Bachelor’s in Organizational Leadership & Bachelor’s in Psychology Information Session

Speaker 1: Okay, we are going to get started. Welcome everyone to today’s webinar for the Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Psychology. Excuse me, Organizational Leadership and Psychology.

Speaker 1: I do wanna start off by thanking you for your time today, the time you’re gonna spend with us, hopefully its a very informative session and you learn a thing or two. I’m very excited and I can’t wait for everyone to hear this and get all this great information that we’re gonna talk to you about today.

Speaker 1: Okay, so before we start, we just do wanna go over a few housekeeping roles here. In today’s session you are currently in listen-only mode. So if you do have questions, feel free to ask, but please ask them in the text box and we will address your questions either at the end of the webinar, or as we move forward through the webinar, okay.

Speaker 1: Anyone who attended tonight’s webinar are gonna receive a recording of the webinar, so you’ll be able to listen to it for future reference, and as you can see on the left side of your screen, you’re gonna see a resources list which is gonna have a lot of great information for you to be able to download, so please utilize that and know that’s available there for you, okay?

Speaker 1: So today, what we’re gonna be covering over today’s webinar. So we’re gonna cover some introductions, I’m gonna be introducing myself and we also have a faculty member, Doctor Green, who’s gonna introduce himself. So, I love it when we can have a webinar like this, so we get a little bit of both sides. We get the admissions side and we also get the faculties side. So very comprehensive.

Speaker 1: We’re gonna go over a little bit about Maryville University, who we are, so we have a better understanding there. We’re gonna cover both the Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership program as well as the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology program. We’re gonna go a little bit over the online learning experience, so what that would look like for an online student here with Maryville.

Speaker 1: And then we’re gonna close it out through the admissions process, so we’re gonna go over the various requirements for the program, different type of application tips and information about transcripts. As well as we’re gonna cover tuition and financial aid, and at the end, for any questions that we don’t get through, throughout the presentation, we will address at the end.

Speaker 1: So if you do have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Speaker 1: Okay, so today, my name is James Pena, I’m an enrollment advisor here with Maryville. I have been in the industry here for about 10 years, roughly, so I do bring a lot of experience. I’ve worked with students between undergraduate programs all the way through doctorate programs. So I’m very excited to be able to work with each and every one of you and be able to help out in any way, shape or form that I can, okay?

Speaker 1: And then moving forward, today we are gonna have our faculty member, Doctor Peter Green, so if you wanna go ahead, Doctor Green and introduce yourself to our lovely participants.

Speaker 2: Hi everyone, great to be here tonight. I’m hoping I can give you some really good information about both our programs that we’re gonna be talking about tonight. I’ve been in higher education as an instructor, professor for over 20 years, I’ve been at Maryville for 10, the last 10 of that. I was trained as a social psychologist, which basically means I like figuring out why people behave the way they do.

Speaker 2: Primarily, relatively healthy people. I’m not a counselor, I’m not a therapist, never wanted to be, so when people ask me what they can do with psychology, I’m always very interested in kind of the broad range of things you can do, and some of that’s gonna come up tonight, and organizational leadership actually fits into that quite well.

Speaker 2: So, as we move forward, we’re gonna start with organization leadership and then we’ll get into psychology and I look forward to any questions you have.

Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, thank you Doctor Green. Thank you for the introduction, and I think all the students are gonna be very excited to get that perspective that you have to offer, it’s gonna be the best of both worlds here.

Speaker 1: So a little bit about Maryville University, as you can see on the screen, we were founded in 1872, so we do have a long-existing track record and legacy here of almost 150 years. So we’re not one of these universities that started popping up when online education started becoming big. We were around probably close to 140 years well before online educations were even thought of.

Speaker 1: So we’ve been a mainstay in the St. Louis area and we are a private, not for profit university, we do hold a regional accreditation through the higher learning commission, and just a few other accolades here, we were ranked by Forbes America’s top college, bests values in private colleges by Kiplinger, so that was 2017, we’re also Apple distinguished school award winner, and additionally we are ranked by US News and World Report in the top 15% of all major universities in the United States rank.

Speaker 1: So we have some great accolades to our name, and we’ve been helping out students for a very, very long time here.

Speaker 1: Currently we have 9000 students at Maryville University, which actually represents all 50 states, and additionally up to 55 countries around the world. So Maryville University is… We’ve moved around a lot, we’ve had a lot of different diverse students in many different countries which is very exciting and we continue to look forward to seeing this number grow.

