The Online Degree Dorm Room

online degree programs psychology | financial aid to get your degree online

Posted by bposton on January 14th, 2008 — Posted in online degree programs psychology

So, you want to start the New Year by going back to school and getting or finishing your degree online, right?

Alot of folks have this same goal, but they often put it on hole when holiday bills start rolling in.

Did you know that the average American household has about $10,000 in credit card debt? And a lot of that is left over from holiday spending. So this is can be a major hurdle stopping you from fullfilling your New Year’s resolution to get your degree. 

But there is hope…

eLearners.com, a resource of EducationDynamics that connects students to online education, has introduced one of the most robust financial aid resources on the web, the eLearners Student Loans and Financial Aid Center.

This center provides prospective students like you with an up-to-date database of more than 2.4 million scholarships
totaling $15 billion in financial aid.

One of the most unique features of eLearners.com is The Debt-Free College Guide which can give students over 500 debt-free financing options, including:

Grants
Tax incentives
Scholarships
And the most comprehensive list of loan forgiveness programs on the Internet

eLearners.com’s Student Loans and Financial Aid Center helps prospective and current students identify
and understand financing options for higher education. In addition to detailed information about financial aid,
loan consolidation and employer tuition assistance programs, visitors can also find a loan-buying guide that eLearners.com built in collaboration with The Greentree Gazette. The site allows prospective students to compare more than 300 student loans by loan vendor, type, up-front fees and interest rate.

So check out eLearners.com’s Student Loans and Financial Aid Center. It could very well be the what you’re looking for to get going with your online degree this year.

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online degree programs psychology | 64 Year Old earns BA online

Posted by bposton on December 16th, 2007 — Posted in online degree programs psychology

Hello my dorm room buddy.

This story was so sweet I couldn’t resist

64-year-old Billie Norczyk of Florida recently received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida (UCF) after completing the requirements entirely online.

Her goal was to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida to expand her job options in health care but she didn’t want to trek to the main campus in Orlando to do it. So she entered their online program.

Now equipped with a bachelor’s degree in Health Services Administration, the former registered nurse can pursue business-side administrative jobs in hospitals and nursing homes with more confidence. She plans to take her time weighing options.

Students such as Norczyk — working adults looking for a boost on the career ladder — are a driving force behind the growth in online education.

And more and more employers in the health-care industry and other fields say they favor making the bachelor’s degree a minimum requirement in some professional jobs because the extra years of instruction enable workers to handle more complex work with less on-the-job training.

Job prospects in the health-care industry are good in part because people are living longer, which raises demand for services.

Norczyk’s husband, John, was the one who challenged her to return to school after she lamented being turned down for a job that required a bachelor’s degree. She became a nurse before schools were offering bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in the profession.

She was beaming as she emerged from the first commencement ceremony to take place at UCF’s new arena, where more than 3,000 degrees will be handed out by the end of the final ceremony. She accepted hugs and kisses from friends and family who stood in a knot amid the crowd of hundreds.

Her daughter, who lives in Pennsylvania, and her son, who is stationed by the military in Afghanistan, had both been planning to watch the live webcast of the ceremony.

Now, wasn’t that a great story? 

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online degree programs psychology | More Cool stuff going on…

Posted by bposton on October 26th, 2007 — Posted in online degree programs psychology

Hey, here’s even more cool stuff going on the the online dorm room…

Looks like the great state of Tennessee is tring to reduce the nursing shortage by offerin a new online degree program.

They voted last month to approve an new associate of applied science in nursing degree to be offered an online program.

“This program will help meet the current and emerging needs of the workplace for registered nurses, using alternative delivery methods and shared resources,” Paula Short, vice chancellor for academic affairs in the TBR system, said in a news release. “We applaud and thank the Board of Nursing for its vision in approving the program, which will help improve the lives of many Tennesseans.”

Back in 2004 a fed report projected a shortage of more than 13,000 registered nurses by 2006 and a shortage of 35,000 nurses in Tennessee by 2020.

And the American Hospital Association guess that there are 126,000 vacanies for registered nurse vacancies across the US -  in hospitals alone.
The Tennesee Board of Regents program will be offered beginning in spring 2008 at nine of the 13 community colleges in the system, including Jackson State Community College and Dyersburg State Community College.

Students will spend a minimum of 360 hours online, plus an additional 630 “on-ground” hours for the courses in the curriculum, not including general education and other major required credits.

Course material will be offered through the Regents Online Degree Program, while lab sessions and clinical experiences are offered on-site and supervised by faculty from participating institutions.

The projections are to have 300 students enrolled by fall 2009, with 50 graduates by fall 2009 and 100 per year starting in fall 2010.

Just so you know, the Tennessee Board of Regents is the nation’s sixth largest higher education system with 45 post-secondary educational institutions. That includes six universities, 13 two-year colleges and 26 technology centers. Overall they provide programs in 90 of Tennessee’s 95 counties to more than 180,000 students.

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online degree programs psychology | More evidence of increasing acceptance

Posted by bposton on October 16th, 2007 — Posted in online degree programs psychology

Hi, I’m back, sorry for my absense… 

There are a couple of reports out that provide even more evidence that online degree programs are here to stay - and growing. 

First, the director of marketing for eLearningYellowPages.com, Carrie Sommers, states: “According to statistics, the number of students studying for degrees online has increased dramatically over the past several years.”

Next, a survey by the Sloan Consortium in 2005 reveals shows that sixty-three percent of schools offering undergraduate face-to-face courses now also offer undergraduate courses online. And at the graduate level, forty-four percent of schools with Master’s programs now also offer them online.

The Sloan Consortium collected data for this study from over 2,200 colleges and universities. It showed that from 2004 to 2005, the number of students taking at least one online course climbed from 2.3 million students to 3.2 million, an outstanding 40% increase.

