A hot online degree program is a great thing for the schools offering them, but what about for students? Tim Parker, writing in The San Fransciso Chronicle released his list of “Online Degree Programs With Big Demand” today. Parker states in the article that some hiring managers still prefer traditional degrees to online degrees, but this is quickly changing.  He also makes the point that if you have a degree from a large, reputable school with an established offline presence, that your diploma will not state whether or not you obtained your degree credentials by studying online at 3 am or by sitting listening to a professor lecture in a college classroom.

Parker’s Hot Online Degree Programs

Without further ado, here are the online degree programs Parker says are very hot right now.  To follow are the degrees on his list, along with some snippets of why Parker included them on his list of in-demand online degrees.

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  Online Nursing Degrees are hot commodities

• Registered Nurse: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), registered nurses will remain in high demand and as the baby boomer generation continues to age, the demand will be even greater.
• Accountants:Through 2018, the amount of accountants needed should increase by 22%, according to the BLS. As the economy recovers and financial regulation continues to be a priority among lawmakers, this should spur growth in the accounting job market. Because of this increasing demand, online offerings have increased as well.
• Education:The teaching profession is expected to grow by 13% through 2018. . . .the popularity of advanced degree programs as well as continuing education requirements have made online programs popular in the education field.

Perform due diligence before enrolling in an online degree program

Instead of only looking at for-profit schools such as the University of Phoenix, play it smart and check out if a locally based school with a reputation of offering quality education has online degree programs available. You may qualify for in-state tuition and scholarships and be looked at more favorably by an employer than if your diploma came from a for-profit school.

Parker says that online degrees are not the best fit for everyone.

Along with a high degree of comfort with modern technology, online degrees require large amounts of uninterrupted time, self-discipline and motivation. For some people, traditional classroom settings may fit their personality and technology skillset better.

Read Parker’s entire article

The debate over the merits of getting your degree online versus enrollment in a traditional degree programs rages on. For many who have never taken a single online class in their life, there is no way that an online degree program could ever hold a candle to the experience of sitting in a classroom and listening to a professor lecture. They fight tooth and nail for preservation of the current model for higher education: students sitting in a classroom being lectured by a professor. But Margaret Wente of the Globe and Mail takes a different view on the issue. Wente proposes that competency, not time sitting in a seat in a lecture hall, should be the true measure of the value of a post-secondary education. In her article, “We’re ripe for a great disruption in higher education,” Wente states:

Until now, online education has been regarded as the poor stepchild of the higher-education world – widely suspected of being a second-rate substitute for the real thing. But that’s about to change. The digital revolution is going to disrupt higher education in the same way it’s disrupted so many other industries. And it’s about time. Higher learning still relies on the medieval model, when scholars gathered in one place to listen to professors lecture at them.

New Initiatives for Online Learning Shake Up the World of Higher Education

Initiatives such as MIT’s plans to offer free online courses to anyone, anywhere will disrupt the status quo in higher education, and for students it’s a huge win. While MIT’s plan to offer free classes will not equate to getting a free degree online,  anyone who has taken the free online course and can prove mastery of the material, can get a credential from MIT for a small fee. A credential from a renown school like MIT is bound to impress an employer, regardless of whether the candidate obtained it sitting in a lecture hall or in an online class.

Other innovative online schools such as Western Governor’s University have abandoned the traditional semester model and allow students to take as many courses as they can complete in a year for a flat $6000 per year fee. Students are free to move through the course material at their own pace at WGU, and are required to pass a rigorous exam to prove mastery of the course material. Students are also assessed for prior learning at the beginning of each year, so they need not take a course where they have already mastered the material.

While the benefits of quality online education are indisputable, there is considerable resistance to its implementation, especially those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Undoubtedly,  professors are worried about their job security with the digital education revolution. However, Wente questions whether or not thousands of professors teaching basically the same material is really serving students’ best interests:

. . .[T]here’ll always be room for the old-fashioned lecture. But do we really need 10,000 professors in 10,000 classrooms lecturing on the same subject? Why not let students watch the best explainer in the world explain calculus or physics – online, on their own time – and use local professors to work in smaller groups with students? Makes sense – so long as you’re prepared to upend the entire professoriate, which is geared to research, not teaching, and is paid accordingly.

