The canard that online degrees are "worthless" as learning tools is nothing but pure myth. I've experienced three main credible ways to get a degree.
My university experience began with Illinois Institute of technology (IIT), and University of Minnesota (UM). I sat in a classroom/auditorium with other students, and received lectures from graduate assistants/professors.
I joined the military toward the end of my sophomore year in college. I continued again in the mid 1990s. This was my second university experience. This experience is usually known as the adult education/non traditional college student route. I attended college courses, after duty hours, in a military classroom. The student to teacher ratio was much smaller. The professors provided the lectures. If they couldn't make a lecture, another professor came in to give the lecture.
A few years later, I had my third university experience, also with the military. This was through Trident University... an online university that caters to the military community. When I went through, Trident University was known as Touro University International.
Catfish Charlie swoons over the traditional classroom college... on a freelance writer's website. He downplays online degrees... on a freelance writer's website.
Had Catfish Charlie attended college, he'd never disparage online universities/degrees.
Graduate Assistants taught many classes at UM and IIT. Did the professors do any better? One professor read from three handouts that she gave us. That was it for class that day. Another professor showed the same training films that many of us already saw in high school.
When it came to the involvement required for the class, they were a joke compared to what I had in high school. My high school honors classes were more challenging, and engaging, than the classes I took at UM and IIT. This was the main reason that I left and joined the military.
I joined the military at the end of my sophomore year (1991), then started back up with Saint Leo University (then Saint Leo College), 5 years later. I learned far more in the military college class arrangement than I did at UM and IIT. I got my associates and bachelors with Saint Leo.
I matriculated with Trident University for my MBA during the last decade.
I learned far more from the web based set up than I did by actually being in a classroom. This arrangement was completely flexible. There were no arranged class times. Students received a set of academic research priorities, an academic forum for class discussions, and the end of the term as the research paperwork deadline.
This was perfect. Many military students missed class lectures due to military commitments. The web based formats eliminated the schedule conflict issue.
Unlike the classroom counterparts, where you learned theory from textbooks and lectures, Trident linked you to the latest knowledge in the field. This was a first for my civilian education. Instead of emphasizing theory, they emphasized hands on/practical knowledge.
I used Tuition Assistance, and GI Bill cap, to pay for the later two. The military will NOT award either for courses taken at non accredited universities.
If I were to rate difficulty/challenge levels, and return-on-knowledge investment, the online degrees definitely rule. I know that from experiencing the traditional, non traditional, and web/virtual college set up.
Many students attending traditional universities are getting "raped" when it comes to knowledge return-on-investment and what they pay. My experiences at IIT and UM verified the information that I read from the book, Prof Scam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education.
Online degrees are a perfect "lead in" to online work.
Catfish Charlie, posting on a freelance writer platform, missed that important point. He/she was more interested in pulling things out of his/her hind end.
Our brick and mortar college setting is currently designed to feed brick and mortar business operations. Our high school system is set up to provide people "in batches" to the industrial world... which tends to produce things "in batches."
Online degrees aren't for everyone. You need to be the type of person that thrives while working independently and without supervision. You need discipline, and the ability to stay focused on your goals without someone penalizing you for failing to "keep at it."
If you're a freelance writer, those traits should be familiar to you.
A real freelance writer/work at home professional, intending to have a career working from his/her home office, doesn't denigrate online degrees. Online degrees are to a work-at-home professional what traditional universities are to a brick and mortar work operation.
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