How many credits from online courses can you transfer to U. Maryland?

University of Maryland is going to develop a policy about how many transfer credits from online courses they will allow: Support grows for online credit transfer

 

Good question

Good article from the Diamondback. Bad news for online students.

Remarkably, the U of Maryland in the past would not even accept certain online classes oftentimes from Phoenix or UMUC which are reputable DL.

Now it seems there will be even more stringent for transfer students who get accepted into U-Md. from say Phoenix or UMUC or Excelsior if I infer from the article correctly. They seem to be saying they want to make sure the classes are labeled online or regular which is bad news.

 

Since transcripts don't distinguish between online courses and residential courses, how can they make a distinction between the two?

 

"Since transcripts don't distinguish between online courses and residential courses, how can they make a distinction between the two?"

Well it depends. Some shools are largely wholly online schools to begin with - ie Phoenix has 95% of their students online. Excelsior and UMUC are majority online. etc tec However, many traditional well known schools have online programs that are not part of an extension or separate college. There is no way to tell if Duke-Fuqua's business course is online or real life for example. And it shouldn't matter for a rigorous school like that.

Schools always judge transferability willy nilly based on whether they feel the course was rigourous enough. Even forgetting the DL/real life distinction, a reasonably highly ranked ranked undergraduate school like the RH Smith School of Business at U. Md. (www.rhsmith.umd.edu) won't take any courses from any institution that isn't AACSB accredited at a minimum--and then they review frther based on faculty review of the course. Other degree programs at U. Md. College Park and other schools have varying ways they determine the acceptability of credits too--it depends on the major. The Clark School of engineering at UMd. probably has similarly rigourous self imposed standards for transferability.

I am not sure why online or real life matters if the institution that delivers the course is well-respected--what really matters is the standing of the university from whence the course came in the eyes of those accepting transfer credits.

For example the U of F's Warrington Business School has online and regular courses. If you got a course from the Univeristy of Florida's Warrington School of Business in Accounting which is one of the best accounting schools in the nation, I don't think U. Md. would have a problem accepting the transfer credits whether it was delivered DL or real Time or not because the Warrngton School of Business is "rigourous" in most people's eyes (correctly or incorrectly) because of the eminence of the degree granting college nationally. So you could tell them it was on line but it will be respected better than some real time programs from lesser schools even though it is online.

So I guess the point of online is to help them determine something about a school they may never have seen before?

 

I see it as some professors being afraid of their jobs. I was never aware that University of Maryland often does not accept credits from UMUC which is part of the University of Maryland State wide system. There used to be a time when state four year schools would not accept transfer credits from state junior colleges for whatever reasons. The answer was legislations by various states requiring credit for credit transfer where the course is relevant to the degree program a student intends to pursue and it worked.

If a school won't accept a credit from another accredited school for whatever reasons, go to another school. One should not be fixated on any particular school. UMUC is present on several military bases and I know of many people who are in very "elite" jobs with degrees from UMUC. The excuse that courses with lab or internship can't be completed online is lame. There is a well known California Health Science school that has been graduating students for years in various health programs with their students passing professional exams. The key is arranging for internships and necessary lab work with hospitals and others for the students to do the necessary practicum.

Godwin