Doctoral Residency - Phoenix Experience

Let me say this: The three doctoral residencies were transformational for me. RES720Rin Nov2017; DOC733R in Jan2019 followed back to back with DOC734R in January 2019. As an Online Student I needed the feel of the Phoenix experience. I recall especially during my first residency; at the hotel, getting on the bus to the college building. Meeting those in higher classes and wondering how it felt and enthused to forget all my woes to be in their stead in a matter of one, two or three years. And even more exciting: getting off the bus, walking onto those corridors and meeting faculty. These people were my heroes; it was an amazing feeling, every time!! Could it be because as an Online student I needed to touch and smell the places and people in my new world?   On my second trip to Phoenix I took my family and stayed with them in the hotel although they never really saw me; I was way, way, too HAPPILY busy. Those three to five day residencies were among the most pressured and productive periods of my entire course. 

Doctoral Journey

Thinking about my Doctoral Journey

Reading through some recent posts in the "University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies on FaceBook" thread reminded me of some open secrets for succeeding in the "doctoral studies," worth sharing: a) Learning to use reference managers and engaging one or more and b) Going the extra mile to learn how to effectively manage qualitative studies using a tool like NVIVO/ and quantitative statistical analyses using SPSS.  

While my mind was made up to do a quant study, I prepped myself to handle a qualitative study, just in case. Always ahead of the game.  Not fun: I did not have a clear idea of what exactly I would do for the dissertation until nearly the very end. It was not funny. Looking back, I really should have spent more time finding the study as early as RES/709. Not kidding! That is how early I should have. Instead, I was on my way to collect data when it finally dawned on me the exact focus of my research. 

Having a great dissertation chair was absolutely invaluable, someone quick to remind me where gaps remained and then also ready to give me protection from eroding influences. I was very focused on doing things right I overlooked doing the right things... stepping in the right places over finding the right direction to step into. 

How to succeed as an online school student

Wherever and whenever I can go online, I can go into my school, sit in the classroom, and carry out learning activities. That is correct, wherever, and whenever. Of course there are exceptions such as the time I visited a rural place in Southern Africa recently where I was totally unable to open any Internet browser due to poor connectivity and low bandwidth. I was able to check my emails and responded to a few of them, however, I could not enter the classroom. Bandwidth and connectivity are important to OLS.

Given the extent of development and affordability of technology today, it is not uncommon to find good connectivity in a village in the middle of nowhere and find a powerful connection via satellite. Anyone can go to college and study in such a place.

The first lesson I learned in OLS is how to get into my school website and how to find my way to my classroom, the places I was allowed to enter and the rules accompanying those privileges. It is like a gold and diamond mine! There are libraries of books, audio, and video resources such as almost impossible to describe. Whatever resource one might need or want, one can get. Whatever resource is not already available, one can ask for, through the library system and through the Librarian where necessary.

The second lesson I learned was that I could go to class at will. There were no rules on when or where I could go to class. That means, on a day like yesterday, when I did not want to touch a book, I could skip through the school just to say Hi to everybody on the virtual corridors and get out in minutes. No problem. On another day I might log in at 2 AM and stay in class for six hours or two, or whatever! It all depends on me, on the tasks I am working on and my goals.

Participation in class is mandatory and is guided by some rules. You have to appear in class a certain minimum number per week and it is a requirement for students to take part in class discussions which might include questions assigned by the Professor or Coordinator of the class.

Thirdly I learned that to be successful in OLS, it is very important to be disciplined and focused on your goal and objectives. Distractions can come from many places including online accounts and especially social networks. I have a Facebook account, Skype, Google-mail, Hotmail, MySpace, a LinkedIn account, several Email addresses and a whole lot of websites, including this blog which I manage and monitor. It is so easy to be distracted, so very easy. It is impossible to overemphasize this to a new student in OLS. Let me try.

Social connections will interrupt with the learning process. Positive interruptions may enhance and build the process whereas negative ones will disrupt and destroy the process. Too much of either will have a net negative impact on one's OLS learning process. Determining when enough is enough depends on you. Each person will set his or her own boundaries about which systems to allow and when to access them. The recommendation is to shut them all out. I allow all of them and keep them in check by a set of rules. I expand on this issue towards the end of this article.