What are the most popular areas where the growth of online degrees are greatest?
You’ll find that online courses are most popular in the areas of areas of business, technology, health care and education. And this growth covers all types of degrees - associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree level.

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Associate Online Degree Programs | South Carolina grows it’s online degree programs

Posted by bposton on November 30th, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

Both the University of South Carolina and it’s Community Colleges are seeing rapid growth in online enrollements.

The University of South Carolina Upstate has offered 56 online courses during the last two semesters. The courses are in the arts and sciences, nursing, education and business departments.

The number of online courses that the university has offered has more than doubled over the last two years and they expect the number to increase even more over the next two years.

They’ve had great success with its “RN to BSN program,”

This a program designed for registered nurses who already have an associates degree who want to earn their bachelor of science degree in nursing.

Of the 98 students enrolled in the program at the university, 30 are earning their degree online. The rest are taking course in a traditional classroom setting or through a partnership with state educational television (ETV).

Spartanburg Community College’s online courses have grown steadily since the college began offering them in 2001.

The community college currently offers three online degrees: an associate of arts degree, interpreter training program and a management degree. And they offer 60 online courses each semester.

They report that these online courses fill up as fast as are developed. And the school is finding that many students are taking traditional classes, and then adding online courses because of their flexibility.

They’re also finding out that online courses are often less expensive for colleges to offer since there’s little overhead, and textbooks can be updated often and downloaded easily.

According to college spokesmen, the South Carolina college system as learned that online classes can be just as good, or better than the traditional class environment,

And as long as the technology continues to expand (which it will, online courses are the way of the future.

Ben

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Associate Online Degree Programs | What colleges offer the most online degrees?

Posted by bposton on November 26th, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

The annual report on the state of online education has found that the number of colleges and universities offering 4 year and associate online degree programs has increased.

Which is good news for everyone.

However, the last 3 annual reports showed a very uneven distribution of online course and program offerings by type of institution.  Public colleges and universities and the very large institutions in the US have always been first with online degree offerings.

Private, small 4 year colleges have been least likely to offer online courses, and typically have they’ve received the most negative opinions about online education in general.

And this year’s report is pretty much online the same line. This year’s results show no major changes from this type of pattern. The same large and public universities are still offering the most degrees online.

More than 96 percent of colleges and universities with more than 15,000 total enrollments have some online degree programs, which is more than double that of the smaller, private institutions.
The proportion of colleges and universities with completely online programs rises as the size of the instituion increases. 

About two-thirds of the very largest institutions have degree programs that are completely online programs, while only about one-sixth of the smallest institutions have such programs.

Interestingly Doctoral and Research institutions have been shown to have the greatest depth of online programs and courses. Over 80% of these colleges and universities have some form of online program, either courses or full programs.

So you probably need to look toward the public university or a very large college to find an online degree program with a lot of depth and selection. The private colleges have them also, but you might not find exactly what you need.

Ben 

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Associate Online Degree Programs | New Study about online degrees

Posted by bposton on November 25th, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

Hey there dorm room buddy!

There’s been an important new study just released bout the growth of online education.

The study was don by the Babson Survey Research Group in partnership with the College Board, and was sponored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The report, based on responses from over 2,200 colleges and universities, examines a number of key questions:

Has the Growth of Online Enrollments Begun to Plateau?

Who is Learning Online?
What Types of Institutions Have Online Offerings?

What are the Barriers to Widespread Adoption of Online Education?

This is great stuff. I’m reading it now and I’ll give you all the details in my upcoming posts.

Ben 

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Associate Online Degree Programs | After Thanksgiving Trivia

Posted by bposton on November 24th, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

Boy, am I stuffed

I had 13 people, and a 20 pound turkey and all the fixings yesterday.

It was pretty cramped in the online degree dorm room

I’m not spending too much time in the dorm room actually due to the Thanksgiving holiday but I did want to put out this short little bit of trivia.

bet you didn’t know when the very first “distance education” program started… do you?

Well here’s something you can amaze your friends with:

The very first distance education program started in the 1870s. It was when the very first correspondence school began in the U.S. It was called the Society to Encourage Study at Home.

Here’s even more - it was started by the wife of a Harvard professor, and it was started in order to bring education to women, who at that time were not allowed to attend universities.

So there you go. Now in my next post I’ll take a look at how some of the nations most prestigious schools are turning to online education.

Ben

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Associate Online Degree Programs | Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by bposton on November 22nd, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

Hello, my online degree dorm room buddy!

Just wanted to let you know that I’m gonna be skipping a few classes and taking a little time off from my postings to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family.

I want to thank you for putting up with my crazy sense of humor and I hope you’ll continue to come back and learn more about getting your online degree.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (if you’re in the US, that is) and I’ll be back soon!

Ben

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Associate Online Degree Programs | All About Associate Degrees - Part 7

Posted by bposton on November 21st, 2006 — Posted in associate online degree programs

I’d like to wrap up my posts about associate degrees with some things to consider when choosing a program, either on campus or online.

You need to make sure that whatever program you’re interested in is both fully accredited and the credits transferable. This is important even if you don’t intend to move on to a 4 year degree.

So how do you make sure of this?

Well, the best way is to follow the same rule that the US does in it’s relationship with Russia:

“Trust but Verify”

That means you need to verify with third party sources the accrediation status of the community college or junior college you want to attend. Don’t just trust what their information or website tells you. Check with the accrediting agency and even the department of education at the state or federal level if you need to.

Next, if you’re planning to transfer to a 4 year school, you should check with that school to make absolutely sure that the credits you earn at the community college will be accepted at the 4 year school. This is critical! Do just assume, and don’t take the community college’s word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Ben

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