Speaker 1: Currently we have 115 plus total degrees at the undergraduate and masters and doctoral level, of which 25 plus are 100% online, with a little over 115 on campus.

Speaker 1: And moving forward now, I will throw this back to Doctor Green, so that we can go into the online Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership, that will be followed by the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology program so we can get a little bit more of an understanding from the faculty perspective. So if you wanna go ahead and kick it off, Doctor Green, ready when you are.

Speaker 2: Okay, thanks James. So here we go. So effectively to me, our degree and organizational leadership is really designed for people who like business but if I said math and business, end of business. It’s sort of the human end of business. It’s the caring with people end of business. It’s the how do we get people to work better, how do we get them to be happier in the businesses. It’s certainly not necessarily just the how we make more money end of business.

Speaker 2: The degree itself really plays on psychology and it’s interdisciplinary in nature. Again, kind of focusing on that human side of things and one of our big thrusts is making sure that students understand not just the theory but how to apply that theory.

Speaker 2: We don’t think there’s much more important than that. We’re gonna talk about specific classes in a little bit, but one of the things you’re gonna notice is an emphasis on sort of research methodology, which might surprise a few people. But what we want students to be able to do as they come into this degree is give something to the business organization that may not exist, depending on who they currently have working for them.

Speaker 2: It’s important to understand research, both be able to do it, suppose somebody’s interested in developing a bonus system for a group of employees, well, what are they gonna be interested in, what’s gonna work, what might not work, so the ability to create a survey, to analyze that survey, to understand the results of that survey becomes really, really important.

Speaker 2: And if the actual research itself is being done by someone else, it’s just a question of what are the best practices? Do bonus structure actually always work, and when do they? When do they, when do they not? So things like that from a research perspective can actually give people a great leap forward in their career structure.

Speaker 2: We’ve had a couple of students in the past go on to do some pretty amazing things after… This is one step in their business path, but it really, really helped out. We’re always looking at what companies want, where our students wind up, what they’re happy with, what they wish they had more of and again, it’s sort of that the practical skillset where, you know, do you know what you need to to work with an diverse group of people within the company, whatever it may be.

Speaker 2: And finally one of the other things that we’ll talk about is the senior project that I’m just an incredible fan of. It really lets each student tailor sort of that capstone experience to something that they’re uniquely interested in, and we get some wonderful faculty who are very, very good at helping students craft those things in a way that they’re actually both doable and meaningful. Two things that I think are really, really important.

Speaker 2: So the curriculum, a little bit. All of our programs, the programs that I oversee are 128 hours, so nothing really new for me there. But we do have some clusters of classes, so we get into some leadership foundation classes, like internal leadership. We really, really think a multicultural psychology class is important. In the changing world we live in, in a globalization of society that we’re currently in, the ability to understand different views can’t be overstated. There’s probably nothing more important to a business than the ability to actually appreciate and really understand cultures and views from different places in the world.

Speaker 2: There’s also if you see below, a class on social conflict and negotiation. Any organization is gonna have conflict. It’s a nature of people being together. There are really, really good ways to deal with conflict, and unfortunately there are some not so good ways to deal with conflict. As we move forward, learning that skill can be really, really good and that class is designed to be a really, really memorable class.

Speaker 2: The organizational development and change class is more of a senior level class, kind of works with a particular organization. Some students who go into this degree are very keen on human resource management, so that’s an optional class. We think industrial and organizational psychology is a very, very good class. Personnel psychology might pertain more to sort of a talent development end of businesses.

Speaker 2: And then so, what I mentioned before, the social science research sequence. We are interested in making sure that students understand research methodology. From the research design end of things, we throw in a statistics course to make sure that there is enough understanding of some fairly basic kind of a statistical analysis that you’re likely to see.

Speaker 2: I’m not gonna pretend that one class in statistics is gonna make you a statistical master. It won’t, but it should give you enough to understand what you’re looking at, so if somebody starts a conversation with you, you can go “Yes, I understand that,”, which I think is really, really important.

Speaker 2: That statistics and research methods comes together, and then although there’s applied work in those two class, there’s also the final, what I would consider the capstone course that senior project one and two, 16 week sequence, two eight week courses, where you literally design a project.

Speaker 2: Your idea, you research it, come up with the project, conduct the project, analyze the project, write it up and it really is in consultation with the faculty members. So we don’t just say “Hey, do this,”, it’s structured in a very, very scaffolded way, if that’s a new verb I just created, where things we do in steps. So you know, do the first part of it, then you get feedback on it. So it can be created, so the final project is much, much better than it would be if you just did the whole thing at once. I think it’s really good.

