Posts Tagged ‘online learning’
Posted by admin on July 20th, 2009
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For some people the classroom is not the ideal place to learn. Between students trying to prove themselves as subject-matter experts and those who ask questions for the sake of asking questions, between the busy work and lack of work handed out by teachers, between the clocks that are five minutes fast and five minutes slow; there is very little room for a proper education. How a student is able retain any information presented in a classroom crammed with annoyances and the tiniest discrepancy is beyond me. However, the tiniest of irritations can be avoided by removing the classroom from education. By creating his or her own learning environment a student can make sure all unpleasant quirks are nonexistent.
The best thing about an “at-home” education is that it does not have to be taken literally. Home is where a student is comfortable, safe and able to be productive in a positive environment. “Home” does not always mean “house”. Home can be your favorite café or your own corner section of the library. Home can be any number of places that allow you to take away the best education possible and this is something of which Penn Foster is well aware. In a world where complete downtown areas are wi-fi accessible and where you can take your laptop almost anywhere there is no need for the annoyances of brick-and-mortar classrooms. There is also no need to be paying more money for these annoyances when you can receive a college education that won’t put you thousands of dollars in debt. Nowadays, online education is the only thing that seems to make sense.
Posted by admin on March 16th, 2009
Next month, the first tuition-free, peer-to-peer college opens its doors to new enrollees. The University of the People plans to offer two bachelor degree programs: a BA in Business Administration and a BSc in Computer Science.
Instead of traditional textbooks, students will rely on OpenCourseWare material provided for free by other universities. Instead of working directly with teachers, students will complete assignments working as peer groups. There will be nominal fees for admissions and testing. But, students won’t be charged for tuition.
A recent news release from the University of the People explains:
“University of People will be able to effectively function on a limited budget without sacrificing quality of education by using collaborative and open-source eLearning. UoP will embrace peer-to-peer teaching to make the best use of a student body from around the world. Within online study communities, students will share resources, exchange ideas, discuss weekly topics, submit assignments and take exams. The curriculum will be supported by respected scholars. A community of educators, comprised of active and retired professors, librarians, master level students and other professionals, will participate and oversee the assessment process.”
Enrollment is limited to 300 students for the first semester, beginning this September. Although the school is not currently accredited, administrators plan to seek accreditation after the required wait time.
Provided by About.com
Posted by Jen Zeman on January 23rd, 2009
It would be less than honest if I did not say that being a freshman online student was a little scary. I knew that the course requirements at the bachelor level would be more stringent than at the community college level, but I wasn’t sure just how much. It was a lot more. However, I had prepped myself enough before classes so that it wasn’t overwhelming. In fact, it was quite exciting!
Some words of encouragement to those “freshmen” just starting out:
- Take the time to get organized. Being organized reduces the chances of missing course requirements and helps you to stay on top of assignments.
- Don’t overload your schedule. If you work full-time I would recommend taking no more than two courses a semester. I was taking three and while it worked for me, it meant that my life was work and school – nothing more. I would also recommend reducing the number of extra-curricular activities you participate in. If you start to have too many things competing for your attention, your school work will suffer. Make school your priority!
- Check in with the online classroom at least once a day. Most programs require participation in weekly discussion questions. There is also usually a place to post online questions to the instructor so it’s good to check that out regularly (if you have a question on something, most likely someone else will have the same question).
- Allot plenty of time to get the course required assignments and readings completed on time. Remember that even though you are not physically sitting in a classroom three hours a week, the required readings will more than make up for it (i.e. the readings take the place of the lecture).
- If you work full-time, schedule strategic days off during the semester. Use these days to complete term papers or additional assignments. This will reduce the stress of trying to beat a deadline at the eleventh hour.
- Schedule time for yourself! Even if it’s just an hour a week, use it doing something fun and refocus your mind.
Above all else, stay positive and focus on your end goal – a college degree. By maintaining a positive focus, all things are possible.
Posted by Sharon Cece on December 8th, 2008
The first thing I did after I was accepted to the Distance Learning program in 2004 was celebrate with a huge hot fudge sundae. The second thing I did was to sit down and research financial aid programs. There were two programs I focused on: financial aid specific to my college (academic in nature) as well as FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid (financial in nature).
