Job Hunting With An Online Degree

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by kammie72, Jan 16, 2003.

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  1. kammie72

    kammie72 New Member

    hi i'm trying to find out how employers respond to people with online degrees. if you know of someone in this position, please email me. i'm conducting research for an article. i can be reached at [email protected]
     
  2. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Kammie,

    I think that both John Bear and Rich Douglas have done recent research in this area and are extremely knowledgeable about the topic. They may be able to help.

    Cheers,

    Tony Piña
    School of Education, La Sierra University
    &
    School of Education, Cal State U. San Bernardino
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    The legitimacy of the degree (i.e., accreditation) is paramount, along with the reputation of the school, not the learning method.

    That said, Vault.com did a survey of HR professionals in 2000 about this subject. They found that respondents thought a bit less of online degrees, especially degrees earned entirely online. However, they also noted that they really wouldn't know how you earned your degree.

    (That dynamic--that you can't tell the difference between a degree from a B&M school earned online or in the classroom, can also be extended to purely online universities like Jones International, or schools with a large online presence, like University of Phoenix. That's because employers generally don't recognized most schools they're presented with, and don't look. Hence the success of degree mills and less-than-wonderful schools.)
     
  4. jimwe

    jimwe Member

    I know of a couple of guys here in Korea with Master's Degrees from UoP and couldn't find jobs with them in the USA. Their degrees were in some type of online business concentration.

    I have the MS Ed from Cal State hayward, I can't tell the job market from Korea for this. It's hard to guage it on the internet with resources like monster.com--but from what I see from them, it's doom and gloom!
     
  5. Mustang

    Mustang New Member

    Job Hunting with An OnlineDegree

    I am a relatively new member to this board. However, I would like to add my two cents worth on the discussion of job hunting with an online degree.

    I have a fairly extensive work record. I completed a twenty-six year Naval Career as a Lieutenant Commander in the Limited Duty Officer field of Administration (Military Human Resources) on 1 July 1995. Furthermore, I have worked for two consulting companies as a Human Resoure Analyst. Presently, I am a Federal Employee, military human resource analyst, at the Board for the Correction of Naval Records in Arlington, Virginia.

    I completed a Bachelor of Science Degee with the University of Maryland - University College while on active duty in Germany. Presently, I am pursuing a Masters Degree in Organizational Management with the University of Phoenix Online.

    While both of these schools are not Ivy League and are non-traditional in there approach to education, they are accrediated and accepted by most employers and the federal government for both tuition assistance, employment and upward mobilty opportunities.

    The military awards tuition assistance for regionally accrediatiated Online Degees. Furthermore, most companies do also. My previous employer, Booz, Allen and Hamilton, a relatively large management consulting compay encourged personnel to pursue higher education regardless of delivery method, and awarded tutiton assistance. Degrees obtained via On-line method were readily accepte by BAH for employment, projects and upward mobility. Moreover, military personnel (former, retired and reserve) that are otherwise eligiible for the GI Bill, can use it for Online classes if they are regionally accrediated. Finally, military personnel in all services are accepted for positions of higher authority and responsbility based upon obtaining Online degrees.

    So, in my opinion, Online degrees are about as good as most degrees awarded through the traditional method for employment and upward mobility purposes for private industry, military and federal government. However, I am sure that there are cases where only a degree from a Ivy League school would apply or even a school that awarded degrees through classroom method only. However, I think that "most" employers" will not care or even ask about the method of obtaining a degree.

    This should open "pandora's box".

    Fred
     
  6. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Several months ago, I read an article about online business degrees in a financial journal (I wish I could remember which one). Several of the HR directors interviewed stated that they were happy with their employees with online degrees, as their firms were investing in online training and staff development (as opposed to pulling people off the job to attend training classes). The grads with experience in online learning were able to be trained more easily and less expensively.

    For what it's worth.

    Tony
     
  7. colmustard

    colmustard New Member

    Higher Education Employment and Online Degrees

    Vault.Com found in its 2000 survey on the acceptability of online degree by employers that there was greater acceptability by employers if online degree was from traditional school, like Johns Hopkins. Also, traditional universities were more likely to accept faculty who had non-traditional degrees from traditional schools. Most senior faculty still prefer faculty with traditional degrees and they are still in control, even though they may teach in non-traditional degree programs.
     
  8. portb71

    portb71 New Member

    Actually

    Actually Johns Hopkins offers a lot of nontraditional degrees. Any business degree or education degree comes from their extension school, SPSBE (formerly School of Continuing Studies). Their Open Enrolment MBA program is among the largest MBA programs in the country and until recently was open enrollment.

    They also confer 1,000 undergraduate degrees in Business and Education to nontraditionals and GED's who have been out of school for years through this open enrollment division.

    www.spsbe.jhu.edu
     
  9. Han

    Han New Member

    I think there is a big difference in offering online degrees and accepting for employement online degrees, though it is ironic.