Meeting the Challenge of Reduced Public Funding for Higher Education

Public funding for education has been declining due to financial constraints placed on governments in the present challenging economic climate. Wente advocates the online learning model as being the savior not just for students, but also for institutions themselves. Online courses are a great democratizer of education, and can reduce the pressure for non-elite schools  to produce original research and spend huge sums on constant upgrading of facilities to cope with the demand for seats. It’s time for these schools to start focusing on students’ needs, not prestige. Wente drives this point stating:

The demand for higher education is exploding, but so is the cost. And the universities’ traditional business models aren’t sustainable. Non-elite universities (that is, nearly all of them) spend too many resources on research, prestige, bricks and mortar, and trying to be everything to everyone, and not enough resources on effective teaching and learning.

It’s high time that education costs were cut, and that higher education be re-focused on serving the student, not on serving the institutions themselves. While funding for research is crucial, so is preparing students to become contributing members of the workforce. All too often, a BA degree means nothing more than the fortitude to sit through four years’ worth of classes, instead of demonstrating mastery in a subject. As Wente states, the digital education revolution is shaking the foundation of higher education to the core:

The years ahead will be the worst of times for higher education – but also the best.

Read the original article

Often, students with low academic skills find themselves overwhelmed by the academic expectations when enrolling in community college. Without the ability to cope with the demands expected of them, many of these students end up dropping out before completing their degree. Student success is often greatly enhanced by student lifeskills classes that teach what it takes to succeed in college, such as time management and study skills, but many community colleges fear that making such classes mandatory will stretch their already over-burdened budgets to the breaking point.

New help is at hand for these students, thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mercedes White of Deseret News reported that Foundation is behind an initiative to help these students get up to speed academically and increase their chances of college success. According to White, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $750,000 to help these struggling students.

. . . [T]hrough an initiative called Next Generation Learning Challenges [the Gates Foundation will] open two free open-university programs for use at U.S. colleges and universities,  One program is meant to help students with math so they do better on placement tests or move more quickly through remedial courses. The other program is to teach study skills and other things they’ll need to know to be ready for college.

Classes Modeled After Courses Offered by Great Britain’s Open University

Classes would be modeled on the free online classes offered by Great Britain’s Open University. Online classes would be offered to help prepare ill-equipped students for the reality of college life. Since many community college students have either been out of school for sometime before returning, or have graduated high school with only average-t0-below-average grades, having this help available to them at the outset of their college careers will be a huge asset to them.

White cited a recommendation from the California Community Colleges Success Task Force in the value of these types of college lifeskills classes:

The task force believes “student life skills courses may contribute to positive outcomes by helping students early in the college experience to develop clearer goals for education and careers, better ideas of what it takes to succeed in college, and some practical skills useful for achievement,” reported Louis Freedberg and Monique Smith of EdSource.

Their theory is confirmed by a considerable body of research. Students who complete study and life skills courses were more likely to earn a community college credential, transfer to the state university system, or still be enrolled in college after five years, according to a 2006 study conducted by the Florida Department of Education. A later study showed a “positive relationship between taking a student life skills course and various student success indicators — credential completion, persistence, and transfer.”

Read more

Kelly Sheehy reported in an article released on January 10, 2012  that U.S. News had released their evaluations of the best online graduate programs in nursing. The rise in demand for online nursing programs has been fueled by the high number of qualified applicants being turned away from nursing schools due to a lack of available seats in nursing programs. The major reason for the lack of available seats is tied to the lack of qualified faculty to lead programs.

To become a nursing instructor, an individual must have at least a Master’s degree in Nursing. A typical nurses rotating schedule and shift work makes it extremely difficult for most nurses to complete graduate studies. Having an online option should make it much easier for a nurse who is interested in becoming a nursing instructor complete the required credentials.

If you are looking to enter a graduate program in nursing, check out the U.S. News rankings before making your final decision.

