The future of school

[dgz]

Perhaps some online degrees are easy. Others are not. The online Master's program required a lot more work than when I went through another graduate program 10 years earlier at a 'brick-and-mortar' school. I hire people every few months for contracts and we accept online degrees provided that the school is an accredited one. But I hire for jobs that are more mid- and senior-level, so experience is a big part of the equation as well. Additionally, I had no issues with receiving tuition reimbursement from my employer (a large defense contractor) over the three years as I went through the program--again, given that it was accredited.

I think that in the future, 60-70% of courses (college/grad school - not high school) will be delivered online.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by dgz

Perhaps some online degrees are easy. Others are not. The online Master's program required a lot more work than when I went through another graduate program 10 years earlier at a 'brick-and-mortar' school. I hire people every few months for contracts and we accept online degrees provided that the school is an accredited one. But I hire for jobs that are more mid- and senior-level, so experience is a big part of the equation as well. Additionally, I had no issues with receiving tuition reimbursement from my employer (a large defense contractor) over the three years as I went through the program--again, given that it was accredited.

I think that in the future, 60-70% of courses (college/grad school - not high school) will be delivered online.

And I think a lot of people will cheat their way through those degrees so you'll have a lot more candidates with the piece of paper. What's to stop someone from sitting there with the book open looking up answers during a test if they're taking it online? What's to stop you from having a chat window open with a classmate on one screen while you take the test on another? The number of students who try to cheat in brick and mortar schools is shameful. I can imagine what it is once you make it easy to cheat.

I think you really have to scrutinize the candidate. A proven candidate gets more points for an online degree than an unproven one because you can learn via online degrees. Personally, I think you lose something when you're not sitting in a class of your peers or in the student union after class debating the material but you can learn just as well as you can from a book. I do think people can self teach. I just think a class of peers adds something valuable to the process. I learned as much from my peers as I did my profs. Of course both of my majors required team work and learning from others who are more experienced than you are. Engineering and teaching.