Hi everyone! I wanted to post a link to a resource that prospective online learners will hopefully find useful: eLearners.com's "Guide to Online Education," available at http://www.elearners.com/guide-to-online-education/. To those who are already very knowledgeable about online education, I hope you will let me know your thoughts on our efforts thus far. We want to make this as comprehensive and helpful as possible, so any comments/criticisms that you have are appreciated and welcomed. Thank you for your time!
I just spent about 20 minutes on the site. It looks well done! I think it will serve as a good resource for people. Great job! Pug
Hey Pug, Thank you so much for taking the time to look through the Guide. (I breathed a sigh of relief to get one positive comment from the DI boards.) Now bring on the criticism! Thanks again!
This site (www.elearners.com) is one of my favorite sites for researching online degrees. I like it because I can check out the varities of information; and especially no degree mill advertisement there. CHEER!!! GREAT RESOURCES!
Personally I find elearners.com to be grossly inadequate as far as finding a degree program. For instance, I went to find doctoral programs but I was only given the many programs of a handful of universities. And, to make matters worse, the same universities appear over and over again under different degree "areas". I think the site is misleading for someone new to the online degree program search in that the site only displays a few universities over and over again, making it appear as though these universities are a person's only choice.
TEKMAN, Thank you for your comments. We are proud to list only accredited institutions - I don't need to tell anyone here about the potential dangers/issues of attending an unaccredited institution. PhD2B, Thanks for your thoughts as well. I'm sorry you feel that we are "grossly inadequate" and even "misleading" ... that is disheartening to hear! I would agree with you that we need to work with many more partner colleges and universities to offer as much variety as possible and to give a better, more accurate picture of who's out there in participating in the world of online education. However, I would like to note that it has been our experience that the majority of our site visitors are seeking undergraduate degrees, hence our emphasis in associate's and bachelor's degrees. Also, many of the universities that keep appearing "over and over again" do so legitimately; in other words, University of Phoenix does, indeed, offer degrees in Business, I.T., Health, etc. Thanks for all the comments everyone, I really do appreciate the feedback.
Here are a few strengths and criticisms of elearners.com: Strengths - Forms to request more information about a program - An extensive listing of articles and resources - Online education blogs - The ability to search distance learning courses - Elearners advisor - Personnel Resources Criticisms - Omission of many degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. - There is a lot of clutter and redundancy - Elearners web page design is dry and cold. When I visit degreeinfo's homepage, I see a person waving at me. I feel welcomed. " Also, many of the universities that keep appearing "over and over again" do so legitimately; in other words, University of Phoenix does, indeed, offer degrees in Business, I.T., Health, etc." - This group of "legitimate" universities appear infamously in hundreds of distance learning directory listings. There are interesting and inexpensive distance learning programs. For example, Amberton University, Peru State College, and Chadron State College offer inexpensive undergraduate degrees. They are not listed in elearners Also missing is Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Columbia, John Hopkins, and The University of Washington. You have UOF, FMU, but I believe your missing FSU, Troy University, USF, UCF, Florida Gulf Coast, and FIU. These are potential partners. Go for it!
They may do so legitimately but just because a university offers many specializations under a single degree program doesn't mean it is a new degree program. For instance, Walden offers a PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences with 6 specializations. When you list Walden 6 time, once for each specialization, it makes it appear as though Walden is offering 6 different degrees. In fact, Walden is really only offering one degree, the PhD in AMDS. Your database needs cleaned up so that the redundancy is removed.
There could be an additional link for 1) People who are in seek for accelerated courses 2) People who are interested in the least tuition fee courses 3) People who are in need of a prestegeous degree - Like the Harvard you have mentioned and other stuff.
On the other hand, it seems to me that very few people would have even heard of (much less would be searching for) a PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences (unless they had heard of Walden). It seems to me that, since people would likely be searching for categories like "doctorate in accounting," "doctorate in finance," or "doctorate in information technology," it is far better to list the PhD in AMDS in all six of its specializations (along with the other results) and let the user of elearners.com decide for himself/herself which degree nomenclatures are acceptable.
Thank you all for the feedback and comments. We will consider each suggestion seriously and hope we can improve to serve everyone better. Just wanted to let everyone know that you can also download eLearners's <a href="http://http://www.elearners.com/guide-to-online-education/r">Guide to Online Education</a> as a PDF file. Go to: http://www.elearners.com/guide-to-online-education/request_guide.html.
Are you the person with the blond hair, blue shirt, and light brown glasses? http://www.elearners.com/guide-to-online-education/index.asp Instead of having that search engine right smack in the center of the home page, the picture could be enlarged and placed near center or the upper side. For some reason, I enjoy visiting the "guide to online education" web page.
Ha! I knew that photo would resonate. Sadly, no, that is not me. [If you're curious, you can see a (small) pic of me at http://community.elearners.com/user/Profile.aspx?UserID=2103. Or you can admire how cute my daughter is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/xgoddessx/365111269/]
Helen: "...t it has been our experience that the majority of our site visitors are seeking undergraduate degrees..." John: That surprises me. On the three occasions that I surveyed buyers of Bears Guide, asking among other things what degree they were seeking, each time more than half said it was a doctorate. I wonder if we have different clienteles, as it were, or if doctorate-wanters note the relative paucity of listings and don't bother to sign in? It's off to a good start, and will only get better as it grows. John Bear Author/co-author, first 15 editions of Bears Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning
I love the site........but like others said the schools listed are typical fare. Some unmentioned but wonderful schools are: Peru State College.....one of the least expensive schools I've seen. Chadron State College.....easily the least expensive RA MBA out there. Southwestern College........you knew I was going to say that one. Ft. Hayes State University.....inexpensive. I didn't see Cal. U. of Pennsylvania....they're not inexpensive but unique. Then their is Cal. U. Dominguez Hills....They may be listed but I didn't see them. And there are a ton of others more obscure but nice looking schools out there.
Actually, Southwestern College in Kansas used to list their degrees at eLearners, and Fort Hays State University currently does. Thanks for the comments as always, everyone, it is greatly appreciated ... trust me, they don't fall on deaf ears. (I just have to figure out how to convince management!)
