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would you give as much validity to a person who applied and had received a degree from an "online" college compared to someone who attended and graduated from a real brick and mortar college?
I'm talking about someone who never set foot inside a college building and completed all work on a computer at home. Would you respect that person's education as much as a person who graduated from a normal accredited college?
I only ask this because I'm in this position right now and I'm stuck in a bit of a controversy with a coworker who attended an online college. We're in the process of hiring someone for a position and one of my applicants has a BA from an online university while 2 others have degrees from conventional colleges. The first person didn't do continuing education this way, his entire education was 100% online. I've interviewed all 3 guys and there is a stark difference in the guy who has the online degree, I personally feel he's nowhere near the level of the other 2 guys. None of the 3 have any real hands on experience so they're all green. I'm just a little shocked at how much less the 1st guy knows compared to the other 2. My coworker of course is defending the 1st guy but I'm not buying it.
Online? No way. I would not consider it a valid “college” education or degree.
That's my standpoint but my coworker who is also hiring for a similar position in his area keeps trying to defend this one guy and saying that the educations are on par with a real college. I'm just not seeing it, to me it's pretty clear the guy is lacking compared to the other 2 but he's got an ego the size of TX and really does believe he knows it all.
Location: The bustling, world-renowned downtown of Pataskala, OH
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Depends wildly on what we are talking about here. But never let a single personal situation/experience/event totally affect your opinion on a general subject matter, it gets you into trouble.
I wouldn't automatically disqualify someone for getting an online degree. A lot of traditional college offer 100% online classes and I took one in grad school... it was every bit as challenging as any regular class I took.
That said, I would certainly look twice. I would probably do some research on the institution. If the degree is legitimate though, the person is qualified, and I liked him/her better than the other applicants for the position then sure I'd have no problem hiring them... but in this case the person is clearly not better than the other applicants.
Your coworker is obviously self conscious of his less than prestigious degree and by trying to disqualify this person from consideration based on his degree you're getting rebuffed because of your coworker's own insecurities. Forget about his online degree. He's not as good as the other candidates. Push for the other candidates because they are better. Not because their degrees came from a brick and mortar college.
You left out a choice: I would consider an online degree better than a degree from a brick and mortar school. I'm WestCobb, and I'm a Phoenix.
(Just kidding-- in just about all cases, on line schools and degrees are worthless. It's rude to say outloud these days because so many people are running around with these diploma mill degrees, but it's true.)
If the school is accredited, think of it as any other. The only difference between the two is sitting at a desk listening to a lecture vs. sitting in front of a computer.
Why does it matter since your hiring process has revealed to you that the online graduate is far less knowledgeable than the other two candidates, unless of course that your the perceptions are colored by your impression of online degrees.
In the poll I answered that I would treat them differently because I believe that there is far more to learning than just sitting in a lecture hall, there is the exchange of ideas and knowledge that comes from personal interaction. Having said that, if the person were able to demonstrate that they have over come that handicap well, but it would be a case of guilty until proven innocent. Fair, perhaps not, but life isn't always fair.
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