DegreeBoard: Distance Education Blog

University of Leicester, a well-known and respected university in the UK, has decided to offer its students learning with a new twist. Students at this traditional college degree program can now use distance learning technology to make the grade - in their classrooms!

Professors at the university decided to institute a role-playing game to make history lessons more interesting and less painful for their students. With this goal in mind, they developed a combination classroom and online degree course that will help students to improve their academic research skills.

This accredited university degree program isn’t the first to offer online degree education technologies to traditional students in an attempt to improve learning, however. Duke University in North Carolina has also incorporated distance learning degree program technologies in traditional classroom courses. Economics students enjoy participating in simulation games to increase their knowledge about utility maximization and other concepts.

Anesthesiology students are also using computer simulations to enhance their learning and decision-making processes before applying these to patients in the operating room. Although Duke University does offer online degree courses, offering medical courses through distance learning degree programs is not currently a practice in the United States. However, many universities are taking advantage of Duke’s good example to offer a combination of technologies designed to help their students learn as effectively as possible.

Do you like the idea of taking campus-based courses and supplementing your education through technologies typically used by distance education degree programs? Do the simulation games used by Duke University and University of Leicester appeal to you? Look for many conventional and online degree universities to follow this example - professors are already demonstrating that this approach works!

Diploma mills have been a sad fact of education for decades now. Unfortunately, some students are want to earn a college degree at home - without any of the time or work that it takes to get a college education. Lately, however, there’s been a new twist on this old scam. Find out how to protect your traditional or distance education degree program from the latest fake degree con.

In the past, these diploma mills have sold college degrees to students for a price. The degrees may or may not be legitimate, recognized degrees in the United States. Usually, the campus-based or online degree university’s name is similar or close to the name of an accredited university degree program.

Recently, these scams have developed a new twist: fake degrees and transcripts from regionally accredited universities. These degrees are believable, right down to the university president’s signature. Unless a university or employer gets suspicious and contacts the university requesting verification of the student’s degree and transcripts, they are likely to get away with this.

Selling fake academic credentials is against the law in 11 states, but many others have not passed laws against this activity. What do you think? How can these people be stopped, and what’s the best way to do it?

If you’re reading this blog right now, you’re probably interested in a distance university degree program. How do you know which of these programs are legitimate, and which are not?

Determining which universities are accredited can be a fairly complex process. One way, of course, is to ask other students or moderators on the degreeboard forum for their opinion of the school. Unfortunately, though, remember that an opinion is only an opinion. If the university is not a regionally accredited online degree program, you won’t be able to use it for advanced education, no matter how good your educational experience was.

How do you know if an online degree program is accredited? First, examine the online degree university’s website. If it is regionally accredited, the university will advertise this proudly. Be careful, though; a few universities have begun advertising accreditations that are not legitimate.

That said, how do you know what accreditations are legitimate? Direct your browser to the U.S. Department of education for a list of accrediting organizations and their regional accreditation bodies. Be especially careful of a university whose accreditation sounds very similar, but is not exactly the same as, an authorized accrediting agency!

If you are trying to determine whether an overseas university, such as a Dutch or UK university is accredited, search the UNESCO database, which provides a list of universities that are recognized by this international authority on education (when seeking degree equivalencies from another country, this is the database that educational evaluators use).

If getting a college degree based on credit awarded by life experience seems a little far-fetched, think again. People actually can – and do – receive college degrees at almost every level based on work experience. In fact, life experience degrees are awarded at the Associate, Bachelor, and Master Degree levels of education.

People who have completed course work through online degree universities or other university degree programs, and want to gain practical hands-on experience are excellent candidates for life experience degrees. Students work with an advisor to complete an individual assessment and develop a study program, designed to take a maximum of five or six years. These programs are administered by experts in distance learning.

Life experience degrees are not available in every educational field. However, most technical and business degree programs offer this type of distance learning degree program. This type of education is especially helpful for people who learn best by doing rather than study books in a classroom or trying to keep up with the demands of an online degree program.

Students who want to earn a college degree after having worked for a number of years in their profession are ideally suited to life experience degree programs. Through assessments, they can demonstrate their expertise and practical skills, and show their aptitude for independent learning.

Beware, however. Not all life experience degree programs are accredited. Some are administered by diploma mills or other fake degree scams. If you are interested in this type of distance learning program, take the time to do your homework and verify that the program you choose is accredited.

Have you had any encounters with life experience degree programs? Share your knowledge with us today.

Many of us have had to make some sacrifices to achieve educational or career goals. Careful budgeting, putting off getting that new car, or eating in instead of out are sometimes necessary strategies for paying for a college degree program. But how far are you willing to go to earn a college degree?

What if attending a university degree program means becoming the target of American missiles? Would you continue to pursue a university education, even if it meant that you might die in the process? Recently, Pakistani students who attend a religious school linked to the Taleban had to make exactly this decision.

For the most part, American students are fortunate enough to be able to enroll in distance learning degree programs or get a degree by attending a traditional college or university. Often, religious issues don’t even enter their minds as they go about the process of getting their education. But what if they did have to make that kind of choice?

Have you ever had to make a choice about your education based on your religion? If your educational decisions have ever been affected by your religious beliefs, we’d love to hear about it. Tell us more about how you coped with the conflict between your spiritual belief system and your desire to study at a top online school or a traditional campus-based program.

Help others learn from your experiences. Share your story with us today!

Early on, employers first looked at online schools with uncertainty, and then growing respect. Then, we experienced the influx of diploma mills that seriously jeopardized the credibility of online education. Now, as schools with highly ranked traditional college degree programs offer distance learning degrees as well, the pendulum is shifting again in favor of distance degree.

Educators and employers alike are starting to take distance learning more seriously, and even the federal government now allows students to use federal aid money for online degree universities. Some scholarship foundations are also recognizing that distance learning offers as good an education, and is, at least for some, the only feasible way to earn a college degree.

What kind of experiences have you had with the reputation of the program you’re attending? What is the reaction of other students or your employers when you tell them the name of the school you’re attending? Did you choose the school because of its reputation, or because of the type of degree program offered? Share them with us now!