Sally Struthers and Online Degrees

[PrettySquareGal]

I'm wondering if anyone here is pursuing, or has, an online degree? I have to admit I am literally old school. Both of my degrees were earned the old fashioned way. When online degrees first came out I wondered if they were very different from mail order education deals which were generally accepted as inferior. I just read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/e...&en=ae4355a2c3e42afd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

I'm curious about people's experiences with online universities.

 

[scotrace]

Well

I think sometimes we ought to charge tuition at The Fedora Lounge.

 

[52Styleline]

Somehow any institution that would hire Sally Struthers as their spokeswoman would lead me to question their standards in other areas.

There are still a few degree mills out there where the main requirement for a degree remains the depth of your wallet, but govt. crackdowns on the really bad ones have helped a lot.

Yes, there are some legitimate online degree programs available, however, I seldom see anyone who applies for work with my company holding a degree earned totally on line. Usually it is a combination of online classes and brick and mortar classes leading to the degree. City University really kicked this off, and now (in my State) all of the Public Colleges offer some sort of degree program partly through the web.

To my thinking, college level correspondence courses and internet based courses offer an excellent alternative. Someone who succeeds in earning a degree through the web shows determination and discipline if nothing else. After all, there is no guarantee that the person with the brick and mortar degree majored in anything but beer and fun. It's not where the degree came from but rather what they show they can do with it that counts.

 

[MudInYerEye]

I have one in gun repair.

 

[Elaina]

I do some of my classes online, and get credit for them. Some of it I go to school for.

If you are not one of these people that can learn out of a book and NEED the interaction with a teacher, then I would think about not doing it. I'm one of these people that give me a book, leave me alone, and let me test on it and I do fine. One of my friends can't learn anything online.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I do some of my classes online, and get credit for them. Some of it I go to school for.

If you are not one of these people that can learn out of a book and NEED the interaction with a teacher, then I would think about not doing it. I'm one of these people that give me a book, leave me alone, and let me test on it and I do fine. One of my friends can't learn anything online.

I always thought that one of the most valuable aspects of my in-person course work was the interaction with the other people in my class. I loved some of the discussions and questions raised by others. For me, learning is more than memorizing information. It's learning how to interact with people and ask the right questions, and learning from their experiences.

 

[Elaina]

See? Different points of view. To me, the discussion and persoal stories need to be for social activities. I prefer to learn when I'm learning.

When I had to take a basic sewing class (because I couldn't not take it), I knew how to sew. It became tedious hearing the guy next to me moan and complain about it, and equally tedious hearing the guy on the other side complain about not being able to sew straight. It also grated on my nerves that every time I was there I had to listen to them discuss everything, pertaining to the class or not. Did I learn anything in class? Only how to insult a small portion of the populace, where the best gay bars were in Dallas, and that the guy that always sat on my left couldn't sew a straight seam. I took the book and sat down with it and did it at home.

Now I know I sound really snobby and, frankly, whitchy. I'm not, but in class everyone's learned to leave me alone, don't talk to me or expect me to talk to you, and afterwards, I'll go have coffee with them and learn all the little facts about their life and be okay.

 

[Michaelson]

I am a professional in the business of distance education. I record master level classes for delivery online from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. As a matter of fact, I'm producing two classes at the same time while I'm typing this response.

I, too, 'worshipped at the feet of a professor' when I was in college, but times have changed, and though we have live students attending our classes, we actually have more folks taking our classes online than attending live these days, and you'll find that employers PREFER this practice as they are having their employees improving themselves, while not losing time away from work. Many insist that this be the way of class delivery, and reinforce that with their reinbursement programs they offer to the employee.

There are more and more schools going this route, and it's now becoming the 'norm' rather than the 'exception' when it involves higher degrees, in particular Master level degrees. Doctorial degrees will ALWAYS require one-on-one dealings between professor and student....but undergraduate work is slowly going in that direction. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's the way things are moving, and have been since the early 80's.

Ironically, in the time it took me to start, then finish this post, I was involved in an interactive connection and meeting with what was once a 'rival' university in my State that is entering in an alliance with us and several other locations to offer a degree program that will involve one day of live/interative/streaming classwork, then one day online using a computer based webpage. It will be one of the first ever in this State.

Yep, things are changing, and literally everyday.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[warbird]

I am a professional in the business of distance education. I record master level classes for delivery online from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. As a matter of fact, I'm producing two classes at the same time while I'm typing this response.

