New here. Need some feedback.

Hello all. As a newbie I might ask some washed out questions, but this is the first real forum I've seen significant participation in for distant learning.

I'm currently enrolled in the Education Direct ASB Business Management w/Marketing program and have literally soaked up the search engines for anything regarding this school and or the future expectations I hope with higher education on my resume.

I am 5 months in and so far I can say the material is challenging and the student support is top notch. This coming from a history of "mind boggling" study of different aspects of marketing and experience in direct marketing campaigns.

But ...

I had ruled out college in the past and now have come to the realization that the 1,000's of dollars I'd spent in books, courses and workshops will not do a thing for my resume. As I'm getting older, and have a boat load of responsibility on my hands ... the thought of college level education now rides my shoulders.

Where am I going with this?

I was hoping someone could give some insight on that. I do know that DETC is not as accredited as RA, but with my schedule I cannot attend a local college even at minimal class attendance. I've also researched most of the online universities and simply cannot afford them, and make too much money for financial aid.

So with that in mind, I'm attending this school ... which claims they have filed for RA, and after the somewhat long process, should know in 2004. Still I'm wondering, did I take a risk or make a beneficial decision?

So lets say I take in my resume, have an associates stamped in there ... sure it should get my foot in the door possibly in the "you achieved but only have 2 years" position. The school Education Direct might strike confusion, because what kind of name for a higher learning institution is that? Well they were once ICS, then transformed from Harcourt's failer incorporated into the current name for the school.

Do you see any hopes in my future with this degree? Or is it another "course" that costs me $3,000?

I've been trying to make some light of the school's acceptability in the job marketplace and have found NO answers. I know that distant learning in a nutshell is still a hit or miss prospect at fending potential against the brick & mortar university applicants.

I know that a lot of you did make the grad list at a local university and I congratulate you. If I wasn't complacent with $16 an hour back when I was 19 I would have done it too. Shame on me. But the question lies in my current position and my options with my decision. I'd like to gain at least a bachelors in marketing, and while this school doesn't offer that, possibly some insight on where I can go from here to obtain that (preferably distance Univ.).

Thanks in advance.

 

> I had ruled out college in the past and now have come to
> the realization that the 1,000's of dollars I'd spent in books,
> courses and workshops will not do a thing for my resume.

That's not necessarily true. You may be able to convert this stuff into RA credit through a portfolio process.

Take a look at Sinclair Community College's Business Technologies courses:
http://www.sinclair.edu/academics/BUS/courses/cdesc/index.cfm

If your knowledge matches some of the courses, you should enroll in the Sinclair telecourse "Experience Based Education 100: Prior Learning Portfolio Development", which will teach you how to write portfolios (and the telecourse itself is worth credit).

Many other schools award credit by portfolio, but Sinclair (a) does this cheaply, (b) transcripts it with no distinction between those who were awarded the credit by portfolio and those who actually took the course.

Sorry, I can't help you evaluate Education Direct, but maybe somebody else can.

Now, please tell me that "direct marketing" doesn't mean what I'm afraid it means.

 

I've read that some RA schools will accept DETC transfer credits.

 

Hello Aaron1976:

You are fortunate to enroll in an Education Direct ASB program because its courses are reviewed and recommended by American Council on Education (ACE). This means many RA colleges and universities will accept them (check on this link for ACE Cooperating Colleges and Universities) http://www.acenet.edu/calec/corporate/coop-colleges.cfm

My wife completed her ASB in Marketing at Education Direct and transferred all 63 credits into Thomas Edison State College Bachelor of Business Administration degree program. Education Direct ASB programs are quite challenging. I wish you the best of lucks with your education endeavor.

Best regard,

Bao

 

That may be true Mark and something I'd thought about before. I'll check the link provided and see where I can go with that.

Depends on what you think it means. Give me your perception of Direct Marketing and hopefully we can overcome your fear.

I'm looking for those schools Anthonym. I talked with the support staff and all they can give me is the heads up that schools do transfer credits for my degree program. They say that with any school you might have problems transfering depending on which college you transfer to. Apparently it cuts tuition costs the more transfered.

I have no idea. But I'm assured that in the marketing field a bachelors is almost a minimum requirement. And the majority of students I've come across go to college for 4 years as a standard.

Thanks for the tip Bao. I'm going to check into that. I did check into the credentials of Education Direct before signing on. I just wish they didn't chose such a commercialized name for the school even though they are for-profit.

The course is a challenge. otherwise I would ship it back and drop the degree program in an instant.

