Online University Lowdown

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Skills to survive and excel in the 21st century – guess how these are best acquired?  Through online courses, according to a report published by the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Advanced learning techniques, and online course design and delivery should help promote skills such as global awareness, self-directed learning, information and communications technology literacy, problem solving, time management and personal responsibility. US News Wire reports:

"Eighty-four percent of employers say K-12 schools are not doing a good job of preparing students for the workplace – not only in mastery of math and science but in a basic work ethic," said NACOL president Susan Patrick. "As a nation we have to do better, and research shows that online learning provides the interactive, collaborative and self-paced learning environment where students can gain the skills needed to succeed in today’s jobs."

Follow this link for more on the report.

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Getting in is easy, it’s staying there that’s the hardest part. Online education is not for those who have trouble setting their own schedules, applying themselves, and sticking out the rough road that has to be taken when work, lessons, and family have to be given priority at the same time. Retention in online courses is thus a separate course of study by itself, and Penny Merena has distinguished herself in this discipline. The doctoral graduate at the University of Delaware has been chosen as the recipient of the applied research award from the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) for her doctoral executive position paper, “Increasing Retention in Online Distance Education Courses.”

Merena’s study zeroed in on the reasons for the increasing number of drop-outs – she concludes that the technology that is used to deliver a course and the frequency of student-teacher interaction play a large part in students completing the course. She surveyed students of online and distance education courses offered through the division of Professional and Continuing Studies and analyzed data to measure success and retention rates.

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

It’s akin to sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture, it’s just that the classroom exists in the virtual world. Call it a sort of surreal experience, but that’s what the online community Second Life is offering. The portal allows members to live life in a virtual world, with its own currency, rules and societies. If you belong, you can buy your own land, build your dream home, and socialize with neighbors, just like you would in the real world. The only difference is that you’re reduced to an animated figure that has to either fly or be teleported around the world.

But this other world is becoming a sort of launching pad for some forms of online education. Over 60 educational institutions are contemplating how this site can be used to further the cause of education. Rebecca Nesson conducts a course that is jointly offered by the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Extension School in Second Life; she says it’s just like a regular campus, with members interacting just as college kids would.

Will this virtual community foster the growth of online education? Mechthild Schmidt, a professor at NYU-McGhee, a division of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, says that it does hold a lot of potential. But since the development of the site rests solely on the shoulders of its members, Marc Prensky, a leading expert on education and learning, feels that the outcome depends on the creation of structures within the world.

Interested in a second life anyone? Give it a try here.

Below you will find the 10 best online MBA programs for the year 2009. To request information directly from the schools you are interested in, use the "More Info" buttons below:

1.

University of Phoenix –
The nation’s most popular online university, the University of Phoenix offers a wide variety of top rated accredited online MBA programs.

2.

Baker College –
Baker offers the largest variety of MBA concentrations among top online universities. However, it is its positive reputation with employers that makes it most popular with students focused on improving their job prospects.

3.

Kaplan University –
The numerous MBA concentrations available along with flexible class schedules make Kaplan University a top rated online MBA college for working adults.

4.

Strayer University –
Offering MBA’s in most major concentrations, Strayer is a leading online MBA school because of its reputation for having top professors and a career-oriented MBA curriculum.

5.

Northeastern University –
With a national reputation for academic excellence and top results on employer name-recognition surveys among online MBA programs, Northeastern is quickly becoming one of the best overall online mba schools.

Below you fill find the top programs to receive your doctorate degree online. Request more information from the online doctorate schools that interest you by clicking the “Click Here” buttons below:

1.

University of Phoenix –
With PhD programs in a wide-variety of concentrations, the University of Phoenix offers an online PhD degree for almost every career goal.

2.

Liberty University –
With online PhD programs in the fields of education, ministry, and theology, Liberty is fast becoming a top online PhD university for Christian students.

3.

Walden Universty –
Offering a number of education PhD programs such as such as a Doctorate in Education, Walden combines strong academics and a moral compass to create America’s next generation of education leaders.

4.

Fielding Graduate University –
Fielding offers online PhD programs in education as well as in the fields of psychology and human development. Its excellent teaching and graduate-level focus ensure a top online university education for its students.

Earning a doctorate online is possible, even in the most obscure disciplines.

While there are numerous schools offering online MBAs, the Phoenix University is going one step further and offering a doctorate in Business Administration. According to the school, the DBA program is designed to help senior management personnel in solving business problems, performing analyses, becoming business experts, and formulating rules and standards for the business industry.

