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GROVE HOME: FAQS |
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A microcollege is an online college that is extremely streamlined in order to offer affordable humanities classes to a select student group. There are no landed facilities and no ancillary personnel besides a directing partnership of two and a board of three. Online social media tools are used instead of commercial educational platforms for all classroom communications. To find out more about microcolleges, please click here.
GROVE is run by a team of two: the director and the assistant director. The directors must either have a doctoral degree in some area of the humanities or or be actively pursuing it. Overseeing the financial integrity of the operation are three board members who must be actively involved in career business matters.
What sort of classes does GROVE offer? GROVE offers classes in the humanities. Primarily, these deal with the texts of great books written in history, philosophy, the classics, politics, and literature, to name a few of the major areas. These classes are designed to help the student examine fundamental problems and truths to the human life. No classes needing landed technical equipment are offered.
Are GROVE's classes accredited? No. GROVE uses the Microcollege Assessment Team of Courses of the Humanities (MATCH) to ensure that its classes are college-equivalent (3 hours / 3 credits). To find out more about MATCH, click here.
Classes are $175 with a $50 textbook-fee cap, although instructors are encouraged to use their own material or open-access online material. Classes are 8 weeks long. Thesis Writing Units (TWU) are $120 each. A TWU is 24 weeks long. Thesis Reading Units (TRU) are $90 each. A TRU is 16 weeks long. Portfolios are $75 each for assessment. A portfolio is a year-long project. Reading Logs are $50 dollars each. A reading log is a year-long project. Comprehensives are $40 each. A comprehensive is either a test showcasing proficiency after a year-long study or a test by which credits can be earned for a class.
Click on the question above to be directed to the PLANS page.
What sort of student should take classes from GROVE? GROVE is set up primarily for two types of students: adult learners who want to enhance their lives by reading and learning the classic material of the humanities, and students (both young and adult) who already have a current career or career plan. As of now, GROVE's credits will most likely not transfer to another college or university because GROVE is not regionally accredited by a recognized accrediting agency.
Click on the question above to be directed to the FACULTY page.
How do I talk to someone at GROVE?
Click on the question above to be directed to the CONTACT page.
Humans love to learn. GROVE will help students to become life-long learners.
A materialistic and commerce-driven lifestyle gradually occults with layers
of superficiality our yearnings for truth, meaning, understanding, and
order. We exist to rekindle this spark. As our Latin motto says, we will
teach for the sake of reason, order, and truth.
How can I design my own course?
First, propose the course (that is, come up with a title for the course and
a description of what you would like to study in the class). Then fill out a
Class Proposal Form A (click
here for the form). After this is approved, fill out a Class
Proposal Form B. Once this second form is approved, then GROVE will pair you
with an instructor and you can begin!
If you are taking an independent-study class just for fun, or a class in an
Advanced Study Certificate plan, you will be paired with a professor who
will study alongside with you. The job of professor is not necessarily to
lecture or instruct you over the content of the class but rather to read and
study with you in order to coach and guide you in valid ways of thinking
about the subject at hand. Very often, the learning coach will be learning
the subject for the first time, also. The advantage this person will have,
however, is the experience of handling similar texts or objects of study.
For ASC or BA students, a learning coach must have at least an MA degree in
hand. For MA students, a learning coach must have a Ph.D. in hand.
A preceptor is like a learning coach (see above answer) but has an MA or
Ph.D. in the subject area of the class. The preceptor will design the class
and the accompanying assessment tools and will be completely in charge of
assigning the final grades of the students in that class. Most classes that
have names in the plans are taught by preceptors. For ASC or BA students, a
preceptor must have at least an MA degree in hand. For MA students, a
preceptor must have a Ph.D. in hand.
A mentor is a preceptor that a student chooses to enter into a close
teacher/learner relationship. A mentor will guide a BA student through one
complete year (the fourth year) and a MA student for two (the fourth and
fifth year). The mentor usually ends up aiding the student in his or her job
search and moves far past a professional relationship into a true
friendship.
Can I start a
diploma or certificate plan at any time?
Yes and no. All of the classes in all of the plans are floating classes
(because they can be taken in any order) except the Latin and Greek group.
