Guide to Online Schools
Published: November 12, 2007
Living in a somewhat remote location, one of the things I appreciate most from the web is the access to knowledge and information.
That holds true for simple work related research or looking up a step-by-step tutorial to figure out how to fix my kitchen sink. But increasingly it also holds true for real, hard knowledge: educational knowledge.
For example, recently the Berkeley University of California put 300 hours of video from their courses online. And a number of universities do similar via iTunes.
The drawback of such an education is of course that it doesn’t cumilate into anything tangible such as a degree. Without that you have the knowledge but not the big bucks that comes with that knowledge.
This is where online educaton comes in, often referred to as distance learning.
Distance learning can involve anything from synchroneous to asynchroneous access to your instructor. But in all cases it means doing real studying to get a real certificate.
The upshot of distance learning is of course that you do it from the convenience of your own home, using your computer and Internet connection, and that you do it at your own pace.
The downshot of it is that there are many “ceritifcate for sale” web sites out there. Basically you pay for “tuition”, you do some fake work using bogus information, and you receive a (worthless) certificate.
What you need are accredite online colleges and universities. The ones whose certficates are recognized as true and valueable.
Recently I had to advise a friend on this and … well… it’s harder than I thought. Search. Find online college. Search again using the name of this college. Read a lot of spam (fake comments) put out by that college. Try to find the real reviews. Strike it off the list. Move on to the next…
I was a solid amount of hours into this education search when I hit upon Guide to Online Schools. This site is amazing!
They’ve done this type of research for me and have listed 119 accredited online colleges and universities offering a total of 2500+ online degrees and courses.
For every online school, college or university the accreditation, which you can easily verify yourself, is listed. For example, take a look at their listing of the George Washington University:
George Washington University is accredited by the National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
Here comes the catch: this is a resource site. They list the schools and online degree programs, cross reference them … and that’s it.
Interested in a course? *Click* and you are presented with a contact form to fill out which basically will have the school contact you. No gimmick here, no rip-off. Just a straightforward resource.
The range of online courses they’ve got listed is amazing (well, has to be with over 100 schools…). It ranges from “softy” social work to a criminal justice degree online course, all the way back to a online psychology degree.
If you’re not actively looking for an online degree you should still bookmark the site. Their Online Degrees & Online Learning Resources page is amazing.
Bookmarked!
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