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Are Online University Programs Any Good?
Landaras asks: "After spending two years at Ohio State studying Management Information Systems, I've decided to take a year off from school. However, after hearing about the University of Phoenix's online Bachelor's program, I thought I would consider completing my four-year Informations Systems undergraduate away from the 'brick and mortar' setting. Does anyone have any experience with completely on-line degree programs, and what are your thoughts of them?"
CSU Chico in northern California has an online education program for distance students. We used to use satellite based tv for students that were in other areas, but we recently switched to using streaming video. The software package we use is called HorizonLive, and the actual teaching material is presented through WebCT. The sites themselves, if you want to look, are live.csuchico.edu and online.csuchico.edu. They give a quick and easy way for professors to teach (by streaming video, and the minimum speed requirements are 28.8 kbps w/Real Video), a way to interact (live chat), and that's just during the class. All classes are archived as well so students can watch the classes again and again if necessary. There are also bulletin boards, private messages, calendars, online testing, and more. In a nutshell, it gives people who would otherwise never have a chance at getting a degree a chance.
:)
Fall of 2000 was our second test semester, and the first semester we dropped satellite testing. We offer over thirty classes now, with more coming next semester. You can go to either URL and test out the system, but hurry, the semester ends on Friday
What do I think of it? I think it's great, and if the classes available at this time were classes that I needed, I would take them. Many students on campus take classes that are both WebCT and in person classes, and professors just use WebCT to give tests and post notices and give students a place to interact. With private email, it also makes it very easy for the professor to email everyone in the class. What I also like about the idea is it gives people flexibility in the classes--if you don't want to go to class this morning, don't. Watch the archive. Sleep in until 3 and check your WebCT mail for information on the test. Use the bulletin board to ask someone what you missed. It not only gives people opportunity to go to college when they might not otherwise be able to, but it gives them the flexibility in doing so that many would desire.
My wife attends that university of phoenix in one of their brick and morter campuses. If their online program is anything like their brick and morter I would say stay away! From reviewing her course work, I would label UoP a degree mill. They aren't interested in teaching you anything. Their main focus is building your team working skills. Now, don't get me wrong, team working skills are great and all, but if you are going for an information systems degree, the concentration should be on that. What do I mean by the try and build your team working skills? Every class has a study group with a group project. That is EVERY class. Her college math class had a group project. It consisted of each the team being given a set of math problems and they had to come up with the answers "together."
C olleges_and_Universities/ for starters. There are also several web pages dedicated to this sort of thing, I would recommend checking out the following urls :
It's a complete joke. Also, to keep in mind, the tuition of online courses at UoP is 350 a credit hour. A rip off. You can do better elsewhere.
Speaking of elsewhere, I would recommend checking out your options. There are lots of them. Check out yahoo's directory at http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Distance_Learning/
http://www.degree.net/ - pushing a book on the subject, but lots of good info.
http://www.lifelonglearning.com/ - lets you search for a degree program you are interested in.
news://alt.education.distance - the newsgroup. once you find a school, check out its rep here.
Hope this helps...
Crewd