How the Top Online Graduate Programs in Nursing Are Ranked

Sheehy reported in the article how U.S. News ranked the top online nursing programs:

Online master’s of nursing and doctorate of nursing practice degrees are ranked in four distinct areas: admissions selectivity, faculty credentials and training, student engagement and accreditation, and student services and technology. Online degree programs considered for the rankings have at least 80 percent of their course content available online, and enrolled students in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Four schools came out on top in the U.S. News rankings in the specific ranking categories:

• Faculty Credentials and Training–George Washington University’s School of Nursing
• Student Engagement and Accreditation–University of Northern Colorado
• Admissions Selectivity–Delta State University
• Student Services and Technology–Loyola University New Orleans

Schools ranking in the U.S. News Honor Roll had to rank in the top one-third of at least three ranking categories. Five schools made the criteria, including Clarkson College of Nursing (Nebraska); Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions (Philadelphia); University of Colorado’s Health Science Center School of Nursing; and the aforementioned George Washington and Loyola New Orleans.

The online nursing degree option will do so much to alleviate the nursing instructor crisis, as well as help nurses ready to transition to a new phase of their careers in instruction. Working with individual’s schedules, instead of against them will ensure that a new generation of nurses is well-prepared to enter this exciting career field. Seeing otherwise qualified individuals turned away from full programs is a waste of talent.

Learn more about the U.S. News Top Online Graduate Programs in Nursing

With the explosion in popularity of Apple’s iPad, it only makes sense that Apple would add to the e-textbooks offerings available for the tablet device. While Apple has sold numerous iPads to elementary and high schools since they debuted in 2010, the educational materials available for them have been limited. According to an article appearing on Bloomberg.com by Adam Satariano and Peter Burrows, insiders requesting anonymity until a formal announcement is made later today, said that Apple will ” . . . announce a set of tools that make it easier to publish interactive textbooks and other digital educational content.”

Although e-textbooks made so much sense, as they are much cheaper and do not require the cutting down of trees in their production, they have been relatively slow to catch on, and only represent a very small portion of the $10 billion textbook industry. But since the iPad has become so popular, Apple’s move into the e-textbook market should not be surprising to anyone.

Satariano and Burrows wrote:

The plans, to be unveiled by Apple Internet software chief Eddy Cue, are aimed at broadening the educational materials available for the iPad, especially for students in kindergarten to 12th grade, the people said. By setting its sights on the $10 billion-a-year textbook industry, Apple is using the tablet to encourage students to shun costly tomes that weigh down backpacks in favor of less-expensive, interactive digital books that can be updated anywhere via the Web.

“Apple will raise a lot of awareness about digital textbooks and how education is going digital,” said Osman Rashid, whose company, Kno Inc., develops e-textbook software.

Apple’s new software is designed for a broad range of authors to be able to publish the content in a digital format, similar to what Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) does with its direct publishing tools, said the people. Large publishers will be able to create digital versions of textbooks, with embedded graphics and video.

e-Textbooks Still a Hard Sell in the College Market

Despite all of the advantages of e-textbooks, they can be a tough sell to college students. According to Satariano and Burrows, e-textbooks for college courses only comprised a tiny 2.8% share of the $10 billion textbook market in 2010. With plans to make e-textbooks more interactive, with features such as 3-D diagrams, pronunciation guides and interactive quizzes, look for e-textbooks to make significant inroads into this market in the near future.

Apple’s foray into the market could change the entire landscape of what we typically imagine a textbook to be. The jury is still out on whether or not students will embrace the change.

Read the entire article

Read more about Apple’s big push into the textbook market with $14.99 high school textbooks.

Is online education the way out of lack of education and poverty for people the world over? Shai Reshef, founder of University of the People believes that yes, it is. Some of the primary reasons that people from disadvantaged nations never go on to complete higher education is lack of access and expense. These nations are at a severe disadvantage compared to first-world nations, as they simply do not have the professionals to provide leadership, produce and manage innovative technologies and educate the next generation. As long as these conditions exist, there is no hope for change in these nations.

Until now.

