American University of Technology has two instructional approaches. The methods are a response to the need for a postsecondary education designed for working adults and others unsuited to traditional campus study. These approaches enable students to make personal connections with the curriculum and help them apply their knowledge to a variety of experiences:
INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH
Self-Paced Learning
A personalized and customized competency-based learning model that provides students with the hiflexibility to set and control their progress, cost, schedules, and deadlines. Accelerated courses can be started anytime and completed when students master the content by demonstrating proficiency. This model provides course content and resources in several formats and gives students a variety of ways to demonstrate what they have learned. Demonstrating competencies can be in the form of assessments, research papers, or hands-on projects. Students will be able to leverage real-world work experience to accelerate learning while acquiring additional knowledge that can be applied on the job immediately.
Cohort-Based Learning
Our cohort-based learning model provides active, interactive, and collaborative learning environments for students to grow their knowledge and skills through the sharing of ideas, experience, and insights. This learning path brings students together to learn through enriching discussions and collaboration on real-world problems or projects. Courses have start dates, scheduled assignments and deadlines, and weekly discussions with the faculty through the LMS. The learning path is structured with clearly-defined timelines that enable working professionals to fit career development into their busy schedules. Students will build professional and personal networks that may continue after graduation.
Course Delivery
Regardless of the instructional approach, most of our courses are asynchronous, which means students can log in and complete academic activities at their own convenient time. Our technology-based learning provides a unique interactive experience with faculty members and students. Students are expected to spend 16 hours per week in learning activities to complete weekly milestones related to each course. The actual hours a student works may vary depending on prior knowledge, experience, and ability. Students are expected to have meaningful weekly contact with an instructor (in person or via phone/Skype). The faculty will monitor and report meaningful weekly contact and satisfactory
progress to the Student Records Office. For the cohort-based learning model courses, new learning projects are presented to students every Monday, which must be completed by the following Monday. Students must have a personal Internet email address and Web access. In many cases, access through public libraries and free email services is sufficient.