Initially I was not going to allow any of the social networks to be active while in OLS, however, my wife was working away from home in a rural setting, in a different time-zone, with challenging connectivity, and the only way to keep in touch was through our Internet connection. Since there was no way of knowing which system she would have access to, I kept all systems open. From there I worked on and introduced the rules I describe below.

We are social beings, period. When running in the 'learning mode,' as in class mode, it is very easy to wander in one's thoughts. It is almost as if the guard is lowered. That would make sense because learning is accumulating knowledge. Accumulating knowledge is growing. Growing may be physical or as in this case, a mental process. So, the learning mode expands or opens up more mind-space for occupation. Some of those spaces already have people in them or old knowledge residing in them. Opening them up for new occupants may interfere with the old.

True learning, in my opinion, therefore, is a way of maturing. As people mature some of their old selves drop away and new character builds up with new information and experiences.

To be truly successful in OLS you need a Goal, clear Objectives, and Discipline. I call this my God-principle. A clear goal helps to wade through some of the challenges of OLS which I will describe briefly; having clear objectives cuts the work into bite size and helps to celebrate milestones, and discipline includes ethical behavior and, for me, includes the fear of the Living God.

The coincidence (of calling this my God-principle) was barely noticeable until one day, while doing my first big assignment I discovered that some individuals have set up business sites where students can buy ready worked out papers. Imagine going to one of those sites, asking them to do an assignment for you for a number of dollars and getting your work all done to near perfection a week or so later. That is not learning. It is cheating.

These sites are not only for OLS students. Anyone, anywhere can access them. These things remind us of the need to watch what we do and think. Picking the low hanging fruit, as in taking the paths of least resistance will lead us nowhere. We do not learn by asking other people study for us while we receive the degree. The fear of God says, do not steal; what is done in secret will be brought to light, therefore, do what is right at all times.

My rules for working online with online social accounts are four: (1) Let every voice be heard, (2) prioritize, (3) ignore or cut-off the unnecessary, and (4) keep moving.

My accounts are almost always, all open. Skype, Hotmail, Yahoo, Facebook etc.. I can be reached at any time when I am online, however, I have a set of priorities. I discovered that those who speak blessings into my life build me and help in my learning process. My family can always reach me, however, some issues may be ruled out-of-bounds when I am in class. Some conversations are going nowhere, neither building me nor encouraging me in my learning endeavor, those are cut off or ignored. Some individuals bring negative energy to my emotional Being, and unless that behavior can be changed, I ignore them or cut them off.

Ultimately, only I know where I am with school. No one else truly knows the accounting problem I am working on and the frustration I get when I cannot balance the assets and liabilities in this company's accounts.

Finally, let me outline the challenges I am finding in taking 100% Online classes. I should point out that the abundance of material is overwhelming. Although that is a challenge I do not count it among them. Everybody knows that with abundance comes responsibility to choose and to be conservative. Downloading every book that looks interesting is not a good idea. A student must be disciplined and ethical.

The challenges include allocating time out of busy days and schedules, keeping a balance with other important priorities in life, and bringing OLS education down to earth.

What do you give up in order to accomplish OLS assignments of reading, thinking, researching, team work, writing, and presenting completed, quality work? How much time do you allocate for that?

I used to think 30 minutes a day was enough. I have no idea where that notion came from. 30 minutes a day is not nearly enough for the goals I set. With one class at a time, I find oftentimes that I would be unable to adequately answer questions or explain concepts if I did not read several chapters in a couple of days. I probably burned four to five hours every day to work through a 4th year Psychology course. The amount of reading and research was exhaustive. A college math course burned at least 3 hours daily. I was helped by the fact that the material content of the course was familiar. My conclusion is this: be realistic, set aside no less than two hours a day; I recommended 3-7 hours a day for myself to accomplish my goals.

Usually it works like this for me. The first 20 to 30 minutes of a session is used to settle into the subject. The real substance of a 2 hour session amounts to 60-90 minutes only. More or less 30 minutes goes in subject related, and often also unrelated waste.

That figure will shift up and down depending on the course and level of engagement. I might add, some courses with rigid formats, such as accounting and math in business school will beg more time as you try to solve equations that seem impossible. Those are the times the midnight clock strikes and almost as soon, breakfast is ready.