In an article appearing in The  Huffington Post, Mr. Reshef outlines his vision for a revolution in higher education that can change lives and help end poverty and despair. It all centers around offering a tuition-free online degree to prospective students. Here, Mr. Reshef refutes nay-sayers who claim that an online education is an inherently inferior one:

Online education can be provided at significantly less expense than traditional education and utilizing it can mean the difference for millions of individuals to successfully attain education or remain shut out of education, as is the status quo. Some people may still be prejudiced against on line universities and feel that online education is not of good enough quality. Yet, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s 2010 Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning, students who study online perform even modestly “better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”

Online Education Leading to Democratization of Education for All

What’s most important about initiatives such as University of the People is that access to higher education is being democratized. It’s no longer just for the rich kids who live on campus. Thanks to online education,  higher education is becoming accessible to all ages; to all nations; to rural populations; to parents of young children and to seniors.

Mr. Reshef explains why the democratization of education and accessibility to tuition-free higher education is now possible:

Today’s amalgamation of dropping technology costs and Open Educational Resources have allowed quality educational delivery to cost a fraction of traditional brick and mortar institutions. Adding in the principles of e-learning and peer-to-peer learning, coupled with open-source technology and the full use of Open Educational Resources, cumulates in a tuition-free quality education for all.

For the uninitiated, Open Educational Resources features free access to teaching and learning resources from throughout the world for K-12 as well as for college courses that are free to use and openly licensed. Currently, the OER Commons has 31418 resources available for teachers and learners. Even some free online textbooks are available through OER. Content providers include Harvard Law School, Michigan State University, Penn State, University of Cape Town, University of Nottingham, and Columbia University, among many other notable providers.

Reshef’s University of the People builds on this free course content available from Open Educational Resources as well as participation from institutes of higher learning and corporate sponsorships to service educationally disadvantaged students.

UoPeople was specifically designed to provide access to collegiate studies for individuals, despite any financial, geographic or societal constraints they may face. The over 90% satisfaction rate among students, more than 550,000 Facebook fans, and the encouragement and active participation of top academics around the world highlight the global support for University of the People. Furthermore, partnerships with Yale University for research, New York University for accepting students and Hewlett-Packard for internships demonstrate growing acceptability in the academic and business spheres for the initiative to democratize higher education.

However, University of the People is not only servicing all those currently constrained from attaining higher education, but possibly even more important, it is building a model for governments and universities worldwide to emulate in order to educate even greater numbers of individuals in need.

Currently, the University of the People offers four degrees: Associate degrees in Computer Science and Business Administration, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Business Administration.

It should be noted that the University of the People is not yet an accredited institute of higher education. Currently, the university is preparing the materials to apply for accreditation by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Students could find that the credits they receive at University of the People are not recognized by other institutes of higher learning for transfer credit. Transfer credit for courses taken at the UoP is up to the sole discretion of the receiving institution.

While tuition at UoP is completely free, they do charge a one-time application free of $10-50, depending on the applicant’s place of residence–students from developing nations will pay less than others will. There are also plans to implement Exam Processing Fees of $10-$100; again, dependent on the student’s place of residence.

Read more about Shai Reshef and the University of the People.

Katy Hopkins from US News and World Report/The Huffington Post wrote an article today that outlines seven key factors to consider before you sign up for an online degree program. While the advantages of online college courses for many students, particularly for working adults are numerous, it really pays to weigh out all of these factors before committing to laying out a considerable sum of cash for your education.

According to Katy, here are the seven factors to consider:

1. Online education programs do not have a universal method of charging students. While some schools post one lump sum for a program, many schools charge by the credit hour or course. Students may be able to start with some credits–and thus decrease their time in school and tuition bills–if their programs offer credit for previous college coursework or life experience (University of Maryland–University College, for instance, offers the latter).

2. In addition to tuition, online students are often charged a variety of fees, sometimes even for services they may never use. Fees for technology, activities, materials, and more add up, though students may not realize it until after they’ve enrolled or received a bill.

3. It’s common for working professionals to complete online degrees with financial help from their employer, but some companies wait until students receive their grades before cutting checks. If a workplace reimbursement program will be a key component in financing your online degree, check to see if the schools you’re interested in have flexible payment options.

