re: LSUS Online MBA Reviews

I have zero accounting experience in work or education but Accounting 701 with Li Huang so far has been a breeze. Unlimited attempts to answer the homework, the weekly quiz reuses about 1/4 of those questions, and the lecture slides is the only thing you need to study.
There is a project in this class that I havent looked into yet though.

extremely light. Ive been putting in about 3.5 hours for each week so far and it could be much less but Im new to accounting and Im over studying a bit because I want to really ace these first tests to build up a grade cushion.

Segwaying off that comment from Quintus - is there a running Excel sheet/Google doc that has a list of each class and the preferred professor?

I'm down to start one if people want to contribute.

The following was accurate as of Summer 2019:

MADM 760 (CORE COURSE)- STRATEGY, MEEKS
SLIDEDECKS: YES
ZOOM/VIDEOS/INTERACTIVE: LOL, YES (watch to your heart's content…probably over 100 for the course). Meeks will join your weekly group Zoom sessions, too
REQUIRED DISCUSSION POSTS: NO
QUIZZES/EXAMS: NO
GROUP WORK: YES, but only about a 30 min-1 hour per week commitment. Super minimal and easy (you fill in one slide from a slidedeck template and record a 5 min Zoom session, but you MUST meet together weekly to get the points).
WRITING: LOL, YES. 2,000-4,000 words per week (don't submit fewer than 1,700 words if you want an A. Just don't.)
“ACADEMIC COACH” GRADERS: NO. Meeks grades quickly but with zero feedback (again, grading is heavily reliant on # of words submitted)
TIME COMMITMENT: 5 HR/WEEK (more if you want to really watch the videos and read all the materials or if you don't easily crank out papers)
THOUGHTS: I definitely recommend Meeks. If you're a good writer and hate exams, you'll love this class. Don't let the groupwork scare you away. It's easy and you'll meet some great people. I think this course and Darban’s ISDS 705 are the two best “Intro to MBA Principles” courses in the program

ISDS 715 (ELECTIVE)- PROJECT MANAGEMENT, HENNIGAN
SLIDEDECKS: YES, but poor quality with a million words on each AND very wordy notes underneath the slides that do not adequately prepare you for the exams
ZOOM/VIDEOS/INTERACTIVE: NO, Hennigan is MIA
REQUIRED DISCUSSION POSTS: NO
QUIZZES/EXAMS: YES, weekly with multiple choice and fill in the blank answers; closed book, proctored
GROUP WORK: NO
WRITING: NOT REALLY, there are hw assignments each week, but the writing is very minimal (the assignments consist of mostly math or diagrams and if I recall correctly, you only write when you create a Charter and Project Management Plan)
“ACADEMIC COACH” GRADERS: NO, and Hennigan is a forgiving grader on the hw
TIME COMMITMENT: 3hr/week
THOUGHTS: Pretty poor course that provides the 35 hour education requirement to sit for the PMP but won't actually prepare you to pass the PMP (which I felt like he acknowledged in his email at the end of the term). Though it's not the best course, an A is very doable. Just take the time to really memorize what's in the slides

I'm getting a post quantity and quality check, so I'll just do all of Fall 2019 together. I paired the top two together and then the bottom two together.

ACCT 701 (CORE COURSE)- ACCOUNTING, AMBROSIO
SLIDEDECKS: YES, and they look like there's chocolate sauce running down every single one of them/like they’re from the 90’s ;) but the content is super high quality
ZOOM/VIDEOS/INTERACTIVE: YES, all of the above. The videos are professionally produced. Ambrosio makes a serious effort
REQUIRED DISCUSSION POSTS: NO, but there is an optional, active discussion board where you can ask questions and Ambrosio will answer all of them
QUIZZES/EXAMS: YES, weekly. 12 questions @ 8 pts each= minimal wiggle room for error! Proctored, but they are open book/open everything but the internet
GROUP WORK: NO
WRITING: NO
“ACADEMIC COACH” GRADERS: NO
TIME COMMITMENT: 5 HR/WEEK
THOUGHTS: Ambrosio is a great professor who provides lots of resources and will answer every question you have until you really get it. I cannot endorse this course as an "easy A," but you can get one with enough diligence. Ambrosio is a really awesome professor, IMO, the best in the entire program

FIN 701 (CORE COURSE)- FINANCE, CHOI
SLIDEDECKS: YES, good quality
ZOOM/VIDEOS/INTERACTIVE: NO, but there is an active discussion board where you can ask questions and Choi will respond
REQUIRED DISCUSSION POSTS: YES, weekly + response to classmate
QUIZZES/EXAMS: YES, 3 non-comprehensive. Closed book & proctored, but 1/2 sheet page of handwritten notes allowed
GROUP WORK: NO
WRITING: YES, 500 word case study every other week
“ACADEMIC COACH” GRADERS: YES, but mine was cool
TIME COMMITMENT: 5-10 HR/WEEK
THOUGHTS: I dropped Vines and switched into Choi and I am very happy I did. Choi seems like a nice & engaged guy, though all his communication is written (no videos/Zoom sessions). I liked that there was a writing component in this course to offset any bad exam scores for us math haters :D

