Thoughts on the ALB program: "The best undergraduate education possible"

My Google Blog search feed delivered an interesting item today: An appraisal of the Harvard Extension School's undergraduate ALB program, from a student who just finished his last class. Here's what the author of the Cyber Oppression blog had to say about his academic journey:

Overall I feel that I received the best undergraduate education possible. It was a great honor to study and then be a TA under Tom Hayes and run the Physics 123 lab — I think it’s entirely possible that Tom is the best introductory circuit design teacher in the world, and I know I am in great company. It was also a great honor to study cyberlaw at the Berkman center of Harvard law — as an undergraduate, I was able to take more IP, patent, copyright and digital law classes than are available at most law schools, including Larry Lessig’s former class “The Technology and Politics of Control”. I also learned Spanish with Professora Zetterstrand, studied the history of Boston under Robert Allison, and of course studied number theory, probability, topology, calculus, linear algebra, group theory, graph theory, etc. under professors Martinez, Boller, Winters, Bamberg, Towne. Astronomy at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Physics in the science center… comparative religious ethics and modern/contemporary American fiction in Harvard Hall. Museum studies with Mary Malloy (and the future directors of a couple dozen museums in the museum studies program), game theory with Neugeboren (who himself studied under Schelling, whose son Robert is also a close personal friend), psychology under Fersch, and the history of electronic music with Marshall all were brilliant courses also. So many of these professors were the best at what they do — leaders in their fields, the ones who wrote the books. And even though this was a "night school" program, Harvard refused to lower the bar and never failed to challenge me; many of the professors talked about how the curriculum in the college vs. night school was exactly the same, and in a number of cases the student projects and work in the night school exceeded that produced by the day students.

He's not the only person to note that some Extension School students do better than their Harvard College counterparts; this was one of the findings of a 2006 Crimson article (see Crimson: Some virtual Extension School students outperform Harvard College classmates).

The author of Cyber Oppression also discusses how physically and mentally taxing his ALB studies have been over the last six years. I can really sympathize -- as I have noted repeatedly on my own blog, the research and writing demands associated with the ALM program are punishing, and go far beyond simply attending class. For those of us who have full-time jobs and families, study generally takes place late at night and on the weekends, usually at the expense of personal and family life. The ALM or ALB programs at the Extension School are not casual endeavors -- they require major intellectual, academic, and personal commitments, and take years to complete.

No More Questions about the Harvard Extension School?

Shortly after launching Harvard Extended in June 2005, I started getting emails from people interested in the Harvard Extension School. The messages generally came from out-of-state residents who were researching the quality of the school, and/or had specific questions about the ALB and ALM programs. Most had seen the Extension School's official website, but they wanted to hear from a real student. Through Google, they found me.

Although I couldn't answer all of the questions I received, I usually tried to the best of my ability to relate my experiences at the Extension School or point them to other resources. On several occasions, I turned some of the questions and answers into blog posts, for the benefit of others who had similar questions (see Questions from a prospective Harvard Extension School student and Acceptance rate for Harvard Extension School graduate programs?) but I stopped after the trickle of emails turned into a steady flow. I received dozens of messages -- in August of last year, I remarked that I was getting about two emails per month. In the same post, I noted that some of these contacts were actually relocating to the Boston area to attend the Harvard Extension School:

It's interesting to see how readers have turned to the Harvard Extended blog for information and even inspiration. I started the blog for research-related reasons, and to chronicle my experience in the Extension School's ALM program, but for a few readers it has helped them make major life decisions.

It's a good feeling knowing that I've helped people in this way, but it's also a little unsettling. Changing one's career or academic path is very common in our society, but moving across state lines -- or across the country -- to attend the Harvard Extension School takes things to a different level. We local students can drop out of a program, or take a break from studies without any major impact on our jobs or family lives, but the folks who move to Massachusetts have already quit their jobs and said goodbye to family and friends. They have made a huge commitment, and it's much harder for them to stop or take a break. I really do admire them -- I think the ALM program is fabulous and worth all of the time, effort, and tuition I have put into it since 2003, but I am not sure I would be willing or able to quit my job or relocate my family to take part.

Shortly after writing this post, the flow of emails stopped. Around November, I realized that it had been some time since someone had emailed me about the Harvard Extension School.

What happened? While some people coming to the Harvard Extended blog find what they need and no longer need to ask additional questions, I believe that the dropoff was mainly caused by the rise of other online information resources about the Extension School, and their prominence in Google searches. These resources include the Wikipedia entry for the Extension School. There are also new HES blogs popping up, such as ClueHQ (ALB student) and Mission Control (ALM/Government), which provide additional information and opinion about the school.

It's a positive trend, especially considering that my own studies have wrapped up and the information on Harvard Extended will start to get dated. After I participate in Commencement this June, I am thinking about retiring this blog. It's been fun writing about the Extension School and my research interests, but with the end of my coursework, the successful completion of my thesis, and my graduation from the ALM program, the main reasons for maintaining Harvard Extended are removed. It will be time for me to move on.