4. If some on-campus involvement is important to you, weigh the program amenities at the online schools you are considering.

5. Online learners, like traditional students, have borrowing options. If you’ll be using loans to help finance your degree, keep in mind that experts recommend you exhaust all federal loans first before turning to private options.

6.There tend to not be as many scholarships for online learners as there are for traditional learners, but some opportunities do exist. . Online learners with financial need are also eligible for federal grants such as the Pell, which funds up to $5,550 a year for the neediest students. Just like traditional students, distance learners must complete the FAFSA in order to receive any federal aid.

7. Though costs can add up, earning an online degree from an accredited institution may be especially worth it if allows you to achieve higher levels of education while continuing to earn a salary.

An Online Degree Program May or May Not Be Right for You

Katy presents a thoughtful contribution on the discussion about whether considering an online degree option is right for you.  You need to consider more than just the tuition fees when considering enrolling in any post-secondary training; you really need to consider whether or not the prospective school is the right fit for your needs and budget. An online degree program may or may not be the right choice for you.

Read the article

Brian Stoffel has previously ranted about the evils of “for profit” schools at fool.com, but he is beginning to change his mind about online schools benefits after viewing a speech by Harvard Business school professor Clayton Christensen. Although Stoffel’s bias against for-profit schools came primarily from a stock-investment perspective, he now sees that online schools can help students who would otherwise never have the opportunity to pursue degrees without them.

In a nutshell, here are the reasons that are making Stoffel change his mind about online schools from his article “Was I Completely Wrong About For-Profit Education”:

• For-profit education schools have brought the ability to obtain a degree to thousands of students who otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to attend college. Apollo‘s University of Phoenix — the leader, by size, in the field — has 380,800 students enrolled in its school alone!
• A typical college or university focuses on the quality of the research being conducted by faculty as a preeminent metric for value and worth that a college has. While that might seem great, it doesn’t do much to ensure that students are actually being taught. Online schools worry about a different metric: the actual quality of teaching.
• With the cost of sending a child to college sky-rocketing, more and more students may look at online schools as a viable alternative. Forced to choose between spending a lifetime paying off debt, or having to prove in the real world that they have the skills to justify their online degree, many students will begin choosing the latter.

Online Schools Benefits: Advantage Students

Read more.

Western Governors University (WGU) has long been one of the best-kept secrets in online education, but the word is getting out about this innovative online college to the point that it now boasts enrollment of 30, 000 students. Unlike other online colleges, WGU aims to keep tuition costs low, but also to provide outstanding support for its students–the majority who are non-traditional students.

Larry Abramson from NPR.org outlined some of the advantages of WGU in a January 3, 2012 article:

Western Governors has stripped the higher education machine down to its parts. The school doesn’t develop its own curriculum, so the material Shackleford studies to become a high school biology teacher comes from outside providers. Those kinds of innovations help keep tuition low, at around $6,000.

This figure is very low compared to tuition fees charged at other colleges, and furthermore, “Tuition hasn’t gone up in five years,” according to Abramson. As well, students can keep costs down even more because they can complete courses as fast as they can. Tuition is charged twice per year, so the student who completes as many courses as possible during that time frame has the potential to drive their costs down even further.

WGU offers special support to students in the form of a “personal student mentor,” a person who monitors student performance, and offers help and intervention to students who are falling behind in their studies. Personal student mentors are specially trained by WGU and function as “a combination guidance counselor, career coach and best buddy.” If students need content-related assistance, they can turn to a course mentor, who is an expert in the subject matter.

In order to graduate, they must pass learning assessments, so there is no rushing through courses without comprehension or retention of learning.

“For each degree, we define what we expect a graduate to know and be able to do,” says university President Bob Mendenhall. “We develop the assessments to measure that. When they’ve demonstrated they’ve mastered all the competencies, they graduate.”

The WGU Advantage for Adult Students

Abraham sums up the advantages of Western Governor’s University succinctly:

Western Governors is an ambitious effort to reach adult students who often struggle to finish school, but right now it’s only filling a niche. The university offers degrees in just four fields: information technology, teaching, business and health care. According to Mendenhall, his school isn’t meant to replace traditional colleges.

