Dynamic School

Posts Tagged ‘online university’

With the wide range of opportunity available to obtain an online degree, it almost doesn’t make sense to go to a university or college. Of course online courses will never be able to match the full immersion that an actual insitution can offer, but for someone who is working, or tied down with other commitments, it can open doors that where closed before.

Whether you need to upgrade your education for a promotion at work, or to even just get the job that you want, an online education might be right for you. It’s generally more affordable and most importantly flexible then a competing course at a university or college.

Online universities are striving constantly to become more reputable, and to offer courses in competitive fields. Keeping that in mind, the entrance requirements are typically the same for both online & offline.

A typical online degree can be completed in about 3 years, but of course that varies on how much commitment you give to the course, and also if you have any previous credits that are applicable. One of the most important things to do when considering out on the path of an online education is to do your research! Research both the history of the school, as well as the current reputation, and if the degree you will obtain will be recognized for what it is you need down the road. There has been instances in the past where some online institutions have basically just been selling degrees, which can lead to several problems such as: Loss of jobs, and involvement with authorities.

Keep a level head on your shoulders, do your homework, and you will make out just fine!

With countless online university offers fighting for your attention online, one of your first priorities in finding a university is to verify its credentials. Accreditation can make all the difference in the quality of the education being offered. It isn’t enough that a university is accredited. Find out more details about the accreditation. It should be legitimate and have recognition from the US Department of Education or the Council for Higher Accreditation.

What Is Accreditation

The US Department of Education has identified key points in ensuring the accreditation of an online university. Firstly, the institution needs to be able to meet established standards. They should also offer assistance to students in identifying the right colleges and finding out the details of transfer credits. The college should have set goals for self-improvement and increasing educational standards. Faculty and staff needs to be involved in institutional evaluation and planning. Criteria should be in place for availing federal financial assistance.

Accreditation is defined as a voluntary, non-governmental process of peer review by which an institution meets specific standards. However in layman’s language, it is more practical to think of it as the difference between a degree and the job that you’ve been striving for, and a waste of time, energy and money into a course that will eventually prove worthless.

Today’s employers are already pressed for time. This means they can spare very little of it in verifying the qualifications of a potential candidate. Therefore they find it much simpler and more practical to only consider applicants qualifying from an accredited institution whose standards they deem acceptable.

Types of Accreditation

Accreditation of a college can itself be of two types, institutional and specialized accreditation. The former applies to the institution as a whole to ensure that it is able to conform to certain set standards. In specialized accreditation, it is only a particular program that is involved for being able to meet specific industry standards.

Institutional accreditation is again of two types, national and regional. National accreditation transfer credits are not easily accepted by colleges and universities as it implies inability to meet criteria for regional accreditation. National accreditation is primarily limited to institutes that prepare students to join the workforce at the earliest. They include religious schools, technical institutes, vocational and correspondence schools.

On the other hand regional accreditation is recognized not just by the US Department of Education but is also considered the standard for other colleges and universities. Transferring college credits becomes a lot easier as the college meets the necessary standards with a combination of theory and practical experience. In certain cases like engineering, law, medicine, science and teaching, the degree needs to be both institutionalized and specialized in accreditation.

The University of Phoenix Online has been in existence for over a decade and a half. Established in 1989, it was the first accredited online university and today with over 57,000 enrolments to its credit, it has become the largest private, accredited, ‘for-profit’, online university in the United States. Because of its tenure and name recognition, the University of Phoenix is often the first name that comes to peoples mind when they consider an online University.  This reputation is not without merit, as the University offers students a great deal that the other online universities simply cannot compete with.  That said, not everything about this school is ideal.

Because of the length of time the University has been in operation, it has perfected the art of serious online teaching. The curriculum has been tailored to meet the requirement of working adults who seek to supplement their working knowledge with theory and practical skills while earning a degree for themselves to a degree that other online schools do not.

Virtual classrooms with trained online instructors and flexible but strict classroom participation and assignment submissions make learning comfortable. So much so, that the students are able to complete almost 27 credits in a year as against 15 credits completed by regular on site campus learning students. With only 11 students in a class, the student to instructor ratio is low, facilitating greater one on one interaction. The instructors themselves are CIOs, CEOs and CFOs of reputed companies when they are not mentoring students in the classrooms.

But then like every thing in this universe, negatives do exist and this University is no exception. Sometimes students complain about below average quality of instructors who do not participate in the discussion or evaluation to the extent that has been promised. Lack of communication skills in some cases and at others complete or partial silence towards questions posted has been observed. This is a serious allegation considering that the good communication and prompt interactions with the students of the class are very vital for any online course. Add to this, students often complain that when a grievance or concern is addressed to the deputed ‘advisor’ an endless string of communication follows with little or no action actually taken.

There are some ex-instructors who have come up and indicated that their pay is quite pitiful relative to other universities and as a consequence the motivation levels and drive to excel is low. This often results in a high turnover of instructors. It seems that the primary complaint, substandard teaching quality is directly tied to the level of pay provided these professors.

Another negative pertains to the technology itself. The university boasts that the online software platform has been developed in collaboration with Microsoft. One would expect that the mail receiving and disseminating platform also be much evolved and sophisticated. Instead there is confirmed evidence that they actually use the notoriously lacking Outlook Express for the purpose. Another problem is that the servers are quite slow sometimes. These two problems are worth a mention since online teaching requires quick and reliable interface with minimum downtime. Therefore a slack in this area can have serious implications for the university as a whole.

A final concern pertains to ‘high’ fees being charged. It might be comparable with the several outer online universities of its genre. But when viewed in the light of students who are already disgruntled with the quality of education being imparted, can snowball into bigger packets of unhappiness.

All this might sound as the doomsday for online education and especially for the University of Phoenix. But remember when you handle thousands of students, there are bound to be a handful that are going to be dissatisfied. And life depends on changes and improvements. That said, by and large the students of the University of Phoenix have and continue to express satisfaction with the school.  While it is certainly clear that it has some limitations, the opportunity to attain a degree swiftly and cheaply from a well known and accredited University makes the offer very attractive for a great many.