I attended a brick and mortar institution well before the internet and online coursework. How do evaluate online schools in the hiring process? It seem many veterans have degrees from these schools. Thanks

A good number of brick and mortar schools have online programs.
Also, they still have to be accredited to have some reputation. But you have to compare the accreditation with several known colleges as some run of the mill schools have banded together to give themselves accreditation.

I would start with verifying the school's programs are recognized and certified by appropriate governing bodies. For example, the American Board of Engineering and Technology certifies engineering and technology programs across the United States. If you went to a non-accredited school for engineering, your chances of getting a Professional Engineer's license are slim to none. I'm sure there are similar organizations for Business, Law, etc., I just don't know what they are.

Here's the link to validate the institution and their programs thru the Dept of Education: Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs

If two folks were close in a hiring or promotion consideration, I gave the brick and mortar folks the edge. I'm a veteran and I did it the brick and mortar way.

I should qualify the above. I'm comparing an online For-Profit degree colleges vs a public or private brick and mortar institutions.

Also, there are many fine online Public/Private College or University programs. It's the For-Profit schools I have a concern about.

Online programs from nationally accredited and ranked schools are fine - IU Kelley Direct, Duke, and various others. The programs are actually better than in-person if you are looking for someone that can lead teams and get things done globally without having to have everyone in the same place.

For profit - University of Phoenix and the like are worthless.

Regionally accredited - Depends, but I would not consider them any better than their in-person programs.

If Covid has proven anything, it is that online "learning" is as weak and ineffective as I have always claimed that it is.

There is something about sitting in a classroom that cannot be replicated on a laptop screen.

Having said that, there are certain "fluff" classes that could be taken online like the ones many of us CLEPped, and perhaps certain disciplines that might be OK to do that way, but IMO, there is no equivalent to parking your ass in a classroom.

Were I to choose between two candidates, one with a real degree and one with a mail-order degree? No contest.

Online classes are the same as in person education, sans the social beer parties and fraternity paddles.

"Evaluate" a degree the same as one earned in residence. A degree from an accredited institution is a degree by an accredited institution, regardless.

Same instructors. Same texts. Same assignments. Same grading. Same accreditation. Same institution. Same degree. Same consideration.

If anything, a student who can manage a job and career, family and daily demands and still accomplish a degree online shows initiative, discipline, and effort above and beyond that necessary in residence.

An online degree from an accredited institution is not a "mail-order degree." It's the same damn degree one would earn from that institution when attending in person.

This is an accredited institution that takes your work, or credentials and may award credit towards a degree. I've know many folks who have used them to convert pilot training into credits towards a degree.

https://www.tesu.edu/

They are legit, as are the degrees they award.

You can use online classes to help accomplish this endeavor.

I've been to the traditional university, and I've done the online non-profit, regionally accredited school.

Online was by far the better experience. I learned much more online since I had to learn it myself. I hated the majority of my in person state university experience, mostly due to how many horribly bad instructors were.

And from a hiring point of view, someone who did well in online schools are going to be much more self motivated in general, since they alone were responsible for getting their work done on time.

For an 18-22 year old, maybe I would give a little more weight to in person, but for anyone not getting their degree right after high school, who instead were military, working, etc., online is the way to go.

I am currently working on my degree online. I cannot compare it to in-person but it's certainly not a walk in the park. Quite honestly with work and a family, I would not have done brick and mortar. Not judging anyone that has, I simply do not have time for anything else.

I did my engineering undergrad in person at U of IL Urbana.

I did my MBA online at Indiana U - Kelley School. At Kelley, the online, night school, and full time MBA programs are equivalent, and you can transfer between them if needed. Same professors, books, and everything.

Compare the costs - working full time and doing on online masters you can get tuition reimbursement from your employer that covers a decent amount of the total cost. Go full time and you give up your job, tuition reimbursement, and pay the tuition and living expenses with loans. Total opportunity cost if you had a good job already? $200K-300K, vs 10% of that in tuition you have to cover on your own.

But anyway, it's the school and the program, not the delivery system.

We had a guy who we laughingly called the “doctor sergeant” (he had a doctors degree) because he “earned” his degree from the university of phoenix …he couldn’t confer a cogent sentence or thought without getting side tracked on something.

I took college at the age of 30-ish…mostly at a physical school and some online classes…the online classes were far more difficult as each teacher made you read more and write papers each week…it was not a state run school. I feel I got a lot out of my education. But I’ve met plenty of dummies who just showed up for class and were passed.

