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Distance Education - Pros and Cons?
xvrd asks: "I'm Swiss and got an Associates Degree in the US. Now (back in Switzerland) I'm thinking about getting a Bachelor Degree. Going back to the US on a student visa is not an option for several reasons and the programs offered in Switzerland either don't offer the flexibility I want or the classes I'm looking for. After some research I found some online colleges that looked trustworthy and offered interesting programs (Kaplan would even let me transfer all my credits). I've looked into the following colleges:
Kaplan Colleges,
University of Phoenix Online, and the
University of Maryland University College. Before enrolling anywhere I'd like to ask the Slashdot community about their thoughts on Online Education. Any experiences you want to share? How does HR look at Degrees completed entirely online?"
I think Virginia Tech has a remote campus in Switzerland. I don't know if it's open to Swiss students or just to students going abroad.
This is the path I would take. The UK's Open University (www.open.ac.uk) - which was founded in the 1960s by the British Government to pioneer distance-learning courses - takes students from Switzerland for all its courses.
The degrees - both arts and scientific - you get from the OU certainly are not "toy" degrees - they are run and marked by top academics, and given full weight by (UK) HR deptartments. For example, the OU regularly wins prizes for the quality of its students. It also has taken great pains to combat the disadvantages of distance learning by encouraging online collaboration.
Drew
...but depends on your goals and what you expect to achieve from a degree program. There are more and more "traditional" universities offering online programs, Univ of Maryland at Univ College is one of the good ones. I am currently attending a graduate program at Regis University, and have been very pleased with the experience thus far. Online discussion forums and group activities allow you to interact with other students.
The important thing to note is that in an online setting the mode of teaching is different than a traditional classroom. The professors are more akin to "facilitators" that guide you through the education process, which will typically involve a lot more reading/writing than a classroom based program (at least this has been my experience at Regis). Since you don't show up at a pre-set time to hear a professor in a lecture, you learn from reading, applying what you have read to individual or group projects, and/or on-line research activities, and getting feedback from the on-line professor.
For me, the online choice was the only one possible due to Monday-Friday travel related to work. I have found that is the case with many, but not all, of the classmates that I've had online. Some individuals that I have met dislike online education because of the lack of physical presence of other students, others prefer it over a traditional classroom setting, because they have more time to aborb knowledge over the course of a week while reading on-line forums/books/etc., vs. capturing a significant amount of information during class times.
Just watch out for fly-by-night operations, or "degree mills" - before you join any program I would suggest making sure they are fully accredited by a regional accrediting agency (I believe there are 5 regional boards in the U.S., such as the North Central Assocation of Colleges and Schools).
In addition, search the alt.distance.education newsgroup for information on specific schools/programs that you are researching. You can find a lot of interesting related web sites in that forum.
How do HR departments treat online degrees? Depends on the organization. If the degree is from an accredited university that also offers the same program in a traditional classroom setting, this shouldn't be an issue. If you are interested in more "pure" academia - going back to get a PhD from a traditional university - I get the sense that you might face some resistance, but I think that attitudes are slowly changing. Again, the newsgroup offers a lot of information/opinions on this.
Good luck with your studies.
RIT has always been ranked very nicely. These folks seem to agree.
Their distance learning program looks pretty impressive, they have a number of full undergrad degree and Masters degrees available online. I've been toying with the idea. Not MIT, but not at all a second rate school.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
The University of London was founded by Royal Charter, and is therefore (AFAIK) completely accredited. It's External Programme is open to anyone, anywhere in the world. Part of the charter of the school is that degrees are treated exactly the same, no matter where or how the degree was earned. That is, a degree earned by distance learning is treated the same as a degree earned brick-and-mortar. It's the largest university in the UK, so it can't be all bad...:)
Just my two cents. And, for the record, I'm an American and former expatriate in Europe.
...but it's being eaten...by some...Linux or something...