have a good feeling that we'll have 100% on this assignment. Otherwise, I'll have to make sure I have 100% on the remaining exams PLUS the extra credit.

As for Organizational Behavior, I have two assignments that are due in a couple of weeks. I have to spend the entire week on one, and the entire week on another. I'm trying to get those done with the 95% grade I've been getting....can't seem to get to 100, but I'm ok with that. Some professors just don't do 100, I guess. But I will get to coast for the rest of the semester just dealing with discussions and keep my A in that course.

That's about it right now.

erpadmin · March 2012

Finished my first real draft of my fourth Org Behavior paper. I am just happy that I got this done. When I wake up, I gotta go back into ISP mode and finish those two comments which are due next week PLUS finish up my case study questions. (Which is "done" but I have to give it some editing magic and add some sources...the bulk of it is done, but I have to finish that off so I can turn that in to my teammates. It's due Friday, but I want to get this done early. I also have to do a lessons learned, but that's easy.)

After I'm done with this fourth paper, I can finally concentrate on my final paper which I believe is due on the same day as this one. Worst comes to worst if I don't do that one, I can work on the 6th one. But my goal at this point is to at least finish off with the average I have. If worse comes to worse that I end up getting a 90 on the last two, then I'll just keep it and focus on the extra credit. Finishing the course with a 93 average (which could be a B+ or an A....I'll have to ask) will not be terrible for me, and I can focus more on ISP. The only things I'd have to with Org Behavior are the online discussions after the fifth paper. (He only wants five papers...but the catch is you are stuck with the grade that you get if you only do five...)

I think what I'm gonna do "tomorrow" first thing is do my work assignment. This has to be done by Monday morning, and I told my boss I'm a bit swamped with school and told him I'd get this done this weekend via VPN. He was ok with this, as he knows I'll get it done. If VPN for some reason is down, I'll shoot to work very early on Monday (this shouldn't take me more than two hours.)

erpadmin · March 2012

Well I'm finally all caught up. I've done my two papers for Org Behavior and I finished my required responses for our second class discussion. I just did the math, and if worse comes to worst, the lowest grade I could get from my papers would be a B to B+ (depending on what an 89 is in his course. Math is based on me getting 80s on the last two papers, but I doubt that's gonna happen.) I really only need a B, but maybe with kickass discussions, I can get a B+. I'd like to think I did well on the papers, but I don't want to be disappointed, so I always hope for the best. I have another quiz next week for ISP so I need to finish reading the required chapters, and maybe watch some videos. Only really a few more weeks and I'm done with the semester. I have an online meeting with my team on Wednesday after work. I already handed in my portion of the assignment, but now I have to go over everyone elses portions and take notes. It should be fun.

ComputerDiva · March 2012

So are you going to stay @ NJIT for your degree? Is financial aid covering it not being a degree seeking student?

erpadmin · March 2012

ComputerDiva wrote: »

So are you going to stay @ NJIT for your degree? Is financial aid covering it not being a degree seeking student?

Yes, federal financial aid is covering me, though I'm trying to get tuition reimbursement. Long story short, paperwork was handed in, but never got any response on how next to proceed. [I'm a "Graduate Certificate Student, which is on the Fafsa, and I'm attending at least half-time. So loans are covering.] Hoping I will get reimbursed upto a certain amount after the semester is over [which I would use to immediately pay the loan.] But I'm gonna be under Public Service Loan Forgiveness...so it's cool in that regard.

Due to certain classes not available next term (Summer), and a potential *gotcha*, I might have to take an undergrad accounting course during the summer. If I don't then I'll have to do a bridge program when I do matriculate (one 3 credit course that has no credit toward my degree, oh and at graduate level prices..."f" that.) From my research, one of the cheapest schools I can do online that offers accounting is LSU.

I could also do CLEP, but that exam seems hard, and I'd probably spend half the amount of money and more stress to try to pass the CLEP accounting exam. I took accounting before and got a D in it, but that was before my mind got right....that D can have a tiny horizontal line through it now.

