UW Professional & Continuing Education

The Private Investigating course, which was once the gold standard is now a complete joke. It was woefully disorganized to the point of five people dropping out the first four weeks. The quizzes were never graded correctly, the reading material never match up with the quizzes, the instructor lead us on wild goose chase assignments that didn't have an answer as what we were searching for had been outlawed. This is the short list of the frustrations.

90% of the assignments weren't graded until the final two weeks so we couldn't build on what we learned.

Students were putting misinformation in the discussions, a big part of the grade, the instructor never corrected them.

There was an enormous amount of homework that was just tedious and not learning-centric: Fill out a form, download 6 templates.

In the end, we were left with misinformation about the field and very little learning.

Like someone else said, these classes are a grand money grab for the UW. They pull anyone off the field regardless of teaching experience and the directors hold no accountability for what goes one.

I am in the online Project Management Certificate program. It is a HORRIBLE program that is very poorly organized. DO NOT waste your money on this. They recently switched online platforms and definitely rolled it out too soon, as they were not prepared (this sentiment was expressed by faculty as well). I spend more time trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing than I do on the actual material. The professors are unavailable and seem almost as confused as the students. They are given the information, assignments, powerpoints, etc. then just record their voices over the slides. You are told to do assignments, but given little guidance on how to actually do it. Many of us are new to project management, so we need to see actual examples of the things we are being required to do and given an explanation as to why we need to do them; both are rarely provided. Once you turn an assignment in, feedback is not provided, so you have no idea if you have actually done it correctly or not. Assignments build on one another, so if assignment A was done incorrectly and you were not informed, the rest of your assignments will be incorrect as well. How am I supposed to apply what I think may or may not be right to a real world project management setting? I can’t. This program is a rip off and a cash grab.
UW should be ashamed to have their name associated with this program. My colleague completed the PM certificate at Bellevue College and had a much better experience there.

I took the Android Development Fundamentals course in Autumn 2014, which consisted of 11 weekly evening classes, each 3 hours long. The class was hosted in the downtown Seattle campus, not far from where I work, so it was very convenient.
Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed in the class and even more disappointed in myself for not requesting a refund immediately once I realized the direction the class was headed.
Although the promotional materials for this course showcased an experienced instructor with 3 years of teaching experience, that is not who taught this class. Instead, the instructor was an entrepreneur with 2 years of Android background who had just begun teaching, and his teaching inexperience showed.
Although I don’t doubt that the instructor knows his subject, the class seemed poorly planned, with many long, off-​topic anecdotes and poor direction, as if the instructor were working from the most bare of outlines for his lesson plan. Topics were disjointed and the relationships not clearly explained. The instructor frequently had difficulty explaining concepts in detail and early lessons often consisted of reading bullet points from PowerPoint slides.
The code examples were typically developed ad-​hoc by the instructor during class, from projects he happened to be working on, rather than being developed specifically for the class and tested in advance. This resulted in lost time as the instructor looked up syntax and attempted to correct bugs to get the code to compile and the examples didn’t always clearly demonstrate the topic. Also, as a result, the example code was not available to students before or after class for study and therefore did not contribute significantly to the instruction.
In addition to my complaints about the instructor, the format of the class did not work well, and seems to be little more than a way for the school to increase revenue and class sizes without paying additional instructors. The class was taught in both classroom and online formats simultaneously, with a TA interacting with the online students and acting as a sort of bridge between the two groups.
I was in the classroom group but monitored the online class as well. I discovered that there was a lot of discussion and clarification that occurred among the online students that never made it to the classroom students. Conversely, the online students were unable to hear the student questions or discussion that occurred in the classroom and were not able to request clarification during the lecture in the way that the classroom students could. I think that the learning experience of both suffered as a result.
The equipment had a number of issues as well, including poor online video and audio performance for the first few classes, and missing or unconfigured software on the instructor’s machine that had to be installed and configured during class.
In summary, I found the class to be a colossal waste of $ 1,000, not to mention the many hours of my time. The use of an inexperienced instructor without a well-​defined lesson plan, poor class materials and preparation, the ham-​handed combining of online and classroom instruction, and of course, the declaration that the last day to request a refund is *before the first day of class* are all reasons that I will absolutely never enroll in another CE course at UW without assurance that the course and instructor are on par with the instruction that should be expected from a professional university.
Instead, I suggest you go check out that well known online instruction site for an excellent Course on Android programming for absolutely free.

