Online EDU News

Online Students Have a New Option

Starting in the fall of 2007, the University of North Carolina will begin offering all of their online degree programs through one unified system. According to NBC17.com:

The website is a one-stop shop. It offers more than 130 online degrees, certificates, and licenses offered by the 16 UNC campuses.

It also offers special sections with information tailored for community college students and military personnel and their dependents based in North Carolina.

This collection of online degree programs is one of the largest in the United States.

More that 1,000 online courses will be available this fall to qualified students.

Initially, the website will offer more than 90 online degree programs, 35 bachelor's degrees, 55 master's, 2 doctoral, more than 40 online certificate and licensure programs.

UNC hopes to compete with big-name online universities such as the University of Phoenix. Students graduating from UNC's online school will receive a diploma that is identical to that received by students graduating from one of their 16 traditional schools.

Employers Thoughts on Online Degrees

Many students that are considering earning their degree through an online college wonder whether, upon graduation, their degree will hinder their chances of getting the job that they want. However, as the number of institutions that offer online degree options continues to rise, so does the way that employers view potential online-degree holding job candidates. Consider this information from CNN Money.

More often than not, employers are fine with online degrees from either for-profit or nonprofit schools, agrees Forrester Research analyst Claire Schooley.

"In most cases, they're more concerned about being comfortable with the skill,” she said.

Schooley says a lot of how well a person's academic background registers with employers depends on perspectives of human-resources directors. “If they're familiar with an online degree program, then they're more likely to be fairly receptive,” she added. That's why some analysts believe that unless you're willing to pay top dollar for programs from schools like Duke University and Babson College, it's smart to start your search locally or around the area you'll be seeking a job.

Picking an online program with a brick-and-mortar presence nearby might also help, agree Schooley, Phillips and Cornell. For one, they say such a combination can offer a safety net in terms of making sure all of the learning tools you need are available when you need them.

The idea that online degrees are less respected than traditional degrees is a thing of the past. For the most part, employers look at the employee's credentials and aptitude to fit in and succeed at the company, not where their degree came from.

Judging the Reputability of an Online School

Unfortunately, just like in every other business, there are colleges out there that begin with one goal in mind: offer a mediocre education and charge high fees. These “diploma mills” will give you a diploma, for a heavy fee, and confirm your diploma with potential employers. However, the learning you'll receive will be sup-par at best, and you may find that you're horribly unprepared to enter the workforce in your field.

In order to avoid diploma mills, consider this advice from CNNMoney.com:

Experts and program administrators at some of the most well-known and largest online programs say you should check to make sure a school is properly accredited. That means credits can be transferred fairly easily between most major higher-education systems.

One way of double checking a college's claim is by contacting a well-known university in your area to see if they accept credits from the online degree program in question, says Warren Ashley, a distance learning program director at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles.

Another red flag he warns about is a college offering to trade “life experience” for classroom credits. Although that's a common practice for gaining acceptance into graduate schools, Ashley says such swaps aren't generally counted as substitutes for credits at accredited universities.

“People need to make sure no expensive preconditions exist in the online program they're considering,” Ashley added. “Some traditional schools just don't believe in earning a degree completely online. They'll require you to take at least a class or two on campus.”

Another good way of deciphering whether or not a school is reputable is simply to enter the name of the school in a search engine and see what other students (current and former) are saying in chat rooms and message boards. In general, if an institution is trying to simply sucker you out of money, people are going to do their best to warn others.

Online Healthcare Degrees Remain Most Popular

As the baby boomer generation had aged, the demand for qualified healthcare providers has compounded. The result has been a boom in healthcare jobs as well as those interested in the field of healthcare. Colleges that offer online degrees have noted this phenomenon with the high enrollment numbers in their online healthcare programs. According to USPRwire:

With the continuing shortage of qualified professionals in the news, health care programs remain at the top of the list for students seeking an online education. The government estimates that medical careers will continue to mushroom in popularity for decades in order to fill a very real need.

Online Degrees Soar in Popularity

After raising the number of online degrees they offered and becoming accredited by a nationally-recognized accrediting institution, the University of Minnesota at Crookston has recently seen a huge hike in enrollment numbers. As students flock to earn their degrees online, the colleges that are catering to this demographic are those that are getting the students. According to the Crookston Daily Times:

Online credit hours at the University of Minnesota, Crookston are up 41 percent over summer semester 2006. The increase is being attributed to the U of M, Crookston accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), along with two additional bachelor's degrees available entirely online.

“As a working adult, I knew that the traditional on campus college degree was not an option for me,” said Tony Decembrini, an online manufacturing management student from California. “I needed and wanted something a little more flexible. As a transfer student I was searching for the right online degree and the University of Minnesota, Crookston was just what I was looking for.”

As more students seek degrees from online institutions, more employers hire employees who hold online degrees, and more colleges are getting in on the trend. The growing number of students seeking online degrees serves as just more evidence that online degrees are becoming more and more legitimate to people all over the world.

Online Degrees May Offer Better Career Preparation

As online schools have risen in popularity, so has the integration of technology in the workplace. The result is that certain online Internet courses prepare graduates more fully for their post-graduation jobs than traditional college courses. According to HotJobs.com, the following fields of study have taken on new significance since the advent of online education:

• Forensic Nursing
• Game Art and Design
• Holistic Health and Nutrition
• Natural Resource Management
• Digital and Graphic Design
• Criminal Justice
• IT Networking and System Management
• Homeland Security
• Information Technology Security
• Executive Coaching

Students interested in entering any of these fields should seriously consider training for them in an online environment. An online degree in these fields of study can earn you the technological abilities that you'll need to score the job after graduation.

Getting Hired with an Online Degree

Seven years ago, a study was released in which 70% of employers said that they felt online degrees were less worthwhile than those that come from traditional schools. However, in the seven years since then, online degrees have become more mainstream and widely-recognized, and now most employers agree that they are just as worthwhile as traditional degrees. Consider this information from Encarta:

When asked directly, well-known Fortune 500 companies such as Intel and Wal-Mart said they'd accept online degrees, provided they come from regionally accredited programs.

Of course there will always be people–recruiters included–who are have reservations about new kinds of learning. But, for some perspective, consider a survey by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) that found that almost 70 percent of corporate supervisors rated the value of a distance degree as “just as valuable” or “more valuable” than resident-school degrees in the same field.

Professionals in the field assert that getting your foot in the door at a company is more about who you are than where you earned your degree. If you encompass the personality, values, and drive that a company is looking for, then most likely they're not even going to notice that your degree comes from the Online University.