Colleges Throughout the United States

Abstract

This report investigates how Lincoln College can improve on the current plan of study process that will ultimately lead to a better student experience throughout their college careers. Many other colleges throughout the United States publish course offerings in a course catalog that the students choose from; customizing their education to their liking. The students are heavily involved in the process, meeting with their advisors to discuss their options. The flexibility allows students to choose their class, meeting days and times, their professors and often times, whether the course is conducted in-class, online or in a hybrid format. When students are offered so many options to choose from, they are better able to balance life around school instead of balancing life around school. Lincoln College should investigate how these options can be incorporated for present and future ABE students.

Introduction

Lincoln College has an accelerated Bachelor’s program, called ABE, which is setup to try to accommodate the schedules of working adults who are trying to further their education. All courses are conducted in a hybrid format where the students meet once a week for four hours between 5:30-9:30pm. The number of meetings is typically five weeks, but a few classes meet for eight or ten weeks, depending on the quantity of material being covered.

When the prospective student decides to enroll in the ABE program, they will eventually meet with their advisor to organize a plan of study. This step is a requirement so the class schedule can be setup. When this meeting happens, the advisor develops the entire plan of study on their own, without any feedback from the student. Before you leave this meeting, you receive a printout of the plan, detailing what courses you will take and the dates that they will be conducted, but you aren’t informed of how this plan was created. The flexibility that is offered at so many other colleges, has suddenly ceased to exist. All of the sudden, the student doesn’t have any voice in the development of their plan of study, and that is a major flaw.

In addition to curbing the flaws with the plan of study process, Lincoln should also investigate the feasibility of allowing students to choose professors, offering weekend courses and possibly altering the meeting times for certain classes. Collectively, current and future ABE student will benefit from these changes that will improve the student experience and make the ABE program a more attractive option for the local working adult.

Discussion

Having the option to choose a plan of study can be beneficial to a student. Deciding what classes to take can be a difficult decision. Each student is unique and has diverse interests when it comes to picking a class. If a student was able to decide what classes to