    Many Universities offer online classes and degrees, but look down upon online degrees, not sure of the logic, that is why many degree offering institutions do not designate that they were earned online, to eliminate the bias.

    A careful look of the resume would show that one didn't liv ein those cities.
     
  10. drwetsch

    drwetsch New Member

    As someone who has mostly nontraditional degrees and have used them extensively have not had much problem with them. Even when asked by employers how the degree was earned -- such as earning the USNY-Regents degree while living in North Dakota. Once explained truthfully there was no issue. The employer were more concerned with insuring the the degree was valid (i.e. RA) because they were unaware of the nontraditional program. I think the 100,000+ Excelsior (formerly Regents) grads are a testament to the success of the distance degree.



    John
     
  11. musasira

    musasira Member

    Could Level/Specialisation Matter?

    It is possible that the level of acceptability is also affected by the degree level.

    I suspect that employers may be more willing to accept graduate degrees (MBA, MS, etc) studied online than undergraduate degrees (BA, BS, etc)

    It is also possible that online degrees are more acceptable in some areas than in others, say Medicine vs Education.

    I have done no research in either direction, though, but it is worth a thought.

    Opherus
     
  12. colmustard

    colmustard New Member

    Entrepreneurism in higher ed

    I have attended faculty meetings at traditional schools offering non-traditional degrees(online and occasional residency) and the issue is revenues and the competition. There is a great scramble out there in the $247billion education industry to build up at-risk programs and start new revenue producers. Hours for degrees(masters) are titrated as is great attention to satisfying the student. I think rigor and integrity are on the minds of many faculty and some think distant ed is not rigorous enough and doubt its worth. Literature review of the traditional/non-traditional studies of learning outcomes offer little defining differences at the graduate level. Usually socialization is the cited defining advantage of on-campus undergraduate programs as opposed to at a distance. Some quick thoughts.
     
  13. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Re: Entrepreneurism in higher ed

    Even between distance education programs you find big differences. I believe that the use of final proctored exams should be mandatory in any program, this would ensure a minimum of knowledge from the student. However, most of the new online programs only have assignments and online discussions that in my opinion are not enough in order to ensure the minimum level of quality. If a student passes a rigorous exam, it won't matter if he was on or off campus since he is demostrating a minimum level of knowledge.
     
  14. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

     
  15. colmustard

    colmustard New Member

    Rigor and Competition

    The market is so competitive that the rigor of proctored exams loses its appeal as expenses are trimed and the market is aggressively pursued. Student satisfaction needs will not support these exams.
     
  16. colmustard

    colmustard New Member

    I have taught in three non-traditional master's programs to career officers(Public and Health Administration) on military bases and the biggest challenge they faced was competing with civilians for jobs requiring mostly civilian experience. I suggested they seek out practicum civilian 'volunteer" degree related experience in their off hours before discharge. Also, it is a way to gain a reference.
     
  17. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Re: Rigor and Competition

    I agree, but that will hurt online degrees acceptability. Students are looking for an easy degree but with a high level of acceptability, how can you have both?. Take a look at the traditional MBA program that came from a two year full time program with a complete set of courses in accounting, finance, statistics, GMAT required, experience with the new online programs that can be completed in half of the time, no proctored exams, no math, no stats, no finance, no economics and no experience required. Then we have students in the forum asking if these programs would have the same level of acceptability when the answer is pretty obvious to me.
     
  18. sulla

    sulla New Member


    Rfvalve, I value your comments, but I think you are being a bit hard on dl. In many cases this statement might be true, but I just started a couple of psychology classes at Capella and I have never had to write so many assignments so frequently for a class before, and i'm a former graduate student in psychology from very good traditional program. I don't know if other dl programs are like Capella, but now I find myself having to write two 30 page papers for my classes, plus turning assignments every two days. There are some timed quizzes after every unit....I think now they are going to make them longer.
    If anyone who enrolls thinks that this particular dl particular is a cake-walk, there in for a surprise.
    Now I hear that for the Comps a student has to write about six 25-30 page papers on all the classes taken. About 180 pages, thats about the total length of a dissertation, folks!


    Now I don't think this is Harvard by any means, but I'm learning, working my butt off, and proud to say that this particular program is pretty rigurous....more than I had anticipated so far but worth it!

    -Sulla
     
  19. colmustard

    colmustard New Member

    Wave of the present

    Education is big business and the commercial contract is slowly prevailing. Not a pretty picture.
     
  20. colmustard

    colmustard New Member

    yes

    Sulla, There are many schools and programs worth their salt. The clinical psychology Ph.D better be rigorous as the state exam is tough. If you are in this degree program, I wonder what % of Capella students pass state exam on however many attempts?
     

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