I often get asked if I enjoy attending school online or if I would still do it if I had to start all over again. I’m currently in my last semester of my bachelor degree program, so I decided to ask the students for some pros & cons of attending The Art Institute Online (AIO). Let me start by saying that this website is not sponsored nor endorsed by AIO so everything you read here is honest and will not be sugarcoated. Students just tell it like it is on this site. So here is a list of their most popular responses in no particular order:
Pros
- Flexible Schedule - Do assignments and read lectures, books, websites, etc whenever and wherever you want
- Learn Anywhere - Wherever there is an internet connection, you can be in class.
- Few “tests” - Most grades are based on projects that help show individual talent and understanding rather than simple memorization.
- Convenience & Flexibility - It’s good for those that prefer to work independently, but it does require a bit of discipline.
- Convenience - Don’t have to worry about weather issues (like snow).
- Anonymity - Because this is somewhat anonymous, people may participate more than they probably would in a traditional classroom setting where they would shy away from discussions.
- Dealing with professionals in my line of work - Most everyone is already in the creative field in one way or another, so we can relate.
Cons
- Cost - Currently about $70k for a bachelor degree)
- Many classes are dated - Quite a bit of interactive media assignments aren’t currently being used in the real world. I don’t care what the facilitators try to tell you, Authorware is dead…let it go.
- Lack of Social Aspect - There is no face-to-face interaction that students of ground schools get to experience. Network and socializing is somewhat more difficult and less effective
- Lack of Traditional Benefits - Due to it’s nature there are no benefits like you would find at a traditional campus, such as student gyms, doctors, social programs, stocked library, ect.
- Lack of Advice - The school only provides a minimum amount of guidance when pursuing financial aid and career guidance.
- Class Lecture Material/Textbook Choices - Most times, the information is so old in the lectures and even more often than that, the information included is not in depth enough. Quite often, the textbooks are less than helpful as well. There are many students that do not even buy textbooks…ever…and still make straight A’s.
- Anonymity - Yes, this is both a pro and a con. Sometimes it’s hard to be so alone…it’s not just being alone as far as classes go. It is being anonymous when it comes to administration, too. Academic advisers would seem to be more apt to help out if we were right in front of them.
- Waiting Period - Sometimes it makes things difficult when you have questions for an instructor and you have to wait for a response through e-mail or in the discussions….sometimes takes days. On rare occasions, the facilitator may not even respond, which negatively impacts assignments.
- Facilitators - They should still be teachers. Just because we are online and this is self-based learning, does that mean that they should simply give grades and feedback. We want the wisdom of their experience. There are some good ones out there, those that go above and beyond to do whatever they can to make the learning experience a positive one. Far too often, though, the bad ones outweigh the good ones…and a bad facilitator makes it a painful experience when you feel like you’re wasting 5 1/2 weeks and $1300+ dollars!
- Pre-structured Classes - The teachers basically have little or no input into what material we cover and how we cover it since it is all laid out in advance. Many facilitators blame the material rather than fixing it as they go. Then again, some facilitators step up and fix the mistakes, errors, and outdated material.
- State grants (outside of PA) will not be accepted at The Art Institute Online since AIO is a division of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. If you receive a state grant outside of PA…well…you’re out of luck.
- No connection with most of the classmates! I mean yeah, we have bios on the first day of class but other than that, the postings are just blah and it’s easy to disconnect with people. It would be nice if we had a section in each class for more personal topics if someone wants to post whats new with them, life, pictures, to share what they did over the weekend, whatever. There is a student lounge for such posts, but the “new” classroom format makes it easy for cobwebs to form in that section of the forums.
- Session 2 of every quarter - The Art Institute Online arguably has the most screwed up schedule for “semesters”. There are two sessions in a quarter. Each session is 5 1/2 weeks long. The first session runs basically from Monday-Sunday (yes…you can be in class any day of the week, but the first 5 are typically the busiest). The second session though runs Thursday-Wednesday which means you do the bulk of assignments on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! It makes it incredibly difficult to get into any sort of schedule with work and life as you are forced to move everything around the changing school schedule. It flat out sucks.
Summary
So there you have it…a rather extensive, honest list of the pros and cons of The Art Institute Online. Hopefully this will give people interested in attending AIO an inside scoop on what to expect. I hope it also serves as a list of issues for AIO that the students are most concerned about. A few of the cons are minor issues that could easily be resolved within the administration, which would make an immediate impact. The #1 pro was “convenience” as students like the ability to attend class wherever and whenever. I, personally, have an extremely hard time justifying the cost of the online version needing to be $100 more per class than the on-ground version at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and I have never received a straight-up and honest answer for the cost. I’m led to believe they can charge whatever they feel like since they are are private institute…students just have to deal with it. Students simply do not get all of the advantages as campus students with computers, labs, software, library, face-to-face & immediate feedback, etc. Online learning may be the wave of the future, but the waters aren’t settled yet…it’s still a rather rough and turbulent ride as they work out the kinks. If you can attend an on-ground campus, then I strongly suggest doing so. If your schedule prohibits that, then The Art Institute Online would be my next suggestion.
