Review of Phoenix University Online

Phoenix University is without a doubt one of the largest online schools available. They have literally hundreds of courses and physical campuses in multiple states. Their main campus is based in Phoenix, however; most of their students study through their online study portal.

If you are considering attending the University of Phoenix then you should be interested in the school, its courses and its study policies. Here is a quick and helpful overview.

Courses

Courses at Phoenix University online include a wide variety of subjects. The school features 9 schools of education and offers associate, bachelor and master degrees as well as diplomas and certificates. Schools include the School of Business, School of Advanced Studies, College of Education, College of Nursing, College of Criminal Justice and Security, College of Humanities, College of Social Sciences, College of Natural Sciences and the College of Information and Systems Technology.

Students

There are over 300,000 students studying at Phoenix University and many of them study online. Statistics show that more than 60% of students are female and that more than 70% are either mothers, holding a full time job or both. On average, about 80% of students graduate within 25% of their allotted study time. Admissions are free which means that anyone with the money to attend can attend.

Accreditation

Phoenix University is accredited for most of their programs and is a member of the Northern Association of Schools and Colleges. The University holds regional accreditation by the Higher Learning commission as well special accreditation on several of its programs. The school of business is accredited by the Association of Collegiate Schools and Business Programs, the Master of Education degree is accredited by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council and some of their nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Accreditation.

Teaching Method

 Phoenix University uses a 20-25 student-teacher study hour per week (meaning you will spend this much time studying material directly given to you by your teacher. The rest of the time you will be expected to study on your own. You will also be expected to work with online teams of other students to complete projects. This is intended to help develop your teamwork and your ability to work well with others at a real job.

Is It A Good School?

One of the biggest questions about attending any online school is it a good school. Is it worth your time and money to attend and can you use your degree to get a good job. With most schools it is easy to answer yes or no, however; with Phoenix university things are a bit more complicated. For starters, you can get a very good job with a degree from the school; however; many employers will prefer someone with a degree from a great deal of other schools. Phoenix makes up for this by providing relatively cheaper tuition than many other schools. If you want to earn your degree and prove yourself through work experience than this is a very good school; if you would rather get a degree and immediately qualify for a great job, you might want to consider going elsewhere and paying more. 

Online Forums For Medical Students

                                  

Studying for your medical degree online can sometimes mean making sacrifices. For example; you won’t have any fellow students and freely available teachers to talk to; ask questions or to find help for your studies. However; today is the digital age. You are studying online so there is no reason why you shouldn’t find fellow students online.

Here are a few medical student forums that should be especially helpful to you.

Medical Assistant

Medical Assistant is for students studying to be a medical assistant (doh!). Forums and chatty forum dwellers are happy to assist you on information relating to medical assisting. The forums especially focus on what you need and what you will have to do in order to become a certified medical assistant which is perfect for just about anyone.

All Nurses

All Nurses is a great forum for nurses of all ages. No matter what your education is (student to full RN) you can come here to talk to other nurses, ask questions and help other nurses out. The site is administrated by a staff of RN nurses and is neatly organized into sections for easily finding information.

Student Doctor

Student Doctor Forums is filled with students, full-fledged doctors and everything in between. The community offers advice, help, answers to questions and pretty much anything else you might think of. Plus, you get to talk to other doctors and see if they like their job and maybe even find out why you shouldn’t sleep through that biology test….

Radiology Forums

For anyone who has anything to do with radiology, this forum is a gold mine. Radiology forums lists everything from patients, positions (for patients, get your mind out of the gutter), machines and even job search. With all of that at your fingertips, there is no real reason to look anywhere else for your peers and superiors in the Radiology world.

Society of Diagnostic Medicine Sonography

If you don’t know what Sonography (ultrasound) you probably don’t belong on this forum. The site contains pretty much everything an ultrasound technician might want to know about positions, machines, techniques, information and etc. You have to be a SM in order to join the site. However; the people administrating the site are not. 

Even if you are studying at one of the best schools online, online study can often mean that you lose the benefits of interacting with other students. But, in today’s world of web interaction, there is absolutely no need that it has to. Google plus is just one of a great deal of sites that allow multi person chat and even multi-person video chat.

Google + Circles

Google + actually works a lot like both twitter and Facebook (sort of a marriage between the two) with a lot of great extras added in. For starters you can add all of your classmates, or anyone you happen to find online who studies the same subject as you, to a circle. Then you can label that circle and they will always show up with the label that they are in your class. (Keeping track of friends made simple).

Google + Video Chat

Google video chat is another great tool you can use with your circles. For example, you can set up a chat room where you can interact with your circles on video. You can limit which circles can access the chat (no having your parents in your study group…) and you can limit what people can enter your chat (get rid of that annoying person who keeps hitting on you…). Best of all, video chat is one of the easiest and most fulfilling ways to interact with other people.

Find People

Another great tool for setting up your Google + study group is that it allows you to find people, and sometimes by what they do or study rather than by name. This is a great tool for adding people to your group. You can also set your chat group up as permission only. This means that you will have the ability to screen everyone who uses your video or chat group.

Time Chats

Guess what, you can invite people to show up for a study session at a certain time. This means not only will everyone show up at the right time also that no one will miss out because they forgot it was another day.  This can be used to set up regular ‘study group’ meetings or whatever else you want to do with it. Best of all, if you have the right apps installed, you can access your chat group right from your mobile! 

Best College Student Chat Sites

As you probably know, one of the only disadvantages of studying at an online college is that you miss out on making friends who are interested in the same things as you. But guess what, you don’t have to miss out on it! Online chat rooms are a great way to interact with other people (even while you study) and with student chat rooms; you can easily find people who are studying the same things as you to make friends or even to organize a study group!

ICQ

ICQ is a fun, colorful chat room for college students that not only features an easy and open chat group room but does not require that you sign up to the site in order to try it out. Log in as a guest or create a username and chat with students from all over the world on a group or one to one basis. ICQ is very simple, easy to use and has tons of different chat rooms for pretty much every age group and interest.

Chat Center

Chat Center is an easy to use website with a very basic layout and a couple of different student chat rooms by age group and student intent. The bright colors of the website can however; get a little annoying after a while. However; for connecting with students, it’s easy to use and can be quite fun.

Chat Avenue

Chat Avenue is a great chat room that requires a Java plug in to run (must be up to date) and is only marred by a few adult advertisements on the site (mostly directing users looking for adult entertainment towards sites more suited for the use). The chat room requires that all users be 16 or older which is great for keeping in touch with college students rather than high school students.         

                                                                                 

Chat Zone

Chat zone is yet another, free student chat room; however, there are a lot of teenagers still in highschool on this one so if that bothers you, pick another chat room. Chat zone requires you to submit your age before entering the chat room.  The chat room features a simple interface that is easy to use and doesn’t take much time to adjust to.

College Chat

College chat house is a great site just because it has a lot of different rooms, a simple muted interface and free moderation to keep unwanted topics away from the chat. College chat also has a lot of users which is great for making lots of friends (or just a few). Rude users, spam users and etc. are all banned from the site (kicked from chat) in order to make everyone elses chat a pleasant experience. As a college chat room, this is one of the best due to the moderation and the clean chat forum.