re: LSUS Online MBA Reviews

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Craziness in ISDS 710! Looks like it was too overwhelming for the majority of the students and the remaining 4 weeks are going back to the original format of a "Marketing class with numbers thrown in."

While it WAS overwhelming, it was a huge improvement once he started having a Zoom session. It's unfortunate that he won't be continuing with a Zoom supported format (Preferably the Zoom on Tuesday or Wednesday) as I personally felt it dramatically changed the nature of the class for the better.

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I was just posting about this! I am livid right now. Absolutely astonished.

Like you said, there was no question that the course content was overwhelming for many. This course had become a REAL data analytics course. The problem was not the content, it was the absolute lack of any semblance of actual "instruction".

Yeah, I'm absolutely floored.

In all of our other courses, the same refrain has been drilled into our heads. "This is a master's level program. We expect a master's level effort." Paraphrasing what Meeks so fondly likes to say, "business favors those who figure it out, so you need to put in the work to figure it out." When things get tough for the instructor though, they get to wave the white flag while pulling the rug out from underneath the class?

Meanwhile, this is just getting uglier. The "new" syllabus is a hastily edited document, still full of the R content, but now with added case studies and discussion forums. Three 3-5 page papers now due, in "APA style.". Is it 4 discussion forum assignments for 80 points? Is it 3 discissuon forum assignments for 60 points? Who knows?

It doesn't matter since, in order to "catch up" to the new format, he's cramming four weeks of content into this week. We have to read the first 100 pages of the new textbook this week (Chapters 1-4) along with four other readings.

I feel for you guys in ISDS 710, that sounds like an absolute train wreck. Is that M. Darrat or A. Darrat? I had the latter for International marketing and I wasn't impressed.

It sounds like a lot of these concentrations are not ready for prime time. I've seen many complaints about the DA concentration. I took International Business and IB and IM were nearly the identical course.

LSUS will need to clean up messes like this quickly or run the risk of reinforcing the "you get what you pay for" perception or even worse, jeopardizing its accreditation.

It's M. Darrat who previously mentioned he has two brothers that also teach Marketing. I suspected M. and A. Darrat may have been related and it's all but confirmed now. The new rubrics posted for ISDS 710 are identical to the ones A. Darrat used for MKT 701.

I suppose it doesn't really matter but as you've seen with my review of MKT 701, I also wasn't impressed.

I’m so annoyed. I really feel like people could have thrived under the new setup IF : there were weekly zoom sessions to begin with, the emphasis was on the book and not DC, and the DC assignments had been laid out well to begin with. I cannot believe we are throwing the format out the window halfway through. If everyone was struggling then you need to rework the format youve already set forth, not decide to revert back.

Adding salt to the ISDS 710 wound, LSUS just announced a new course:

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We are also pleased to announce the creation of a new course—FIN 740 Financial Analytics. This course is an empirical course in financial analysis. Students taking this course should have a strong background in statistical analysis from their undergraduate program, graduate coursework, or professional experience prior to enrolling in this course. If students do not currently have a strong background in statistics, it is highly recommended that they complete ISDS 702 prior to taking this course. FIN 740 currently counts as a General Business elective. Students in the Finance or Data Analytics programs who think this course might be useful in their career aspirations can contact Danielle Voumard to request a substitution. The FIN 740 course description is as follows: This course introduces analytical tools to solve practical problems in finance, using R. The topics include: (1) financial time series analysis, (2) forecasting, (3) portfolio optimization, (4) fixed income securities, (5) derivatives pricing, (6) credit risk models, and (7) quantitative risk management.

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This is craziness.

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Craziness? THIS...IS...LSUS!

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One reason why I chose LSUS is because of its affiliation with the flagship campus. I highly doubt they will allow the Shreveport campus to come even close to being at risk of losing their accreditation. Additionally, I have a peer paying several tens of thousands of dollars more than us in a "prestigious" business school and spent her first class dealing with a similar debacle of disorganization and lack of professor engagement. She said it was a mess and his lectures were awful and only served to confuse them basically. But goes to show there are bad professors everywhere. Nobody panic.

Definitely disappointing to know the DA concentration still has kinks to work out and that yal are caught up in it though. Switching the format midway. Who does that?!

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I never like to complain to a professor or coach when I don't understand something in the course because I like to figure things out on my own. So, while I was super overwhelmed with the course during the first two weeks I dealt with it. Then with the zoom sessions, I finally understood what I was doing.

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It's funny that you mention that. The "Completely Lost" thread in Moodle took two weeks to get to 34 replies, many of them with people (including myself) offering to help in lieu of Darrat's failure to do so. Meanwhile, the "Complete Course Change" thread took about 18 hours to get to 23 replies. Obviously, this is not a popular change. The fact of the matter here is that those who screamed the loudest got their wish.

The sad thing is that this situation was completely avoidable if Darrat actually did his job and TAUGHT. For comparison, let's take another course with more complex subject matter: FIN 701. Vines did live Zoom sessions 3 times per week! Meanwhile, it took 3 weeks for Darrat to do one session, which was scheduled about 8 hours before the actual session began.

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Then this morning we wake up to this ridiculousness! How is this allowed?!!

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I did a little research. Apparently in other countries, specifically the UK, materially changing the course after it begins is illegal, subject to restitution per their consumer protection laws. LSUS, however, can do whatever they want apparently here in the US.

Also, there is no formal complaint process for something like this at LSUS. The only formal course-related recourse is to file an appeal after grades are posted, first to the instructor, then the dean, and then the vice chancellor for academic affairs. Per policy, the dean / vice chancellor does not have to respond to complaints otherwise, thus the copypasta excuse for changing the course from Dr. Knotts (which was then poorly parroted by Darrat and posted to Moodle).

The copypasta excuse from Dr. Knotts about "not meeting the description in the course catalog" is a weak excuse. Despite the existing course description, they explicitly changed the ISDS 710 course content before this term to an R focused class. I have to believe the MBA department had to approve the "R experiment" well before the term began. Instead of blaming an underperforming instructor for all of the complaints and poor grades, or worse, an overloaded instructor that they were spreading too thin on the cheap, they blamed the content. The end effect is we get to suffer in exchange for the excuse of "meeting the description in the course catalog." All of the previous R content is now irrelevant in the scope of this course, and we get to scramble while they stuff a new 7-week course into 4 weeks.

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Thank God I graduate in December and then it will be all behind me.

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That makes several of us. I get to juggle this along with the already crazy rendition of MADM 760 from Meeks. Four more weeks of hell, now tripled.