Tags: No Tags.
Shane Eubanks is the founder of The Art Institute Online Student Community and dedicates his spare time to giving the students every possible opportunity to earn a quality education.Visit Shane Eubanks's Website
Everything you said here in the cons is true. These are things that I been complaining about for a very long time, and they keep saying that things are being done… but they aren’t. I been here for 3 years with growing aggravation.
If I can add a few more cons
- Bad class information: the material in the class is not just outdated, sometimes it is just plain wrong. Sometimes it makes no sense, and sometimes its just not there.
- Staff that changes faster than you change socks. I already been through about 5 academic advisor in 3 years. No, it is not me, they simply keep firing them. Same goes for financial advisers.
- Odd choices of software: The school insists on using 3D max. While North American companies uses Maya mostly.
- 5.5 weeks: is not enough time to do anything. Sure it is improvement over the overlapping week (anyone remembers that, now that was hell). But it still bad. 11 weeks courses with less assignment everyday would get people much further.
- 5.5 week: not enough time to build portfolio quality work. You want portfolio work? You will have to do it on your own time extra.
- No live connection with teacher. Never do you really get to chat with them and get real guidance.
- No audio or video lecture. Seriously, how hard would it be to add?
- Courses have wrong assignments: Some courses have simply the wrong assignments that are imported from other places and are not double checked.
- Courses that are built for ground base schools: yup, many are just taken from AIP. They do not fit online environment.
- Teacher that are unprofessional and in many cases simply refuse to help or listen.
- Won’t let you transfer a lot of credits.
- Small selection of General Education classes.
OK, this list can go forever so I will stop. very cool you managed to find pros because I can’t. The only reason I am here is because I have no choice and spent to much money already hoping things will get better.
One thing that I find frustrating is the notice date of the classes that we are enrolled in for the next session. This is only my first session with AIO so I don’t know if this is typical or not, but I was not notified of the classes I was taking until 1 week before the session started. When I tried to purchase my books for the classes (the same day that I received the notification) I found that they were out of stock almost everywhere. Needless to say, I muddled through week 1 with no textbook for one of my classes. We should be given a minimum of 3 weeks notice so we don’t have to scramble and end up paying an arm and a leg for expedited shipping just to get our books on time!
Hmmm, I’m a little surprised. I think the 5.5 week thing is one of the best parts. The Thursday start thing sucks though. Bumping that up to Monday would make things wonderful.
I’ve had a lot of those problems at a regular school before, too. That’s no excuse not to fix things though.
Shane stated “No connection with most of the classmates! I mean yeah, we have bios on the first day of class but other than that, the postings are just blah and it’s easy to disconnect with people. It would be nice if we had a section in each class for more personal topics if someone wants to post what’s new with them, life, and pictures, to share what they did over the weekend, whatever. There is a student lounge for such posts, but the “newâ€? classroom format makes it easy for cobwebs to form in that section of the forums.”
Michele’s feedback:
The connection is here at AIOSTUDENTS.COM. I had 3 students that all lived in the Boston area. They got together to have lunch, dinner, discussions and just to connect. They ended up meeting another classmate that had an art gallery, and did a showing of their work. They now have a bond that goes beyond AIO.
As an online student myself for the past 5 years I have to say that I now have friendships from around the world. We talk often, and travel to see each other.
You have the opportunity with AIOSTUDENTS.COM to put up an employment guide for students to offer, and apply for job positions. This is the place where change can take place, and AIO students need to be involved.
I urge my students to take “ownership� of their education here at AIO.
Thanks for the reply, Michele. I should mention that the pros & cons were mentioned by other students…I simply compiled them.. I don’t want it to seem like one voice shouting out.
You’re right about the things that I could add to help students such as an employment guide. I had early intentions of doing just that. I still might. The problem, though, is that it is something that should be provided by AiO themselves. I do this in my spare time, so I can’t put as much effort into it as the students deserve…not as much as someone at AiO who would get paid to do the same thing. I think AiO Connections that the school is touting may be the key that gets everything going. I’m a graduate now, so I don’t know if I’ll have access to that, but it sounds exciting.
I intend to keep this site alive as long as students use it and can definitely see myself adding info to it that will help students succeed and network with others.
I’m so glad I found this site. I’m just beginning my third quarter here. After 2 quarters of doing really well and being very excited about attending AIO, I’m beginning to wonder.
