Globe Education Network

We’re very pleased to announce the formation of the Globe Education Network.




Globe Education Network is a group that provides academic and operational support for administrators and faculty of member colleges and universities for the benefit of students. As you may know, students at each of the following schools we support take online classes together in our Blackboard Learning Management System.

* Globe University
* Minnesota School of Business
* Utah Career College
* Institute of Production and Recording
* Minnesota School of Cosmetology
* Duluth Business University.

Currently, Blackboard is branded as “MSB Online” yet students from all schools use this learning tool. Therefore, to maintain consistency, we have rebranded Blackboard as Globe Education Network and we want to reiterate that Blackboard is a resource shared by all of our member schools.

As of today, students of each school will now see the Globe Education Network name on Blackboard, but keep in mind, classes are still delivered by the colleges, and degrees will continue to be earned and awarded from the individual colleges and universities. As always, if there are questions, please feel free to contact me directly via phone or e-mail. Congratulations on your success this quarter and we look forward to assisting all of you with staying active and on track this Summer.

Sincerely,

Seth Tesdall
Director of Online Education

Read More......

Free Unofficial Transcripts!

Did you know that you can now access your unofficial transcript free of charge within the student portal?

Log into the student portal, click Academics > Degree Audit.

Just above the “Program Details” box, you can see a box titled “Reports” and within this box is an icon titled “Unofficial Transcript”

Click on the words “Unofficial Transcript” to access this document. You may print or save it to your desktop. Adobe Acrobat is necessary to access this document. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, you can access it at the link below along with a variety of other helpful tools.

http://students.msbcollege.edu/helpdesk/resource_links.html

Students with holds or alerts may need to resolve those prior to attaining access to the transcript. Contact information to resolve these alerts and holds are within the specific message in the portal. We hope you enjoy this new feature and that having access to your unofficial transcript is helpful to you in many ways.

Ann Mickelson
Online Dean of Students

Read More......

Financial Aid Reminder

Have you completed your new FAFSA yet? If not, click here to learn more about what you need to do.

For those of you utilizing federal financial aid, it is extremely important to complete your renewal 2008-2009 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using your 2007 taxes. We need the results in order to apply federal aid to your account beginning Summer Quarter 2008, otherwise you will be responsible to cover summer charges out-of-pocket. Please keep in mind, failure to submit the 2008-2009 FAFSA may affect your ability to log into summer quarter courses.

To re-apply, go to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Step 1) Select “Fill Out Your FAFSA” in the green middle (2) column.

Step 2) Choose the 2008-2009 aid year and click Next

Step 3) Fill out the remaining FAFSA screens


If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Financial Aid Team for assistance via our Direct Line at 612-436-7575, Toll Free at 1-877-609-8889 or email at onlinefa@msbcollege.edu.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation!


Mario Lee
Director of Financial Aid

Read More......

Free Library Resources

Don’t Pay for Pricey Information! Find it for free through the MSB Online library.

Many publishers and websites will ask you to pay for information you find by searching through Google or another search engine. Don’t give them your money. The library purchases thousands of journals and reports through the library’s subscription databases. We purchase these as a service to you. The library purchases these databases so that you don’t have to.

What’s more is that the library also offers a dedicated online librarian. The online librarian works to ensure that the library purchases online resources that will help you. That’s not all the online librarian does. She is also available to answer your research questions. She can recommend a database, help you find statistics and reports, help you narrow your topic, and answer any other research questions you have.

Next time you need pricey information, search the MSB online library’s subscription databases. If you’re not sure which database to search or encounter any errors, please contact the online librarian: Elaine Settergren.

Read More......

Director's Winter Update

Congratulations on your success thus far this quarter and I hope that you’re excited for warmer weather and the Spring Quarter, which is right around the corner!

I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight a few important points and set some expectations for the rest of 2008!

Student Portal
Many of you are taking advantage of the Student Portal (located at https://my.msbcollege.edu/) for Spring Registration and I encourage all of you to become active users of this useful tool. The Student Portal can be a convenient resource that you can use on a regular basis to check your schedule, future classes, student account balance, and many other key pieces of information. If you have any problems accessing the Student Portal, please contact our Helpdesk at 1-877-862-0662.

Summer Quarter 2008
The Summer Quarter begins on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008, rather than Monday, July 14th, as it is incorrectly outlined in many of your 2007-2008 Student Handbooks . If there are additional questions regarding this topic, please contact our Education Department at 1-877-609-8889.

Dean of Faculty Announcement
Brian James, current Online Dean of Faculty, has accepted a new role supporting both residential and online course delivery as the Director of Instructional Technology for Globe University/Minnesota School of Business. Although we’re disappointed to see Brian leave, we’re grateful for all of his efforts and excited for him to share his talents with a larger group of students. If you’ve not done so already, please check out the latest Faculty Spotlight on the main page of the Online Outlook. We’re very excited to profile Kelly Schmidt, one of our outstanding faculty members, and I’m very pleased to announce that Kelly has accepted the role of Online Dean of Faculty effective in the Spring quarter!

