Blog #6 - Online Degree Programs Take Off

Blog #6

Online Degree Programs Take Off
As More Schools Embrace Web-Based Courses, More Students Log On to Expand Their Education While They Work

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501496_pf.html

By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 16, 2006; A06

SUMMARY

In our ever changing world people are becoming busier. The expenses needed to raise a family have increased. People are learning how to multi-task…even men. Part of this evolution is because of online learning. Distance learning allows people to earn degrees while completing all of life’s other challenges.

Angela Bostic is a perfect example of how a student has adapted to this new world. She has never come face to face with a professor or sat in a college desk. All of her classes have taken place online.

She is one of many students who had adopted this new lifestyle. Numbers say that student enrollment in online courses has jumped from 1.98 million to 2.35 million in one year.

Some criticisms of online learning involve bogus degrees. It is taxing to perform all the research needed to find out if a distance course is actually coming from an accredited institution. Most people just take their chances assuming that something like that would not happen to them.

The University of Phoenix is the winner in the distance education race so far. Heavy advertising has pushed this particular University to the top of the list. Their classes are supposedly no joke. If you want a degree they make you work for it!

The majority of distant students are between the ages of 24 and 50. Most have jobs and families. The supposed mentality of older students involves a “need” to further their education, not a want. Students like these act as if they are not in school because they are trying to please their parents or guardians. Professors claim that students with this idea about learning are wonderful to teach.

The idea of distance learning is slowly being accepted as “real”. It is very important to find out whether the school being attended online is accredited. One program awarded 229 degrees to various students. None of them could take the bar exam because the American Bar Association did not recognize their degrees. Easy come…easy go…

REVIEW

I have a friend who began taking classes out of the University of Phoenix. She saw a commercial and decided that distance learning would be a lot easier than actually going to classes. After the first two classes she dropped out. She said that she did not have the self discipline it took to do that much work on her own.

She has not yet fallen into that “I am doing this because I need to” category. So far, the majority of people I know who have gotten their masters degree are teachers. Most admit that they have acquired their degrees because they had to…not because they wanted to. I agree…

Distance learning supposedly puts self discipline to the test. I am not there yet.