I wonder if anyone else has had this experience. When I applied to attend and went through the financial aid procedure,I was told by my financial advisor when he went over the plan with me that I could make payments for the amount not covered by student loans. He explained the payments would be $70 per month until I completed school. I have just found out that is not the case and that the balance is payable in 3 installments only, my next two payments will amount to over $3000 (this is within the next 2 months). I tried speaking to someone in the financial aid department. They told me to apply for a clep loan. This won’t be possible, since I have very poor credit. I explained this to them and was told I could get a cosigner. The person I spoke with acted concerned but that was all they could do.
I really feel I was deceived. I hope this is not the case and that the Art Institutes is the respectable school I thought it was. If there are others with a similar experience, I would appreciate hearing their stories. I don’t want to waste anymore time or money on a school that practices deception to get student enrollment.
I”m in my third semester of the online learning and I have a bad feeling about the whole thing. I’m really hoping things will get better. I’m REALLY hoping that the classes will become more challenging and that the student work will get better and that I might actually learn something. But I don’t think any of that wil happenl. I’m starting to think I should just quit AIO and learn this stuff on my own. I don’t think there is enough feedback, in quantity let alone quality, from students or instructors. I don’t think things are set up in a way to really learn this stuff.
My advice to those considering the Art Institute Online: DON’T SIGN UP. If you are motivated enough, you can learn this stuff on your own.
Im a 36 year old alumni of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh - VC 1991 - and was thinking about joining / attending the BS Media Art & Animation program offered by AiOnline. Have been pretty excited about the prospect quite honestly, that is up until I stumbled across this article. After reading it through,as well as all the comments/posts, I am now very hesitant to shell out my $70K.
I very much enjoyed the graphic design program at the AIP back when I went- I learned a lot and feel it was money well spent. I figured the Online program would be up to snuff as well, but I am reading here that it is not the case. Does anyone know if its just the online program, or is the “on-ground” program for Media Art & Animation at AIP all screwed up too?
If any one has any feed back at all about either the program or the school, or any advice about the field what-so-ever, I would be grateful…
Thx.
I’m glad that I found this site, first of all, so thank you. I am (was) a prospective student for AIO, and just spoke with an advisor on the phone yesterday. The whole thing sounded a bit off while talking to him. He had the tone of a prescripted phone salesman, which doesn’t help to build any confidence with this program. I did not finish with him, because I didn’t want to waste 50 bucks just applying for the place that I am unsure about. So I told him I’d call him back later when I had time. The guy had me on my phone for about 2 hours, and I only own a cell phone mind you, so that’s a big hit on my minutes. I wanted to hang up on him, but I really would like to get into an online degree program.
I’ve been told some advice: before you buy into something, go to Google, and type the name of the company, and the word “SUCKS” after it, and check out the results. That’s what I did for AIO and came up with this. Thank goodness too, I don’t think I can shell out that much money for such a shoddy-sounding program.
I think I am going to look into some other online degree programs. (Looking for my Bachelors in a Game Art and Design program, 3d modeling, etc) Hopefully there’s something out there that’s worth looking into. If not, I guess I’ll just build some models for Half-Life 2 and see where it leads me.
It’s really a shame that people are using small amount of posts on this site as the deciding factor regarding AIO. I am just about to start my 2nd year with AIO and couldn’t be happier. After being in the ID industry (I’m an Interior Design major) for 15 years, I have learned more than I thought I would over the past year. I think that people should look at the good AND the bad before making a final decision. I would (and have) recommended AIO to family and friends in a heartbeat. No one, no school, no place of employment, etc. is going to make 100% of the people 100% happy 100% of the time. Just keep that in mind.
Jennifer Janke
Good points, Jennifer, and thank you for the positive reinforcement. Hopefully The Art Institute Online has taken points from this post (and comments) and addressed them since this has been written. I graduated in Sep of ‘06, so I’m not sure how it is now. In the fields that most of us are in, it’s important to do two things if going to college. Learn AS MUCH as you can inside and outside of classes…and network with as many people as possible. It’s highly possible that your classmates, facilitators, and people you come across will be valuable colleagues in the future. Learning a ton and making friends will make any education worthwhile. Sure, it’s easy to “just get by” and make the grades, but the real deal is the extra steps a student takes beyond the classroom. Make that time count and you’ll be well-rewarded.
Hey! well im going to start AIO right now on this semester well now on July 9!
Im so excited and i hope everything goes great and that i dont have a downfall of my expectives.
Take Care everyonee
Im off to check out that site of students.
I currently attend the Art Institute of Philadelphia and was thinking of possibly switching to AIO. This article has answered a lot of concerns I have. So, I’d like to thank Shane for taking time to put this together.
