Are Online Degrees Worth It?

I believe it all depends on accreditation. With Library Sciences, depending on where you want to use it, you need to be sure that the American Library Association acknowledges the degree plan. Without an ALA, you may not get a job in k12 schools. In Texas, only two or three universities provide online ALA credits: Texas Women’s University, North Texas U, and UT Austin.

That’s just Texas though. You can get more information on ALA’s website: link

My friends works at the school that is owned by the Washington Post. The friend gets a lot of calls from angry ex-students that don’t feel they get a good bang for the buck—as in angry hysterical messages on her ans machine. She says they sign anyone up, basically to hit their monthly numbers. If it sounds too good to be true, it might be, I mean, er, um—is.

There’s wide variation in the quality of online courses. Research them well. Where I work, we offer online courses that are supposed to be the exact equivalent of in-person courses, in terms of rigor and subject material covered.

Even though they are online all at the same time during the lectures, it’s hard for me to imagine that the conversations and interactions are anywhere near as good as what would happen if they were present in-person.

I’ve been online for more than 20 years (started in the old BBS days), and while I have mistaken online for real life, that mistake has bitten me badly, over and over. They are different things, and online is not as good, at least for what I want out of life.

no.

If you are already employed in that industry AND have a track record of accomplishements, AND just need the piece of paper, AND your employer is paying you to go there, then it would be ok, but you won’t learn as much. If you don’t meet all of the above, I would recommend against the online degree.

I don’t know about the BA/BS programs but for post grad certs it has been more than worth it for me. I got a certification for online teaching through UCLA and a CLAD certification through Stanford. As a teacher the add’l 30 units moved me up the salary scale. The online teaching cert was not available locally and now I am running the online program in my school. The CLAD was required by my district for all teachers. The first offering was free, later it would have cost $1500—$2000 based on which college you attended.

Thanks, everyone, for the input! I just recently graduated with a BA in english, and I’m trying to work out my options for future employment! The only problem is that I have to stay in town and unless I want to take out even more loans, I need to work full time while I continue my eduacation. The aren’t any library science degrees offered here, so I was thinking about doing an online degree because I could continue my education, open up employment options in a new field, and continue to work at the same time. But I’m hesitant about it because it’s, you know, remote learning.

Just don’t do Kaplan

I am just curious, why not Kaplan? I have heard good things about Kaplan from instructors who teach for that school? Are there any online programs that you think are better?

Online learning and its ‘siblings’ are the fastest growing forms of education. Among the arguements for online education is that a student must be an active participant in a virtual classroom versus a silent observer, as can happen in a traditonal classroom, e.g., the body is in Boston and the mind in in Malibu. Increased participation usually results in greater interaction with both classmates and instructors, which theoretically leads to a better understanding of the course content.