What is online college like?
Many of the folks here have spoken to the upsides of online college, and warned of the downfalls of unaccredited schools (which is an unfortunately common predatory practice). One easy way to work with that is to take online classes from a school which also has a physical presence. While there are a lot of models of online college, ranging from MOOCs to going nuts on Kahn Academy, there is also a steady movement toward accredited brick and mortar institutions offering online options.From an online teacher's perspective here are some thoughts:While recorded lecture is very common, most successful online teachers at my institution have other kinds of interactive activities ranging from forum participation to chat-room sessions and online resource exploration (things like virtual blackboards for showing equations and answering questions). While there is a lot of independent work, there is often some kind of effort made to take advantage of the knowledge of the group as a whole. It's important to note that while many online classes are largely self-paced, they also take place within the framework of the academic quarter/semester. This means that there are often due dates, and there is practical time limit related to the end of the grading session. I have seen far too many students fail because they waited until the last week (of eleven) to access the course, figuring that they could just power through.Speaking of, students need to be aware that time management is a much bigger concern in an accredited online college course. Perhaps the biggest benefit to face to face classes is that most students tend to pace themselves with the rest of the class and issues themselves workload corrections based on what they see others doing. If they aren't seeing what others are doing, most of that social pressure is going to disappear. It's not a guarantee, but it's something to be aware of. A student should ask themselves if they do their homework because it needs to be done, or because their friends are doing it.It's also important to reach out to your instructor, especially because it doesn't happen as automatically in an online course as it does in a face to face course.
Why is online college so expensive?
In the US, online courses are seen, by many colleges, as money makers. While at many colleges, the cost of your tuition does not *nearly* cover the actual cost of providing you with that education, with online classes, they often charge you the real rate - the full cost. In addition, as others said, many online programs are run by for-profit companies, not by traditional, non-profit universities. Thus they must make a profit for their stakeholders. To your last point - why is higher ed in the US so much more expensive than in many foreign countries? In many foreign countries, their government provides a significantly higher level of funding to their unis than our gov't does in the US. In some countries, university is actually free, because the cost of that education is paid by the gov't, via taxes on the populace of the country. In the US, we don't provide much funding to our universities, compared with what goes on in other countries. THAT'S why our unis are so much more expensive.
Has anyone heard about Empire State College ?
Anyone who has experience with Empire State College, please give me some information and advice. Is it good school ???????? I am planning on attending the online program. But I am worry that I won't get a good job because of online degree. Any advice or experience would be very much appreciated. Thank you very much.