If you are in the field of education and are interested in broadening your horizons so that you can play an important role in the future of learning in your community, the Doctor of Education program offered at the Walden University is a good bet. The school offers specializations for both teachers and administrators of education.

Here’s something I’ll never understand – why people would pay good money for a degree that they know is a sham! Is that all an education is worth – the price of the paper the degree is printed on?

Amidst all the diploma mills that take people for a ride and offer fake degrees, there are some sites that boldly proclaim that their degrees are “bogus” and that for $60, (well, a cent less to be exact), you can have the degree of your choice printed and framed on the wall behind your desk.

Being fooled into earning a degree that is worthless is one thing, knowing that you are “buying” a degree is entirely another. While the first amounts to being taken for a ride, the second shows that the “degree holder” is the one taking prospective employers, friends and family for a ride.

The values and benefits of online education are being corroded by the existence of such sites, and the more they are patronized, the less significance online learning will hold.

Transferring credits between institutions is a bother at times because one school does not recognize the accreditation of another. This often happens when you try to transfer credits earned at a college accredited by the Distance Education Training Council (DETC) to one accredited by any one of the six regional agencies.

While the DETC is accepted as a valid accreditation agency by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the United States Department of Education (USDE), there are a few regionally accredited schools that refuse to accept credits earned through the DETC.

So before you enroll in any school, it makes sense to check if your credits will be accepted there. The Higher Education Transfer Alliance (HETA) exists just for this purpose. HETA is a group of institutions that do not make their transfer decisions based only on the accredited status of the prior college. While a definite transfer is not assured, at least discrimination is not made on the basis of the accrediting body.

Follow this link for more information.

UPDATED BEST ONLINE COLLEGE 2009 RATING:

Below you will find our ranking of the best online universities for 2009. Students can request free information directly from the best online university for them by clicking on the ‘More Info’ links:

1.

Westwood College Online –
With the nation’s leading online BS in Web Design, AS in Graphic Design and Multimedia, Game Art and Animation programs, its no surprise that Westwood belongs at the top of this list.

2.

Kaplan University –
Kaplan is nation’s overall top ranked online university for nerds, as it offers the nation’s leading selection of computer, technician, and IT programs online.

3.

University of Phoenix –
The most recognized online university, Phoenix is also one of the best universities for nerds due to its large selection of design, development, animation, and IT programs.

4.

AIU Online –
With top 10 programs in web design, digital design, visual communications, and a strong computers department its no surprise that AIU is consistently one of the best online colleges for nerds.

5.

Baker College Online –
Baker’s ranking as one of the best online colleges for nerds is due in large part to the strength of its web design and development department which is consistently ranked among the best in the nation.

6.

Devry University –
For those looking for an affordable online university, DeVry is one of the best online colleges due to their financial aid packages combined with the strength of their curriculum.

7.

Liberty University –
Likely the best online college for Christian nerds, Liberty combines strong Christian values with an excellent curriculum in science, technology and computing to achieve a consistent ranking as one of the best online colleges.

8.

Capella University -
Capella’s national reputation in employer surveys for producing talented students, makes it a one of the best colleges online for almost any career goal.

8.

Grand Canyon University –
With a focus on graduate-level education, GCU offers the best online college technology interface to complement its top rated masters degrees programs, making it one of the best colleges online.

10.

ITT Tech –
ITT is the best online college for technicians degrees. ITT offers both online and campus degree programs in almost every career a nerd could be interested in.

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Pull out your pocket protectors and penny loafers…its Nerd Time Baby!  From video game design, to artificial intelligence, to majors in ‘ethical hacking’, colleges around the world are starting to appeal to the nerds in all of us.  This list of 25 courses and programs offered at colleges around the world identifies some of the nerdiest coursework, starting with the most obvious, and winding up with the most obscure…

1. Game Software Design and Production: Video games, especially the interactive, online versions, are gaining in popularity by the day. So much so that hardware is being designed exclusively to support the graphic capabilities and speed that gaming applications demand. USA Today credits the DigiPen Institute of Technology with the title, “the Harvard of the joystick-clenching students fresh from high school”, for the four-year course offered in gaming design and production. For an online offering, check out the Video Game Design and Development course from Gatlin Education Services.