I’d just weigh the information you can gather from someone during a conversation about the subject and go from there…

Some schools are better than others….but a degree from UofPhoneix is a no go at this station

If I did half of my classes online and half of them “ass in the seat” is it an online degree? How about 90% online? Or 10%?

How do we feel about the whole junior-college-transferring-to-a-university thing? Or having just the minimum “in residence” credits at a more subjectively prestigious school to graduate from there, but the bulk of the coursework came from lower-tier institutions?

What if it’s a “a-i-s” class but a bunch of the work is submitted via Canvas or Blackboard and virtually all of the teaching aids are online?

Is it just about measurements/outcomes? Suppose I “take” a class in a 100-seat section, show up for the first two meetings (so I don’t get dropped), show up for the midterm, show up for the final, but skip every other session… and still pass with a B? I demonstrated the same mastery of the subject as people who faithfully attended every session for that “in the seat” experience… actually, according to the grade distribution, “mastered” it better than half of the class (OK, stolen from real life… that was my SOC201 at a large brick & mortar school.)

Things are really muddled these days. At the poles, there are discliplines/professions that REALLY need the personal instruction and contact (no, I’m not preferentially using a physician who’s only done “virtual” dissections, patient assessments, etc) and ones where it’s REALLY not necessary (Writing degree, anyone?) But there are few studies that support the idea that across the board, in-person instruction provides superior learning outcomes. Predictably, the studies that do tend to almost drip with bias (because “the academy” is ultra-heavily-invested in the idea that true learning can only occur as a full-time student taking in-person classes from tenured professors or their carefully supervised teaching assistants.)

Take engineering and hard sciences out of the equation, and then wander the campuses of better than 90% of the traditional schools in the USA. Then get back to me about the inherent and intangible benefits of sitting on one for four years. I’m sure there are outliers at either end, but I suspect that for most students the outcomes will not be terribly different when measured against their peers in distance programs.

As for utility in a hiring context, I’ve done all four of my examples and a hiring official, without asking very pointed questions, will never know which is which.

Anyone nowadays who pays state college prices for the first two years is a dumbass. If one isn't on 100% scholarship, save tons of money going to community College and then transferring. Nobody knows where your Associates came from nor does it matter.

Mine was free,I think we paid 3-5k$ total for my ex's associates before she transferred.

There are a very small percentage of jobs that require your degree to be from a prestigious school. And I don't wanna work for any of them, feel bad for the person that insults my intelligence because my degree theoretically came from online.

You evaluate the candidate not the school. Ask them what they did and why they did it.

Otto is spot-on. Attend an accredited Community or Junior College (either on-line or in-person) and then transfer to a 4-year institution.

My daughter is doing this right now and we are saving 18K year. (36K total) All her projected classes are approved for transfer by both 4-year Universities she will be potentially transferring to. Her classes are hybrid. (50% on-line and 50% lecture in class).

quote:

Originally posted by jcsabolt2:
I would start with verifying the school's programs are recognized and certified by appropriate governing bodies. For example, the American Board of Engineering and Technology certifies engineering and technology programs across the United States. If you went to a non-accredited school for engineering, your chances of getting a Professional Engineer's license are slim to none. I'm sure there are similar organizations for Business, Law, etc., I just don't know what they are.

Here's the link to validate the institution and their programs thru the Dept of Education: Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs

Another thing to be watchful of (and you may have to dig this out of the website) but our residential undergrad program is ABET certified but NOT the online program.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
You evaluate the candidate not the school. Ask them what they did and why they did it.

Absolutely. The last guy I fired for incompetence had a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Duke and a Master's from Stanford.

And he was a blonde haired, blue eyed all American boy who knew next to nothing about Mechanical Engineering.

It's not the school, it's the student.

Done online from a brick and mortar school, it requires the same academics as going in person.

Those schools that cater towards military such as Kaplan (now Purdue Global), Excelsior, Liberty and American Military University seem kind of shady.

Some of them give out credit for getting through AIT or some other forms of training. If you've ever been through military classes/training, you know most are "everyone passes." At least it's like that in the Army with many schools.

I knew a guy who went to Kaplan and finished some sort of degree there. They get bought out by Purdue (the real Purdue in Indiana), they call it Purdue Global, but he has a real Purdue sticker on his car. If that's not false advertising, I don't know what is.

I went to real schools myself but I'm wondering how much someone can really learn from those military centric schools.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
If Covid has proven anything, it is that online "learning" is as weak and ineffective...

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
Online classes are the same as in person education...

I recently watched five college girls take a test. It was one girl's test, but there were five of them in the room all collaborating on the answers.