My situation was the following: married, two children, one income. Since I had been away from FSU for a number of years (I had originally attended on campus from 1987-89), the FSU financial aid academic aid would not have been applicable to me until I received grades for my first semesters. Therefore, I directed my attention to the FAFSA, which I completed immediately and strongly encourage all students to do so. Since everything is done online, it is very easy to track your financial aid status once you complete all the required online forms and receive your PIN.
Based on the FAFSA report, I was eligible for the Undergraduate Stafford Loan. There are two kinds of Stafford Loans, Subsidized and Unsubsidized. Subsidized are based on financial need and interest does not accrue on the loan as long as you are in school at least half time until six months after graduation. Unsubsidized loans accrue interest from the time the loan is dispersed to the school.
Once I started to build a transcript of grades I was then able to pursue academic-based financial aid through my college. Thus, in addition to receiving the Federal Stafford Loan, I also received an academic grant through FSU. This helped quite a bit in paying for supplies and the added expenses germane to the distance learning student.
Though I did worry at first about paying for college, there are financing options available for most college students regardless of status. As well, there are scholarships available in addition to federal and state college assistance. Your academic advisors can point you in the right direction to get you started. More importantly, research is your best friend. Look into all financing options to make the best choices for you and your financial situation. It might also be prudent to consider one final piece of advice: always eat dessert before dealing with finances.
Posted by Pamela Gustafson on November 14th, 2008
My inspiration for an online education came from my need to schedule my continuing education around my own schedule, and my complete fascination with the online environment itself. My son was always online, creating and posting his own web page at the age of 12, long before the ease of uploading to FaceBook and My Space. Being a teacher, I didn’t want to squelch his curiosity, but at the same time I wanted to keep him safe. This meant that I had to learn about the online environment, to keep ahead of him. While I didn’t always succeed in keeping ahead of him; I learned to use the online environment for my job and my personal life.
I now prefer the online method of education including asynchronous discussion and scheduled synchronous chats and presentations.
The use of the online environment has put energy into my teaching at a time when my energy was waning. My middle school students think of me as a computer geek, when in reality I am just an old dog who has learned new tricks. These new tricks help to keep my students and me interested and involved in the important task of education.
Now I am using a combination on line/ on site method of teaching. My students complete the assignments posted on the student learning center and I grade them online. I have drastically decreased the amount of paper and I never worry about what I left at school. I can access student work whenever I am near a computer.
Online education. When I first enrolled in my online program, I had one thing in mind - convenience! I was working full time, and taught college classes part time at night. I was trying to earn a PhD, but there was no way I could give up my life (and my livelihood) to go to a traditional school full time to do this. So I started looking for alternatives. I settled on Capella University in Minneapolis - just after it transitioned from being The Graduate School of America. I had already selected my degree program - Organization and Management, so I just needed to find out where to go. When selecting a school, I was looking into a number of comparative factors - accreditation, scheduling, cost, residency requirements, quality of instruction and rigor. I didn’t want to just spend money to get a degree and have it be meaningless once I was done. I would suggest that anyone considering online education start with those basic factors (although a residency doesn’t apply to most undergraduate degrees).
Accreditation - there are two levels of accreditation - regional and national. When selecting a school, you should know whether or not it is accredited. Generally, if it is accredited it will advertise this fact on the school’s website. Accreditation means that the school has passed a review (sort of a calibration) to ensure the degree is being earned, not just given. Accrediting bodies do a regular review of the schools to ensure the standards aren’t slipping. Generally, your credits have a stronger chance of transferring to another school when you attend an accredited school.
Scheduling - there are so many factors to scheduling, you will want to learn how each school does their schedule and how that works with your schedule. For example, one school I teach for has online classes that go for 5 weeks and most students take one class at time, while another has classes that go for 10 weeks and most students are taking 2 at a time. It is up to you to find a school that has a schedule that will work best with your learning style and attention span. There are advantages and disadvantages to all the options.
Cost - look at this factor closely. How do you plan to pay for your education? Will you get tuition reimbursement from your employer? Will you get help from financial aid? Do you have the resources yourself to pay for school out-of-pocket. Some schools have fees per class or credit (make sure you know the breakdown of how those fees work so you can compare them fairly). Some schools have feels per semester or term - and you can take as many classes as you wish during that term while paying that flat amount. Knowing how the financials of school will work is essential to your long-term success.