Speaker 2: What else? So yes. The kinds of things people tend to do, working within corporations in the corporate world, non-profits, community organizations, government agencies, the couple of students that I’m thinking about have been more corporate in their work, I’m kinda hoping more people are going into the non-profit world. I kinda like that world. Getting into kind of the analyst role of consultants, HR managers, and we’ve had students involved in sort of the talent recruitment end of things.

Speaker 2: Multiple students have gone on from this degree to pursue additional graduate programs. From my take, it’s a degree where learning about people helps out a business. It’s just kind of all there is to it. We do believe that the job opportunities will continue to increase as more businesses become aware of the fact that it’s not just accounting and economics and the bottom line, it’s that businesses revolve around people and people skills.

Speaker 2: So things like multicultural psychology, like the theories of leadership and being able to apply them, like dealing with social conflict, understanding what kind of behavior happens within organizations, getting at the dynamics that occur within groups and how to best use those dynamics to make groups more effective all become really, really important.

Speaker 2: And I think that is about my quick summary of organizational leadership. And from there, we can just slide over into psychology. So, psychology I kind of think has maybe more baggage with it then the organizational leadership degree. Everybody’s heard of psychology, which is both good and bad.

Speaker 2: Oh, what can you do with psychology? I can become a therapist. Well, yes, or a counselor, yes, entirely true. Often with some additional schooling and we’ll talk about that a little bit more. But psychology is incredibly broad-based. And it’s both a great benefit and a great drawback. I was talking to James a little earlier. One of the problems with psychology is that you can’t simply do a job search for psychologist and come up with positions unless you basically have a PhD in psychology and want to be a quote “psychologist”.

Speaker 2: But psychology really underlies everything. I’m a social psychologist, if I wasn’t in education setting, I’d be working as a researcher for a research firm. Psychology underlies businesses, they’re present in education, the health sector.

Speaker 2: I work with a lot of students here at Maryville who are interested in art and combining sort of psychology into the art world. Both why certain colors are used, we’re actually gonna crate, probably a couple years now, but a psychology of design class. Why some people actually like gaming, what kind of games do people like. So psychology to me is this all important field that kind of has tentacles that go everywhere.

Speaker 2: I might be a little biased as a social psychologist, but I really, really do think it’s that fundamental to everything we do. So anyone who’s interested, great. Again, non-profits, you know, other places that psychology is certainly applicable, non-profits. From one extent, how to you get people to volunteer, to work in a non-profit. What does a non-profit have to do to treat its volunteers well? There are a whole lot of non-profits that couldn’t exist if it wasn’t for a volunteer base.

Speaker 2: And then there’s the more direct work, I’ll call it maybe social services or community services, rehabilitation clinics. So the direct… I’ll go one on one or small group context where the focus is really on helping individuals who happen to be struggling for a whole variety of reasons.

Speaker 2: Maybe it’s domestic violence, maybe it’s substance abuse, could be poverty, many many possibilities. I will say that many students, maybe not many, a portion of students are interested in psychology because of what they know they can do if they pursued a graduate degree. If you want to be a licensed clinician, a graduate degree is necessarily.

Speaker 2: But there are plenty of ways to even work in that one on one… In those one on one settings with people without a graduate degree. Psychiatric technician is a great example, there’s also a psychiatric therapist, which is effectively a step up from a psychiatric technician. We’ve had a few people, former students working in both those fields.

Speaker 2: Some of our students take psychology and get into human resource management, or take just the straight psychology degree and go into the business realm. We do know that jobs in the psychology field are going to grow, both for good reasons and for bad reasons.

Speaker 2: You know, the therapy part of things, the world is moving forward at a really, really rapid pace and with chance comes difficulty. So from a job perspective, I think psychology’s very powerful.

Speaker 2: Some highlights of our program. We really, really focus on critical thinking in this one, so a lot of psychology programs have a similar set of classes, so the American psychological association has created a… Call it a cable of learning goals and outcomes. And there are five big goals that we make sure the we hit.

Speaker 2: And most good programs in psychology will do something similar. Part of that is just focus on some content. So you know there’s gonna be a class in human development, you know there’s gonna be a class on abnormality or mental illness. You should get a class in social psychology. The multicultural psychology kind of again could give us that perspective of the diverse world in which we live, can’t be overstated.