2. Ethical Hacking: It takes a crook to catch one seems to be the motto here. The rampant spread of hacking attacks has necessitated the introduction of ethical hacking courses that train students to become hackers themselves, so that they can stop the bad guys from spreading havoc through the Internet. The University of Abertay in Dundee, Scotland became the first university to offer a full-time, four year course in Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures earlier this year. Similar online offerings are available at the InfoSec Institute.

3. Open Source Development: The advent and growth of the worldwide web has seen the parallel rise of applications and software developed using open source tools, thus facilitating a world with no copyrights and fostering faster development. The University of Berkeley, California, explores the economic, legal and social perspectives of Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information, while a study of open source development tools is available as an online offering at The Open University. Those interested in learning Unix and Linux online with an intent to becoming system administrators can check out the online training course at the University of Illinois Online.

4. Cryptography: As more and more transactions move into the online realm, it becomes increasingly important to secure these dealings and keep them from prying electronic eyes. The key to this challenge? The art of cryptography aka cryptology, of course. The forerunner to this skill was undoubtedly Leonardo Da Vinci. Do “The Da Vinci Code” and its cryptex ring a bell? The Stanford University offers Advanced Topics in Cryptography for those who wish to master the art of coding and decoding. Online offerings abound in this subject, but the best would be those offered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Stanford University, and the University of Washington. The last one is a sure draw for those looking for a free ride.

5. Network Security: Learning the ropes in protecting your network from hackers, virus writers, spammers, phishers and the like is a high priority in these days of system crashes and stolen data – courtesy cyber attacks. Computer and network security courses are offered on-campus at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and online at The American Intercontinental University Online.

6. Wireless Communication: The need to get connected and stay connected seamlessly and sightlessly is what’s driving the wireless communications industry to a stupendous growth. Regular courses from Stanford University and online equivalents from the University of Illinois Online make this an interesting and topical subject.

7. Computer Architecture: The design and operational structure of a computer is changing so rapidly that a new technology becomes obsolete a few months after it hits the markets. The Imperial College in the UK offers an advance course in Computer Architecture, a similar online offering being available at Virginia Tech.

8. Multimedia: Users of information want it in all possible formats – text, audio, video, graphics, and as interactive structures. Multimedia content makes this possible and courses like the ones offered at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign and the San Francisco State University (online) make advances in this field a possibility.

9. Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering: Remember the movie “Titanic”? The recovery of the blue diamond would not have been possible without the deep-sea submersible that helped explore the depths of the ocean and reveal its mysteries. The study of engineering principles for use in the marine world is both fascinating and demanding. Which is why the course on offer at the University of Michigan, ranked number one in the United States, is the best bet for those eyeing the deep waters. And for those of you who would prefer to plumb the secrets of the sea from home, the course offered by the University of New Orleans is quite a good option.

10. Aeronautics and Astronautics: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is flying high with its aerospace program, beckoning students who dream of “participating in the future of the machines, the systems and the technology of our future in air and space”. And while you would think that such a complicated subject would be too tough to teach online, the Stanford University is proving otherwise by offering a graduate course in Astronautics and Aeronautics.

11. Nuclear Engineering: The engineering science that deals with the design, development, analysis, testing, and maintenance of nuclear reactors and weapons and the counter-effects of radiation is addressed comprehensively at the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Berkeley, California. The University of Tennessee has a distance education course that facilitates those who are unable to learn on campus.

12. Industrial Design Engineering: Combining the diverse skills in design, manufacture, and material, masters of this science turn out to be good product design engineers. Pretty amazing that the Royal College of Art in the UK offers a good graduate course in this discipline. The Penn Foster Career School offers a similar online course.

13. Artificial Intelligence (AI): Teaching machines to think independently is a tough call, but not if you’re enrolled at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. The Register claims that this institute has one of the best AI courses in the United Kingdom.

14.Robotics: Movies like “Terminator" and “I, Robot” may be science fiction, but that’s just for the present. They not only proved box-office hits for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Will Smith, but have brought to the fore the increasingly profound effect robots will have in the future of the earth. The Robotics Design Studio at the Wellesley College offers robot-geeks the opportunity to design, build and invent their own LEGO robots. For the sit-at-homes, NASA offers a distributed, distance-learning summer course in Robotics and Engineering every year.

15. Medical Robotics: Robots are being designed to go where no man can ever hope to go, within the human body. The study and design of machines that assist in surgeries and aid the cause of less-invasive orthopedic procedures is the primary focus of researchers at the Medical Robotics Technology Center (MRTC) of the Robotics Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University.

