Distance courses taught by organizations that are not accredited often offer more current information, she says. Problem is, those programs are often not respected by employers. Case in point: her son was once offered a job by Motorola after the company noticed how well he handled a programming project in Toronto, but Motorola changed its mind upon discovering that he’d received non-accredited online training.
Crawford suggests seeking the opinions of professionals in your field before enrolling. “Go to some professional associations and ask them who they’d recommend. They’ve got their ear to the ground.” Overall, though, she figures few business take issue with distance education as long as potential hires have the needed skills and attitude. An employee’s interest in pursuing distance education is generally seen as a good thing. “We want people who are looking to learn, so distance learning is perfect from an employer’s perspective.”
Friesen points out that there are still problems with “diploma mills,” which will send you a degree as long as you send them money. There were a number of diploma-mill scandals last year at American organizations of all kinds – from school districts to the New York Fire Department, where 14 employees seeking pay raises paid hundreds of dollars for bogus degrees from “St. Regis University.” In fact, if you actually read your email spam, you’re likely to see offers for cheap MBAs amidst the usual discount Viagra ads.
Despite the proliferation of fake degrees, Friesen says online programs don’t raise eyebrows like they used to. After all, many reputable Canadian universities offer distance options.
And for most of the students I interviewed for this article, the pros outweighed the cons, especially the financial benefits. Vancouver’s Sarah Kertcher, an AU business undergrad, is expecting her first child shortly. For her, full-time school is “just not in the cards.” And in several weeks, when her baby arrives, she’ll be able to continue studying. “I know I have high hopes, but when I go on maternity leave I’m hoping I’ll be able to take more courses.”
Likewise, family is the reason Red Deer’s Kenton Biffert is doing his master’s of educational leadership by distance. Well, sort of. His program involves studying with a local cohort of students who meet twice a month. Administered through City University of Seattle but taught by local experts, Biffert’s thesis-based program involves a lot of learning on his own. So while he’s technically a full-time student, his study is largely self-guided and happens after hours, when he’s not working as Red Deer College’s alumni development coordinator. He considered Royal Roads University but didn’t want to leave his kids behind to complete the required residency. “Plus, I didn’t want to do the whole thing online. I felt that having a cohort that you see every month and get to learn from was important as well.”
I’m now several weeks into my Ryerson program. Every Saturday I haul myself out of bed at 7 a.m. to catch up online. There are about 30 people in the course, and posts on our discussion boards are confusing. It’s hard to remember who said what, or who is who. With at least 100 new posts a week, many disconnected from each other, it seems we’re talking over our classmates, not to them. I doubt I’ll remember any of these people when the course is finished and I doubt they’ll remember me.
The most critical thing, however, is that I’ll learn tons. I haven’t read Eats, Shoots & Leaves and miraculously avoided the grammar units in all my English classes. At the time, it seemed a miracle of God. But now I need to hone these skills, and moving up means snagging some real credentials.
The copy editing course I’m now taking – the first of eight courses required for the publishing certificate – will allow me to describe the technical machinations of the English language and to stop editing, ahem, holistically. Through a series of readings, assignments and flexible online exams (my first open-book exam is to be done in one sitting during a three-day window), I’ll probably learn more than I expect. And a students-only job board has already revealed the abundance of openings that I’ll be eligible for (if I chose to leave my self-employed life, that is).
It’s true that there’s no front row in an online class, and it’s sad to admit that I still miss gold stars and happy faces on assignments well done. But I’m more focused on the learning than the grades these days. And now that I’m five years into my career, and must motivate myself, this is undoubtedly a good thing. U