Anyway, the reason I’ve been thinking about AIO, is because I feel my grades have been suffering due to all the group projects I’m forced to do. It seems that every single class I take, the instructors kick back and force everyone to work together. I’m 22 and most of my classmates are straight out of high school, kids who seem to be there for all the wrong reasons, dragging there feet to every class. It’s always the same too, there’s one mule and the rest just jump on the wagon. So, I thought if I were to switch to AIO, the work would be more individualized and my true abilities would come through.
I also thought AIO would be more challenging, since you’re doing it all on your own. I almost thought that you’d learn more that way. But, from everyone’s bitter feedback it seems like the opposite.
So, I’m pretty torn. It’s either, sit through four hour classes with these 18 year old brats who chose an art school because they felt it’d be easier than a traditional college or take a chance at AIO, which seems to have a lot of dissatisfied alumni/current students.
If anyone could exchange thoughts with me and my current situation, it’d be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and regards,
Christian
I think the views of individuals from this site reflect a small portion of students who have had negative experiences. It’s important to realize that most people who don’t attend a 4 year degree directly after high school have limited academic potential as their lives progress and online gives an opportunity to these individuals. Although many students seeking a successful online learning experience are out there, I feel it’s important to take into consideration a lot of negative comments about AIO are coming from the other end of the spectrum. People who have a history of procrastination and obvious lacking of past educational prosperity are often another tier of individuals seeking online as a learning platform. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of negative comments come from those lacking work ethic as well as creative attributes to offer within their program. Ultimately, I guess what I am getting at is that a lot of potential online students don’t really have that much room to talk about when it comes to the concept of competencies. It’s their lacking in the past which has forced them to be left with an online source of education as their option.
Thanks for your thoughts, David. If you have some positive things that you’d like to share about your experience with AIO, I’m sure other prospective students would love to see them. As for thinking the negative opinions come from a certain type of people “who have a history of procrastination and obvious lacking of past educational prosperity” I can speak for myself and many of those that provided the majority of the opinions posted. Actually, the majority of the comments came from people who have been working in the industry or have sought a higher (or alternative) education. I haven’t logged into an AIO class since I graduated in September of 2006 and these opinions were collected in the month prior to my graduation. I passed the information along to various faculty at AIO in hopes to improve the curriculum and experience for students that followed. If you’re currently in a class at AIO, I’d love to know if any of the negative comments have been addressed. I had a sincere hope that AIO would grow into “the” school for online education of the arts.
As a recent student at AIO I would like to add my take. There are positive aspects to the Art Institute, however after a year and half of classes, most fall WELL short of the standards I came to expect at a normal college. Facilitators were hit and miss, some very interested and engaged, others barely there. As is most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it, however I think AIO misses the mark regardless. Antiquated platform, “facilitators” instead of teachers, classes that are too short (I’m sorry, but 5.5 weeks is not long enough for depth of certain subjects), etc… Some may have a good experience, but in the end you’ll end up with a massive student loan debt and still not learn what you need to know. Go to the library, it’s free and you can get the same info.
I agrre with Jace, they are sales people and will tell you anything . It did sound like a script, when i asked a question i could never get a straight answer . Mostly with the finacial person. I f i asked a specific question they answer with a word for word repeat of what they already read me. I also tried e-mails and they will never answer the questions straight forward. It’s almost as if they do not know the answers or they just don’t want it to be documented. I have been told that the start is may 8th. 2008 but yet i still see nothing online for the classes , i have no idea what is going on. Everytime they need me fill something out, i do it and then get another from to fil out. They need to get it together and give it to me all @ once. I feel like i have been lied to on many occasions, too much detail for that. But yes , i am very scared right now and feel i am about to owe a bunch of money and get screwed out of an education. I’m tempted to just call it all off and find another school but i don’t even know how to do that.
Any suggestions on some good online schools? I have 0 freetime two hours late at light is the most because I work full time and have twins. And live on my own.
Maybe everything will come together and it will be ok, but I am not feeling that right now.
Thanks
Sonia
DON’T DO IT!!
I would sugggest doing your research first. I learned my lesson a little too late. They late enrolled me, enrolled me in a class that was never mentioned or even asked if I had the time to take it, which I don’t .It is not in the finacial plan . I have been e-mailing and calling and no-one will give me a straight answer. So I basically got a terrible grade for that class because by the time I was able to even read it the assignment due date had come and gone.
I was concerned about it two weeks before the classes even started because I could not log on to get a head start. They kept assureing me that everything was ok , and it’s not. Don’t waist your time. Or at the very least don’t let them talk you into enrolling right away. The pressured me into starting ASAP even though they could not get there paper work together in time. I still don’t think it is straightned out. Take your time make sure all the paper work financial aid and everything is set in stone (and good luck with getting that) well before your start date.
DON’T LET THEM TALK YOU INTO IT!. They sugar coat everything, they are lying to you .
It’s too late for me , but save yourselves!!!!!!