Classroom was extremely hot, nothing was done about this. We had 30 students packed into this room. Professor was absent and had his TA teach the most important class of the program. At $ 900 a pop for 30 students they got to be making a killing off of this. The presentations and homework was out of order several times during lecture.
I heard nothing back on my final project and was just sent the «course completion» letter.
Save your money, go to Coursera for free or visit a REAL professional education center.

I am currently taking the certificate program in photography. The level of knowledge from my instructors is great. The resources are top notch. Parking in the evening is affordable. I am so thrilled with my decision. This was a great investment in my hobby.

Meh.
I will only take an extension class only if I have no other options (i.e. to get full time credit load for financial aid purposes). I registered for a credit course that applied towards my quarterly credit load and only for that sole reason due to an emergency during the quarter.
The class was great but there was not very much feedback and grading for exams and assignments took (actually, I’m still waiting for my finals grade) a very long time (3+ weeks is long in my opinion). I cannot tell if this is because it is an extension class and this is normal or if it is the professor because I have only taken 1 class but I do not recommend UW Extension classes if you’re a regular UW student who attend actual classroom lectures/​labs.

UW Extension is the University of Washington’s continuing education program. There are more than 100 programs to choose from. Some lean more towards work related education, while others are more for personal enrichment.
I recently graduated with a certificate in Human Resource Management. I enrolled in this program to attain additional education in HR, as I felt I needed information in some areas and I thought additional formal education would be beneficial. This also served as a primer to determining whether or not to seek a MBA, in terms of gauging the stress of working full-​time and going to school in the evening.
There were six courses stretched over three quarters, with 2 ½ hour classes on Monday and Wednesday nights. I found several of the courses to be productive, while some not so much. If the material taught me something that I did not know before, I felt thrilled about it.
Since each course was essentially limited to about 10 sessions, with the exception of one, material breezed by pretty quickly. I felt like trying to memorize and holding in all the information I could. I prefer classes that appear to be more free flowing or that have hands-​on activities over classes of lecture over PowerPoint in which information is motored through. Since all this information is coming at you, I think things should be looked at from the student’s mindset of what way of disbursing information would be most stimulative.
As for the administration of the program, I think things were relatively smooth outside of some mishandled communications. My classes were held primarily in the same area of the UW campus which was good. I do also like now what they are doing at having classes in multiple locations in Tacoma and in Bellevue for closer commuting. This helps ease the burden of working and commuting to get to classes.
Costs were reasonable at about $ 600 a course, at least for my program. Some companies may also have educational reimbursement programs for employees In place which ease the financial burden, in addition to the educational tax credit. For lifelong learning and career development, I would recommend UW Extension as a good option.

It’s a 3. I have had good classes. I had to practically reach through the phone to get info. and I do not mean nicely.
I had to make numerous phone calls. some classes do NOT have the correct info in the class info — dang i t — why did i thave yo be mine?

UW Extension came highly recommended to me by a few co-​workers who had also taken some of their certificate programs in the past. I have taken extension courses in the past, and I’ve always found that they are hit or miss; professionals in the field aren’t always the best teachers.
The program offerings are extensive — not only do they offer a large catalog of certificate programs, there are also a lot of great individual courses and workshops to select from. Some programs are also offered on-​line (for a small additional «technology fee») — an added convenience for the working professional. Classes are offered either in Downtown Seattle or Bellevue, and are taught by industry professionals. The two certificate programs that I enrolled in — Object-​Oriented Analysis and Database Management — were taught by instructors who were not only professionals, but had prior teaching experience (the last «technical» course I took was from a brand new university professor who was not at all fluent in English.).
I found the programs to be very structured — almost too structured with no flexibility to take any time off from the program (which I found surprising; most working professionals cannot always commit to attending class from 6 — 10 every Monday for 9 months!). One pro to this: the instructors were all in communication with each other and knew what needed to be taught for us to move onto the next quarter successfully. Unlike more college courses with a generic syllabus, there were assignments that crossed quarters, and continuous learning that built on the foundations from the previous classes.
Working in the tech industry, I was taught to learn new skills to remain competitive. The courses offered through UW Extension have really helped me build my career in a positive direction. In addition to Extension classes, they also offer UW classes on-​line and on-​campus options to enroll in undergraduate and graduate courses each quarter.