Cultural Values And Personal Ethics

Every individual who walks into a classroom has a different style of learning. Many individuals are hands-on, while others can learn just from reading the text. The University of Phoenix understands this and has implemented many different ways to attend class based on their learning style. Some individuals need to sit in an educational setting once a week to learn effectively. On the other hand, some individuals learn better at their own pace and are better suited for online learning. Regardless of the medium one uses to obtain his or her college degree three things are always present: rEsource, learning teams and problem-based learning. In the following pages I will discuss the value of having these three resources available to students.

The idea behind rEsource is invaluable and I believe it will replace traditional textbooks in the future. Because rEsource is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from anywhere you can access the internet it is a tool that can be utilized regardless if you forget your book. Not only can you download the class readings and syllabus but you can also access the rEsource of any other classes you have already completed. Because the classes in this degree build upon one another, oftentimes a student will find that going back to the "additional readings" can be very beneficial when working on a project or paper.

The best aspect of rEsource is that it contains the most up-to-date information. Often by the time a textbook is written and published it is already out of date. Because rEsource is continually updated this problem does not exist. REsource also provides students with academic search engines as opposed to the typical Internet search engines that many times return millions of pages of material, half of which is unusable. This method is also very cost-effective. As many of us know that have attended traditional universities for our undergraduate degrees, textbooks are costly and you often cannot sell them or return them. While rEsource is a valuable tool I believe learning teams are providing great work standards to students.

Many companies today are moving to a new organizational model in which cross-functional teams are the key building block of the organization. Cross-functional teams are immense vehicles for producing products and services. Over the last decade, many companies have implemented a new model of organization. Instead of functional heads and departments - like sales, engineering, and manufacturing - they are adopting team-based structures in which teams are responsible for key organizational outputs. Because of this the University of Phoenix has implemented learning teams to allow students the opportunity to learn what it is like to work in a situation similar to one they will encounter once in the workplace. But, learning teams are only effective if they instructor is trained to effectively implement them.

The traditional learning team models define instructors as dispensers of information; solely responsible for ensuring that learning occurs. The student is thus defined as a passive receiver of information. In my opinion, it is not uncommon for an instructor to feel that the only way to ensure