Complaint Review: Anthem College Online - Div. High-Tech Institute - Phoenix Arizona

I couldn't progress any further in my career with a college diploma. However, I live in a remote location. There's a community college nearby, but with my work schedule, it would be extremely difficult for me to attend the night classes. I heard about online classes, so I signed up for some information from Anthem, UoP, DeVry, Capella, etc.

Anthem was the first to call me back. My first and foremost question with them was whether they were accredited. I was told yes, they were. And they are --- but it's NATIONAL accreditation. Make sure you do some research on accreditation before you sign on the dotted line. I trusted my advisor and hadn't done the research I should have. If you want to transfer to another school or even move on to get a master's at another school your degree is worthless. Also employers will see your degree as tech-school quality. While there is nothing wrong with a tech-school education, if you have high goals for yourself in life, this degree will NOT get you there. Search for a school with REGIONAL accreditation regional is what regular brick-and-mortar schools use.

Now, if you don't mind the tech school-value degree, here are a few more things you want to keep in mind about their education itself I started attending Anthem in February of 2007. Shortly after I enrolled, I got a letter from Anthem saying their accreditation was under review. That should have been a big red flag for me there, but my advisor assured me this was routine & not to be worried.

Their main portion of the website works intermittently. This is where you can access your financial aid, schedules, email and launch the online course. There are days when the website simply times out, and I have to go directly to the online learning's URL (fortunately, I saved it, else I would have been out of luck). Their IT department does not seem concerned about the outages IF I get a reply! I've had a few classes that required the use of their online library the last 2 times I attempted to use it (it was required for an assignment) it was down. IT simply said it was down, and suggested I used Google instead. The directions in my assignment specifically forbid the use of online sources. My local library closes before I get out of work during the week, leaving Saturday to compile research and write a paper. Very frustrating.

Their format each week consists of a discussion forum, a review forum, a learning activity and an exam. There is also subject instruction (slideshow) and a pre-recorded audio session for review purposes. The discussion forum, which is a question that the teacher picks, must be submitted by Wednesday; you have until Sunday to reply to another student. Both must be 250 words or more. The Review forum relates to your reading for that week - - - you get to pick a topic and discuss it. This one is due by Friday, and a reply to another student is due by Sunday. Again, it must be 250 words or more. The learning activity consists of either a worksheet (multiple choice or short essay) or a paper I have never seen a paper that was more than 500 words. My most recent class, which I just finished last week, had a requirement of 300 words or more. The exams are usually multiple choice and 50 questions long. I've had a few classes with 10 short essay questions instead.

Problems? I have seen spelling errors on the tests! My last test had a question that went something like this (dummy question): What color does blue and yellow make when combined: A. Green, B. Brown, C. A & C, D. None of the Above. C's answer is ridiculous however, IT WAS THE CORRECT ANSWER! I got 2 points docked from my score I thought it was a trick question. Unfortunately, it was not. Complete unprofessional in my eyes.

I've asked for explanations on the learning activity, and the teacher(s) have been unable to explain or clarify for me. They told me that they didn't select the question, so take a guess & they'll take that into consideration when they're grading the assignment. Shouldn't the teachers know what they're teaching?

During Unit 1 of my last class, I had a writing assignment. I used a term in our vocab that week spelled the same & everything. The teacher said I misspelled it & it should have been hyphenated. I emailed her a copy of the page from our textbook, and she told me the grammar was not as good as it could have been, although it's not wrong parse --- she still deducted me 2 points though. If our text book, which we're learning out of isn't correct, what is?

I can knock out all of my homework in less than 8 hours I usually spend Saturday doing it. It's too easy. I've maintained a 4.0 since I've been there, and I'm frequently given Dean's List awards (top 10%). I don't feel challenged enough, and I don't like that.

The review sessions are prerecorded. They used to offer live session on which you could sit in on they quit this. Now, when they get a new edition of a text book, they often overlook recording a new review session, so the old information is outdated and the new information is missing.

As far as the advisors go, they have been fairly helpful (except IT). I have no problems there.

My suggestion? Look elsewhere. Anthem is not, by any means, cheap. If you're going to spend all this money either up front or in student loans, you should go to a better school. My main complain is the accreditation, and it's the reason I'm switching schools. Fortunately, DeVry is willing to accept some (not many) of my credits. Anthem's education is just not on par with the cost, in my honest opinion.

Good luck.

Meagan

Cudjoe Key, Florida

U.S.A.