Speaker 2: Kind of human cognition. Why we think the way we do, why we have some biases the way we do. Why people insist on playing the lottery when it hits 600 million, even though the chances of winning are no greater than when it was at 20 million. And by the way, they’re really, really small. There’s a biological psychology course that I personally find fascinating.

Speaker 2: How does your brain actually work? How do the neurons in the brain function? How is that tied into our nervous system? And how does that all that play in our behavior, our sleeping, what’s the role of that in mental illness?

Speaker 2: So while I think most programs will have those courses and then a research methods course and a statistics course, I think it’s the how we point some of the stuff together, our focus on projects, our focus on the real world applications.

Speaker 2: I can’t not mention that senior seminar again, it’s something we created just before I started here, so probably 12 years ago. And not a lot of universities can do it with a large major, we’ve got a really, really good system in place for it to work. I think it’s the best possible learning environment that can exist.

Speaker 2: I can tell you about research all day long, I can tell you this is how statistics works, I can tell you why this is important, but once you do it, once you physically immerse yourself in it and do it, you come away with an appreciation that you can’t get any other way. At the end of the day, you may not wanna become a researcher, and I’m okay with that.

Speaker 2: But you will come away with a much greater appreciation for what it takes to learn what researchers do and why it’s important. We do also have early access to a number of master’s degree programs. And we’ll come back to that in just a sec.

Speaker 2: So again, a little bit on our curriculum, 128 hours, we do this course and the courses that I mention are social science research sequence, it’s equivalent across both the psych degree, and/or leadership degree. General education classes, the importance of those can’t really be overstated, particularly for a degree like psychology.

Speaker 2: They’re all related together. Again, we’re talking about people. People don’t exist in isolation. History matters, art matters, literature matters, it makes us who we are. And then one of the good things from my perspective is that both of these degrees, organizational leadership and psychology are relatively small in terms of numbers of credit. So 38 credits for psychology, 42 for organizational leadership. Depending on how many are transferred in, it gives you a lot of ability to take additional classes in areas that you may find interesting.

Speaker 2: Health psychology comes to mind, there are probably a couple more that jump to mind in just a bit. But so we’ve got a bunch of, I’ll call them elective psychology courses that fit around both the psych major and back to the organizational leadership major that can help build exactly the areas that you may particularly be interested in.

Speaker 2: And I will say that the length of the grad programs is gonna come up a little bit later and James will be talking about that.

Speaker 1: Okay, thank you very much, Doctor Green. As I was sitting there listening to Doctor Green, I couldn’t help but think how fascinating this program is and just how good Doctor Green is at explaining what these courses do and why students would be interested in a program like this. So thank you very much for your insight and your expertise and allowing us to get to know the program just a little bit better, and from your perspective, so I do want to thank you very much.

Speaker 1: Okay, so, what should we expect here as an online student at Maryville University? So really, ultimately, when we have our online programs and we develop them, one of the main things that kept coming back was the individual, right?

Speaker 1: How can we make this program right for the individual? We have people working full time, we have people taking care of family members full time, some doing both. And so how can we create a program that’s gonna work for just about every individual that comes to us and allow that type of flexibility that not only keeps that student engaged, but also puts them in a position in which they can be successful, be it working full time and going to school, okay?

Speaker 1: So as we talk about engaging, interactive experiences. One of the things we place pride in is the interaction in this program. Ultimately you are 100% online. You’re not accountable to be in class. But we want you to feel like you are an individual and not just a number. So we do want to make sure that it is immersive, that it is interactive, so that way, every minute you spend with us, you really enjoy and you really get something from, okay?

Speaker 1: We have a full asynchronous learning environment, so what that means is there are no required login times or days of the week. So I have plenty of students that work during the day when they get home, you know, they cook their meals, they take care of family and the best time for them to log in and work in the assignments is in the evenings.

Speaker 1: I have some individuals who are working night shifts, so for them, working in the mornings on their assignments are best. And ultimately we want to give you that ability to be able to fit it into your schedule however fits best. So as long as you are keeping up with your assignments, and you are submitting them when they are due, when you log in, it’s completely up to you.

Speaker 1: So we talked about the personal schedule, as long as you submit those assignments, completely up to you when you work on your assignment. And our learning management system, we have information right there at your fingertips whether or not it’s on your computer, or whether or not it’s on your phone using one of your apps, so we wanna make sure that it it is accessible to you wherever you are at.

