What do you think is the easiest online degree?

I know this is a silly question, but I'm curious what people think. If this is a violation of the forum rules, sorry... Just curious. I would also like to say beforehand that I don't mean to offend anyone of school with this question. It could be Graduate or preGraduate and from any country that is accredited and not from a diploma mill. If you think I left anything out please let me know.:scratchchin:

 

Excelsior College's liberal arts degree would be the most flexible.
Excelsior College | Bachelors Degrees | BA - BS Liberal Arts | Online Classes
There is no simpler, more direct path to a bachelor's degree.

 

The trick here is that what the easiest degree is to you might not be the same for someone else. I can take standardized tests extremely well, and so for me, degrees that allow me to earn large amounts of credit via CLEP or DSST exams and the like are much easier than they would be for someone who doesn't handle one-shot high-stakes tests very well.

You'll probably hear a lot of locals here tell you that the Big 3 are the easiest path to a degree, and for most of them, that's certainly the case. Self-selection at its finest, in fact. But for other folks, the more traditional route of butt-in-seat instruction at the local community college for 2 years followed by another two years butt-in-seat at a commuter university might be "easier", because that's the best way for those people to learn.

Also, the amount of time you've spent preparing for a course of study (either intentionally or unintentionally) is going to affect how easy a degree program seems to you. I saw a University of Michigan engineering graduate have a bonafide panic attack during an exam in my MBA financial accounting class, but since I'd recently completed the same course in undergrad, the exam was a breeze to me. The engineer was one of the smartest people I've ever met, but had simply not had enough exposure to the material to be comfortable with it.

tl;dr: "Easy" means different things to different people.

 

My opinion is that it would be the degree that allowed the highest ratio of testing vs taking classes. Why? Because the standard tests (CLEP, DSST, etc.) are very standard- in fact you can expect their content to be very predictable. US History 101 is going to be US History 101. To piggy-back on that concept, the businesses that have created their own exams (Straighterline, Saylor, Study dot com, etc.) are also going to be in that category because the content of the exam is very predictable. In EVERY one of those cases, how "hard" it is will be a matter of opinion, but the predictability is what pushes it to the top for me.

When you have to take classes, hardness goes up based on the amount of writing you have to submit. Why? Because writing is subjective (Mrs. DeRosa, you write in passive voice entirely too much and are not in the least bit concise.") and subject to that instructor's expectation thus grade. (oh crap I forgot an opening quotation mark- ding) Since a person is being graded, a significantly higher amount of EFFORT is required to be a people-pleaser. Online degrees require writing- there's just no way around it. Whether it's a forum post (APA style with citation please <gag>) or homework or papers, you're demonstrating your learning in an entirely different way when compared to a multiple choice test.

Fitting the bill of course: Excelsior, Thomas Edison, and Charter Oak.

 

Penn foster would be the easiest college that I have tried around and quite affordable. I have completed courses in two days from this school.
Completing a full BS degree in a year from this school seems feasible to me.

 

Simple yes but I don't know if it is easy, you still need to complete 120 credits from RA accredited schools or test out credits. There are many schools that rely on online discussions and essays, not testing needed.

 

Good point. I am thinking flexible. Flexible being a factor in easy. You can pick what courses to complete not them for almost the whole degree! No other college is that flexible of a BS degree.

 

Which two courses?

 

You don't have to do testing if that's not what you want. You can take courses from Study.com, Straighterline, Penn-Foster, ALEKS, Shmoop, Saylor.org, etc... The great thing about the Big3 is that you can earn the credits the way that works best for you. The easiest is probably the BSBA from Thomas Edison because you can choose to take the capstone as a TECEP if you prefer (of course you can take the class if you want). Almost all the other degrees out there require a capstone course with a big project/paper.

 

Financial management, management accounting

I took these two to meet cont ed requirements for an accounting certification. Multiple choice exams and final exams based on multiple choice questions. The financial management course has a final project that consists in a spreadsheet that can be completed in 3 hrs. You can take the exams two times and stay with the highest score.

There are other schools that just require to complete online discussions and assignments but take longer to complete and cost a lot more. I believe Walden, Trident, NCU and Capella follow this format.
With PF you can go faster as there is not time minimum and can complete as fast as you can.
PF is not RA accredited but it can work for some people that just need to fill a resume with an accredited degree just for the check mark.
Some of PF credits could transfer to Excelsior but only the ones that are ACE reviewed that are not that many.