Residency Requirements - this almost always required for PhD studies, but could be required for Master’s degree online programs as well. This is a time when you are required to physically attend a conference in-person. Again, how these work will vary by school, but find this out in advance.
Quality of instruction or rigor - accreditation is the first step to ensuring you will get a quality education. After that, you should do some additional research. Google the school you’re looking into and “review”. Look into news articles about the school. Find out what qualifications the instructors are required to have.
Making the decision to attend college online is a big decision, and often it is done swiftly, over the phone or over the web. Do your research to be sure that the structure of the education is what you want so you stick with it and see it through to graduation. I am still (slowly) finishing my final requirements for the dissertation and I hope graduation will not be far off!
Posted by Sharon Cece on October 28th, 2008
Discipline is the key to any success in life, but especially in regard to an online education. For those attending college on campus, degree seekers receive notices to arrive at campus locations where information is provided immediately by a campus representative. Books are purchased in line at the bookstore, student fees are paid at the Bursar’s office, and social activity takes place en route to any of these destinations in addition to the Student Union. Coursework is learned in classrooms according to the university’s and the professor’s schedule. Discipline of course is required; however, guidance and information are more easily obtained and identified on campus comparable to the online milieu.
Online learning is a wonderful and innovative way to obtain your degree, and certainly the primary benefit is flexibility. Yet, success occurs most often when flexibility on one end is pared closely with discipline on the other. Since specific schedules are not set by the professor, the student must set them and be diligent in keeping up with the coursework and classroom discussions and virtual class participations. Financial aid as well as billing is handled exclusively online, and while this is convenient it sometimes requires a bit of e-sleuthing to locate the information and websites you are seeking. Often there are no reminders of testing and projects ongoing as might happen in a campus classroom; for this reason the student’s best friend is a good planner.
The first semester online can be a bit daunting, as the student will discover that much of the information must be located online and with perhaps a bit more work than just walking into a building and asking questions. It takes time to learn to navigate “Blackboard”, the e-Education platform, as well as the threaded discussions and virtual classrooms. However, after the first semester or two, the student finds he or she becomes quite adapt at online navigation. The technology can be challenging but is also very exciting and opens the student to a new world of learning. One college graduate, Francesca, shares this experience:
“My college had more and more distance learning. Having had done it, I say that it is actually harder in some subjects. It is accelerated and a lot of the learning is your own understanding of the discipline. If the discipline is one you are interested in - like psychology - then you do well. If it is statistics, then some on campus or tutoring can help. My son does distance learning with MIT and now they have chat rooms and the teacher may have a web CAM and you can see her and if you have CAM they can see you. Sometimes the teacher has a white board and can draw diagrams for the class. It’s really neat. In any and all events, you have to have discipline, discipline, discipline”.
For the student who wants to attend college but needs more flexibility than the campus can offer, online learning is a wonderful alternative. Discipline in study and scheduling will ensure the success that is necessary to complete curriculum goals.
Posted by Sharon Cece on October 17th, 2008
Making the decision to return to college can be a complicated one. If you have an unfinished degree with college credits sitting in your academic bank not earning “interest” (forgive the economic pun), certainly the idea gnaws at you from time to time. You abhor the idea of wasting the credits you’ve spent time and money for with no degree to show for it.
This decision is complicated; however, there are factors to consider that may assist in helping you come to some conclusions and feel good about them. One factor is financial in nature (thankfully, there are many financial aid options available today). Another is time. Third might simply be whether you have the incentive or the desire to finish. There may be other factors that pertain specifically to you.
For many years I struggled with the decision to return to school. Having left FSU with 96 credits, you can imagine how I carried around my choice to leave before I graduated for years afterward. There were personal reasons for doing so which made perfect sense to me then and even now, and I never regretted leaving when I did sans degree.
Over the years I toyed with returned to college (I had since moved, so FSU was no longer an option), however, it never seemed to be quite the right time, or I didn’t have the funds, or there was always some life event or issue that was paramount to my education. The truth is, the desire simply wasn’t strong enough.
