Listing DL Degrees on One's CV or Resume

I have to agree wholeheartedly. When we get into the finer points of where a legit RA degree was earned we are splitting hairs. I think questions on where the degree was earned are legitimate if the employer is not familiar with the school and is trying to assess its validity. Whether it is a DL program, evening study, etc. should not be a factor. If an employer is hung up on it today it would be interesting to ask them the question of how many employees are they providing educational reimbursement to for part-time study, legit DL schools, or evening DL continuing education.

John

 

Hi, group!

As I have said before in AED, the practice of showing a "physical diploma" varies from country to country or from region to region. For example, in Latin America (and in most parts of Europe), you are even expected to show your "physical diploma" to a prospective employer. Moreover, I have even learned that this practice extends to Asia (or most parts of Asia) as well.

I cannot stress the importance of this issue for people outside the United States. For this reason, I would never advise anyone outside the United States to take on a University of London degree at a distance (the physical diploma mentions "external") unless he or she is completely aware of this particularity.

Best wishes,


Alberto "El Caballero" Lacaye
[email protected]

 

I think that this is a matter of common sense and common ethics. How much information you should give about your degree depends on the situation. Enough information should be given to meet the needs of the person you are communicating with and to eliminate the possibility of confusion. You should never try to mislead the other person.

In many cases you will need to specify your major as well as the degree and school. Occasionally you might even need to discuss what coursework was taken. If the school offers several easily confused degrees that are substantially different, the one you earned should be specified.

I strongly agree with David Yamada about Harvard Extension. My position on the London External programme in a previous thread was taken for the same reason. If your university offers two different degrees of widely differing prestige, it isn't ethical to take the less demanding course and then to suggest to others that you graduated from the more prestigious. It's even less ethical to try to use that confusion to get preference in hiring.

If there is no substantial difference in prestige, academic requirements or selectivity between a distance degree and that university's on-campus offerings, I see no reason why it would be necessary to state that your degree was earned at a distance. But if there is a major difference between them, then the situation probably should be clarified.

I guess that it's a judgement call, but it is one that might have to be defended on occasion.

 

I wondering what people think about the opposite scenario? I hold a bachelor's degree, a master's degree and two post-master's advanced certificates from traditional schools. My doctorate, however, is from Nova Southeastern University. It appears that many people automatically assume that all NSU degrees are earned via distance learning. That, despite the fact that NSU has quite an impressive campus in Davie, FL and offers mostly in-residence programs.

For the duration of my three year program, I was required to attend classes once a month at a regional cluster center and 8-10 days on-campus each summer for the first and second years. While hardly a residential program, it was hardly a DL program either!

What do you suggest that I write on my resume to convey the fact that, yes, my degree is indeed from NSU, but was not earned entirely by DL? I, as I am sure many other Nova graduates feel compeled to make clear not all NSU degrees are earned via DL.

Regards,

Jeffrey

 

Jeffrey:

As noted in the original post, one should list on one's resume or CV the degree and school where earned (Jeffrey Levine, Ph.D., Nova Southeastern University). Anything beyond this would be personal preference, as these are the facts, regardless of methodology used in earning the degree.

In the case of NSU specifically, in offering degrees both on-campus and via DL, again, it would be at the discretion of each individual as to how much information is included.

Russell

 

I couldn’t agree more; one should simply list degree title, school and year conferred. I believe, however, that I have a simple and elegant solution to the quandary. I consider it to be perfectly ethical and justifiable to list on your CV the institution that actually cashed your check (or credit card payment). If an institution does not make a distinction when accepting your payment, why should you when listing your degree? If Harvard University is to whom the payment is made, then you are within your rights to list them as the institution granting the degree. If, however, the institution creates such a distinction, where the actual payments are made to a separate entity, then that is what should be listed. All of this, of course, is simply overridden by what is actually stated on the diploma itself.

Therefore, it is good practice to actually contact the institution before enrolling, and ask what is stated on the diploma (witness the case of the University of London External Programme), as well as how distance courses or examinations and portfolio credits are actually listed on the transcript. You will find that there is a lot of variation on how each school approaches this. Some institutions identify distance and correspondence courses by different codes and actually state so on the transcript. This can be of extreme importance when another institution is evaluating your transcript.

Gus Sainz

 

I work within my agency with a Masters Degree. The majority of my colleagues are PhD.'s. When exploring the possibility of using distance learning for my own Ph.D. in Psychology. First and foremost I am doing this because I love the subject of Psychology. However that does not mean
I would have concern about what my fellow workers might think. So i used the standard of a regionally accredited degree and then applied to a program.

Since exploring the topic of distance learning I have become quite fascinated with the topic. I intend to make myself the local "guru " of distance learning within my agency . Perhaps to act as a resource for our "Staff Development" section. I intend to espouse it's virtues at every opportunity (and naturally talk about this forum and others as well as John's Book)

My overall point is this. I personally will not be silent nor will i be defensive concerning distance learning. I intend to go on the offense. I would further posit that the members of this forum speaks quite loudly for it's virtues.

I guess i take this inspiration from a reported discussion between General Grant and his generals after a horrific beating by General Lee. Grants says (obviously a paraphrase ) "Stop talking about what General Lee did to us and start thinking about what we are going to do to General Lee."

no i am not a fanatic , i just believe it is up to us to prove the merits of distance learning . No one else will.


mark

 

Unfortunately I did not edit the prior post very carefully but i think my point is understandable.
mark

 

I am somewhat surprised by the idea of adding the manner in which a degree was earned to a CV listing. Both of my degrees are from residential RA schools, but I currently teach and work at a university with both residential and DL programs. (We offer an MAT and an MBA totally online.) I would not expect any of our graduates to list the fact that their degrees were earned online. The curriculum for our online programs and our residential programs are exactly the same. The faculty members are the same. There is no separate division offering these programs.
Why should a graduate feel compelled to include the fact that it was an online degree?

Hworth

 

Thank you sir for an insider's insight, my point exactly!!!

Russell

 

I have argued the opposite before. I would argue that it is ethical to be as specific as you want about where your degree was earned at, but that it is equally ethical to utilize any wider body that this fit in with. For instance, my residentially earned RA MDiv could be listed as Yale Divinity School or as Yale University. The Divinity School is a subset of the university and thus just using the university would still be ethical. I would argue that the same thing applies at Harvard, when the program is actually a Harvard University degree granting program (and not the degree mill of similar name). If Harvard College students were upset by the "cheapening" of their degrees they could specify their more specific affiliation to create the distinction: "A.B., Harvard College, Harvard University" (or even more specific to colleges with Harvard College, if they operate on the same Yale College system). To require the Harvard Extension graduates to specify and not the Harvard College graduates seems to put the ethical requirement down in a rather odd way. This is especially the case when I see it as an optional and not unethical practice for either of them to specify "Harvard University". Christopher

 

and from profession to profession. Here in Indiana those of us in the mental health field that are licensed to practice are required to display our degrees and licenses/certifications at our place of business (ie. in our offices when we are seeing clients). This is written into the ethical guidelines that are part of our state standards.

Christopher