My experience as an instructor with Colorado Technical University Online was akin to being in an atmosphere like the Stepford Wives movie. I have taught in traditional higher ed institutions, some for-profit, for over 20 years where I was given freedom, respect, and the opportunity to engage in controversial discourse with both students and colleagues. I also had free reign in my classrooms as long as I met overall course objectives. Now for the CTU Stepford Wives script:
First, to say instructors were treated as cattle to be prodded, branded, and herded is an understatement. We were measured on criteria over which we had no control — such as student attendance and retention. Mind you, these were students who were in many cases illiterate and who surely did not belong in the college environment. We were also measured on whether our required twice-weekly live sessions went under the required time limit with a black mark if they did. It was difficult to always keep to a one hour delivery when attendance was minimal. We were encouraged to go over the scheduled hour for which we were given extra points. This floored me and I saw it as a serious imposition on the students who had their own schedules to keep. We were also measured on student evaluations, a valid measure, but when those middle, neutral ratings values were calculated as negative, something is clearly unfair and not right. As we all know, it is easy to get high student eval scores by inflating grades.
Second, overall instructor ratings determined what courses we received for the next session. I was on a 5-week session rotation, and suddenly, after consistently getting 2 courses per session, I was assigned none. Now, the way courses were assigned — they simply showed up in your computer queue, or they didn't — no human communication of explanation otherwise. So, after a dearth of courses one session, I decided to sit back and see what would happen next session. Next session — same thing, no assigned courses. At this point I contacted one of 2 "bosses, " the chain of responsibility was never clear — and was told that enrollments were down, and priority assignments went to those who'd been out on leave, then to new instructors, then based on scores. My scoring put me down the list, and those items responsible for doing so were clearly out of my control. The priority sequence left me absolutely speechless. I also asked this manager for a breakdown on instructor scores by age — I am of the Baby Boomer gen and I suspect there might be something interesting to look at there. No surprise here, I did not receive said breakdown.
Finally, for a short time, I participated in what was a wonderful forum for English instructors to discuss issues with our respective programs. I was an active contributor to this group. I presented both my positive and negative views. As a can-do sort of person, I always contributed ideas for improvement as well. I began to feel the effects of the Stepford syndrome quite quickly and suspect my participation led to my demise.
In sum, the treatment of instructors at CTU is abysmal. Scores are based on superficial standards that are surely designed to address government investigations relative to financial aid and instructional integrity. I also believe there exists significant discrimination by age.in short — do be forewarned if you are considering working for CTU.
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