Blog #4

Blog #4 – How and Why I Chose Kaplan University

Stacy Schreiber

http://community.elearners.com/blogs/kaplan_management_degree/archive/2007/04/05/How-and-Why-I-Chose-Kaplan-University.aspx

Anonymous (This man’s picture is on the website but he failed to mention his name)

SUMMARY

Here is an eyewitness account of a student who went “back to school”. This 30 year old business man (who omitted his name) felt the need to continue his education in order to move forward in his job. Reluctant to go back and attend university classes after never having attended them before, he investigated some online options.

When he began this process, distance education was just starting to spread throughout the United States. Instead of attending classes at the University of Texas, this future student was afraid that committing to a university life would seriously affect his job as well as his marriage. There was no other option than to take a chance with the “new” distance education.

He had heard about diploma mills (so-called universities that cheat students out of their money to give them a bogus degree). Legitimacy was key here. After hearing comments and opinions from friends about how hard they worked for nothing, this man made no decisions quickly.

After sampling online classes in two accredited schools, his opinions were bleak. He described the classes as “fragmented” and “chaotic”. He withdrew from the classes without any credits to show for it.

In this particular situation, this man found that the Kaplan program suited him best. His degree program was planned. The online environment was structured and the classes were well paced. The curriculum was demanding, but orderly.

This student is just finishing his degree with a 3.6 GPA to show for it. The best part about his experience is that he claims to have enjoyed it.

REVIEW

This man claims that structure is the most important factor to any distance learning environment. He said that the first two programs he tried were nationally and regionally accredited, yet disorganized and chaotic. How could this be?

In my opinion, distance learning programs do not receive that kind of accreditation if they are not good. How could a nationally recognized online learning program be this way?

Either this man had to become accustomed to such a change from his previous life and used those programs as ice-breakers or the people who are responsible for giving the programs that kind of credit are not doing their jobs properly.