The Latin and Greek classes must be taken in numeric order. So if, say,
Jennifer Doe decided on New Years Day to start a BA in Western History, she
would have to wait until the beginning of TERM 3, which usually starts in
the second or third week of January. She could take all the classes offered
in that term except for Latin or Greek because in TERM 3 Latin 3 and Greek 3
are offered. She would have to wait for a new TERM 1 to roll around before
she could take Latin 1 or Greek 1. But in no way does this delay mean that
Jennifer's eventual graduation date is postponed. Students can graduate at
the end of any term, as long as they have final grades logged for all the
required classes in that plan.
Click here to see current classes, and
click here to see the calendar dates for current terms.
Can I pursue an
Advanced Study Certificate at any time?
Yes. Just email us at grove@openlatch.com and we will help you get started
either by guiding you through the necessary forms or by simply answering
your questions about what an ASC is and entails.
Yes, as long as you have the consent of your learning coach, preceptor, or mentor. Please understand that preceptors and mentors who agree to an extended schedule will not be paid beyond the one-time class fee. This fee is the same as the fee for a class that lasts only 8 weeks.
A comprehensive is a test you can take to see if you can opt out of a class.
If you pass the test, you receive credit for the class. It is also a test to
showcase your skill after a year-long project. For example, if you do not
already know how to speed-read, then you can take a speed-reading
comprehensive (rather than a speed-reading class, which is not offered at
GROVE): you will have one year to learn how to speed-read and then you will
have to pass the end-of-year test (the comprehensive, or the "comp").
A portfolio is a packet of data compiled through a year's study of a
subject. A portfolio is self-managed by the student and is designed to
display a student's progression throughout the year and also final mastery
of this subject. It is submitted for review on year after its commencement.
Like a portfolio, a reading log shows the reading schedule the student has
followed during a year-long independent reading course. It should document
the content and regularity of the readings. It is submitted for review one
year after its commencement.
A reading unit is a 3-credit unit in which the masters-level student works
to complete a submitted reading list for his or her research. These units
last for 16 weeks, and usually three reading units are required. The
student's mentor reviews guides the student in reading choices and reviews
periodic reading reports.
A writing unit is a 3-credit unit in which the masters-level student writes
a thesis. These units last for 24 weeks, and usually three writing units are
required. The student's mentor reviews guides the student in throughout the
unit. Mentors can stagger the process as they see fit, but three writing
stages should be covered: prewriting, drafting, and publication. A
convenient correspondence is to have one writing unit for prewriting, one
for drafting, and one for publication.
What sort of job
can I get with my diploma or certificate?
If you are concerned about using a diploma or certificate for a doorway into
a career, and if that career is a competitive one, then GROVE will probably
not be the place for you. Although we wish we could determine job security
for our emerging students, GROVE is designed mostly to give students what
many colleges and universities are sadly ignoring in today's economy: a
chance to spend a good amount of quality time learning and pondering
issues of inherent concern for humans. We do not provide the commercial,
scientific, medical, or technical training that today's economy-driven
culture so highly privileges. This is not to say that a BA or MA student
will not get a job with his or her GROVE credentials. Our students very well
may land satisfying jobs. But our goal is not to train students to get jobs.
Rather, we want to train them to live a truly satisfactory life of learning
and searching after truth.
MATCH stands for "Microcollege Assessment Team of Courses of the
Humanities." It consists of a panel of college professors who agree to
evaluate course syllabi. The panel determines whether or not the material is
itself college level. The name of the institution that plans to offer the
course is withheld from the panel, and the names of the panel members are
likewise withheld from the institution. A facilitator handles all
interaction between the two parties. Click here to find out more about
MATCH.
What is a
college-equivalency class?
In the main, there are two types of college-equivalency classes. The first
type is any class that, regardless of where it is taught, matches the
intensity and academic demands of a traditional, landed 3 hour/3 credit
college or university class. The second type is a class that prepares the
student to take a comprehensive exam which, if passed, will be accepted as
college credit in lieu of the class.
How can I
contact a faculty member?
Send us an email at grove@openlatch.com and we will contact the faculty
member for you. After this, contact can continue without our intervention,
if he or she responds to your query.
Send us your CV or resume by attaching it as a PDF to an email addressed to
grove@openlatch.com and we will examine it to see whether you will be a good
fit for GROVE. Some essentials is that you have an earned MA or Ph.D. and
that you are flexible and creative in your pedagogy habits!
grove college, est. 2011 |