Campus presence, student identity, and community

The Crimson's June Q. Wu has written an article about a joint degree program at Harvard College, which allows undergraduates to simultaneously study for a Master of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music. According to the arrangement worked out between the two schools, the Harvard AB is awarded after four years, and the NECM master's degree after the fifth year.

However, one of the students quoted in the article noted a problem that many Harvard Extension School students will recognize -- a struggle to build a sense of belonging amidst infrequent campus visits:

[Harvard administrator Mary C. Gerbi] says administrators at Harvard and the conservatory feel the two schools should provide a stronger sense of belonging at the conservatory. This is vital during the first three years of the program, when students make the trek across the river only once or twice a week for private lessons.

"My first year was not that great. I didn't really feel I was a part of the NEC community," says jazz pianist Malcolm G. Campbell '10, a chemistry and physics concentrator. "This year, I made my own initiative to go there more, and it's been great."

At the Extension School, there are many opportunities to participate in on-campus activities, but often I sometimes feel like an outsider at these events, as the other people are usually from different Harvard schools and departments. Even within Extension School programs and activities, there is no sense of class identity. People finish their degrees at their own speed, and some of the friends I've made over the years in class I've lost touch with later on as we've gone on to different classes meeting at different times and semesters. The author of the ClueHQ blog -- an ALB candidate at the Extension School -- once suggested creating class cohorts based on admit year, which is a great idea. We've all been boosted by the Extension Student online community, but the struggle to build and maintain a sense of community is something most HES students will continue to struggle with, particularly the remote students and people in distance-ed programs.

Presenting at the Boston Digital Media Summit

I am blogging from Boston College at the second day of the Boston Digital Media Summit, and have seen some great demos as well as interesting discussions about virtual worlds, games, and potential educational applications in 3D, computer-generated environments (the theme of this year's summit is Immersive Education).

One of the most amazing things to observe is how far the graphics have come in just a few years. Photorealism is coming. Less than two years ago, I presented at the "SIGGRAPH summit," which was the first installment of the Boston Digital Media Summit, held at Boston City Hall. The most impressive graphics on display were the demos by Jeff Kleiser, a professional visual effects artist who has worked on Tron, the X-Men movies, theme park installations, and television commercials. The games-based demos, including mine (I showed a machinima called The French Democracy), were far more limited -- textures were rough, character movements could be jerky, lighting was simplistic.

Not anymore. One of the BC students showed a demo of Crysis, an FPS that depicts a series of commando attacks in the year 2020. The graphics were stunning, albeit processor-intensive (it was set up on a custom PC running some major graphics hardware). Plants have always been tough to model in 3D, which I suppose is one of the reasons why even professional 3D CGI animation seems to prefer to environments that don't have plants -- witness Cars, Ice Age, and Pororo: The Little Penguin. Not with Crysis. A large part of it is set in a jungle, and the movements of the plants was very realistic -- the leaves were individually rendered, the physics of characters or other objects brushing against them was convincing, and even the little breezes that moved the leaves on individual branches of a bush looked like the real thing. It would be a stretch to call it photorealistic -- the mouths of the players still need work -- but photorealism is definitely on the horizon. I would embed a trailer in this blog, but the ones that are available are violent. You can see some Crysis trailers here; note that all are rated M.

I am joining one panel in the mid afternoon, and giving a presentation at the end of the day. The title of the presentation is "Grokking Generation G: Digital Media and the Video Game Generation," and gets into the demographic and technology trends that will impact the development and consumption of 3D media in the coming years. It's the third presentation I've given this week (I gave two earlier this week on online communities and video production at work) and the panel will be the second one I've participated in, after the discussions at the Social Media Club Boston event at Bentley College on Thursday night. After this is over, I can take a little breather -- I don't have any public speaking engagements scheduled for the next few months.

Dissertation horror stories

A fellow Harvard ALM blogger who operates the Mission Control blog writes an interesting aside at the end of a recent post, relating to doctoral dissertations that went horribly awry -- like the graduate student who discovered that his "great idea was completely wrong, no such thing existed," but was still forced to run with it by his advisor. Read the reason why, and a few other PhD tales of woe, at the end of this post.

Related entries:

• Gary North on the Ph.D. "Glut"


• Thesis proposal: Start, write, throw away, rewrite


• ALM thesis writers' meeting/Revisiting Vietnam?


• Writing an ALM thesis: Solo effort, a personal marathon, and finding a sounding board


• Thesis update: Done!

Last. Class. Ever.

Tonight was the last session of my last class at the Harvard Extension School. My final paper isn't due until the end of next week, but it's already 90% complete. I can submit it via email, so I won't be going to campus ever again to attend class, hit the stacks, or meet with professors.

Graduate school is basically over.

It felt strange leaving Boylston Hall and walking out into the Yard for the last time. It was dark, quiet, and muddy with all of the melting snow. Kind of dank, actually. Not the type of scene that would typically evoke sentimental feelings, but I felt very keenly that it was the end of an era for me. My graduate studies began five years ago this month, and with the exception of the fall of 2004 (when my son was born) and the summer of 2007 (after my thesis was substantially complete) there hasn't been a semester that I haven't devoted major amounts of time to course readings, class, writing, and research. As of next Friday I will have written nine final papers (typical length, 20-30 double-spaced pages), several dozen smaller papers and essays, a thesis proposal and my thesis. Almost all have required multiple drafts and revisions. I will have also spent hundreds of hours in class and many thousands more studying, writing, or conducting paper and thesis research. Even during my commute to work, I am thinking about class and research. After next Friday, all of this comes to an end. It will be odd to not have these requirements and routines dominating my life any longer.

