What do you say to distance learning/online degree haters?

I am also from Australia, and you are right that is an odd attitude here. I am now working on my second distance degree from the University of New England. I am doing a Master of History which is only available online although many of the subjects can be studied on campus for other degrees.
The only difference I can see between online and on campus students, in this type of situation, is that on campus students have to go to lectures and tutorials. Online students can listen to pod broadcasts if they wish. In most subjects the assessment for online and on campus students is exactly the same. The assignments have to be submitted electronically whether you live across the road from the campus or in another country. Most of the readings and research material is available online. In the last two trimesters I have not had to have visited a local university library once, everything I have needed has been online either as e-books or through JSTOR or such.
What this means is that the line between distance and oncampus is well and truly blurred.

 

You know what we love about you? It's the fact that you are so humble!

 

I would be happy to compare pay stubs with that guy.

 

I get that a lot.

 

Well lets be fair here. I'm 35, so if we're going to do it let's compare what you were making when you were my age. You just want to post them here on degreeinfo? Nothing beats a good pissing contest.

 

How about if we drop it for the next 18 years until you catch up?

 

Thank God I'm not rich. Anything in the Bible about the middle-class?

 

Be careful what you wish for. Found this with Google (You can, too! Instructions included below.) :

Dr. Rich Douglas, talking about himself vs. Joe Average in another forum (2010):

"Let's take a guy who went to work out of high school, never attending college. He's 50 now, what would he be earning? ....Instead, his education led him (so far) to a GS-15 (step 10) on top of a military retirement. That's, um, a lot more. Just one hypothetical example."

Here's the 2010 chart that includes that salary:

http://www.opm.gov/oca/10tables/pdf/DCB.pdf

GS-15 (Step 10) in the DC area made around $155,500 in 2010.

Your turn, AUTiger00. :smile:

Johann

PS Google Rich Douglas + salary. All you need. You'll find this info about 6 entries down.

 

Well son of a bitch. He wins. I'm in the low 6 figures for base with a 30% guaranteed bonus. Of course DC is far more expensive than Baltimore, so adjusting for cost of living.......nevermind, I lost.

 

We should re-title the thread: Discovering Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). You all sound worse than teenagers!

 

Whoa. I opted out. Also, a post of mine is missing where I remind readers that what Johann posted was, as I put it then, a hypothetical example.

 

Six figure salaries are not that uncommon in the Mid-Atlantic for IT work, and thats with or without a bachelors degree. Its of course dependent on multiple factors, but a secret clearance and specialized skilled sets that are unattainable or difficult to attain in the civilian world help.

Isn't flashing your paycheck around unprofessional or even a bit douchy? I work daily with people from BAH, PwC, Deloitte, SAIC and government GS and SES grades. The topic of who makes more almost never comes up much less flashing paystubs.

Back on topic. I've encountered my share of people who despise online learning. Especially if you bring up the fact that distance learning options were available from the likes of HES and Oxbridge. If you want to add even more kindling to the fire, mention MOOCs. For some reason this gets "traditional" online learners riled up. Either way, its a waste of time to convince close minded people that technology has been driving quality, availability and scalability of higher education.

 

Good move!

 

I think the massive open online course (MOOC) is a great program! The ability for people of all ages to gain the knowledge is certainly available online. The question is, how is the knowledge validated? As the world becomes more competitive, industry has shifted to looking at the prospective employee's ability to produce excellent outcomes from the get go.

I believe the days of employers giving much weight to where a person graduated from are coming to an end. Rather, can the person do the job? Many corporations simply don't have the financial resources to invest in new employee training and development. In addition, students don't want to be burdened with a six digit student loan. Thus, an affordable non traditional degree has much appeal!

 

In my field (Information Security), it is more about "what can you do" versus "what are your credentials?" Credentials are usually utilized for the specific purpose of whittling down candidates to look at.

I believe this was already covered.

Some schools even label their degrees online, such as "MBA Online".

My B.S. degree was mostly earned on-campus through two RA schools for year 1,2, and 3 credits. I completed it at an NA school, online. My M.S. degree was earned via WGU, an RA school, completely online.

 

This is already the case with IT.

I believe that this depends upon the job.

A big benefit of going to the more prestigious schools is the networks that you can build there. Is the code behind these sufficiently cracked via social networking? If so, then, yeah, that advantage is lost.

Hah, "Many corporations simply don't invest in new employee training and development -- even when making record profits." (Fixed that one for you.)

Hopefully, people wake up and realize that their education loans can't be dissolved in bankruptcy.

I believe that it will always have some appeal. The true test is whether or not it will have some utility. If you have specific way that you are able to use it, then it is fantastic. If not, even a free degree has a tremendous cost in time lost, if utility is not realized.

 

Agreed.

I've gone on interviews before, and when it gets to the salary part, I feel like I must be in the Twilight Zone. Some people want a lunar landing on a trip to the market budget.

I lost 4 months last year to a job that I went contract-to-hire on. Prior to starting, I had agreed on my "hire-on" rate. After four months, they decided they wanted to bring me on board, for approximately 25% less than what I had agreed to months ago. I asked for 24 hours to consider it. I secured a new job over lunch (that would pay me what they should have hired me for) . I came in the next day to give my two week notice.

If I had known what this place paid from the beginning, I would not have been duped.

 

Very good point pugbelly. When you are in an online course you have no choice but to read the primary text and zillions of journal articles. Kids that go to class expect the teacher to test them only on what was covered in the class lecture. NCU's 8 week courses require 8 large assignments and each one requires at least six journal references so you really do learn the literature.