ComputerDiva · March 2012

Yeah that's cool. I'm under public service forgiveness too. I work for state government. Oh yeah, I feel you on that grad tuition for undergrad course..... Um, not!!! LOL... I'm about to start an MSIS program this summer term.

SteveLord · March 2012

My supervisor found something for my state that might give me tuition reimbursement. It's being looked into. I doubt the cost is an issue. It's more "if we let you do it, everyone else will want to" kind of thing.

swild · March 2012

I really want to go to grad school to get a Master's after WGU, but I'm not sure what to do about the cost yet. I already have $14k in student loans from when I went to a state school. I really don't want to get any more. I paid for WGU out of pocket, after scholarships and Pell, and will be getting a little bit of money from my employer for tuition assistance when I graduate from WGU, but not enough for grad school. Maybe a class or two, but no more than that. I wish there was a decent B&M near me with a grad program I would want to go to. Looks like I will probably be going online.

erpadmin · March 2012

Well, org behavior papers got graded.

Bad news...I'm no longer at 95% with the papers. Only 4 out of 5 papers are 95%. My second to last paper? An 88%. I got dinged for not being detailed in the decision-making process of some company who's known for sending movies in a red envelope, but wanted to stick to streaming instead.....

I found it a little difficult to tie that debacle into the decision making process that was taught in the course, since that company's perspective wasn't easily or publically available (just pundits/blogs and angry customers...) So I had to do the best I could.

The math says I have a ~94% average. I would think that's an "A" but it might be a B+. I've asked for guidance, and hopefully he responds.

My question to you guys: what would you do? Take a B+ and call it a day, or bust my hump to potentially get an A grade [assuming that 94% is indeed an A....we do not have A+ as a grade at the grad level.] I said from the beginning that I was happy with a B, but if I'm a few points shy between a B+ and an A....at the same time, I really have other things to do, like work, my other course...which I'll get into in a sec, bunch of running around. I have been going to bed like at 2-3 am.....to get up at 7-8 o'clock (I start work later than normal, cause they want me staying later than normal.) For all I know, I have an A, but I really don't want to do another paper if I don't have to....and for what amounts to two missing points [this guy does not hook up anything higher than a 95.] the syllabus does not have a grade scale...otherwise I wouldn't have asked.

As for ISP, I have a quiz coming up and I have to make sure I get key points down if I want to get close to 100%....I also have to help massage parts of my team case paper, which is due after next week.

themagicone · March 2012

If you get a B+ I'd be happy with that. I know you need the good grades and what not but don't kill yourself over it. For me I couldn't function on 3-4 hours of sleep. My two best hobbies are eating and sleeping. You are an inspiration though. Just started my new job and I start my masters program on May 1st.

erpadmin · March 2012

themagicone wrote: »

If you get a B+ I'd be happy with that. I know you need the good grades and what not but don't kill yourself over it. For me I couldn't function on 3-4 hours of sleep. My two best hobbies are eating and sleeping. You are an inspiration though. Just started my new job and I start my masters program on May 1st.

I'm 100% with you on that first sentence (and everything else you said, but the first sentence especially.) If it was by a lot, I'd have just kept the grade I got and called it a day [if my best was my best...doing more really ain't gonna help]....but if it's by a little, that would have killed me and I'd have considered doing one more paper to bring it up to an A.

I did hear back from my professor and on the assignment front, I have an "A." However, I have to make sure that my discussion portion is good enough to keep the A (otherwise it could be a B or B+.) Since I have been discussing based on the lectures and readings, I can't see myself getting less than an A on this course. Especially since 90% of the course IS the assignment portion, and I'm done with those.

While I am here, I took my online quiz today my other course (ISP). I might have done a little better on this quiz than I did on the last quiz. I am going to do the extra credit today, and then continue working on my part of our team case. We have another meeting on how the final product is gonna look on Thursday at 7:30. Hopefully people aren't texting on phones when driving (for real...), or tired, or just plain ol' not giving a ----. This team project experience is definitely a lesson's learned.

On a different front, I sent an email to the continuing education department.