I usually stroll quickly back to my car parked on Mt. Auburn Street, so I can get home before my wife goes to sleep. Tonight, I passed slowly through the dark Yard. I passed Mass Hall and walked through the gate for the last time as a student, and then crossed Mass Ave. On the other side, at the mouth of Church Street, I turned back, and noticed -- for the first time in a long time -- the giant, ornate clock on the upper floors of Mass Hall, facing the street. It was dark, but I could see that the hands read 9:20. Behind it and to the left, I could see the slim steeple of Memorial Church with the lantern burning inside. That steeple at night has always been one of my favorite campus scenes -- it really gives me a sense of peace, even when I have been hurrying to catch a class or have been exiting Widener with a bag laden with books.

This time, even though I am no longer dealing with such pressures, it still brought me a sense of peace, and perhaps a sense of finality as well.

Free Fouad

(Thanks to John Palfrey for the link)

aka "Crazy Week"

I have a very difficult week coming up, loaded with public speaking, writing, and some kids-related activities, outside of my full work and family schedule.

This afternoon, I'll give a presentation on online communities.

Tonight, I'll burn the midnight oil, in order to finish the draft final paper for From Text to Hypertext. The topic touches upon Mitchell Stephens' book, The Rise of the Image, The Fall of the World. In a nutshell, he thinks "new video" will grow to dominate mass media. My argument: Formats based on computer-generated, 3D environments will overshadow most video content. The explosion of new 3D media formats in the entertainment and news fields is something I've discussed at length before, but the paper has allowed me to hone my thesis. (I'll post excerpts when it's done). The paper will probably be around 25 double-spaced pages. I hand in the draft tomorrow night, the last session for the course, and my last class ever at the Harvard Extension School -- after this, all I need to do is submit my final version of the paper by the 19th, get a passing grade, and my ALM requirements are completed.

Thursday, I am taking part in a panel at Bentley College in Waltham on social media -- blogs, online communities, video, podcasting, etc. It's a gathering for the Social Media Club (Boston). I've presented to this group before, when I introduced Shark Bait early last year. This time, I will be talking about video -- one of my responsibilities at Computerworld, and an area of growth in the online world.

Saturday, I am attending the first day of the Boston Digital Media Summit. I have volunteered to serve as the press contact. On the second day of the summit, I will be taking part in two panels and giving the closing presentations on demographic factors that are shaping the next generation of digital media. I have a title -- Grokking Generation G: Digital Media and the Video Game Generation -- but I still have to gather stats and video clips, and put the presentation together in PowerPoint. I'll probably work on that Friday evening.

And lastly, we will be celebrating my daughter's birthday that weekend, probably Saturday night. I still have to find the time to get her a present ... most likely during one of my lunch breaks this week.

Upcoming Event: The Boston Digital Media Summit

I wanted to let local readers know about a special event taking place at Boston College next weekend. It's the Boston Digital Media Summit. The focus of the summit is Immersive Education, related virtual reality and digital media technologies, and pedagogy.

You may recall that the Harvard Interactive Media Group hosted a discussion of Immersive Education less than a month ago at the Graduate School of Education. The Boston College event is more extensive. There are two full days of demonstrations, panels, and presentations on Saturday, January 12 and Sunday, January 13. On the second day, I'll be participating in two of the panels and giving a presentation relating to one of my research interests, the video game generation and their media habits (see MMORPGs training "Generation G" for corner-office suites and My new media manifesto: "Meeting the Second Wave"). It's being sponsored by The Grid Institute, the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College, and the Federation of American Scientists with the Kauffman Foundation.

There is a tentative program for the Boston Digital Media Summit, and registration is now open. I have a few guest passes for the summit; please contact me if you're interested in using them.

Next week, I'll post more details about the event and generate a map for people who are unfamiliar with the BC campus.

A new Extension School blog: ClueHQ

I've mentioned other ALM bloggers in the past (see Priorities: An ALM Management student takes a break and Another ALM thesis is progress) but recently discovered the first blog written by someone in the Harvard Extension School's undergraduate ALB program. ClueHQ was started late last week, and the author is focused on information technology:

So far, I haven’t found a better program for non-traditional undergraduate education. The classes are rigorous and relevant. Many of my courses have focused on the theory of computer science but a few classes focus on more practical aspects of computer science, like programming in a particular language or working within a particular development environment.

The author of ClueHQ wants to earn a master's degree in CS, and is currently looking at the Columbia CVN program, a distance ed program that's part of Columbia University's School of Engineering & Applied Science. The Harvard Extension School's ALM in IT program isn't a good fit, for reasons outlined in the first post of the blog entitled Earning a Masters Degree in Computer Science via Distance Education.