Engineering Degree Online | Let’s get personal…

Posted by bposton on November 14th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

I got an interesting note stuck to the online degree dorm room door last night.

It read ‘ “Can you tell us a little more about yourself, Ben?”

Hummm. well, I kinda like my privacy. Actually that’s one reason I’m here promoting the online degree programs. In my opinion, you can keep things a little more private with an online class than one in a traditional classroom.

You don’t have sit in a 200 seat lecture hall, and you don’t have to worry about how you look (not that I worry much about that anyway :-) )

And you can keep a lower profile - if you want to. Just make sure that you are responsive in your online classes and discussions. You can’t hide in the back in an online class - the prof can see how much you’re contributing in the online chats and discussions that class is having. So make sure you speak out, and speak your mind. But you don’t have to tell them what shampoo you used last night, either.

But in the event that you really MUST know a little more about me. I’ll give you these juicy details:

1. I live in North Carolina (if you’ve been reading the posts you already know that)

2. I have a family. A wife and 3 daughters (I’m blessed!!!)

3. I’m re-living my college days through my daughters :-) OK not true…well kinda true…

4. One daughter in college, another one starting next fall, and another the fall after that!

(OWE is me!!)

I’m pretty convinced that an online degree is NOT the right thing for them. But I will be talking to the oldest about attending a graduate school online. That’s where the biggest bang for the buck is right now. But who knows? In a couple of years my youngest could be sitting at home attending a online class…as long as she cleans her room first :-)

Enough about me - let’s talk about YOU - and how YOU can get a degree online that’s right for you and your goals!

Ben 

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engineering degree online : my historical distance learning experience

Posted by bposton on October 27th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

When I was in high school back in the stone age… :-)

There was this thing called “coorspondence school”

I used to get stuff in the mail about schools that would teach you things
by sending you information in the mail.

My memory is great - it’s just short - so I don’t remember it well, only
that it had a certain stigma to it. Sort of like leparodsy.

Well, later on, the 1980’s gave way to a new version of the coorspondence school, called “distance learning”.

But you know what? The stigma got a little cleaner. That’s because some
real honest to goodness colleges started to get in on the act. One was Liberty
University in Lynchburg, VA. They are a Baptist College. You may know their founder,
Jerry Falwell?

I actually took some classes from Liberty University. Of course, it wasn’t online.
I signed up for classed from a catalog they sent in the mail, and they sent me VHS video tapes with the lectures, the books, the syllabus, and the testing.

The tests were “proctored’ which in my case meant that my friend John (best man at my wedding) would give me the tests and made sure I didn’t cheat or use the book.

I’d mail the test in and wait for the grades to come back…

and wait, and wait, and wait.

And then I’d get the grade and go on to my next class.

The courses themselves where not cheap, especially since you had to pay for the postage for all of the material. The other thing was that there was a residency requirement. That meant I would sooner or later have to spend two weeks on campus (during the summer) taking an excelerated course. That was the killer for me. I couldn’t do that at the time, so I eventually stopped taking classes with them.

The good new is that to this day Liberty and I are in good standing; I am officially and “alumni” since I took classes in the past. They even invited me to their homecoming football game this year :-)

So I do have some experience with this online degree thing - and I hope I can help you have a good experience and to chose the right program for you.

Ben

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