The first time I took a KU online course, I was taking the online course in Kuwait, where I taught middle school students. That was in 2008. The next time, in spring of 2010, I took another distance course online from KU while teaching adults and vocational training students in Germany.
NOTE: By the way, the enrollment process for independent study or distance courses at KU is relatively straightforward (streamlined) as compared to the rest of the paperless enrollment process that nearly 30,000 KU students have to face when they enroll at KU. In contrast, I also recall that in the old days at KU, enrollment through one's own department each semester was much more straightforward than it is in 2011. http://www.continuinged.ku.edu/is/deadlines.php
APPLYING & ENROLLING FOR DOCTORATE WORK AT KU
Finally, last autumn 2010, I determined to apply and enter a doctoral program at the University of Kansas. I was eventually accepted for entrance in Spring 2011. Interestingly, due to my handicaps, I chose to apply by snail mail rather than applying online. (I could not fathom spending so many hours on such a long application process. I was too afraid of recommendation letters, transcripts, etc. getting lost.)
In late 2010, I had applied to the Education School at KU. My primary focus to be in curriculum & teaching with secondary the foci in (1) multicultural education and in (2) educational change/administration. I also expect to gain some knowledge about modern technologies and modern university administration.
On the one hand, as a well-rounded individual, I believe I have a tremendous amount to offer--as I have been busy over the decades in the USA and abroad teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education (on three continents for a quarter of a century already and plan to do so for the next 3 decades). On the other hand, I believe that I still have so much to learn by going back to university. For example, I need to get up-to-date on the newest learning technologies, like how to use I-Pods. I certainly plan to train hard and study hard.
MY QUANDRY & KU HAS A BAD ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL PROCESS
Alas, since January of 2011, I have been unable to take classes at KU online because, the University of Kansas has developed bad-practices in terms of building a paperless school and by its bad-practices in not treating students as individuals with their own learning strengths and deficiencies. For this very reason, I was forced to un-enroll myself from my online class (on Philosophy of American Education) in February 2011, i.e. A hold was placed on my account by the KU Bursar because the university's inflexible-paperless approach to communication, knowledge and service had developed no tolerance for individuality of its consumers.
NOTE : The current paperless approach leaves students spending fruitless hours emailing around to administrators, teachers, staff, and help-desks who sometimes send out form answers and demand that online forms be filled out. Likewise, simple things like enrollment dates and deadlines are often not so easy to find nor are they decipherable for new or returning students.
For example, because I gave up on Spring 2011 courses at KU (and the online course I had even paid for back in January), I am now trying to enroll in Summer II (July 2011) courses on the KU campus. I have recently looked for the online KU calendar for enrollment for Summer II. Alas, no such online calendar exists, specifically for July 2011 courses. (There is a combined all-purpose calendar for summer at KU. However, there is a lot of unnecessary and undecipherable material to be weeded through.
http://www.registrar.ku.edu/~registr/pdf/enrollment/calendar_date_4116.pdf
Meanwhile, I had looked in vain for specifically only the course offerings for Summer II.
Again there is only a single all-purpose calendar for all summer courses. https://classes.ku.edu/Classes/ExternalDisplay.action
In short, having a soft back copy of course listings would be easier for someone who has attention deficit to follow. However, KU has developed over the past 15 years a rather inflexible approach to troubled students (like me who already had filed in November 2010 at KU with the accessibility and disability office service or support). As a returning student I find this overwhelming amount of unhelpful info online at KU to be "U-find-it-U-decipher-it-Good-Luck approach."
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