Engineering Degree Online | Housing Bust creates online learning Opportunity

Posted by bposton on November 11th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

OK, I guess I shouldn’t call it a Bust…:-)

But the fact is that housing sales are down. Ah, but there’s a silver lining…

Why am I taling about housing sales and what does that have to do with an online degree?

Well, just hear me out my door room buddy, especially if you’re a Realtor…

The fact is that sales are down pretty much everywhere. According to the October 2006 Freddie Mac Economic & Housing Outlook, home sales for this year are expected to fall 9 percent from 2005 figure.

And projected sales for next year are even worse. To prove the point, sales of existing and new homes in August were down 12 and 15 percent, respectively, from 2005.

So what’s a Real Estate agent to do?

Try going back to school for that degree!

If you’re an agent who wants to remain competitive, then you should think about these points made by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics:
 
1. As real estate transactions have become more legally complex, many firms have turned to college graduates to fill positions.

2. A large number of agents and brokers have some college training.

3. College courses in real estate, finance, business administration, statistics, economics, law, and English are helpful.

4. For those who intend to start their own company, business courses such as marketing and accounting are as significant as courses in real estate or finance.

Here’s some more facts and figures:

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Member Profile, back in 2001 about 26 percent of Realtors had bachelor’s degrees and they earned 30 percent more than Realtors without degrees.

The 2005 NAR Member Profile now shows that 20 percent more Realtors (46%) now have at least a bachelor’s degree.

So if the market is slowing and your workload is decreasing, maybe now’s a good time to consider getting that online degree.

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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