Editor Note: This is a complimentary analysis received recently from a Blue Marble University graduate of our Undergraduate Bachelor Program, who completed our Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technologies. In the essay, “BMU” naturally refers to Blue Marble University. This graduate picked up on many of the features of Blue Marble University that make us both different and better than traditional colleges.
After high school, I enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, but I disliked my curriculum so I decided to enroll in BMU. After I graduated from BMU, I went to Cape Fear Community College which I’m currently enrolled in right now [in a health science program leading to licensing]. BMU is an online University and I’ve taken online courses from all 3 institutes so I’m able to compare them.
The best thing about BMU is that there are no courses that use an external platform for your assignments (Canvas, McGraw Hill, etc.), and the only account you need is your student portal. This also means courses are very self-paced compared to many of the other classes I’ve taken. Instead of forcing you to be in the pace of the class with other students or the professor wants to “gate-keep” you from the next assignments, you can be as ahead as you want. BMU gives a syllabus for every course just like any other traditional college course and it gives resources such as books and videos to help you out if you don’t understand the material. There are courses such as math and writing which are similar to traditional schools however, BMU seems to value quality over quantity. They give a small number of assignments that are long in length and are sometimes projects. Therefore, you can focus on a single assignment at a time rather than having to make a schedule and keep track of a long list. BMU offers you courses that are never going to be seen in other curriculums such as Immunochemistry, quality control designs, cultures, religion, and so much more.
BMU courses, especially in the STEM department, are very hands-on for an online school compared to both of the institutes I’ve been in. An example of that is my Electronics Lab which uses the Arduino software on a real circuit board. The student is instructed to build circuits on the board and explain how they work by learning the components of the circuit. They take pictures to show their progress and write a document about it. Another example from my Engineering course, I’ve also had hands-on experience with MATLAB which is a programming language and software for real engineers. I was provided video tutorials on how to use it and created simulated circuits with the Simulink software add-on. This makes me feel like each BMU assignment is made with the thought to truly educate the student on the subject matter rather than forcing students to write essays on unnecessary open-ended topics. In other words, you’ll learn what you really need. Speaking of learning, BMU courses are definitely designed to solve your own problems and find your own methods of completing the assignments. Of course, it’s unrealistic that BMU only has positives so I’ll give some negatives that might affect other students. BMU doesn’t offer extra credit assignments, practice assignments, and late assignments. Another negative that people might spot, is that BMU does not “hold hands” with you throughout your course. Like I said above, it’s very self-paced and problem-solving oriented.
Overall, I would prefer BMU’s courses over traditional college courses due to these reasons:
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- BMU gives a syllabus for every course just like any other college course and it gives resources to help you out if you don’t understand the material.
- BMU offers exotic courses that are never seen in a traditional college
- BMU values quality over quantity
- STEM courses are very hands-on
- Each BMU assignment is made with the thought to truly educate the student on the subject matter rather than forcing students to write unnecessary open-ended topics.
- Very self-paced and problem-solving oriented.
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Commonwealth of Dominica
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