Once again, good luck with the rest of the Winter Quarter and please feel free to contact me at 1-877-609-8889 or via e-mail at stesdall@msbcollege.edu if you have questions or concerns regarding any of the items outlined above.

Seth Tesdall
Director of Online Education

Read More......

New Faces - New Voice

Recently, you may have noticed the absence of some familiar voices when contacting the Online Financial Aid / Student Accounts office.

Since September 2007, our office experienced a significant transition as several former FA/SA staff accepted new roles with MSB and in turn, new personnel filled those vacancies. In addition to these personnel changes, we’ve upgraded many of our procedures and processes to better serve our dynamic online community. Therefore, I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce our new staff so that we can begin building long lasting relationships with all of you.

· Sharon Rorem, Financial Aid Administrator, works with new student financial aid appointments and keeps your many FA documents in order. Though she is new to Online Financial Aid, Sharon has worked for MSB at the Richfield campus for the past six years(srorem@msbcollege.edu).

· Toua Yang, Financial Aid Administrator, also works with our new students and manages the awarding process. Toua is a graduate of St. Olaf College and has a background in real estate (tyang@msbcollege.edu).

· Latrice Brown, Financial Aid Administrator, primarily works with many of you, our current students, and she is a graduate of the University of North Florida. Latrice brings nine years of higher education experience to MSB Online, with seven of those years working in student financial aid (lbrown@msbcollege.edu).

· Bonnie Riley, Student Accounts Representative, facilitates all student accounts functions, including payments and refunds for online students. Bonnie is starting her third year working at MSB, and prior to working with Online, she worked with the MSB - Richfield Campus (briley@msbcollege.edu).

· I am a graduate of Macalester College and Concordia University - St. Paul. I bring to MSB Online nearly 14 years experience in higher education and student financial aid. I have numerous interests, but my professional background includes establishing new initiatives, teaching, and youth development (mlee@msbcollege.edu).

These are exciting times for MSB Online as we experience continued growth. With that growth, our office will soon incorporate improved technology and automation to keep up with demand and to ensure we maintain a premium quality of student service.

We’re excited to become more familiar with our new roles and with each of you, and as always, we welcome your input. Please feel free to contact us via phone at 1-877-609-8889 or via any of the email addresses included above if you need additional assistance. Cheers!

Mario R. Lee
Director of Financial Aid

Read More......

E-Books - Quick and Easy!

The library has over 5,700 e-books available for you to read and use for research!

Here’s how you use them:



1. Search the Online Catalog (set your “library to search” to MSB e-books).

2. Click on the title and then click on the Electronic Resource link.

3. Log in with the same info you use to login to your MSB email.

Features of E-books:
· High Quality Information
· Searchable
· Available 24/7
· No late fees – you don’t have to check it out!
· Free! (free for you: the library buys them)

For more about e-books see this guide or ask the librarian!

Elaine Settergren
Online Librarian

Read More......

Need A Tutor?

Have you ever thought you needed some extra help with an online course? Did you know that there are some amazing tutoring resources available to you?

Not only do we have our 24/7 online tutoring service via Smarthinking, but we also have dedicated tutors that will work one on one with you to help you be successful. The following article showcases one of our outstanding student tutors, Ruth Otteman, and she, like many others, is pursuing her education with MSB Online, yet eager to assist other students in the process!

Why You Enjoy Tutoring
Through tutoring, my goal is to offer students a complimentary learning approach to what the instructors are already contributing. Working together with your instructors, I am able to individualize a tutoring program that is based on your specific needs, to help you get the most from your academic experience. Simply put, I love to help people, and care!

What Courses you Tutor
I have tutored many different courses, and the reality is that if I am able to make a difference for someone, I will always do whatever I can to help. My true strengths lie in Psychology and Writing courses.

Personal Background
I live in the Eastern part of Colorado. My husband and I have two children, our oldest is 30 and the youngest is nearly 17, both are boys. In addition to our children, we have several pets. Sadie, a German Shepherd mix that we rescued from a shelter, Nixie, a miniature pincher, and a cat named Panther that was also a rescue. Our oldest son’s dog is also living with us, his name is Kudda, and he is a red Doberman Pincher.

Presently I am pursuing my Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, and upon completion of the Bachelors program, I plan to continue on to get my Masters Degree. Some of my future goals include, writing professional self-help books, publishing my children’s books, and teaching on the college level for MSB.

Professional Background
I am a dedicated leader and creative problem solver with a broad knowledge of business disciplines. Communication and negotiation are my strengths. I have a wealth of experience managing multiple projects and resolving complex business issues.

For the past 20 years I have worked in the field of Information Technology. During that time I have worked in a variety of positions including, but not limited to: account management, training, sales, and consulting. I even operated and owned my own business from 2001-2006.

Personal Interests and Hobbies
I am a huge Colorado Avalanche Hockey, NHRA, and NASCAR Fan. My other interests include spending quality time with my family, camping, fishing, boating, riding my 4-wheeler, frequenting local race tracks, crocheting, playing the piano, writing children’s books and music.

John Birkland
Associate Dean of Students

Read More......