16. Cybernetics: Pangaro defines cybernetics as the use of models of organizations, feedback, goals, and conversation to understand the capacity and limits of any system (technological, biological, or social). The science refers to control and communication in both humans and machines. The University of Reading in the United Kingdom offers comprehensive cybernetics courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels. In the United States, the University of California, Los Angeles has a similar offering that has been rechristened Computational & Systems Biology.

17. Haptics: The science of applying the sense of touch to computer applications is playing a key role in the development of virtual reality systems. Remember Demi Moore in the virtual database in “Disclosure”? For those of you who had no clue as to what was going on, read on at the Haptic Exploration Lab at the John Hopkins University.

18. Machine Learning and Neural Networks: A subfield of artificial intelligence, machine learning involves the creation of procedures that enable computers to learn and amass knowledge. Neural networks use a combination of hardware and software to solve problems where AI uses traditional algorithms. The University of Columbia offers an advanced course in machine learning and perception.

19. Decision Support Systems Engineering: The design and development of systems that aid in the process of decision-making by evaluating the relative worth of each alternative is what DSS engineering is all about. George Mason University has a typical on-campus course while Virginia Tech offers an online equivalent.

20. Speech Synthesis: Stephen Hawking’s brilliance would have been lost to this world if not for this path-breaking field of computer science. The artificial synthesis of human-like speech using a computer finds a place among the courses offered by The Center for Spoken Language Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The Text-to-Speech Synthesis course is affiliated to the Language Technologies Institute at the Carnegie Mellon University.

21. VSLI Design: The microchip is getting smaller and more crowded by the day, thanks to the advances made in the design of very large scale integrated circuits. VLSI and Advanced Digital Design is taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology, while the Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Design and Applications online course is offered at the Stanford University.

22. Bioinformatics: is a science which uses techniques in applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, AI, chemistry and biochemistry to resolve biological problems at the molecular level. Taught effectively online at the University of Washington and offline at the Boston University.

23. Nanotechnology/MEMS: Small and even smaller is beautiful in the nanotech world which deals with existing sciences on the minutest scale. Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) leverage nanotechnology to integrate mechanical elements, sensors, and electronics on a silicon wafer through the process of micro fabrication. The University of York in the UK offers both graduate and undergraduate engineering programs that combine electronics and nanotechnology.

24. Design of Hydrological Systems: Basically, these systems implement the science that deals with the design and creation of instruments that help manage water resources through analysis, operations planning, conflict resolution and hydropower. Short term courses are offered by the Cranfield University in the UK while more elaborate offerings are available from the Portland State University.

25. Digital Political Organization: Technology is ubiquitous, which is why it has spread its tentacles into the world of politics too. Harnessing the power of digital technology in the fields of political science and international studies just got easier with the minor offered in Political Organizing in the Digital Age from the University of Southern California.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that nerds would conform to the formalities demanded in the pursuit of college degrees, but let’s face the facts – add some theoretical and hands-on knowledge to the natural flair that they have for their mean machines, and you get experts who can contribute immensely to development and growth in specialized fields of computer science. 

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Technology and online education complement each other, and when the combination is harnessed to its full potential, the rewards are manifold. Which is why the Duke University has chosen Elluminate Live Academic EditionT from Elluminate Inc. to augment and improve its online offerings. According to Ben Rogers, project manager for Duke’s Digital Media Solutions group, the Elluminate system offers a one-stop solution for the institution’s distance education, collaboration, and outreach activity needs. The choice was made after sifting through hundreds of applications, and running trials of four chosen products. ESchool News reports:

“At Elluminate, we are committed to providing innovative technology that facilitates teaching, learning and collaboration across the campus or around the world. We look forward to collaborating with Duke to enhance our live eLearning solutions to further meet the changing needs of the university, as well as those of higher education in general,” said Maurice Heiblum, president of Elluminate USA Inc.

– By Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer

Online education is growing by leaps and bounds, says an annual study by the Sloan Consortium based on research conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group. Some key points of the survey:

• At least one in six students is pursuing their higher education online.
• As many as 3.2 students took at least one online course in the fall 2005 term; the number was only 2.3 million in 2004.
• Of the total 17 million student population, 17 percent are off-campus learners.
• Larger schools with strengths of more than 15,000 are more likely to offer online courses; over 96 percent provide online offerings and 66 percent offer programs that can be completed without setting foot on campus.