Education Articles from College Matching Service

There are ways in which online degree holders can defend the quality of their education. Information is available to those who are being hesitant about getting a degree. But how do you make employers aware of these studies and the quality of online education? How do you convince someone evaluating your credentials that your master’s degree, earned late nights in front of your computer or sitting in airports, was as rigorous and thorough as one earned the old-fashioned way?

As more and more people get online degrees and use them in the workforce, HR managers and hiring managers will begin to feel more secure about the quality of education these people have. If the studies that were done by Thomas L. Russell and John Losak — showing the quality of online education to be as good as or better than that of traditional education — hold up on a larger scale, then the future of getting jobs and advancements based on online degrees will be bright.

Until then, choose schools carefully, and check for accreditation and strong programs. When you’ve completed the degree, go to job interviews armed with information to counter any questions about the quality or validity of your degree. Make sure the interviewer knows how you achieved the degree, how you worked it into a busy schedule, how you overcame any obstacles. If you demonstrate the skills and abilities that you have learned from the online course during the interview, it will show a self-motivation and discipline that may be just the qualities the company is looking for.

There have been doubts on the quality of education that spring from online degree holders. A lot of job-seekers who graduated with an online degree encounter having to defend the effectiveness of their education. A recent study has been made and the researchers have been able to come up with some advice and recommendations for those online degree holders who need help in getting a job.

Some of the comments and recommendations the respondents made might help online degree holders land a job even if the interviewer is hesitant about the value of the degree. Some of the those recommendations included:

Tell employers and potential employers that your degree was earned online. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said this should be a requirement.

Bring along transcripts and course study examples, as well as letters of recommendation or authenticity about the program and its accreditation.

Have industry experience to back the degree.

Traditional courses like public speaking, debate, public forum and group dynamics might be helpful to show that you have people skills. (This is probably more helpful if you don’t have a long work history behind you.)
Other sources, such as Thomas L. Russell of North Carolina State University, did studies that revealed that there is little if any difference in the quality of education received through online distance learning versus traditional classrooms. John Losak at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale found similar results in his own study. He analyzed graduation rates, time to graduation, and knowledge, as well as other elements. He found the students performed as well or better in online courses.

The big question in everyone’s mind is, “Is an online degree from an accredited college or university seen by potential employers as a lesser degree?” The jury still seems to be out on this. On the plus side, the IT fields appear to place more value on online degrees because of the nature of the work itself. As would be expected, human resources (HR) professionals tend to place more value on degrees from established universities rather than virtual universities they’ve never heard of. A career network Web site did a survey of 239 HR professionals and found just that. According to the results, which were released in February 2001, 77 percent of respondents believe that an online degree earned at an accredited institution like Duke or Stanford is more credible than one earned at an Internet-only institution.

Here are some other findings from Vault’s study:

Twenty-six percent believed that online bachelor’s degrees were as credible as traditionally earned bachelor’s degrees, while 37 percent believed that online graduate degrees were as credible as traditionally earned graduate degrees. This perhaps follows the idea that people seeking graduate degrees are doing it online because it’s their only or best option due to current job demands. These people may be seen as more driven and self-motivated.

The most commonly cited drawbacks of online education were the lack of social interaction with peers (61 percent), lack of data about the effectiveness or quality of the education — it’s too new to gauge (53 percent), and loss of real-time teacher/student exchange (39 percent).

The three industries most likely to embrace online degrees were Internet/New Media (70 percent), Technology (46 percent), and High Tech (44 percent). Media and Marketing (29 percent), Telecommunications (29 percent), and Consulting (22 percent) followed.

The three industries least likely to embrace online degrees were Medicine (68 percent), Law (56 percent), and Health Care/Bio Tech (52 percent). Academia (44 percent), Government (22 percent) and Finance (18 percent) followed.

Earning a degree if you’re working (or simply busy) isn’t as hard as it used to be. A lot of people are becoming poorer nowadays. The current upheaval in the global financial system causes people to become more careful about spending their money.

With many people facing a clear and present danger of losing their jobs, the smartest move would be to stretch one’s money as much as possible. Because you’ll never know if tomorrow you will still have a job. They tend to purchase the cheaper brands of basic necessities such as food and clothing. With this kind of financial crisis, students are also becoming wary of the amount of money they will be spending when going to college. Nowadays, not only prices of basic needs and commodities are going higher, but the price of matriculation for college education keeps on increasing as well. That is why new means of acquiring education came into being. This new way is getting an online degree. Online degrees allow you to get the kind of education you need without ever stepping into a classroom.

All that you need is a computer with internet connection and you’re all set. It may require some technological know-how, current computer equipment, and a lot of self-discipline, but it is definitely easier and more effective than it used to be. The time, distance and financial constraints of higher education have all but disappeared with the arrival of online degrees.

If you’re already in the workforce but would like to earn a degree, then the opportunity is there.

In response to the escalating cost of higher education, many people have begun questioning the value continuing their formal learning beyond high school. Questions as to whether the high cost of tuition, the accumulation of thousands of dollars in debt, and the opportunity cost of choosing college over full-time employment weigh heavy on the minds of those who are wondering if the investment will be worth it in the years to come. The expense of high-priced tuition and other college fees poses an especially significant threat to families living on a low-income, already struggling to make ends meet. In an effort to decide whether or not higher education is actually worth the investment, facts regarding the value of higher education and the rates of return on the investment both to the individual as well as to society should be examined.