It strikes me as ironic that when the desire did finally hit me to finish college, I was married with two young children and a very busy life. But I had spent all the time and had 96 credits, and I said to myself, “You know you want this and have always wanted it, so Just Go for It”. I didn’t want to have the regret of an unfinished degree following me for the rest of my life, and my children were starting to ask about my college education. I knew if I was going to encourage them to finish college I needed to walk, literally, as well as talk.
When I decided to “go for it” then, after many many years of toying with the idea, everything seemed to just fall into place. I think that’s how it happens–if you have the desire it will happen and you will make it happen. I was very pleased that I could return to FSU through their online program, and they were able to apply many of my credits toward matriculation. Their online program made it easier, more convenient, and more time-friendly than physically going to classes. Financial aid forms are filled out online, also very convenient. The coursework was tough and challenging, but I wasn’t going back to college to catch a free ride to my degree. And thanks to online options, I arrived at my destination with diploma in hand.
Posted by Benae Lambright on October 8th, 2008
While attending class online there are a few proactive approaches that can be taken to make your experience more effective. These approaches can range from meeting deadlines to having adequate computer skills and tools to developing relationships with your classmates.
With more opportunities available for people to attend school in the comfort of their home, some students may feel that their learning experience is lacking something. Usually it’s the one-on-one interaction that makes distance learning challenging. From Kindergarten to Twelfth grade, you were always exposed to a group of students, teachers and administrators. Now your only physical interaction is between you and your computer. But this does not mean you have to feel isolated. Creating a learning environment that is engaging will help you to benefit from this non-traditional learning experience.
Before making the decision to attend an online college or university, or even to just take a class online ensure that you have the proper equipment. Having a computer is not enough to enable you to be a successful student. Check with the admissions department to see what software will be required. You may also want to confirm that you have an up-to-date operating system on your computer and Internet speed that will not allow you to get frustrated because the many images, sounds and papers take forever to load on your computer.
Once you are enrolled in class, find out the best ways to communicate with your classmates and instructor. Most schools will utilize discussion boards to share ideas, thoughts and the material learned but another resource usually available is the Student Lounge. Not all schools call it the same thing but the majority of online courses will have an area that allows students to communicate or “chat” about topics that might not be class related but helps you to get to know your classmates better. You may find that you have a study partner that lives not to far from you. You can also develop friendships with people from all over the world.
There are many benefits to online learning. Some of the biggest include time and convenience, but it is up to you as a student to make it a positive learning opportunity. So begin by establishing an environment that is conducive to learning and then respect the deadlines given by your instructor. Keep the lines of communication open with your instructor and classmates, but most of all enjoy learning.
Posted by Benae Lambright on September 30th, 2008
Many people have heard horrifying stories about diploma mills that are tarnishing the ideologies that support online education. Distance learning has many benefits by offering courses to those who are not able to commit to a traditional college program. But just as the prospective student must do their homework to find the program that is best for them, it is also their responsibility to confirm the online school’s accreditation.
This is an easy task. Using the United States Department of Education (USDE) website, a person can research any school’s accreditation. The USDE site will offer the college or university’s accreditation, along with a particular department’s specialized accreditation if applicable. This can be attained in seconds by using the Department of Education’s search function to look for the school of choice. The Council of Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) also list individual school’s accreditation. Using their database you can also easily locate the accrediting organization for an identified school.
The accreditation process was established to ensure that colleges and universities assure and improve the quality of higher education, according to the CHEA Talking Points: Accreditation, Students and Society article published this June 2008. Schools in the United Statesare granted accreditation through a regional organization. Most degree granting schools will be accredited by one or more of the seven regional groups. Some online programs will be accredited by the same agency that granted accreditation to their college or university’s traditional program but they might also receive professional, religious or other specialized accreditations. The Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) has become a recognized accreditation program that many online programs seek.
So while you are gearing up to embark on your new experience of beginning or returning to school, keep in mind the importance of enrolling in a validated online program. Using the USDE or CHEA websites, you can learn whether your potential school has the proper accreditation to grant your degree. The school’s website should also have their accreditation posted, if not this is your first warning sign!
To learn more about accreditation agencies and the regions they cover log onto:
www.CHEA.org or www.DOE.gov
