Is DL really as good as B&M?

Excerpt from the article above:
"...... His story has a happy ending, but interviews with graduates, professors, and administrators at traditional universities and at online institutions suggest that academe has not yet fully embraced job candidates with nontraditional doctorates."

The good news is that the majority of these backward thinking individuals are soon to be put out to pasture. They will be replaced with forward thinking, bright individuals who aren't trying to live in a protectionist world.

 

You're probably right when you consider how distance learning was viewed 25 years ago. Today, it is embraced as a mainstream system of education.

 

CS1,

Heck, DL has evolved in a big way in the last 5 years! I don't know of a single undergrad student at my old school who isn't complimenting their B&M degree with at least a couple DL courses. It's the best way for them to graduate early, or catchup with missed or failed credits. It's the norm these days and B&M professors aren't thrilled about it, I'm sure. But it is their school, and in some cases their DL class and it's here to stay.

 

Often, and at the very best schools, a traditional class also has a web presence on Blackboard, eCollege or Moodle and the students miss weeks of classroom-class at a time, relying on the web course. They use iTunes U and the online course and don't always feel the need to sit in class. The college setting becomes a learning community, but the coursework is often distance learning. Distance learning is sometimes best even in a traditional setting.

 

Yes, by and large, the article is accurate (and features a long-time resident of Degreeinfo, Andy Borchers). DL degrees continue to have lowest acceptance for full-time tenure-track faculty positions at B&M universities and have much higher acceptance in industry, military, healthcare, civic organizations, K-12 teaching and administration, community college teaching and administration and university administration and adjunct faculty positions.

 

Anthony states:
<< DL degrees continue to have lowest acceptance for full-time tenure-track faculty positions at B&M universities and have much higher acceptance in industry, military, health care, civic organizations, K-12 teaching and administration, community college teaching and administration and university administration and adjunct faculty positions. >>

I believe you hit the nail on the head, "for academia, go for an RA degree, for everything else in this world be sure to consider DL programs too". They are well accepted today, let's face it, education is so over-rated, in my opinion, your education is not worth more than 15% of who you are. The balance of the makeup is in what you can do for me today.

For example, let's look at the Engineering profession, RA school programs only, professional designation required there-after, no DL program to muddy the waters and still 75% of engineers today suck at their jobs. Your education doesn't mean anything if you can't apply it and we have far too many professional engineers who botch their projects up, can't design their way out of a paper bag, provide cost over-runs and their failures abound. The fact is that today, the vast majority of engineers are nothing more than managers of engineering projects, they don't provide any value-added resources to the project and their companies are too afraid to let them lose on a project and perfrom the engineering work themselves. They pass all of the difficult work onto the sub-contractors and outside consultants.

I have made my a career out of sub-contracting my services into large engineering projects that were failures, that needed to be salvaged, at any cost. I spent my career bailing out companies who fired their engineering staff and hired our team to make things better. It's a great way to earn a living but it doesn't speak well of the engineering profession or it's governing bodies across North America.

So if RA B&M education can't help the engineering profession, what else is there out there that is determined or "salvaged" by unique individuals with great talent? I'm sure there are other professions that have similar issues too.

In light of this problem, DL programs, that are the choice of students today, might end up producing better workers for the future, they are motivated, they understand the value of a dollar, they might not even need as much in-class coaching as their counterparts, all good reasons to feel good about DL.

 

This story remains accurate although it is now a few years old.

At the time I started my DBA in 1992, Nova Southeastern was one of the few real choices I had. Today, I would certainly consider a number of other choices - Case Western, Florida (should they launch their DBA), or Kennesaw. Also, I'd very likely look at Wayne State (which now has a part-time program) or Cleveland State (also has a part-time program).

Has my NSU degree served me well? Yes. Have there been some hassles and lack of acceptance? Yes.

Regards - Andy

 

I couldn't agree with you more, for me at least, I get the most out of DL courses versus B&M classes because I know that the reams of material I post to the class is non-retractable, I'm going to make the best effort possible every single time as I know it is not something I can edit or delete at a later date, if the quality of my work is suspect. That's a real motivating factor for me! Thanks.