Speaker 1: Now one of the things we have to understand here, and it really goes back to that interaction, but at the same time, the flexibility and support. So one of the things that we wanna make sure that we do offer you tremendous support throughout the program. Whether or not, it’s someone who’s just interested learning about the program and attending our webinar, or if it’s getting through the program and starting.

Speaker 1: We wanna make sure that we have a team around you that really supports you throughout this process. So one of the very first things we do is we provide you with a personal online program advisor. So really the job of that advisor, which is myself is really designed to help assist you.

Speaker 1: So from the time you inquire to the time you apply and the time hopefully you get accepted into the program, you have a constant method of support. So it’s my job there to help assist you through this process. Making sure we get your transcripts, where to send the transcripts, and ultimately being able to give you the best shot possible to get into the program.

Speaker 1: But then when you’re in the program, dedicated technical support, 24/7. So whether or not it’s in the middle of the day or the middle of the night. If for whatever reason you’re having issues, we do have technical support that you can call, so that way you can get your issues resolved at a moment’s notice.

Speaker 1: The career and professional development, ultimately we wanna give you the resources that you need to be successful which does include the online library within, we have a dedicated research library in there to help you, and our writing studio which is designed for individuals to help become better at their writing talents but also to assist throughout that process.

Speaker 1: Okay, so after you’ve listened to this, you’re probably saying you know what? I like what I hear. This sounds like a program that’s definitely gonna fit my needs but what do I need to do to be able to apply to the program and ultimately what do I need to do to be a good candidate for this program?

Speaker 1: So if you are an incoming freshman, so you graduated high school, you don’t have any college credit, you’re coming in fresh. So we do require that you have earned at least a high school diploma or your GED and we would require that you have the official diploma sent to us.

Speaker 1: Now we are looking at typically for students in high school that have graduated to have a minimum GP of a 2.5 on a 4.0 scale within your high school work. Now if you’re below a 2.5, that is not an automatic disqualifier, okay? We can still work with you and then anything below a 2.5 will be still considered for admission, just on a probation period, so we do have additional processes required there, but we’ll definitely still try to help you out the best we can, okay?

Speaker 1: And to get into the program there are no standardized tests, so you went have to worry about ACT or SAT to get into the program. Now, on the other hand, if you are a transfer student, so you have completed some college coursework. So we will accept transfer credits. Transfer credits will be determined once we do conduct an evaluation to determine exactly how many of those transfer credits will come in.

Speaker 1: For these individuals we are looking for a minimum of a 2.0 GPA, although same as the high school GPA, if you are below a 2.0, that’s not an automatic disqualifier, we will work with you on a probationary period, okay? Same as no SAT or ACT for the incoming freshman, there are no GMAT, GRE requirements to get into this program and there are no standardized tests to get into the program.

Speaker 1: And then, your associate’s degree may also satisfy those general education requirements based on the incoming credit.

Speaker 1: Now Doctor Green touched on this just a bit, but I wanted to go into a little bit more detail on our early access program. So what is early access? So anyone that is attending the bachelor’s degree program, we do offer different options to allow you to select graduate programs for which you can take up to 12 credit hours which will transfer towards graduate credit while you are completing your undergraduate degree program, okay?

Speaker 1: So of course by having 12 additional credits that will save time, that will save money ultimately in the end. So this does apply to those who are looking at going on for an MBA program, MS Cyber Security, masters in software development, health administration, business data analytics or in the fall of 2019, we will be launching our master of arts and strategic communication.

Speaker 1: So typically for these individuals, the qualifier for their early access, you have to have completed a minimum of 75 hours toward your undergraduate degree with at least 20 hours here at Maryville University, okay? You do need to maintain at least a 3.25 GPA and you would have to of course submit an application and with your application you would also include an essay, which typically we are looking at somewhere between 3 and 500 words, typically not much over 500 words, but talking to us about your interest in the graduate program.

Speaker 1: Okay, so I decided that this is a good fit, I’ve started my application process, so what should I do to request transcripts, how should my application be started and what would make a strong application? So really it’s very, very simple to apply to the program. Ultimately one of the first things you want to do is request your transcripts. As typically the transcripts do take a little bit longer then the application itself, we do want you to start requesting those transcripts right away, okay?

Speaker 1: Now, we do accept both snail mail version and electronic, obviously if you can get the electronic transcripts, we do prefer this because it is quicker and a much easier process, if for whatever reason your school does not do electronic transcripts, that’s totally fine. We’d just expect the official transcripts sent in the mail, okay?