If the learning material doesn't present a challenge then what type of marketer would i develop from it?

Thanks for the responses.

 

Aaron1976 wrote:

> I did check into the credentials of Education Direct before
> signing on. I just wish they didn't chose such a commercialized
> name for the school even though they are for-profit.

Once you get a Bachelor's, no one will care where your Associate's is from. If you prefer one of the former names, you can put "Thomson Education Direct (formerly Harcourt Learning Direct)" or "formerly ICSLearn" or "formerly International Correspondence Schools" on your CV.

> Give me your perception of Direct Marketing

Telephone soliciting is the first thing that comes to mind, followed by spam e-mail, junk snail-mail, and flyers.

 

Add the 4 to 5 junk faxes I get every day. Clogs the fax line and I have to pay for the ink and paper! .


I did a check a while back, I figured that on an average day i wasted 30 to 45 minutes disposing of this crap. I would love to be able to bill them for my wasted time!!!!

 

Hello Aaron1976:

I do agree with MarkIsrael that "once you get a Bachelor's, no one will care where your Associate's is from." In the case of my wife, she used her Education Direct credits to apply to the AAS degree program in Administrative Studies at Excelsior College. She now happily displays her AAS degree at Excelsior College and keeps her ASB degree at Education Direct where no one else could find. She is pleased with her learning experiences at Education Direct, but you are right that Education Direct is sound like commercialized name.

 

Pretty close. I don't know many companies that don't do telemarketing and direct mail. I worked in the business to business environment so the majority of campaigns were designed to advertise without soliciting (let them come to you) then opted a post follow-up brochure, sales letter or sales call.

Since both companies were tight on advertising and more open to development of products we had to call straight lines to get the products noticed. Not much room for error.

I myself believe in the direct mail (junk snail mail) because it works. Email is a different story. But I think a good direct mail campaign rely's on proper advertising (not buying hot lists) to pull in warm prospects then post the follow-up. Blind advertising such as "finding a glossy brochure in your mailbox for a boob job when you're a single male and had no intention of changing sex" is a waste of advertising dollars and not targeted.

My way, not many people are unhappy with loads of crap in their mailbox, because if it's considered crap to them then I didn't target my market and could have saved $ with proper research getting those catalogs, flyers, etc. to those who would have considered that piece of mail something worthwhile and ready to buy.

So what does this have to do with distant learning? Nothing. Forgive my ramble.

BAO

Again thanks for the tip. I will check that out.

I'm just hoping to get myself a good degree that my time and money can afford. Something that will allow me to break past the "first impressions" and step into the door where talent takes place.

Thanks again.

 

I'm here today (literally, on this forum) because of direct marketing. I self-published Bears' Guide in 1974, and 100% of sales were by mail.

Mailing unsolicitedly to rented lists never worked as well as running tiny two-step ads in magazines, from which people would write to me asking for the information. Sold twice as many books in those 10 years as Ten Speed Press sold in the next 19 years.

If the early sales had been poor, I would have abandoned the project, and even now could have been Lieutenant Governor of Vermont or a hot chestnut vendor outside Rockefeller Center, or possibly something else.

 

Actually, you can. There is a federal law that gives people who receive junk faxes the right to sue for up to $1500 per fax!

How to Use a Federal Law to Make Junk Faxers Pay You

 

Now if this only applied to junk email I'd have a viable source of long term retirement income!

 

Proposed law: $500 per spam

Oherra wrote:

> Now if this only applied to junk email I'd have a viable source
> of long term retirement income!

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- The California State Senate this week approved a bill that would make it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail advertising and allows people to sue so-called spammers for $500 per unwanted message.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/05/24/spam.bill.reut/index.html

 

In reponse to your original question, I too am getting up in years but wanted to obtain a degree to fullfill my lifelong ambition. It was a toss between Education Direct and Ashworth College. Both are DETC accredited and both appear to have a pretty good reputation. I chose Ashworth only because it was a bite cheaper than Education Direct.
Ashworth is a part of PCDI. I discovered that if one maintains an A or B in studies, it's quite likely that the credits will transfer to a large majority of the RA schools. I eventually want to obtain a BA but I can't afford it at the present time.
The job market is tough especially for a guy in his fifties who is retired from law enforcement.
I checked at Kaplan Collge about transfering credits. I can transfer all my credits to them if and when I begain a Bachelor's program. I also looked at Columbia Southern which seems to be the most affordable of all.
Please let me know how you make out because we have similar situations. Chuck