I’ve browsed the online forum but I am more interested in hearing from “my parent forum people”.
Due to many factors including periods of anxiety one of my children will leave her school degree unfinished. She is at a large state school that only allows 1 quarter of leave without reapplying. Class attendance and participation are an issue. Doing the work isn’t. The school was never a good fit and I don’t see her going back.
We have discussed different options as she does one day want to finish. One option we have found is finishing a degree online. I’m not interested in for profit institutions.
From our initial search she has come up with Arizona State, Colorado State and Kansas. Some of the Cal States have online degrees but the majors are limiting.
I am hoping for feedback on these types of programs.
These two long-standing distance ed programs have successfully transitioned into online format:
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/?cid=CPCO17815&gclid=CMea3anc5MQCFcVi7AodXigA1Q
http://www.umuc.edu/
Both have some live classes (primarily on or near military bases) that could be worth investigating as well. One of my cousins completed her undergrad degree through UMUC (part live classes, part credit-for-experience, part online), and I know one of the professors who teaches online classes there now. Another college friend of mine teaches online for Penn State World Campus. I have just finished an online MSEd, so I know some of the challenges that online students face. Normally I don’t recommend this mode of education for undergrads, but your daughter isn’t a typical undergrad. She might really blossom in an online setting.
How about Thomas Edison State College in NJ? http://www.tesc.edu/
It is a ‘real’ brick and mortar school that has a very robust online program. I know people who have gotten their degree from here (online) and have been very happy with this school.
They are also very accepting of CLEP credits which are another way to earn college credits at home, at your own pace (google it - this is similar to AP credits and College Board oversees both options. It’s a popular option with homeschoolers because they are much easier to do as a high school or adult student as opposed to AP which have many more restrictions.)
Contact the school and ask for a credit avaluation to see how much they will accpet from her current school and then you can find out exactly what she needs to finish her degree.
My D is currently investigating the “University Without Walls” program offered by UMass. From reading on the their web site, it sounds like a program that has been around for quite a while and that the school works hard to explore ways for their students to graduate with several options for earning credits based on past work and experience. The program can be completed fully online and the courses are offered at in-state tuition rates regardless of the student’s residency.
Southern NH University appears to be gaining national recognition for their online courses and might be worth a look.
No first or secondhand experience yet… I’ll be reading the responses with interest. I, too, have a D whose education was interrupted and who claims to want to finish, but has no desire to live in a dorm situation again.
Happymom1- would you mind sharing some of the challenges you are aware of in online education.
I am going to give her a list of schools to research. She has been at a Univ of Ca campus for almost three years but due to a reduced courseload probably has just over 2 yrs of credit. A good portion of those are in Animal Science. It looks like Kansas has an online animal science degree but I know she isn’t sure if that is the path she will take.
She has also discussed transfer to a small school but I am hesitant since I don’t know if that will be any better fit.
If she’s willing to go across the country, Delaware Valley College near Philadelphia is a nice, small college that has very strong programs in the agricultural sciences. It’s the only place I know of that offers Animal Science that isn’t a ginormous state U.
The difficulty with online education is that so much of it is on your own. If the student doesn’t have strong self-discipline, it is easy to just not get things done. You don’t get to trail into class late with your thermos of coffee and your notebook, and whine about the textbook, the homework, and just how evil the professor was on that last exam. You don’t get to hang out in the professor’s office, or run into friends on the way to and from the library, and you certainly don’t get to weep all over your advisor and use up their box of tissues when life has been just too difficult and you don’t know what you are going to do next. All of that daily human contact is missing.
Depending how the course is designed, there may be group projects, or the work might all be individualized, so that is a good question to ask about. The courses can also be synchronous or asynchronous. I’ve taken classes where each student completed the work at his or her own pace and even though each of us posted our assignments into Blackboard, and were expected to comment on each other’s work, some whipped through the course quickly and others submitted all of the assignments on the last day, which of course meant that classroom “discussion” was pretty uneven. In some other classes the professor opened each assignment in order with strict time limits for completion so that our “discussions” were much more lively. Newer tools such as Google Docs (more than one person can comment on or even edit a given document), wikis and class or team blogs have made some kinds of participation a lot easier. Last summer, our prof even scheduled a couple of live chat times so we had a chance to get to know each other a bit better.
The SUNYs have online degrees. I imagine other state schools do too.
You may want to investigate transfer options, though, if you think the fit was just wrong for her. If she’s willing to try that and you can afford it, I’d encourage her to give it a try.