Speaker 1: And then you would complete your online application, we don’t charge an application fee to apply, there’s nothing out of pocket to go ahead and apply to our program. As you can see here, deadlines for our upcoming spring 2018 session, we do have an application deadline of the 3rd of December for classes that do start on the 14th January.

Speaker 1: Now with that being said, that is our deadline. Obviously if we could do this earlier, we should do this earlier especially with the holidays coming up, we wanna make sure we get everything done early because we don’t wait for a specific time to render a decision.

Speaker 1: So essentially once you’ve completed your application package, on average we typically do find out whether or not we’ve been accepted in about two weeks. So the sooner we get the application package on file, the sooner you can get your decision and the sooner you can start planning and making sure you’re ready for the classes that start, okay?

Speaker 1: So in terms of transcripts, what are some tips on transcripts. We talk about getting the early start in getting those transcripts requested. Request one official transcript from your high school only if you have less than 60 transferrable credit hours, and each and every institution you’ve attended since high school. So this is going to be any colleges and universities you’ve attended after high school.

Speaker 1: Now if you have attended the military, we will need the military transcripts and if you do have any electronic transcripts, this is much easier. So they will just be sent to admissions@online.maryville.edu and if you don’t have electronic transcripts then you will send it to our off-site admission center.

Speaker 1: Okay, so in terms of the application, as I noted earlier in today’s conversation, we do have all the documentation to your left that you’ll be able to download and it has all the information that we’ve talked about today. So in terms of the application you can find the link to our online application in your resource list. And when you are completing your application, ensure that when you have to indicate the location that you are selecting the online, okay?

Speaker 1: And since you cannot make any edits to your application before you submit it, just make sure that you are selecting the right things, and if you have questions, you will have your advisor that you’re working with to help assist you through that process, okay?

Speaker 1: And we have included an application checklist as I started, in the resources list, so it does have step by step how exactly to apply to the program.

Speaker 1: So tuition. Here at Maryville University, our tuition is gonna be 500 dollars per credit hour. And depending whether or not you do work for one of our corporate partners, there may be additional discount. The one fee is a 350 dollar per semester fee, which covers your access to all services and resources that are provided to you through the university and are made available to each and every Maryville University student, okay?

Speaker 1: And of course, in terms of paying for school financial aid, and other financing options are available for those who do apply and qualify. Typically what you’d be doing is filling out your FAFSA, which is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. And when you are filling out your FAFSA, make sure you use our school code of 002482.

Speaker 1: And as I stated that is the application process. If you are working with an advisor already, you would just reach back out to your advisor to help assist you throughout that process, that’s really our job, is really to help you through that process and to everything we can to help you out and we cherish being able to work with each and every student and being able to help them through this journey, okay?

Speaker 1: So with that being said, I did want to open up the floor to any type of question that we may have, and it looks like we do have a few questions already teed up.

Speaker 1: So one of our questions here, what is an MBA? Excellent question, an MBA is the Master of Business Administration. So that’d be the advanced level business administration degree at the master of science level.

Speaker 1: Next question, how often do students have live dialogue with their instructors? So that’s really gonna depend on the instructor, Doctor Green, do you want to give any feedback you’ve had working with students in terms of dialogue?

Speaker 2: That’s a good question. And I think it’s gonna vary some depending on the class and how the class is structured and I believe, what you mean by kind of live dialogue. [inaudible 00:38:26] are really, really, really available. We hire people very specifically who know and who want to maintain sort of our engaged focus that we do on ground in the online environment. We understand the flexibility of the online environment but you still should expect regular contact.

Speaker 2: So this isn’t… I don’t view online classes as kind of independent study classes. The faculty member is there probably every day, certainly every two days, very responsive to email. Some faculty will set up live office hours, depending on who’s in the class and if that seems to work.

Speaker 2: I just got an email from one of my faculty members who was curious why her class this semester was a little bit different, because nobody was taking advantage of those this time than they had the last couple of times the class was offered.

Speaker 2: So it kinda depends, you know, but bottom line, there’d better be some really good contact between the faculty and the students, it’s what I expect to see. So if that helps.

Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, thank you Doctor Green. So we have another question here, besides the programs that are mentioned are there other early access programs? So online, those are the early access programs that currently we have made available to our students.

Speaker 1: Next question, does your university work under a year round system? Great question. So we do have three semesters per year, spring, summer and fall, so yes, the answer would be we do go year round. Of course students have things that come up in life and we’re willing to work with you as much as we can, we understand that sometimes life does happen, of course.

