Interesting Article

cumpa · Jan 16, 2006

This was an interesting article in today's Denver Post. I agree with alot of what was written. I've decided to wait for more public universities to offer some form of an online phd before pursuing that route based on the current perceptions.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3406278

anthonym · Jan 16, 2006

The link expired. Can you provide the name of the article so we can search for it?

Charles · Jan 16, 2006

I was able to access the article:

denver & the west
Online degrees slowly losing academic stigma
Internet-education leaders across U.S. reporting more enrollees

The number of college students earning online degrees has exploded in the past few years, but the legitimacy of a virtual education is still uncertain in the business world and traditional academia, experts say.

About 5 million college students are taking courses online, including thousands from Colorado schools, according to some estimates. Enrollment in the state community-college system's online program quadrupled from about 4,000 five years ago to almost 16,000 in 2005.

Online-education leaders across the country report a growing acceptance among professors, even those who looked down their noses when mainstream universities began expanding online-degree programs five years ago. They say the courses fill a niche and are as rigorous as traditional ones.

But recent studies, including one published this month in the journal Communication Education, say an online degree does not have the same value on a résumé as a traditional one.
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Bad publicity about diploma mills and fake degrees for sale on the Internet has prejudiced employers, who don't want to spend time researching a university's accreditation and course requirements, the study's authors said.

The study found that businesses placed more value on online degrees from mainstream universities than degrees from virtual ones. Employers also said they would worry more about a recent graduate with an online degree than an experienced professional with an online degree.

DeFleur and fellow researcher Jonathan Adams, a professor at Florida State University, found in a 2004 survey of 160 administrators that universities are less likely to accept students to graduate programs who earned bachelor's degrees online. A third study of 109 universities found only one school that would chose a candidate for a faculty position with a doctorate from a virtual university.
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It's career-change students such as Burns, stay-at-home moms and people in rural areas that Glenn Jones, founder of Jones International University in Centennial, is trying to reach. In 1999, JIU became the first fully online university to receive accreditation from a nationally recognized agency.

At first, Jones said, he was blasted by academics who viewed virtual college as "replacement technology." But as traditional universities have expanded online programs, he feels vindicated.

"Now everybody is doing it," Jones said.

JIU's course enrollment increased from 1,115 in 2000 to 5,428 in 2005.
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At the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, online offerings target a narrow audience.

Two popular online-degree programs are a bachelor's in nursing and a master's in special education, both geared toward professionals.

Robbyn Wacker, assistant vice president for research and extended studies at UNC, said most freshmen just out of high school should be on campus.

"That's why we've been pretty thoughtful about how we've targeted and created some online courses," she said.

Wacker said there is no need to specify online courses on transcripts because they are just as challenging, if not more.

"There is a bit of skepticism, I agree, but once they see our graduates, that will take a bit of a turn," she said.
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