I, too, 'worshipped at the feet of a professor' when I was in college, but times have changed, and though we have live students attending our classes, we actually have more folks taking our classes online than attending live these days, and you'll find that employers PREFER this practice as they are having their employees improving themselves, while not losing time away from work. Many insist that this be the way of class delivery, and reinforce that with their reinbursement programs they offer to the employee.

There are more and more schools going this route, and it's now becoming the 'norm' rather than the 'exception' when it involves higher degrees, in particular Master level degrees. Doctorial degrees will ALWAYS require one-on-one dealings between professor and student....but undergraduate work is slowly going in that direction. Good, bad, or indifferent, it's the way things are moving, and have been since the early 80's.

Ironically, in the time it took me to start, then finish this post, I was involved in an interactive connection and meeting with what was once a 'rival' university in my State that is entering in an alliance with us and several other locations to offer a degree program that will involve one day of live/interative/streaming classwork, then one day online using a computer based webpage. It will be one of the first ever in this State.

Yep, things are changing, and literally everyday.

Regards! Michaelson

I believe the astronaut who wigged out a couple of weeks ago went to UTSI, though I don't know if it was online. It's a fantastic program.

One of my college professors, Col. Jean Jack, helped to establish UTSI. He was the most brilliant man I have ever known. Was a military liaison chief engineer on every AF project from the X1 to the Valkyries and SR71 projects. Had been a B17 pilot in WWII. Chuck Yeagar showed up several times a year in his office to discuss one theory or another. Yeagar called him the greatest mind he'd ever known. Then hed want to take us all out for drinks. Jack didn't drink, but I thinkYeagar could drink more than any man I've ever known.

 

[pretty faythe]

semi-online

I am currently getting my college ed semi online, through the community college.I've done some of my classess in the college room, one had been a "hybrid" class, which was 1/2 class time 1/2 online time. The class I am taking right now is strictly online. I didnt feal like sitting in a class for 4 hours a night, plus with it being on line I can work all the over time I want and not get frowned at when I tell them I cant work late.
fftopic: Actually I should be schooled out, I had to go through a 5 year apprenticeship which was loads of math and theory for the electrical union, (which gave me some college credits) and started taking college classes as soon as it was over. Ick.

 

[Michaelson]

I believe the astronaut who wigged out a couple of weeks ago went to UTSI, though I don't know if it was online. It's a fantastic program.

No, he wasn't the one who 'wigged' out, but he was the guy the situation was focused on. He did all his work via distance education, with the exception of defending his thesis on campus. We've jad several NASA astronauts graduate from our Aviation Systems program, and all through distance education....classes I recorded, by the way.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Tommy Fedora]

My nephew is home in New York state because he discovered that his college in San Francisco will let him take all his courses online this semester, saving the room and board money.

 

[Pilgrim]

PrettySquareGal, like Michaelson I'm directly involved in distance education. I'm an administrator in Continuing Education at Colorado State University. (You can check the link if you wish.) I also teach online at the graduate level.

Online courses and degrees are absolutely valid and bear the same degree of rigor as face to face (f2f) courses. In fact, in the average online course, the teacher learns more about students in the course than he/she does in a f2f course because of interaction with EVERY student - which is not the rule in a f2f course.

There are literally hundreds of first-class institutions offering courses and degrees online and by other distance media (correspondence, video, DVD). Of course, the movement is generally into online coursework.

U of Phoenix is a unique case because of their commercial structure and funding. However, in the article you cited, there are a number of assumptions that may not be valid..but they color the article considerably.

For instance: "the university relies more on part-time instructors than all but a few other postsecondary institutions".

What's wrong with that? Using part-time faculty may not conform to traditional accreditation standards, but I question whether those standards are relevant to distance courses! Some of the best online teachers in the US work as part-time instructors (and I'm one of them)!

Also: "...its accelerated academic schedule races students through course work in about half the time of traditional universities."

I fail to see a problem with that. If students achieve the course objectives and demonstrate that they have mastered the course content, then by definition they have passed the course. Who cares whether this takes 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks or 16 weeks???? If they master the material and demonstrate that mastery, they pass! This gives some traditionalists ulcers, but they need to chew some TUMS and move on.