The first challenge directly feeds into the second one. Keeping a balance with other important events and activities of family, church, and work can come crushing down on you, building up stress. Nothing works against OLS as stress. Stress is anathema and for OLS success stress must be aggressively managed. Since enrolling in an OLS several years ago, I sit behind a familiar desk hour after hour, day and night, week after week, month after month. There is no letting up. OLS has no holiday except, in my case, a week at Christmas and another period of one week elsewhere in the calendar year. If you think about it too much you can give up before trying.

The advantage of OLS is that you learn at your own pace and make progress in class at your own pace. That is cool. It also pegs the price on your private life at a high premium. There is no way to do it other than to trade in some of the valuable family life for a class assignment. Some Sunday afternoon games will be sacrificed on the altar of OLS and some common loves marginalized.

Although popular media makes it sound easy to succeed in OLS, the facts point in the opposite direction. Graduation rates among predominantly OLS education colleges is very poor. That is not an indicator of how bad these schools are or of how poor OLS is. It is an indicator of how hard it is to trade in valuable time to accomplish clear and desirable goals. Unfortunately, as I see it, there is no way around this mountain. It has to be climbed all the way to the top for success to come.

For many people in OLS there is no other workable alternative such as going to a brick and mortar class. Many are working full time already. Others are taking care of business at home and looking after aging parents or raising children. Anything that can prevent you from going to a brick and mortar school can not prevent you from attending online, unless you do not have the basic prerequisites for the course you want, that is, you cannot qualify for entrance.

The last challenge is one I call down-to-earth with OLS. If it was a matter of obtaining a paper that says he is a graduate of such and such a University, that would be a cheap shot. I think the real test of any education system is how well adapted those who succeed in that system are to the realities of the day. If philosophers, then how well do they argue in the public square their convictions, and how do they articulate their new knowledge? If scientists then how well do they carry out scientific designs and how well do they present their findings? For the business person, the question is, can he or she do what the paper claims he or she can? Can the graduate of business school manage a company? Can he or she run a business? The measure of true success is not in what the paper says but what the person can actually do measured by what that paper says.

Of course there will be people who did not achieve the level of education claimed by those who graduate with degrees. The question then is, did the knowledge gained through degree studies make a real difference?

The answer in all those instances should be a resounding Yes. It is more than simply access to online school, it is a matter of internalizing what one learns and applies it in real life. I would not hesitate to enroll in OLS after what I have seen and learned about it. I have found one of my ideal ways of learning. David Kohl might label me a converger, and I would probably fit in as a logical, visual learner who thrives well under solitary conditions of OLS.

What Accountants do behind closed doors

The first thing you learn in financial accounting is that numbers rule. Everything operates on numbers. Numbers form the wheels of this number machine, and numbers oil the joints and all the moving parts. If you have a problem with arithmetic, accounting is a no-go area! My guess is, if you are slow to learn new languages, accounting will be a hard place to live. Accountants speak to these number machines and keep them oiled. LOL!

Here is the thing though. In the first course of accounting (290) I learned that accountants try to confuse you almost completely with a new language that contradicts normal vocabulary. For example, the words debit and credit mean totally nothing and everything at the same time. Don't take my word for it, ask anybody who has studied financial accounting about the double entry system!

Accountants create a shadow account for each transaction. They impose a T-account on each account that comes along and mix these confusing things together, the double entry, debit and credit sides. When you add a number to the debit side you are told you increase the account. When you add a digit or digits to the credit side you are told in fact you are decreasing that account. Okay, really!

By the way, debits are always the left side of the T-account and credits are always the right side of the T-account. Here now is where the confusion really gets at you. Some accounts are on the right side of the Big accounting formula which Accountants revere. You dare not cause an imbalance to the ultimate accounting formula which stipulates: Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity. I heard an accountants swear by this formula, the so-called basic accounting formula. I doubt anyone can pass the accounting course without memorizing this formula and without gaining a working knowledge of it.

I am not even going to try and get into the fun of trying to balance the shadow and explicit accounts that accountants work with. No wonder they mostly work behind closed doors. Lol! But let me say this. Accounts on the left side of the big formula are in the Assets group which includes cash and other short-term and long term economic resources; among them tangible and intangible ones. On the right side one finds many more accounts under liabilities and shareholders' equity.

The best way to describe the accounts on the right side of the big accounting formula is to say they behave strangely and often in ways you don't want to know! They all obey the first rule, anything added on the left side of their T-account nature is an addition. However, because of the difference between liabilities and shareholders' equity, they beg to be treated differently under the microscope. Accountants did this to discourage people like me from understanding how to do simple arithmetic. So, if you must learn accounting, then learn more about the Revenues, Expenses and Dividends which appear under the title Shareholders' equity.

