Query from CNN

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Diane1991, Aug 27, 2003.

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  1. Diane1991

    Diane1991 New Member

    I am a producer with CNN, working on a segment on "life experience" degrees. I would like to talk with people who have gotten one of these diplomas. You may remain anonymous if you wish. I would like to know where you got the degree, what you had to do to get it, how it helped or didn't help you in your career, and what kind of degree it was. We can talk either on the phone or via e-mail. Please e-mail me at [email protected].
    Thank you,
    Diane Hawkins-Cox
     
  2. DaveHayden

    DaveHayden New Member

    Hi Diane

    You may want to indicate if you are looking for people that earned legitimate degrees through accredited schools (ie Excelsior, COSC, TESC), or fraudulent degrees from St Regis and the other degree mills. Good luck in your story.
     
  3. roy maybery

    roy maybery New Member

    I am not sure that you will find many or any on this forum who have 'life experience' degrees. Most seem to have gained their qualifications through academic work of one sort or another.
    Roy Maybery
     
  4. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    Diane, I have to second Dave; many legitimate regionally accredited schools grant some credit for documented life experience, and a small number of legitimate regionally accredited schools (such as Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey) almost grant entire degrees through this sort of approach. One of our regulars earned his B.A. through Edison based largely on documented life experience credit and then went on to regionally accredited M.A. and Ph.D. programs, and to book publications in his field (church-state law) with Baker Book House and Moody Press. There are also many universities in the UK and Australia that grant what is called a "Ph.D. by publication" to scholars who can document extensive research in a given field. When these accredited schools grant "life experience" degrees, the process is generally extremely rigorous and requires substantial documentation (comparable, at times, to the actual work required to earn the credit). These legitimate options should be distinguished from the majority of advertised "life experience" degrees, which are generally offered by unaccredited correspondence schools that sell the diplomas after ostensibly looking over one's resume.

    There are people here who know much more about these issues than I do, but if there's anything at all I can do to help, please feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]. I'm co-author of Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill) and Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press), and have earned two degrees by distance learning from accredited schools (though neither involved any life experience credit).

    Best of luck with your segment--I'm a CNN junkie myself, so I'll probably see it!


    Cheers,
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 28, 2003
  5. Diane1991

    Diane1991 New Member

    clarification

    Thanks to all for the replies. Yes, I am looking for people with degrees from places like St. Regis. I've been posting queries on job message boards like the one in monster.com as well. We'll see what comes up. Right now, we're planning a segment on this topic on the program I produce, called NEXT@CNN, this coming Saturday, 3-4pm eastern time. We plan to talk with Prof. George Gollin and former FBI agent Robert Ezell. We may also do another segment on the Sunday airing of the show, 5-6pm eastern. Thanks again for the replies.
    Diane
     
  6. DaveHayden

    DaveHayden New Member

    Why is it the bad boys always get the girls?

    :) :) :)
     
  7. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Re: http://www.online-college.info/distance-learning-forum.htm

    IIRC, that's just a mirror site of a.e.d. I've never posted there.
     
  9. Charles

    Charles New Member

    Diane,

    Good luck with your segment. The people who buy and sell bogus degrees do no favors for those of us who have earned, or are pursuing, degrees through distance and/or nontraditional education.

    Could you consider doing a follow-up segment discussing legitimate distance and nontraditional education?
     
  10. Tom Head

    Tom Head New Member

    Sounds like a wonderful segment! I'll be sure to catch it.

    You've probably already talked to John Bear, but if you haven't, it would be worthwhile; he has been the FBI's expert witness on diploma mills since 1976, and probably knows as much or more about these things as anyone else on the planet.

    Good luck!


    Cheers,
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 28, 2003
  11. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Unfortunately I missed the CNN report. Was this a useful report?
     
  12. lloyddobbler

    lloyddobbler New Member

    I just caught the last 2 or 3 minutes of the CNN NEXT show on saturday afternoon... damn! Then I missed it again when they showed it at 2am sunday morning... damn damn!
     

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