Taking into consideration the monetary problems people interested in further studies face, new alternatives for formal education has come about. One substitute for going to regular universities is through taking up a formal degree in the internet. Online degrees are specifically designed for aspiring career professionals and working adults who want to further their education without placing their career on hold. There are many colleges and universities that provide a large variety of continuing education, associate, bachelor, master and doctoral degree programs that can help you achieve your personal and career goals as quickly as possible. These online degrees not only help people acquire the type of education they need without the disruption of their careers, but they also provide extra convenience to those who don’t have enough resources to be able to afford the commute of going to and from the school.

A lot of people neglect the importance of reading and understanding and this type of attitude is wrong. This type of education would best benefits those that are well not really anti-social but those people or students who would prefer learning and understanding on their own and would just ask questions whenever they really have no idea what is being explained is all about. Another key is to have a well set scheduling for you.

You will set your own schedule for your very own and very private and personal online classes. Your instructor will give you the deadlines and a suggested pace to make you successful, but it will be up to you to decide when and how often to go online. Most good online students check in every day or two to see if there are new messages or discussion items. This is just a basic idea of what to expect on online classes so make sure you fully understand are well into learning before trying it out. Remember that you won’t have all those non-verbal cues that you get in the physical classroom and neither will your instructor. This is pretty much a huge difference of online classes that from regular classroom type learning. Also, your instructor’s role will be much less that of the distributor of information, and much more that of a guide or resource for you in exploring an area of knowledge. Almost all your information will come in the form of words. Words on the screen help the instructor “see” you much more clearly. The teaching style used in online classes may be different from the traditional college model.

Taking online classes means you won’t be sitting quietly in the classroom; participation is even more essential.

There are many fork roads that challenge everyone in life. Upon and when you are taking online classes requires just as much time and effort as class on campus and there are some new twists for most of us. To see if online classes are right for you, you have to know if first you are the type who likes independently. If the answer is yes then definitely you will have lots of time for yourself because you will be working at home and relying on yourself for the answers so it really is a plus for learning and depending on your own but some what hard at first because there is no one there to support you first hand.

Online classes can work for any student, just as a physical, onsite classroom with face-to-face instruction can work for any student, but we all know the quality of the “fit” with a particular instructor or a particular class environment varies. In this type of actuality, the tendency is to rely more on the teacher or the professor instead of figuring out and identifying the pro and cons or cause and effect of things and reasoning behind the answers and solutions. The plus side is that you will have a growing urge to learn on your own and grow independently from the help of others which is really quite good. When I say some one who will support you first hand, what I mean is an actual teacher or a professor that will literally and physically show you what to do and where to get the answers from.

Before enrolling in any online college, its safe to make sure we research first on the university that is providing it. All reputable schools will be very open about their accreditation. Accreditation also shows you that the school is regularly audited for admissions, financial aid and education policies and practices and as a good and reputable as a requirement of accredited college, all online instructors at an accredited school will need to have minimum qualifications and relevant life experience in order to teach the classes offered. Accountants and Auditors (CPAs) Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), help to ensure that the nation’s firms are run more efficiently, its public records kept more accurately, and its taxes paid properly and on time.

What more can one ask for when having to learn this type of degree online or what we call an accredited college. They perform these vital accounting functions by offering a wide array of business and accounting services to their clients. Like all things about the Internet, there is a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly out there. So how do you find that excellent educational experience and distinguish it from a lesser one? All top-quality online degree programs will have the following as essential components of their school. The first is accreditation by a recognized, national educational authority in the US is an essential. These services include public accounting, managerial accounting, governmental accounting and internal auditing. One type of accredited college is an Online Accounting Degree, which prepares you for a career in the detail-oriented accounting and financial management fields.

There are a lot of people that would want to have that teaching degree but are hesitant because of the time commitment they would have to give up. Some people who might want to have this type of degree would probably want to do outreach and help the less fortunate. This is a very heart warming thing to do for the society because there is a need for more and more educated people and for those that need more education from the ones that they have already had.

There are a lot of things to consider and apply when it comes to having an online teaching degree because of the fact that it is online. This would be pretty unfair for those students that would enroll in their class and or for the school, college or university to where they will apply to and possibly get accepted. But it is still okay to get this type of online degree because it is after all for education and anything for education is very well accepted just as long as it is for the right intentions.

The moment someone is decided and starts to have the urge and gets an online teaching degree, does he or she really have to teach online too? Off course not but is it really a good idea to have an online teaching degree? So think about getting this type of degree first then think of the reasons why you would want to get a degree such as this. In the first place, the actual teaching is all from the body language up to the tone of voice of a teacher should be well tuned because these are part of an actual learning environment and that might be hard to learn if one just gets an online teaching degree and he or she does not really get the main essence of education.

Some people think that it is just a waste of time to spend for quality education but the truth is, education is an investment. Your online school’s financial aid adviser can help you determine which options are right for you. As the highest degree attainable in the United States, a doctorate degree can prepare you to work in leadership positions, university-level professorships, or other highly skilled professions.

Now, there are several types of masters degree available in a number of huge universities but having scholarship programs should be the apple the every eyes should aim for. The world can be fair at time but often times than not, it is not. Before, there were not so many people that can go to have the benefit or would even think of having a doctorate degree. So before actually enrolling in an online class make sure you will be able to keep up with the expenses and the requirements needed to pursue such endeavor.

Earning a doctorate degree online can cost tens of thousands. While many brick-and-mortar schools offer doctorate students paid teaching fellowships, online students are not afforded this luxury. If your new doctorate degree will help you be a better employee, you may ask your employer to pay for a portion of your doctorate degree costs. Many graduate students qualify to take out government subsidized student loans with lower-than-average interest rates. Additionally, private student loans are available from banks and lending institutions.

These scholarship programs not only level the playing field between the capable and the less fortunate but it also gives a chance to those intellectuals that are out there in this world.