ECON 705 (CORE COURSE)- ECONOMICS, SHAUGHNESSY
SLIDEDECKS: YES (took me a while to find them, but they’re there)
ZOOM/VIDEOS/INTERACTIVE: YES to both but I strongly disliked this course’s format. There were two long (>1 hour each) videos you had to watch each week with a video quiz for each, along with many other optional videos. For some reason, I just couldn’t get into the disorganized look and feel of the course materials offered. However- Shaughnessy makes a SERIOUS effort to give lots of course materials if you’re into that
REQUIRED DISCUSSION POSTS: NO, but there are optional ones
QUIZZES/EXAMS: YES, many (IMO). I’ll explain them the best I can. There are 2 video quizzes (unproctored) that go with the 2 videos you have to watch each week. There is also a self assessment (unproctored) each week. You get 2 chances on the video quizzes and the self assessments and he averages the two scores together (so he doesn’t take your highest score, but the average of the two). There is also an end of module assessment each week. Shaughnessy gives you the gist of the questions in advance, you work on them in paragraph form, and then take the assessment (proctored), which has multiple choice questions and you hope that what you put into your own answers match up to one of his multiple choice questions (usually they do- the questions are relatively straightforward). FYI: you can find a lot of previous semesters’ answers on CourseHero or Chegg, BUT I will warn you that a lot of the ones I found on there were NOT correct and Dr. S definitely mixes it up, so don’t trust all of them!! The questions may be the same, but I think Dr. S makes an effort to not make the answers the same
GROUP WORK: NO
WRITING: NO (only what you choose to write in your end of module answer prep)
“ACADEMIC COACH” GRADERS: NO
TIME COMMITMENT: 5-10 hr/week (the videos alone take up 2-3 hours, which I disliked. I very much prefer slide decks and a go-at-your-own-pace style of work more)
THOUGHTS: Hmm. I really liked Shaughnessy’s personality in the videos but I didn’t like the structure of the course. For all the resources he provides (which can be overwhelming at times), I disliked that he didn’t provide slide decks that contained just the critical information. I think if you’re a really eager learner who likes to have nice-to-know on top of need-to-know, you’ll enjoy this course. Shaughnessy really put in an effort to make it great. As for me, I prefer a more straightforward approach (e.g. Ambrosio style) without a whole bunch of optional material added in all over the place. I found myself having FOMO because I couldn’t get to all of the materials and just found it all to be too much. I know a lot of people consider Shaughnessy the “gold standard” in the program and I’m sure he’s an awesome in-person professor. I think this course is best suited for people with a strong interest in Econ with lots of extra time on their hands

ISDS 710 (ELECTIVE)- DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING, M. DARRAT
SLIDEDECKS: NO (weekly assigned reading/articles from HBR, Kellogg, journal articles instead)
ZOOM/VIDEOS/INTERACTIVE: NO
REQUIRED DISCUSSION POSTS: YES, 5 total
QUIZZES/EXAMS: 1 FINAL (proctored, open note, closed internet, worth 25% of grade)
GROUP WORK: NO
WRITING: YES, 4 Case Studies 3-5 pages in length worth 25% of grade; 5 Discussion Posts (250 words) w/reply worth 25% of grade; (there are also 4 Excel-based HW assignments worth 25% of grade- not necessarily writing, but I just thought you should know about them)
“ACADEMIC COACH” GRADERS: YES
TIME COMMITMENT: 5-8 hr/week
THOUGHTS: Great course if you’re interested in marketing and Excel. A decent amount (~1-2 hr/week) of reading and then thought sharing (writing)- more socratic-learning style than teaching to a test. I liked the format of this class and found the readings were interesting. I took this course because I thought it would be a solid intro to R, but he either took that component out or I misunderstood previous course offerings because R is not mentioned anywhere in this course. Darrat is largely absent; if you’re an Ambrosio, Shaughnessy, Meeks-type learner, you may not like this course. If you like straightforward, self-directed learning, and light course materials, you will probably like this course. Overall, I think I have positive feelings about the class and I learned some solid Excel tricks/it was a good Excel refresher course

Maybe I am a slow worker, but I am putting in a lot more time than that. However, we had all different professors.

I too am satisfied with the program overall.

Thanks for great post.
Good luck to you.

That would be great. Could post the link here and on the Facebook

Hey guys and gals. Thanks to all who have taken the time to document all the useful information.

I'm considering pursuing a MBA and hoping to get some input on how course material is presented.

In short I have a two hour daily commute that over the years I've used to study for board exams, complete CMEs, etc. and I'm curious if any of the course material is presented in a way that would allow me to make use of my commute. Audio available for lectures etc.

Thanks in advance

@RSLSUHSC Yes, if you're riding a train or bus and not driving. There are slidedecks or reading materials you could review on your commute. In terms of audio, you'd have to enable the Siri speak screen feature and have that read your materials to you. Otherwise, you have to be logged into Moodle for the video lectures because the school uses Kaltura, which disables downloading the lectures for offline viewing (or I just don't know how to...). I guess it depends on how you like to study and what your commute method is. I would think a train/bus would enable you to crank out papers as well, which is a plus.