Bob Burns
Online Education has exploded in the last 10 years. Before that time no one could imagine that they could earn a degree or continue their education online. Previously, the only way to get a degree or update your education was to physically attend a college or school.
With easy access to the Internet, it is now possible to obtain a degree or continue your education with one of several online institutions. Online education or distance learning provides tremendous flexibility for individuals to receive an education from anywhere an Internet connection is available.
No matter if you are working a full-time job, have other commitments or live to far from school to attend, an online education can be right for you.
Some advantages to online learning are:
You will have access to many more courses than are available at any one College or University.
You can learn at your own pace and on your own time schedule. If you work hard, you can finish a typical course in four to eight weeks. If you’re time is limited, you can extend that to fit your schedule. Although online schools differ, many have deadlines for finishing courses.
If you have had previous college education you can continue with new courses or update to a Masters or Doctorate degree. You can also obtain other courses that might be appropriate to the job or career you are after.
Some online schools provide an option to take more than one course at the same time, allowing you to accelerate your learning. The disadvantage is that you have to be disciplined and be able to study on your own. It will be up to you to develop good study habits. No one is there to prode you along. It can be easy to put off studies until another day and fall behind in the course.
Before you register with an online school you should first check to make sure the school is accredited. Beware that there are numerous sites that offer bogus certificates and degrees.
If you are obtaining the education for a job or career the employer will likely judge your resume by the institution granting you the degree. The more respected colleges will look better on your resume.
You can check online schools accreditation by checking their Website. In the U. S., college accreditation is awarded by one of the following six-accreditation agencies that are appointed by the National Board of Education.
New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC),
North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCA),
Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSA),
Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS),
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (NWCCU).
Each agency has responsibility for providing accreditation for schools in specific states. Therefore, it would be best to run checks on a particular online degree program with the agency offering college accreditation for the state in which the college is registered.
Online Education is a great way to get a degree or update your previous education. Get the degree for the job your after.
Find out more information and news at http://online-education-center.info
About the author:
Bob Burns is owner and Webmaster of Online Education Center http://online-education-center.info offering the latest information and sources on Online Learning.
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Looking for the Sloan Semester Archives?A unique event in higher education occurred in response to Hurricane Katrina (and later Rita), which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in August 2005. Using online learning, colleges and universities from across the country responded in record numbers to help students and institutions impacted by the storms. Dubbed "Sloan Semester" the initiative provided free online courses to students impacted by the storm.A look back at the Sloan Semester Initiative... The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) provides a retrospective on the Sloan Semester Initiative: information about how it was established, how it worked, who participated, and the students who were served. The site includes links to an archived version of the Sloan Semester Catalog, a case study of the project, data about participants and lessons learned. The Sloan Consortium hopes the site will serve as both an opportunity to look back...and to be thinking ahead to the next time circumstances demand our community to respond. We know, from this experience, they will again. The Sloan Semester was a vibrant and vitally important undertaking that required the immediate attention of a group of dedicated educators. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, through its sponsorship of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), financed this worthwhile initiative that helped Hurricane Katrina—and Rita—affected higher education students continue with their education in an online modality, as their institutions were forced to temporarily close down for the Fall 2005 semester. A chain of educated decisions, along with the appropriate infrastructure and team of professionals, successfully moved this initiative forward in a quick and unprecedented time frame, "on the fly." Learn more about the Sloan Semester initiative by visiting www.sloan-c.org. |
Brief Overview of the Sloan Semester Initiative...
- Sloan-C member institutions created a fully functional "virtual" institution in 21 days.
- The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported the initiative with a $1.1 million dollar grant.
- Sloan Semester made more than 1,350 courses from over 150 institutions in 38 states available to over 1,750 students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.