Speaker 1: Just let your student advisor know and they’ll work with you to put together a plan, so that way if you do have to take any time off, we do have a plan of getting you to come back, so that way you aren’t really missing additional time.

Speaker 1: Can you have a job while studying an online BA? Absolutely. Many, many of our students are working, some of these students are working full time and raising families on the side as well, so can you have a job while studying, most certainly. You absolutely can. Now, whether or not you’re… You know, depend on how you move through the program, if you’re gonna spend most of your time in full time or part time status, of course that would be a conversation to have, but you most certainly can have a job while studying your online BA program as most of our students do. Good question.

Speaker 1: I’ve been accepted to Maryville, I’ve set up all my logins, what’s next? So depending on the individual where you’re at, you would just want to make sure that you did reach out to your admissions advisor who will be setting you up for all the next steps with student services, your welcome webinars and your canvas orientations, so just make sure that you do follow back up with your admissions advisors and they’ll be more than happy to assist you throughout that process.

Speaker 1: Okay. Let’s look at another question here. Is it possible for me to obtain a PhD online in the future after the bachelors in psychology? So Doctor Green, do you wanna take this away?

Speaker 2: Sure, I can try that one. Another really, really good question. It will depend in part on the field. So as I mentioned before, psychology is this great big huge field. There are probably literally 40 different paths in psychology, especially once you start talking about PhD programs. So some, I haven’t seen the area go online yet. You can actually get a PhD in biological psychology and generally that involves a whole lot of work with mice and things.

Speaker 2: Really hard to pull off online. Counseling programs, clinical programs do exist online, there aren’t a lot of them yet, but I expect to see that change as the world goes forward. Masters programs which often times are a step to the PhD, it depends again on the program are coming a little bit more numerous, so I’d say… depending on the area, yes, it’s a possibility, they can be very competitive to get into just something to keep in mind and it depends on whether you want a program from a not for profit or a for profit institution. I think they also differ in some ways there.

Speaker 1: Perfect. Thank you for that. We have a question here, are all online courses for the org leadership degree eight week classes? Yes. So the way the program is designed, we do have eight week courses. The reason why we do that is it’s just easier for our students to take three to six credits at a time, which will, at six credits, you are definitely at a full time pace, but you’re only having to focus on two courses at once.

Speaker 1: So instead of having to take four, five, six courses at once to maintain a full-time pace, you really only are having to take two every eight weeks. And it’s designed so that way it does have that flexibility.

Speaker 1: Are there proctored tests or examinations?

Speaker 2: Doctor Green? Again, I love this answer. It depends. So in certain courses, yes. And in part to kind of maintain kind of a integrity of our courses and our programs. To me, it’s really, really important that our degrees maintain their overall integrity. I wanna know that in ten years from now that somebody who graduated with a degree from Maryville has a well respected degree.

Speaker 2: One way to do that is to ensure that the work that’s being done is being done appropriately. I don’t like thinking that anybody is gonna be dishonest, and it’s certainly not an expectation I have, but I’ve been proven wrong before in my on ground classes.

Speaker 2: So… But we also wanna do it in ways that are… I’m gonna say more flexible. So we’re experimenting… I’m gonna call it an experiment, our online people might disagree with it a tiny bit, with our statistics class. And a way of sort of having a proctored exam but proctored via the computer.

Speaker 2: So as long as your computer has a webcam, there’s a way to have the exam be proctored. None of the courses in the psych program or leadership program, anything coming out of the social sciences requires any proctoring outside of… You don’t have to go anywhere to have an exam proctored, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: Perfect. And the next question we have coming up, I will go ahead and answer the first part and then Doctor Green, the second part if you don’t mind. So the first part of the question is will taking classes all year round allow us to graduate earlier? So the way the program is designed, it is year round and for the full four year degree, it will take roughly four years. So that depending on whether or not you’re gonna be four years or less is really gonna depend whether or not you do have any type of transfer credit that comes into play.

Speaker 1: But in terms of graduating earlier, no it’ll still be four years, but we do it this way year round so that you’re only having to focus at a full time pace for two courses every eight weeks, instead of a traditional 16 week or larger semester system which you’re having to focus on… I’m sorry, excuse me, a 32 week semester system which you’re having to focus on four, five, six courses at once.

Speaker 1: Ultimately we felt that for flexibility between students studying, being able to dedicate time towards their studies and being able to take care of other obligations above and beyond that, that two courses every eight weeks is a pretty heavy workload but one that’s sustainable and manageable.

