Leadership (BUS 4405) at UoPeople

Leadership (BUS 4405) at the UoPeople is another course I took the last term. In my opinion, it’s not an easy course. The reason is that the subject is dry, the questions are confusing, and you really don’t know clearly where to read to do your assignments. Some questions say you need to do this, but the websites the course point you to have those components missing. The course load also doesn’t help. You’ve to write 8 Discussion Assignments, 7 Written Assignments, and 8 Learning Journals straight in 8 weeks without any break. Plan this course wisely and don’t pair it with another class that especially demands 7 Written Assignments.

You mainly learn about various kinds of topics from the prism of leadership, like corporate foresight, strategic leadership, emotional intelligence, diversity, decision-making, ethics, radical organizational change, and interpersonal leadership.

My class had over 35 students, and some dropped out after a few weeks. It was primarily a civil class, but some students always gave other students unreasonable grades. My instructor was from the US and was in a process of completing a PH.D. in Human Services. She was active throughout the class and changed grades on her own for the most part of the class. I emailed her once for reviewing my Written Assignment as I was unfairly graded, and she changed it within a few days. The instructor also took off points for the Discussion Forum response of fewer than 70 words.

The Discussion Assignments and Written Assignments are worth 20% each or 40% in total. If your classmates grade you unfairly, you’re totally SOL unless your instructor reviews the grade and re-grades you. The Learning Journals are worth 10%. As I said, the subject is very dry, and the questions are extremely vague in this course. There is no prescribed book for this class, and you learn everything from the links. Most of the time, there is no right answer to the questions, and you would often find students explaining things from their personal experiences and perspectives. Don’t grade them poorly!

The two Graded Quizzes in the class are worth 10% each or 20% in total. You take them in the 3rd and 6th week of the course. You get 45mins to answer 20 questions in each Quiz, which is overkill in my view. The Final Exam is worth 30% in this course. The Final exam had 50 questions, and you get 2hrs to finish it, which again is an excessive amount of time. I wish I had that much amount of time in some of the courses where I had to answer 50-60 questions with math in 1hr at the UoPeople. Most of the questions in the Quizzes and Finals of this class were on acronyms, definitions, theories, components, steps, processes, quotes, and so on. For example, the Final Exam or Quizzes might ask you the acronyms of EQ, SWOT, SMART, VUCA, etc. They might also ask you whether Abraham Lincoln said the following quote or not. Make legible notes on these aspects. The Final Exam was a bit challenging. I got 28/30 on the Final and ended up getting an A in the class.

The course felt like a combination of other classes at the UoPeople, like Emotional Intelligence, Psychology, Entrepreneurship, and Ethics and Social Responsibility. The course needs a total overhaul in my stance and perhaps a textbook, too. I feel that it's high time that the UoPeople invests in a new syllabus and questions. The questions were very vague and confusing in the class. Broken or missing components also didn’t help. In a nutshell, the course is not easy. The ambiguous and perplexing course material and questions are to blame for making it so. At the end of the class, I checked my and other students' submissions. They are now all on Course Hero, courtesy of morally corrupt and unethical students at the UoPeople who have no integrity, morality, and dignity. I simply despise people with no moral values because for personal gains, they'll go to great lengths without realizing the damage they are inflicting on others and society.