Bear's Guide 16th Ed. Obsolete?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by laferney, May 27, 2006.

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  1. laferney

    laferney Active Member

    I have just reviewed the new Bear's Guide and feel it has finally gone the way of the phonograph record or CD It’s now obsolete with no need for further publication (or this one for that matter)
    First the book is the same in overall content as prior editions so if you have it , nothing has really changed much. Secondly, it lacks many of the various schools and diploma mills now in existence. I know it had to have a cut off date for publication but information is lacking or dated. Schools as Akmai U. and AMBAI to name 2 are not listed and they have been around for a while. There are factual errors as Empresarial U. being listed in the Accredited with short residency section. This school has been suspect for years. Schools as the Blackstone School of Law have old addresses.(They moved to PA)."The University of Dundee's nursing program both require a minimum of 5 weeks session on Campus" This is not true -it can be done entirely by distance. The "Ph. D by Published works at the University Of Luton does not exist as described in the new guide. It has quotes as "as of 2002 or 2001 we could not find it online" This is rather dated for a 2006 edition. There are many quotes going back to 2002. Bear's 15th Ed. was published in 2001 and 2003. Is there no new info? Perhaps info changes so quickly that Distance education cannot only be followed on the Internet.
    Following Degreeinfo and/or Degreediscussion and following the ODA unaccredited degrees site is the new Bear's Guide for 2006.
    Don't get me wrong- I have purchased all the Guide's during the years , admire the work Dr. Bear and Mariah have done. The Guide's always fascinated me. BUT I now feel it'
     
  2. laferney

    laferney Active Member

    In my haste I need to fix 2 sentences.
    This line should read "Perhaps info changes so quickly that Distance education CAN only be followed on the Internet.
    And the last sentence" BUT I now feel it's time is done.
    ( I now feel guilty criticing the Bear's Guide when I have to edit my own couple of paragraphs!)
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I think it would be interesting if there were a distance learning wiki, so that whenever someone found an interesting new program, they could simply enter it.

    An issue would be with nonsense entries from people promoting degree mills, but with enough watchful experts to check out new entries, I think anything untoward wuld be revised pretty quickly.

    (For those saying, "What's a wiki?" see the most famous one: Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit that in the last few years has grown to have over a million articles.)

    -=Steve=-
     

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