Are online degrees the educational equivalent of a brick-and-mortar campus? Or do online degrees reflect a less-serious commitment to education on the part of the degree-holder?
Vault.com’s CEO Erik Sorenson recently pointed out that “Everything has moved online, including education. Though more and more Americans are getting educated online, there is still a bias toward traditional classroom education, especially for high-end careers and top-ranked companies.”
Vault’s recently conducted survey shows that while 49% of those who make hiring decisions have encountered applicants with online degrees (up from 34% in 2005), only 19% have actually hired a candidate who only possessed an online degree.
So where you stand on this issue? How do you view online degrees now? How have your view changed in the past few years? And how you think your future self (in say, 2018?) will feel about the issue?
5 comments
My Favorite Recruiter Jul 15, 2008 at 10:41 pm
My wife and I have decided to home school our kids — three next year, and the other two at some point in the future. Based on our preliminary research, most of the major universities (Harvard, for one) seem amenable to home schoolers. SAT scores, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, etc will play a more important part in our kids’ college applications — but it’s all doable.
We all know that the current education system was designed in the 19th century to produce factory workers, and later, in the 20th century, white collar information workers who could function in vast corporate hierarchies.
The world no longer works that way: Business (and technology) are less centralized and more distributed.
There’s no reason that the universities shouldn’t change their models to reflect these new realities.
Harry
Gordon Jul 16, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Given how many of my undergrad courses were either taught by grad students or sleep-walking and/or politically motivated professors, I don’t see how online degrees could be any more worthless than traditional degrees. In fact, as a corporate recruiter with almost 20 years under my belt, I can attest to the sad reality that college kids today are entering the workforce with virtually no discernible skills and a minimal capacity to even think clearly. As such, I’m thinking that a different approach to higher education may not be a bad thing.
ann Sep 13, 2008 at 3:41 pm
You are basically teaching yourself. The instructors in the online college class do absolutely nothing but post the assignments and the grades. Yes - it is a big joke!
silence Dogood Sep 22, 2008 at 10:44 pm
what happens to be joke is the fact that between colleges and big cooperations have made college degrees a worthless bunch of crap. They teach you nothing that a cartoon or talking stuffed animal can’t teach you about life. 95% of all college students that get degrees have no idea what they are walking into. company’s have continued to make the “sheep skin” a requirement and have failed our kids and the country. Anyone that has been around, seen the world, truly loved someone, been in a war, and followed their heart, can tell you that history will repeat it’s self, and that there is not amount of schooling that can prepare you for life, work and family.
People that have changed the world and truly changed the world have not been college grads did not hang a degree above the fire place. They changed the world because they were smarter then the others they stood above the rest and did something about it.
college degree’s weather at a “building” or over the internet do no mean anything other then that fact that the person that studies over the internet really is smart enough to learn something on their own.
HRalphafemme Sep 23, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I’m an HR professional with over 10 years exp who has been a student at both a traditional university and University of Phoenix (albeit the GROUND campus vs. online). However, I also hired the faculty at University of Phoenix in my city when it opened and what I can tell you is that UOP’s hiring standards for faculty are not only very DIFFERENT (kudos to Harry for making the 19th century comparison) but are also much more STRICT in many areas due to their desire to be “above par” as well as to provide practical application principles in adult learning theory.
Because there is such push back, they go above and beyond in their selection criteria and I actually had to turn away faculty from “traditional” and more “prestigous” universities, because they couldn’t meet the rigor in our standards for instructors!!! Because UOP subscribes to the “adult learning” theory, they want instructers who can provide practical application, in other words, my Employment Law course was taught by an attorney at one of our premier firms in the state vs. an attorney who has been teaching out of a book for 20 years in a lecture hall with 300 students.
The reality is that often times the true (vs. percieved) value of a degree is in direct relation to the amount of effort the student puts into it. However, quality instruction is certainly important as well - much more so than the name on the university.
I can HONESTLY say that I received much more value from my time at UOP because what I learned from the instructors (as well as my adult peers) was practical and able to be applied directly into my work as a corporate HR professional.
Point to note is that I was LEARNING and I wasn’t just absorbing theory or listening to a faculty member lecturing out of a book that he likely wrote for acclaim by his peers in an effort to get tenure at a university…
Lastly however, there are plenty of online degrees that are crap and don’t offer quality instruction and that further negates the credability of the quality programs out there; and while unfortunate, it’s reality and something that people should consider when making a decision as to where to pursue an education.