Still, based on student and employer feedback, Western Governors graduates are doing well, getting jobs and promotions based on their degrees.

Read more

Visit Western Governors University website www.wgu.edu

There are much greater implications of dropping out of college than just being labeled a college dropout, both to the taxpayer and to the individual. Emily Hanford recently wrote these implcations in an article republished in the Sacramento Bee. Hanford quotes Mark Schneider of the American Institutes for Research about the true cost of college dropouts to the individual and to the economy:

“But it’s not just dropouts who are paying the price. Students who quit college are costing taxpayers around $3 billion a year in state appropriations to colleges and universities, as well as federal and state grants to students”, according to Mark Schneider of the American Institutes for Research, who has studied the problem. And that’s only for beginning full-time students who drop out during their first year. If every dropout were counted, the cost would be much higher.

“Taxpayers have a lot of skin in this game,” Schneider said.

One of the barriers to college dropouts returning to finish their degree has been the insistence of many colleges to make students retake introductory courses even though they may have years of directly related work experience. Finally, some policy makers have begun to see the light, and are making it easier for adult students to re-enter the college game. One such program to make it easier on adults wanting to complete their degree is Louisiana’s CALL (Center for Adult Learning in Louisiana).

Sponsored by the state’s board of regents, CALL offers courses that take less than half as long to complete as traditional college courses,and awards credit for what students already know through a process called “prior-learning assessment.” All of this is meant to help people with some college credits complete their degrees.

One of CALL’s success stories is John McGee, who had spent seven years in the military and more than a decade as a manager at a Louisiana casino when he went back to college as a working adult. Despite his experience, McGee had to take the same introductory courses as an 18-year-old, leaving him bored and frustrated.

Through CALL, McGee tested out of five introductory courses by passing a series of exams. He took the rest of his classes online in the accelerated format, and finished an associate degree in less than a year.

“Learning became interesting, because I felt like, man, I’m finally accomplishing something,” he said.

To boot, many traditional colleges are just not set up to meet the needs of students who do not reside full-time on campus. College is evolving from the being the sole domain of the 18-yr-old leaving home for the first time, and colleges have not kept up with that reality. Non-traditional students are becoming a larger demographic yearly, with no decrease being seen in this trend. However, returning to finish a degree  is not easy, despite many older students being highly motivated.

College Dropouts Want to Finish, But Find It Too Difficult.

Many students who return to college end up quitting yet again, said Stan Jones, a former Indiana commissioner of higher education who is now president of Complete College America, which is pushing for policy changes that will make it easier for dropouts to finish college.

Jones said many returning students fail to stick with it because most colleges aren’t set up to meet their needs.

In addition to rejecting transfer credit or refusing to give credit for professional experience, “the colleges that we have now were designed for traditional students that lived on campus, went full time, and had resources,” Jones said.

Most of today’s college students don’t fit that profile. Three-quarters commute to class, 40 percent attend part-time, a third are 25 or older, and most have jobs. At community colleges, where close to half of all college students are enrolled, more than 40 percent of students work full-time.

To get more dropouts to finish, and to prevent them from quitting in the first place, Jones said, colleges and universities need to make radical changes. Colleges are not “working hard enough to have (dropouts) come back to a different situation,” he said.

Jones said that colleges need to schedule classes in ways that work for people with busy lives, provide better counseling to help students navigate choices about courses and degrees, and make it easier to transfer credits. They also need to offer more online and accelerated-degree programs, he said, and give students course credit for professional experience.

So, will colleges actually listen and create programs that are convenient and flexible for students, and sit down and speak with students whose real-life problems get in the way of finishing their studies? Unless there is a fundamental shake-up in the entire mindset of what college should be, progress in this area is bound to be slow. The revolution has already started, but many colleges are late to the party. Unless colleges and universities can wake up to the new reality that not all students are eighteen-year-old freshmen who live on campus, getting college dropouts to finish their degrees is going to be a long road to haul.