One other thing is graduation rates. The article says: "The government measures graduation rates as the percentage of first-time undergraduates who obtain a degree within six years. On average across all American universities, the rate is 55 percent. Dr. Pepicello said this was a poor yardstick for comparing other universities with his, which serves mostly older students who started college elsewhere. Alongside the 16 percent rate, the university Web site also publishes a 59 percent graduation rate, but that is based on nonstandard calculations and does not allow comparison with other universities, he said."

This makes sense. The feds use some pretty ridiculous measures to calculate "graduation", and I know from my experience that many students take 6-10 years to complete degrees. The Feds don't take the experiences or finances of working students into account - but these result in their sometimes taking a very long time to complete a degree.

But the article also says: "The official rates at some University of Phoenix campuses are extremely low — 6 percent at the Southern California campus, 4 percent among online students — and he acknowledged extraordinary attrition among younger students."

That's NOT good news. I don't know why those numbers come out that way, but I would have to know more about the measurement methdology before I'd accept them as accurate.

But I do know this - I NEVER trust quotations of federally calculated graduation rates - they don't reflect the real world.

Colorado State where I work offers more than 16 degrees at a distance - three bachelor's programs (3rd and 4th year courses), and more than 16 at the Master's and Ph.D. level.

I'm perfectly willing to correspond with you or others via email if I can be of any help.

(Can you tell I've had this discussion before??)

 

[Tango Yankee]

Online is a great option

I always thought that one of the most valuable aspects of my in-person course work was the interaction with the other people in my class. I loved some of the discussions and questions raised by others. For me, learning is more than memorizing information. It's learning how to interact with people and ask the right questions, and learning from their experiences.

This is more important in some courses than in others. I wouldn't have wanted to take Ethics in IT on line for that very reason.

My degree is from the University of Maryland. I attended UofM classes on Guam, in Korea, and at various bases in England and Germany. I wouldn't have been able to finish my degree without online courses as the upper-level courses I needed were not offered where I was.

My wife has a MBA from the University of Findlay, a school with a very good reputation. All of her courses were online. She wouldn't have been able to get her masters othewise as there aren't any schools in the area that offered one.

Just like in-class courses what you get out of it depends upon what you put into it, and just like brick-and-mortar schools there are some that are better than others.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[PrettySquareGal]

This is more important in some courses than in others. I wouldn't have wanted to take Ethics in IT on line for that very reason.

My degree is from the University of Maryland. I attended UofM classes on Guam, in Korea, and at various bases in England and Germany. I wouldn't have been able to finish my degree without online courses as the upper-level courses I needed were not offered where I was.

My wife has a MBA from the University of Findlay, a school with a very good reputation. All of her courses were online. She wouldn't have been able to get her masters othewise as there aren't any schools in the area that offered one.

Just like in-class courses what you get out of it depends upon what you put into it, and just like brick-and-mortar schools there are some that are better than others.

Cheers,
Tom

My degrees are in the communications department, so yes, in-person stuff was very important to me.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Thank you , everyone!

I have some people close to me looking into online degrees, so this is all helpful.

 

[Pilgrim]

I always thought that one of the most valuable aspects of my in-person course work was the interaction with the other people in my class. I loved some of the discussions and questions raised by others. For me, learning is more than memorizing information. It's learning how to interact with people and ask the right questions, and learning from their experiences.

I think you're typical of those people I know in this regard. We're all human beings, and we like being around and interacting with other human beings.

But given the restrictions of time, place and family, there are many people for whom attending courses on a campus and interacting with other students f2f is simply not a realistic option. For hundreds of years, this is where their pursuit of education stopped - because there was no option. They had to attend on campus, or forget about it.

Enter distance education!

It might not be many people's first choice, but it's an ACCEPTABLE choice for millions. Distance Ed means you don't have to quit your job, leave your family and move back to a college campus to earn or finish a degree. You can keep your job, stay at home, and work your butt off for a few years to earn the degree. And make no mistake, it will be a significant load. But it ends, and you have the degree, and there you are!

Though distance tuition is usually more expensive than campus tuition on a per-credit basis, when you realize that you don't have the separate living expenses and opportunity cost of going to campus - like renting an apartment and paying for meals - earning a degree via distance ed is often less expensive than going to campus. For example, we figure that earning a Master's with our current tuition structure costs about $15,000 including texts. Just think about what it would cost to move to a campus and live there for two years while earning a Master's; there's no way you could do it for $15K.