Speaker 1: But for you, Doctor Green, do you recommend students taking dual or double majors?

Speaker 2: So, another really, really great question. And I’d say again, man, I’m starting to not believe my own words, it depends a little bit. I don’t… Often times a double major may not make sense if you have to add additional hours. Like if it’s gonna take you know, 140 credits to actually get the double major, depending upon what you wanna do, that may not be the best use of your time. However, if you can get a double major done in 128 or in the low 30s, and they’re both majors that you like, absolutely.

Speaker 2: For instance, right now, the psychology degree is online. And one of the things that tends to happen on ground is students will pair that with a sociology degree, and so you get the perspective of the individual and the perspective of sort of a broader social perspective. While that degree doesn’t currently exist online, we do have, and will have an increasing number of sociology classes online.

Speaker 2: So initially it may not be a double major but it might be a major and a minor. To me, it’s all about creating a set of courses the makes you the best candidate for what you wanna do. The flip-side of that is if you are getting a degree simply because you like learning and you think psychology is fascinating but you’re also really interested in literature and history and everything else, then take the smattering and explore what you truly love.

Speaker 2: So you know, different answer depending on the person.

Speaker 1: Perfect, thank you very much. So it looks like we have a couple more questions here. Next question is when it says fall A or B, what does that mean, are the courses divided? So the difference between A and B is really the eight week term for which students will start. So the fall A period has already passed and our Fall B, we’re about to start shortly. So typically our students, the A term is most traditional, but if for whatever reason we can’t get done in time, we do have a B term start, so it really corresponds with the first eight weeks of that 16 week semester or the second eight weeks of the 16 week semester.

Speaker 1: And when we’re talking about are the courses divided? Yes. So one to two eight week courses the first eight weeks, and then same in the second eight weeks.

Speaker 1: Is the bachelor in psychology credited by the APA? The bachelor in psychology is actually designed to adhere to the recommendation by the American Psychological Association, which emphasizes a broad foundation in courses that include experimental methodology, critical thinking, human development and the biological, social and clinical aspects of behavior.

Speaker 2: If I can jump in for a second there, James?

Speaker 1: Yes, sir.

Speaker 2: Undergraduate programs cannot receive accreditation by the American Psychological Association, so that association does not accredit undergraduate programs. They do accredit graduate programs, but they’re very insistent on not accrediting undergraduate programs.

Speaker 2: So we do follow their guidelines and that’s what we do to ensure we’re as close to that as we can get.

Speaker 1: Perfect, that’s very, very helpful, thank you for explaining that.

Speaker 1: And it looks like the last question here, is there a graduate degree in psychology? As far as online, there is not one that I know of, Doctor Green, do you know of an online psychology degree that we have for the masters?

Speaker 2: No, we do not. Not at this point.

Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, well thank you. So we are gonna go ahead and wrap it up. If we do have additional questions, if you do have additional questions, feel free to reach out to your advisor, we’d be more than happy to address these questions on a one on one basis as they arise, but to wrap up here, I do want to thank you all for attending today’s webinar, there’s a lot of great information passed, Doctor Green was phenomenal in explaining the program and answering our questions here and I really look forward to working with you individuals and our whole team here looks forward to working with you.

Speaker 1: If you do decide that this is the right fit for you, we’re more than happy to assist. So I will leave you here with the final slide, just my information as an enrollment advisor, my phone number and my email address, so if you do have questions, if you do need assistance, I’m here to help, if you are already working with an advisor, then reach out to the advisor that you’ve already established a rapport with and you’ve already been working with.

Speaker 1: And unless Doctor Green has any last comments?

Speaker 2: No, other than one other question just popped up. So can I take the rest of my semester as on campus instead of online? One of the beautiful things I think is that the programs are designed to be effectively interchangeable. So the courses I build for on ground are the same as the courses we offer online. Though the on ground ones run a whole semester, the online ones run eight weeks.

Speaker 2: But they’re literally the same course. So yes, if you’re local or like the St. Louis area, absolutely, take some of our classes on ground, I’d love to see you on campus.

Speaker 1: Perfect and thank you for answering that, Doctor Green. And it looks like you pretty much recapped the second part of that question, so once again I do want to thank everyone for their participation today, thank you for spending time with us, it was our pleasure to be able to host you tonight. Like I said, if you do have additional questions just let us know and we do hope you have a wonderful rest of your evening.