Study.com seems to have a similar format that PF but I have not tried it yet so cannot tell the level of difficulty.

There are easier if you want to go overseas, schools like Azteca would take your experience for credit and just ask you to write a paper to get a degree. I don't know how rigorous this paper can be but my guts tells me that is no terribly difficult. The problem is the usability of these degrees, Can a holder of an Azteca degree get into a good MBA program or get the credits recognized for licensing purposes?

The internet is full of similar schools as Azteca including Empresarial, Central Nicaragua, IBAM, etc.

 

"One of these things is not like the other ones..." - Sesame Street

I wouldn't put them all in the same category. The schools you listed range from quite useful to less-useful and then to much-discredited. I name no names.

J.

 

Thanks for the great feedback. I was thinking of taking the Penn Foster CJS Terrorism which is ACE credits. Where did you take the proctored exam?

Any of the Spanish universities in English?

 

I believe all three of the Mexican / Central American schools mentioned - Azteca, Empresarial and Universidad Central de Nicaragua offer distance programs in English. Suggest you do diligent research to ensure the chosen school/degree will meet your needs. You can start with the search gadget here at DI. We have threads galore.

J.

 

The "better" school from the mentioned seems to be Central Nicaragua although they have double degree programs with Azteca. I checked with few NACEs approved foreign degree evaluators and some like WES will not be willing to evaluate a degree from Empresarial while others would as it is listed in the UNESCO handbook but WES was wlling to evaluate a degree Central Nicaragua . The usability of these degrees is a bit of a gray area but it might work for those in need of a degree in order to access graduate school or those that already have a job but just need a degree for promotion.
I know I mentioned IBAM and I apologize, IBAM is not accredited by UGC in India so it will not be recognized as an accredited University in the US. The are few other Indian schools that can be completed distance that are accredited by UGC but I don't think they are willing to grant easy credit for experience or similar.

 

I would think the BA of Communications at TESU would be easier than the BSBA due to more math requirements. Is the Capstone difficult for Communications majors at TESU? I have no idea if TECEP for a business degree would be easier than a Capstone? How can you tell? I'm considering a BA in Comm or a BSBA in Marketing from TESU.

 

Unless the program requirements have changed dramatically over the past 5 years, I would find it very difficult believe that an easier/simpler/more flexible option exists than the BSLA program at EC.

You have such a broad spectrum of courses that you can text out of, I can't imagine an easier path.

The only disadvantage to testing out is that you will not be in a position to have your grade boosted due to a curve, like in a traditional class in which everyone is performing poorly.

 

Did they put a major on your Excelsior College BSLA degree? They do today per their catalog.

 

They do list an area of focus in the transcript. The diploma is just a Bachelor of Science. The transcript states the area of focus.

 

You are right they list an "Area of Focus" on the transcript. I would have no problem listing an area of focus on my resume if its on the official transcript. If I listed all 90 EM credits it would read like a major anyways. I would call that a cool factor!

•Bachelor of Science degree in Emergency Management (Area of Focus), BSLA, Excelsior College, 2019
•Bachelor of Science (BS), Emergency Management (BSLA), Excelsior College, 2019

 

An area of focus is for 21 credits in a field. Many Universities require 24 to 30 credits for a major so it is like a major.
For practical purposes, I don't think an employer cares if it is a major or an area of focus.
I like that the Liberal arts tag is not in the diploma. Liberal arts or liberal studies mean so many things for different schools. If an employer looks at the transcript, they can have a better idea of the training.
By the way, you could get up to two areas of focus. I wanted three areas but I was not allowed so completed a second BS in a third area of focus with extra 30 credits of IT training and qualified for the first degree with language testing.

I like Excelsior, I used the BS degree for a better pay at my college and was able to use many of my certificates to get the degree for little investment. It also allowed me to teach different areas at the Community College level.

The degree is Universally recognized because it is RA. The diploma does state that Excelsior is part of the University of the State of New York so it gives credibility.

Most alumni are military so this also gives credibility.

Excelsior does the job. In Canada we have Athabasca that is a similar school but it is not as flexible when it comes to course recognition.