American Public University System Reviews

Pros

My program and the people who run it are amazing! Working remotely is nice, but comes with a cost.

Cons

Without a PhD you won't make more than $45,000 a year. The amount of students you have to teach (per your contract), combined with the number of papers/projects in each class, makes it difficult to stay on top of the grading and have time to really "teach".

Advice to Management

Getting a PhD is time consuming and expensive. Not having one shouldn't keep instructors from rank advancement - especially when they have over 10 years teaching experience.

Pros

working at home on own time schedule

Cons

They do not respect or appreciate their part-time instructors and take advantage of them.

Advice to Management

Be kind to your instructors. It's no wonder the turn-over rate is so high.

Pros

There's a great deal of good technology available to conduct classes.

Cons

Many of the courses lack up to date information. Management is very focused on metrics and tools. Domain knowledge must accompany metrics, which seems to be the current challenge. Course templates are used which is problematic. Each time you conduct a course, the classroom is returned to the original template configuration. Therefore, if the course uses outdated or incorrect information, there's a lot of time involved...

Advice to Management

Be sure to regularly review the course materials to bring them up to date. Some of the information included in course templates is 10-15 years old.

Pros

- Department leadership that is receptive to feedback, advocates for its team members and is easy to work with. [My manager is the best I have every worked for and one of the main reasons I have stuck with this company during difficult times. Being on the other side of those trials, I can now say I am extremely happy to work here and overly satisfied with my employment at APUS.] - Flexibility. The ability to work...

Cons

- Fast launch of new programs or initiatives that are not structurally ready for launch. - Too many systems within and across teams (currently being addresses) - A ‘never close’ mentality. - Constant changes from Academics that have a direct impact on both students and staff without taking those impacts into account beforehand. - Some lingering negative employees that refuse to move on.

Advice to Management

Continue to keep the student and staff experience at the core of decision-making. Consider times when your staff should be placed ahead of an extra dollar, such as allowing us to close on the majority of holidays. Continue to improve cross-departmental knowledge and then progress to more collaboration across teams. Increase vacation accrual amounts at additional points of seniority. Never lose your commitment...

Pros

They match your 401k. Honestly, that's all I can think of because the rest is atrocious .

Cons

After nearly a 5 years of employment as fulltime faculty, I finally quit. I couldn't handle teaching 6 classes a month with 100 plus students month after month for 11 months out of the year. It is bad enough we have to teach those kinds of numbers but it doesn't stop there. They also make you build new classes EVERY month that roll out the next month. Imagine grading 100 graduate level writing assignments PER WEEK...

Advice to Management

Get OUT of the For Profit space and go non-profit. Hire Subject Matter Experts and stop making fulltime faculty do this job. HIRE Instructional Designers to do the content creation of your classes and STOP making fulltime faculty do this. Finally, lower teaching loads. No instructor should be teaching more than 4 classes at one time or more than 50 students! Right now, this school is nothing more than an exploitive...

Pros

The ability to teach your classes without someone looking over your shoulder. Supervisors have your back when dealing with students. Supervisors keep you updated on any changes forthcoming.

Cons

Have been there almost 10 years and have had only 1 opportunity to go full-time. Same pay since I started. Not very consistent with getting class assignments due to lower enrollment.

Advice to Management

Push for pay raises for your adjunct faculty!

Pros

Telecommuting capability. Although most companies allow this now.

Cons

The change in management has been devastating to the mission and really plummeted morale across the board. Multiple teams in academics are struggling to understand the direction/mission. Lack of communication from upper management. Faculty don’t get paid nearly enough for the work we do. Registrar’s office is struggling with the new working hours. The online library is hemorrhaging good people due to poor management....

Advice to Management

I don’t even know how to give advice, it’s so bad.

Pros

- This company predominately promotes from within which has granted a large number of people to be promoted faster than most would have the opportunity at other colleges. - Ability to work remotely when needed in most areas - Benefits package is great compared to other companies I have worked for - Challenging work that helps people get their education - Co-workers are amazing here and a big reason why I have stayed...

Cons

- Technology is currently being updated in several key areas that should have been addressed earlier.

Advice to Management

Company had grown significantly and with that has brought change. Focus of your change leadership plan and find a balance between maintaining a company that promotes from within and bringing in fresh leadership.