Friday, January 19, 2007

Online Distance Education Courses and Degrees - Pros

Online and distance education courses and degrees are starting to become a fixture at many colleges and universities. There are many good reasons for the explosion of offerings. Let me give you some reasons why I think this is the case.

1. Ease of attending "virtual" classrooms - If you are employed full-time, have a family, or other responsibilities that make getting to a traditional classroom challenging, then online or distance education is immediately attractive. You can log in at whatever time is convenient to you and post responses to the week's questions, submit your assignments, and email a professor or fellow student. If you live far away from a college that offers a program or class you want to take, being able to enroll in an online or distance version is your only option.

2. Interactivity is potentially increased - This was mentioned in the last post, but it is important enough to repeat. In many online formats, student-student and student-professor interactivity is higher than it is in traditional formats. Student-student interaction is often the most interesting because many traditional classrooms stick to the teacher knows best dichotomy. Most of the discussion comes from the front of the room, with few questions and little discussion coming from the back of the room. In many ways, the discussion flow is opposite in an online course. It is amazing how much you can learn from classmates when they are truly given a chance to speak.

3. The potential exists for learning to increase - Note: This point is based on personal experience, and not based on any scientific studies. I have found that online courses force you to do all the reading, reflect on it, and discuss your views on the topics at hand with your fellow students and the professor in ways that aren't always possible in a traditional classroom. In doing so, you often find yourself defending and then altering your views as you take in the views of your classmates. You re-examine the readings in light of what other people are writing. In this way, you are engaging the learning material more substantively than if you merely read it and listen to the professor talk about it. The other side of the coin is that online courses can be more demanding than their traditional counterparts.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Is an Online Course or Degree Right for You?

Online courses and degree programs are more demanding than most people realize. They require that a student be a capable independent learner who is self-motivated to complete projects, papers, and readings without someone constantly hounding them about it.

Online "classrooms" do not have the anonymity of a large lecture hall or even a moderate-sized class. The expectation (in most cases) in online courses is that students will participate. Your grade is partially based on your participation. Unlike traditional face-to-face courses, you must do the assigned reading. Because you are graded (partially) on participation, you don't want to be seen as uninformed and lacking in preparation for the week's discussion. It is fairly obvious who has read and prepared for the discussion and who hasn't. If the students can see it, then it is a safe assumption that the professor can as well.

Students must be comfortable with communicating asynchronously, as most online courses use discussion boards to hold conversations about the week's readings and assignments. As well, technophobes need not bother. Online learning requires that one be comfortable with discussion boards, chat rooms (in some instances), email, and digital distribution. In the next post, I'll talk about some of the advantages of online learning.

Friday, January 12, 2007

What to Make of Online Education

Online education is a growing segment of higher education. It is difficult to pin down exactly what percentage of students are getting degrees through programs that deliver instruction, testing, and discussion online. However, all you have to do is a search in Yahoo! or Google for online education to know that it is a big business. There are probably ads on my site that reference it. Separating the quality programs from the 'out to make a buck' ones can be difficult. However, it is certainly doable and here are a couple of things to look at:

1. Look at accreditation. At bare minimum, you want to see that the institution is accredited by a regional accreditation body, e.g. WASC, MSA, NWCCU, NCA, NEASC-CHIE, SACCS-CC. Regional accreditation is required by graduate schools and most employers. Be careful of alternate accrediting boards that sound like they are regional. If the institution's accreditation isn't from the six I listed above, then skip it.

2. Does it look to good to be true? This is an important question to consider. If a program is promising a degree with a minimum of hassle and courses to be taken, then back off. Likely, they have not been regionally accredited to offer the degree and are suspect. There may be specific instances where an alternate accreditation is acceptable, but you should know about that before ever searching for a program.

I have some experience with online education, and if you have a question, feel free to post it in the comments.

Toying with Blog Format

I am going to try an adjustment to my blog writing. In lieu of writing longer posts, I want to write shorter, less in-depth pieces. Doing so will have the effect of keeping blog postings fresh and somewhat more frequent. This doesn't mean that I won't occasionally write a longer piece, but I am going to try something a bit different for a while. I welcome any and all feedback from readers and am excited about continuing to make this blog accessible for students, parents, and professionals.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Applying for Financial Aid

Editor's Note: This was written by Samantha Kahn, a financial aid counselor with years of experience in all kinds of institutions.

As of January 1st, the FAFSA for the 2007-2008 academic year is available on the web. The US Department of Education strongly advises families to apply for financial aid online rather than with a paper application, because it cuts down on errors and incomplete applications.

Completing the FAFSA online includes three steps. The first is that you and your parent must apply for a USED Personal Identification Number, which you can use as your electronic signature on the FAFSA and on loan applications. Applying for a PIN takes no time at all, you can do so at: http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/appinstr.jsp

Be prepared to provide your SSN, address, and other common items. They'll process your application and send you an email with instructions on how to get the PIN. You'll probably receive this email within 72 hours after submitting your application.

Note that the student and the parent each need their own PIN. PINs are essentially a permanent electronic version of signatures, so each person applying needs his or her own. If you and your sibling are applying at the same time, you need a PIN, your brother needs a PIN, and your parent needs a PIN. Your PIN will never change regardless of your own status as a parent or student (or financial aid officer).

The FAFSA itself is a long and complex document, into which you have to put a lot of data. Don't worry, though; it's highly encrypted and your demographic and financial information is safe. However, it's a good idea to use the worksheets provided by the Department to gather all the information together. This way you can sit at the table with your tax returns and bank statements, write in the numbers, and type them in when you go to the FAFSA website.

If you have to use a public computer, such as one at a library, you MUST prepare in advance with the worksheets. Expect it to take at least 45 minutes to complete the FAFSA online.

Here is the link for the FAFSA worksheets: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/before012.htm. Look for the link for the 07-08 FAFSA worksheet in color. The FAFSA is color coded by year for the students - 07-08 The student information sections will be in yellow. Parent info is always purple. It's important to not put the same information in both sections!

You can go to that link and print out the FAFSA worksheet, which will be eight pages. Then you can fill in the boxes with your year-to-date figures off your's and your parents' 12/31/06 paychecks and statements.

Once you have your PIN and between January 1 and the earliest filing deadline (which will probably be March 2 for schools in California, but that information can be checked on college websites), you can go online and enter all the data from the worksheets. If you are not sure what the filing deadline is for any of your prospective colleges, MAKE SURE you know before you miss the deadline! Some schools' filing deadlines for the best/most financial aid eligibility can be as early as February 1.

You will need to put in the school code for all the colleges to which you areapplying (there should be space for at least six on the FAFSA). Codes can be found on the FA pages of the prospective schools' websites or even more easily at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/fotw0607/fslookup.htm

You can make corrections to the FAFSA and should do so when you and your parents complete your respective tax returns. Don't wait to complete the tax returns before applying for financial aid. This is the only document which is more important to submit on time than it is to submit it correctly. If you don't have financial information when you have to complete the FAFSA, DO NOT put in zeros. Estimate as well as you can; you want the college to offer you the best aid based on the best information.

If your family has experienced some financial setback that isn't reflected in your tax information, such as a layoff late in the year, or high medical expenses that can't be deducted, you should complete the FAFSA so it reflects the tax information and then contact the colleges to which you've applied and advise them of this disparity.