 

This is what I have always thought to be true. I have a B&M degree as well as an online degree. The online degree was much more difficult and I learned more from my DL studies.

 

I would love to learn more about this blended approach. Does anyone have other experiences with it?

 

B&M or DL better is a relative term

I have taken classes at a small B&M nursing school that was so unfriendly to non-resident students I gave up. I have taken classes at a CC with an adjunct professor who was so good because of her experience in the field(Chemistry) I learned more then I probably would have learned in a 1st tier school.

I have taken a DL course from a B&M CC department head who was the worst professor I ever had and put very little into the class( I learned a lot from this class only because I wanted to). I have also taken a DL course from a B&M professor who was great, gave lots of feedback and direction and taught me well.

I have a good friend who is a Ph.D chemist(working full time days) and is teaching one course as an adjunct at a CC and I know he is very dedicated to his students and making sure they learn.

I feel no matter what the delivery method or the quality of the professor, a student will get out of thier education only what they put into it.

I know that there are people out there who will never believe you can learn anything online( I have a teacher like that at my school). I am determined to prove them wrong. Once I finish my BA I plan on studying for and passing the PRAXIS II, I plan on getting great grades and showing this teacher that although I have never had a formal B&M teaching course I can be a great teacher.

 

Good for you, Linda! Show that old, stick-in-the-mud a thing or two. I think it's young people like yourself that will bring DL into the mainstream.

I'm a teacher and I have a feeling that you will turn out to be a great one.

 

Thank you for the complement

I am not a young person, at least chronologically.( I have a granddaughter in high school)

This will be a second career for me. I have spent 30 years in a laboratory and now I want to teach middle school students that Science can be fun and interesting.

I love teaching and feel there is no reason I could not do it for at least 10-15 years. I just hope it doesn't take me that long to jump through all the hoops NJ is putting in my path to alternate certification.

 

Oops, sorry. You will still make a great teacher...I have a feeling.

 

Here's an interesting article by Shelia Tucker from East Carolina University that appears to support the effectiveness of DL. I don't know if this article is peer reviewed or not.

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter44/tucker44.html

Quote from the article:
"...there were significant differences between the two groups with regard to age, post-test scores, and final exam scores. Distance education students scored higher (than B&M) in all three categories. Yet, this is not sufficient evidence to conclude that distance education is superior to traditional education. Other factors may have contributed to these results. For example, the distance education delivery method catered to, in part, students' preferred learning styles."

 

Perhaps but recently there was a big hulabaloo (and associated anecdotal research) at one school that suggested that retention rates were much higher in the face-to-face modality (than via DL) with students in their early 20's.

On the other hand, I agree about the lack of studies in the literature; there are so many variables to control with instruction in either modality (face-to-face versus DL) that I doubt the question can be answered. Moreover, many face-to-face instructors use email, streaming video, and web to augment classroom instruction, so the line between the two modalities is becoming blurred as well.

 

I don't think there is an answer that covers every circumstance about this. So far I have one B&M degree and one DL. Both are from well known Australian universities: the University of Queensland and the University of New England. I am now doing a second DL degree through New England, this one is much more online because of changes in technology since I last studied.

Here the degrees are exactly the same regardless of how they are earned. My current degree, Master of History, is not actually offered on campus although some of the subjects are for people in other degrees. I am sure that the lecturer wouldn't mind if a M. Hist student sat in on a lecture or tutorial. The only differnce between what I do and what an on campus student does is that they go to lectures and tutorials. All students submit their work via an online system and are assessed in the same way.

Nothing on the degree certificate says "online, distance or correspondence". Most people here would probably realise that a degree from New England, Charles Sturt, Central Queensland, Southern Queensland, Deakin etc could have been earned at a distance. Regardless of how you studied for it the degree is the same in Australia.

 

I look forward to the day when the US catches up with the forward thinking of Australia and the UK in their acceptance of DL degrees.

 

Yes, the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration is a peer-reviewed journal.