Employers – how do you feel about online degrees?
May 24, 2010 by
Filed under accredited online degrees
I’m doing a debate on the pros and cons of online degrees and getting hired after you get them. How do you really feel about them?
May 24, 2010 by
Filed under accredited online degrees
I’m doing a debate on the pros and cons of online degrees and getting hired after you get them. How do you really feel about them?
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Go to uofpsucks.com and you will get some good info.
One education industry analyst wonders how much credibility an on-line degree really has in the marketplace. “I would imagine there would be a bias against on-line degrees of any kind,” said Rick Hesel, principal at Art & Science Group. “Face-to-face contact with the faculty is considered to be a mark of quality, and because this program doesn’t have that, I think both employers and prospective students would be wary.
But that could change soon, as the big names in education get into the on-line arena, Hesel said.
For the debate, you should prepare a definition of “online degree”. Various highly credible universities offer degree programmes by distance learning. Distance learning is something you should research because most people who use that facility are attracted to it because (a) they are full-time, mature employees who can’t attend an overseas university (b) because of the first reason, they would rather study part-time and do 3 or 4 year programme, rather than a 2 or 3 year full time programme.
The costs, content, and degree conferred are usually the same as the on-campus, full-time version. Also the independent bodies that give accreditation to university degrees give the same credit to a distance learning degree (from approved universities) as they do to the on-campus version. The “online” bit refers to using the internet to access the universities private network for course content and reference materials e.g. the research library and journal databases.
See the links for examples from the University of Edinburgh and The Open University.
That’s a good debate topic. Since online education is still fairly new there is not much known about the long term learning outcomes but what we do know is:
Cons:
Online formats dont allow or make difficult team work and verbal communication skills to be developed.
We learn from other students, online makes that very difficult.
Pros:
Flexible
Of course all of this assumes the online program is through a tradditional university. These for-profit schools like U of P and AIU have a long list of their own problems besides being online. Check out http://www.aiutruth.com for more information on this topic.