Online Degrees Of Separation

I was elected to serve a 3-year term on my local school board last year, and wouldn’t have discovered this otherwise. Several months back one of our best special ed teachers (who has been with us for about 7 years) was notified that our state will not accept her credits for work she did online with Phoenix U to finish coursework to get her teaching certification. We did some shuffling in order to keep her on as a teaching assistant (if you know anything about public education at all you know that it’s hard to get and keep good teachers). Under our state education laws the only other option she had was to resign. This teacher started with us as a teacher’s aide, and worked her way up as she was doing her coursework to become a teacher. What a mess for her and for the district.

Hey Chirs,
I’d like to help respond to your questions about distance learning…

>>How long did it take for you to complete your degree online?>How many courses did you take each semester?>How much time did your studies take each week?>Did your employer help subsidize your distance education? Were they hesitant to do so?>Did your family (parents, spouse, siblings, children) believe that you could get a degree online? How about your co-workers?>How much did your online degree cost?

There are so many fly-by-night operators out there, and in cyberspace it can be harder to tell than you’d think. Check into what kind of institution you’re dealing with.

I got my MS in Computer Systems Management from University of Maryland University College  www.umuc.edu). They have one of the oldest and largest distance-learning programs in the world; they’ve been one of the US military’s primary schools for delivering college courses to soldiers all over the world since before the interweb was a glimmer in DARPA’s eye.

The experience wasn’t 100% great, but it was quite worthwhile, and having a degree from a real school that people recognize is good in an age when people don’t necessarily trust a no-name school.

To answer some of your other questions:
It took me seven years altogether to complete my degree. That includes at least four semesters of complete inactivity during job and family transitions of various stripes.

I never took more than two courses in one semester, one during summer term when the courses are shorter and thus denser. I’d say my studies usually occupied 3-12 hours/week/course, depending on whether I was just doing basic coursework/reading or also working on a paper or project.

My four different employers during this period had differing policies. I was an IT guy studying computer systems management, so it was deemed relevant to my job. Generally they reimbursed for courses in which I earned a B or higher. Toward the end I actually ended up working for the University of Maryland at a different campus, and they let you take up to two courses per semester straight-up free. This was much easier than getting reimbursed; I think some employers make it hard to do, like getting a rebate, to discourage too many people from taking advantage. Regular tuition is about $1,000 for a three-credit class, but I only paid for maybe three of my classes.