One of things about B&Ms is how much they suck in terms of class availability. I know many of you can relate to this: the class you need to take may not be available when either you want to take it OR in the case of those graduating need to take it. I have an interesting dilemma. A good number of courses I want to take are not available for the summer term. The courses I need to conclude my certificate aren't offered. However two other courses that I would have to take for my intended degree program are available. This wouldn't normally be a problem, except I'm not a matriculated student. However, that can easily change if I have to formally apply. As I may have alluded to early on in this thread, the only reason I didn't matriculate was because I did not want to be committed to a Master's program in case I couldn't personally hack the courses. So far, I've written five papers that average about 5-6 pages every couple of weeks (not counting references page and only one of those papers had a cover page--I tend to write the title, name, course, etc., on the top of the page WITH APA formatting, unless instructed to do otherwise.), had exams that are supposed to be closed notes, closed books, etc. (If it ain't proctored, it ain't proctored....even with a proctored exam though, I can obviously still retain what I read.) and most importantly, have met my deadlines on assignments. At this point, with pretty much a month to go, I can pretty much handle a program. So I have asked the continuing ed program for guidance. I asked them not to direct me to the academic department, as I feel that since I came to the school through them, they should be able to do this legwork for me (At $6k a term, that's the least they can effing do! I don't see myself as a student; I see myself as a customer, wanting quality customer service. I'm a big proponent on that...)

I would prefer to continue my intended master's with NJIT. However, it's early enough where I could transfer to another B&M, but that's like a nuclear option. All I want to do is continue on with my studies during the summer and then pick up my certificate program in the fall.

higherho · March 2012

I'm still deciding were to get my Masters at. I was thinking Penn States online stuff and I'm keeping my eye on WGU (of course through this thread

).

erpadmin · March 2012

Wow....

My ISP professor is pissed because of an extra credit assigment MOST students decided to tackle on. It was a compare/constrast assignment, but I thought it was the easiest assigment. All people had to do was read both articles and then analyze and critique both, with support. I felt that the professor was quite clear in what he was asking.

I not only get the full credit (100%) on the assigment, but I'm the only one who "got it." However, thanks to the me learning how to navigate a learning management system, I was able to see who else did the assigment (but not their grade). My "team lead" and her friend who's also on our team also did the assigment and based on her post did not do well. I then sent out an email saying that we now have to re-look at our assignment and make sure that it will pass his scrutiny. This case is worth 30% of our grade and I'm worried the paper might not have "support" and "quality sources."

I now have to be yet more assertive and make sure folks are on their game. I'm not going to do 100% of the work, but I will have to make sure that people will do what they need to do. We might need to do more collaboration on top of Thursday to ensure this gets done. The good news is the paper has a good foundation. But I do not think that it will survive scrutiny as it is written now.

I just got the results of my last quiz in ISP....I did better; 93% (got two wrong instead of four....) One question I got wrong was a stupid one (on my part...) Let's just put it this way....these textbook publishers are good at making trick questions and making you overthink something....this question was akin to asking what is 2+2...you know the answer is 4, but you're thinking maybe its something else because of the way the question is asked. It was a trap I fell for, but I should have known better. Meanwhile I'm banging out the harder questions...lol.

Almost the month to go.......yay!

petedude · March 2012

swild wrote: »

Looks like I will probably be going online.

Ya know, it's not like a curse or something.

Take a look at Minot State's MSIS. It's cheap, can be done relatively quickly and is from a state school.

erpadmin · March 2012

swild wrote: »

Maybe a class or two, but no more than that. I wish there was a decent B&M near me with a grad program I would want to go to. Looks like I will probably be going online.

I was fortunate that I had schools in my own state that I could do online and with the program I want.

You live in Arkansas...you qualify for the Academic Common Market. You can find a nice state school at Texas that has an online program and pay in-state prices. I was going to advise that you look at Texas and Louisiana, but then I remember you might live in one of those Southern states that participated in a program like ACM. Sure enough...you do and even better...so does TX and LA. [Though my preference is TX for anything.....

But LA is good too...in fact I am considering taking an accounting class at LSU because it's cheap and online, but I am waiting for guidance from my school to see if I can waive the bridge requirement or get into another program altogether.]

ERPadmin's Grad School Journey

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