Online Education. A lot of military folks get online degrees. What are the good and bad experiences you've had with online classes?

Honestly, convenience is the key. Regardless of the MOS, time is critical and if we are committing too much time to something such as school after work then it dissuades us to another school. We MUST be able to accomplish multiple missions at the same time (work, family, school) just like everyone else, however add in CQ/Staff Duty, field time etc. We become experts in juggling. The school must work with us in order to interest/keep our interest.

As a graduate I have to say that online schooling can be much harder than traditional. When you attend a traditional school and sit in class you feel obligated to do the work. When you are at home it takes much more discipline because you have so many other distractions such as children, TV, pets, etc...

The graduation rate is the key. The University of Phoenix's graduation rate is about 20%, which basically means they are recruiting military students for the cash, not to help them get a degree. UofP should be banned from receiving government funding.

What military people need is a way to get an education that fits within their time schedule. It helps if it is self-paced, although some people do need an occasional nudge or they drop out (and if they do, at least that's on them, it's not that the course schedule was deliberately impossible so the school gets the cash and the serviceman gets the shaft.)

Starting out, military people need to be told the truth. College courses, at least those not from degree mills, require 2 hours of self-study for every hour of classroom or online study. Servicemen need to understand that it takes a serious commitment. This isn't like posting on RallyPoint.

While online classes are defiantly user friendly and convenient, I found that I learn better in a classroom, specifically a small one where there is interaction between classmates. I wonder if all this online and lack of interaction between people is becoming detrimental to society. We are becoming more and more detached from interaction. Just my take on it.

I completed my first Master's Degree through an online program while working full time. I loved the program. There were regularly scheduled "lectures" in all the classes where the professor would present the material and be open for questions from any of the students who were able to be online during that particular time slot. These were recorded so anyone could go back and listen/watch the presentations at a later time. The professors were all actually working in the field and served as adjunct professors for the program (Information Technology Management).

The one drawback I found was that the admin folks didn't pay a whole lot of attention to detail. I got a call once when I was about 3/4 done with the program. The "counselor" said "We've noticed that you haven't been logging in to the online lectures and were wondering if you were having trouble with the coursework. We offer additional tutoring to help students understand the material. Are you having an trouble with understanding what's being presented?" My reply, "Umm, I've been working in the field for 10 years and I have a 4.0 in the program to this point" Her reply, "Ohh, OK. (click)." Maybe check a little more into the records before contacting a student to see if they are having problems.

First, before I comment, I have been to online schools and to traditional.
Now, I would say, take into account the accreditation of the school. It MUST be regionally accredited before you should even look at it. I would prefer a mix between traditional and online, preferably one that's on post and still offers some of the class on-line. My master's degree is from Webster. I did two classes from Kandahar and a couple of them on post at Bragg. It's a very reputable school and not a diploma mill. You have to be very careful of diploma mills. You might get their "degree" but wonder why you are losing out on jobs to people with more recognized schools....

I took a combination of online and in person classes to complete my bachelors at a local state university. If a person is smart and hungry for the knowledge they can do very well in many online subjects. I found it helped to do brick and mortar classes for the subjects I had forgotten about in 20 years. For me math and accounting were tough and I needed the personal interaction. Other classes such as ethics, business writing, and organizational management were perfect for an online class.

Another aspect I got out of the traditional schooling was the opportunity to network with civilians. Before finishing my degree, the only thing missing from my connections and LinkedIn profile was a guidon.

After reading a few responses, for me, I preferred on line classes. While it is impersonal, I did not deal with certain types of instructors who have an agenda to push instead of academics.

School work was scripted and compliance was necessary to achieve a passing score. I stayed with the same school through my BSBA to my MBA. My only trouble point was economics and accounting and finance. Although, finance was a little easier, or so it seems.

Online lectures were optional, but if you need to listen to these, they were recorded. I attended very few of these and even less during my masters. The odd thing about that is I graduated with a higher GPA with the Masters, than I did with the BSBA.

Each course was 5.5 weeks long with two classes per quarter. When I hit my doctorate studies; I had four classes in when I completed my Masters. I was scoring high enough to finish with doctorate classes. If I was still active, I would have not had the time to finish even one course. And, during the time I was in service, there were no such thing as an online school. It was either in the classroom, or distant learning; no computers for school work, except for typing papers.

I just finished my MBA with MBA@UNC and their platform - operated by 2U - was fantastic. Some of the best features were the ability to save lectures to view while offline, utilization of adobe connect for classes and group meetings (seeing people face to face enhanced learning), and use of boards for discussions. Honestly the only downside was the incredible amount of bandwidth needed to run the adobe connect class sessions, which could make it hard when traveling since hotel connections usually suck and if you're in the field that week it's impossible to run it off your phone's wifi. I pretty much had agreements with my command to allow me to retreat to civilization for class time, which not every command team will allow. What you really need to consider is that Soldiers find themselves in austere environments even when in garrison for field training. The ability to access content offline is critical with automatic uploading when connected again (so you don't lose work).

Jonathan,

Thanks for asking this question. There are a lot of comments to be made about online degrees, from the absurd such as "I only needed to go to school for 1 year to get my advanced degree" to the traditional problems that arise from "Online For-Profit" schools. Having attended 2 different online colleges as well as worked on promotion packets, OCS packets and general questions about education for years I have seen the major flaws (as well as rare successes) that come from these "institutes of higher education".

The biggest issue with online education is accreditation. I have personally seen people walking in their "degrees" from notorious diploma mills such as University of Phoenix (by far the worst ever), thinking that their degree will get them promoted or was the missing piece of their OCS packets and being told that their degree does not qualify since the accreditation is in question. It is a major issue when it comes to transferring to "legitimate" brick and mortar schools as well.

There is also the predatory enrollment process which these "online" schools attend job hiring fairs trying to lure service members into their programs, when I have personally told these predators that they have no business being at a veteran's job hiring fair if they are not there to hire a person for a job. They regularly use cheap pick up lines such as "do you think you are not getting the job you want because you are lacking a degree? Well here we are and we will take all of your military training credits towards your degree and you can get your program completed in a year or two" I have also personally told these people, so what happens when I get your "degree" and bring it into my resume and/or job application and I do not get hired because your programs are not accredited? I have literally stopped "recruiters" dead in their tracks with that comment.

I do agree that education is important and in very certain circumstances online education can be the missing link to a person getting their degree and potentially a better job or lifestyle, but the reality is this, if you fall into the predatory or for-profit online education arena, there is very little that you as a person can do when it comes to making the online education "business" work.

After being in both the online and brick and mortar school system, I'll gladly take my accredited Associates Degree from my brick and mortar school any day over an online degree with questionable accreditation.