I'm thinking about trying it, but I heard employers don't respect them...

Well, I once was four courses away from graduating with my Bachelors in Biz Management from Univ. of Phoenix, I'd even done my commencement walk and everything...

family stuff got in my way and I took a leave of absence...

now, all of a sudden I'm TEN courses away from my graduation...

The 100% online classes seemed to happen instantaneously... I would log in on the 1st day of class and people were already discussing week 3's paper or some shit. That was the only time I ever failed an English course in my life (really NOT happy about that!!)

So I started taking the on-site classes but here they have these things called "learning teams" of about 6 students each and you're REQUIRED to stay & work with your team. Problem there is power struggles and deadbeats so often I'd be the one preparing the entire final assignment or power-points

moral of the story is be prepared for a "different" kind of school experience, work hard and fast, ignore the bullshit and maybe, just maybe you'll get out in time with a degree.

As for the quality of said degree, I'm now self-employed so my employer could give a rats ass...

good luck!

Don't believe what ya heard!
I am enrolled in StarkState,which has a physical campus, but the major I am taking is all online classes. I love it! You get a week to complete all of your homework assignments, and most of the exams can be done from your home computer. There are a couple of classes that I actually have to go to the school to take on the computer, as they are proctored, but it's no biggie.
I love it, but you have to be self-disciplined to succeed. It is so easy to say "I'll do that homework tomorrow",then push it off until you got a whole crapload of stuff to do, so you have to use your time wisely and study just like you do if you are physically going to class. It is much easier, in the sense that you can pretty much take all your tests with your book open in front of you, which makes it easier to get "A"s.
A degree is a degree. If you have an associate's or bachelors, who cares what shool you got it from, as long as it is an accredited school that will transfer credits to a traditional college, and credits will transfer from a traditional college to that particular school.

I am a Axia College of University of PHX Alumni and I am on my way to my Bachelors at UOP.

i work at the largest online school... don't listn to what they say... we have contracts with many large companies for their employees to attend our college and very well respected n the business community.. U do much more work online than at a ground campus... make sure the college U choose is accredited... there are many that are not and the program might not be as well... research and compare what U want to do ur degree in and the cost factors as well as how long it will take U to complete it... i have done classes online as well as ground.... it U want flexible then do online but U have to be very self disciplined

I agree: Don't listen to the hype.

As others have said, when you shop around, the most important thing is to find out whose accreditations a school carries. Most quality institutions will carry some accreditation by one or more associations, themselves approved by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Look for that.

ALSO... depending on your field of study, there may be additional authoritative bodies that oversee standards for specific academic programs. Find out what respected bodies oversee standards in your field, and ask the director (or staff) of the academic program to which you're applying if they carry accreditation from that group. If you're really curious, you might even ask when their last review was.

If your school and program carry the right accreditations, your degree should be as competitive as one from any given land-based school.
[Edited 9/22/09 18:54pm]

Here's a U.S. Department of Education database of important accreditation groups (some, not all) and what schools hold their accreditations: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/
[Edited 9/22/09 18:57pm]

I'm in my fourth year of an online school right now.

Lawd, I feel like such a tool... so if everybody is so happy with there school WTF is wrong with mine???

RenHoek said:

did U sit out for over a year?

purplekisses said:

yeah...

we had our second baby and there was this economy thing that was tanking...

it was not good times...

RenHoek said:

so then U ignored the emails and calls from your ac to get U back in before U were out a year so that you would not lose credits.... welcome to my world my students always call a day late and then get mad at me when i tell them they should have answered my calls and emails saying to call me or U will lose credits if U don't get started by ..... so U had to do a new enrollment agreement for the new version???

RenHoek said:

Likely just an education model that didn't fit you. You'd perhaps be fine in a similar program at another online institution.

But it's true many things are different. ALL interaction is written, of course, so one can plan to live tethered to their computer for the term. Also, the anonymity of the internet allows students to take on the persona of their choosing (just like here on the org) -- so there are snarks, lurkers, trolls, folk who try to impress everyone with their Googled knowledge, etc. And, yes, some folk do readings and assignments in advance to try to look good. Takes some getting used to.

It also sounds like your academic department maybe updated curriculum while you were away. Lots of times, a department will let you proceed under the catalog of your admittance. But if you stay away too long, they require you to take the updated courses, because otherwise they'd be giving you an education not meeting their accreditation standards.
[Edited 9/22/09 19:44pm]

purplekisses said:

aaaanndd that where things get rocky... I never got calls from anyone let alone emails, which in retrospect seems it should be obvious... I've actually had nothing but problems with the staff at my UOP... the communication with them is non-existant...

and no, I'm not a CYA type of guy... they're always changing staff and I never get any contact from them...

RenHoek said:

sorry to hear that... yes there are some students that seem to get moved around a lot due to restructure with the growth... i have been lucky to keep what comes in to me and they do not get moved... i am always trying to reach my students to get them back in and make sure they do not get into ur situation... i hope that U do finish ur program and ur degree... U will feel so much better

I'm all for higher learning but I prefer online porn to online college...but you know, to each their own...

roodboi said:

fucker...


nice to have you back!

Vendetta1 said:

2nd year...starting the third in Nov.

purplekisses said:

I had to take an online class last summer (mandated by my former boss) -- it was through Harvard and it was horrible! It was such a waste of time -- having to respond to other peoples responses and the professor, etc. I felt like it was more about responding to people than learning. I also didn't like that the system wouldn't let you post your homework early and they wouldn't give you the assignment for the following week until a specific time. The class schedule did not work well with our work schedules at all. Granted, the topic we were doing was fucking stupid as well (my co-workers & I were guinea pigs to see if the museum where we worked wanted to collaborate), so that didn't help my opinion of it.

I wrote such a scathing review that my associate director made me soften it up so as to not hurt Harvard's feelings. My director thought we should be all excited to take a class from Harvard grad school for free online; I was like, "Bitch, I have a Master's from Columbia. Fuck a Harvard."

jone70 said:

You are so making my signature.

Vendetta1 said:

I mean - don't get me wrong, I'm sure Harvard is a lovely school, but she kept going on and on and on about how we'd get a certificate of completion for doing the class. I was like "who cares, I don't need a certificate; I already have a diploma." It was funny because out of the other 3 co-workers, one girl had a BA from Brown and another had BA from Yale, the third had an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. We all hated that class. It was called "Teaching for Understanding" or TFU for short, but we called it FU-TFU (Very mature, I know. ) We did the barest of the bare minimum to get by and still got like 99 out of 100 points.

I do all my courses thru an online university. This is my second year...if you want any info, just orgnote me.

Once a week, I have an online seminar, with my Profs. it's just like sitting in class..they do their lecture and I take tons of notes...along with writing a million and one papers, do a discussion board where I must interact with my fellow students, along with timed quizzes etc...

All my Profs are practicing Attorneys.
[Edited 9/23/09 5:59am]

I did 4 years at an online school and I liked it, it just depends on the type of person you are, I hated sitting in classes so to be able to get my shit online without dealing with a class setting was perfect for me...plus you may get to work with people you would have never met before right PK =0