One of the things about liabilities is that no one really likes them. A liability is a debt, a legal obligation that comes about in the course of conducting business. They must be settled over time, often by transferring assets, or benefits including money, services or goods with economic value.

It is not possible to overemphasize the importance of this formula here, except to say you must learn it and it is not too hard.

All of this stuff is learned in the first few days of the course. Then comes the business transactions and the resulting accounts. You quickly realize that it would be impossible to do these calculations sitting with a bunch of people running up and down beside you. You must focus or lose it. It is so hard to keep those numbers in their spaces. Be warned: if you insert or omit one digit it is impossible to balance the sacred formula. No one goes to dinner until the equation is perfectly satisfied, Assets: 0, L+SE: 0. That is why accountants close the door when they are at work. Numbers do not forgive. This brings me to the last point about why the accountants I know work in isolation.

Financial accounting is fun. Accountants, I think, enjoy playing the numbers game! ...it is a numbers game!! lol. I enjoy naumbers games. Out of four complex accounts (I mean complex by my standards) that have been given to me to work out I have ably solved one! lol. It is amazing the titillation that goes with the accomplishment! It gives you the most exciting sense that you are on top of things here. It is like winning a chess game. Out of ten I played recently I lost four, which puts me at above average for level two against the computer.

In accounting you quickly learn to read instructions with greater care to understand what the words say and mean because they all carry economic power. The potential for error is always hovering around. When the accountant has decided the accounts to create out of an instruction, then he or she must assign correct debit and credit entries to T-accounts. From journal to ledger and through a series of calculations and assignments of debits and credits, the transaction is transformed into a language.

Accountants speak in tongues of their own. Understanding their basic language and the intricacies of their vocabulary opens a whole new world of real possibilities of enjoyment and intrigue. If you started out on this path, go for it, it gets better as you go along. ...Do not let anyone be deceived into believing that accountants shut the door for mere want of privacy. LoL!

Why business management

You may learn the skills and information you need to succeed in an increasingly diverse workplace by attending a business management school. To prepare you for today's workplace, you learn critical thinking skills, how to handle workplace difficulties like employee motivation and how to use modern technology to achieve organizational goals. If you go to a school where the instructors are well-versed in their fields, you'll get a lot more out of your education. As a member of a Learning Team in a University, you have the opportunity to interact with students from a variety of backgrounds and learn from them. Managers and their companies confront extraordinary pressures from both internal and external sources today, more than ever before. Social, cultural, psychological, and technological forces are all examples of these forces that can both build and destroy. Two decades ago, competition was a lot simpler than it is today. There's a lot of talk about the phrase "globalization" in the media these days. Globalization has been around for a long time, in strict terms. Some historians believe it dates back to the earliest days of humanity, but it has taken on a new intensity since the introduction of personal computers and the widespread use of the Internet in the 21st Century. It is impossible to forecast the impact of globalization and the Internet on society, but the combined force of these two forces is so powerful that it produces a million tons of compost fodder fuel and the spark to keep it alight. The Internet is revolutionizing the way businesses operate. It's possible to connect to a global network from any location in the world. How did we manage without the likes of email, YouTube, Google, and Facebook? New apps are entering the market faster than ever before, and new players are entering the major market every day as the old fade into obscurity. Systems no longer age in years and months but in days, hours, and even milliseconds these days. New types of corporate structure are required in this context, as well as new knowledge and abilities to manage them. Even while it is no longer considered popular to boast about a specific expertise and skill set, it is far more important for a modern manager to keep learning and adapting, surfing the currents of change and adopting and adapting with the times and tools of modern productivity. As a modern manager, it is crucial to understand that success in today's marketplace is tied to the effective integration of information, competency, and technology. Communication is the driving force behind the evolution of knowledge, not its essence. Communication is essential to the success of a business. As a result, it forms the basis of all strategic plans. In a linked world like ours, it's hard to imagine how an organization can succeed without effective communication. It has helped me become a more successful thinker, writer, leader, and administrator in the jobs after completing a degree in business management. There are numerous career options for business management graduates, such as finance managers, service delivery and service monitoring and evaluation program managers as well as association and real estate management specialists and sales agents to name a few. Regardless of the topic of interest, the foundation is strong enough to support expansion.