Not all online college courses and web-based education programs are the same. Some use different tools and methods than others, and even those that use the same ones often do so in different ways. So once you’ve decided to study online, how do you determine which type of distance learning is right for you?
Continue reading How to Choose the Right Type of Online Education to learn about the different methods used in online learning and understand which is best for your situation. Read more now.
Thanks to medical advances and better awareness, children with disabilities are being diagnosed earlier and placed in educational programs that can maximize their potential. This has led to a greater demand for special needs teachers; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment in the field to grow by 17% through 2018.
But how do you know if special education is the career for you? Here a five characteristics shared by almost all teachers who are successful in this field:
1. Certification. All 50 states and the District of Columbia require teaching certificates – attained by earning a bachelor’s degree in education and successfully passing the state’s teaching exam – to enter the field of special education. Most also insist on additional training geared toward instructing special needs children. Exactly what type of advanced education is necessary for licensure varies from state to state; some require certificate courses that take less than a year to complete, while others insist on a master's in special education that can take over two.
2. Patience. Many special needs children can learn at a normal pace – some even faster. However, those with certain disabilities can have a much harder time, taking weeks or months to master even simple tasks. Other special needs students have emotional problems that make learning difficult not only for themselves, but for others around them as well. Vast patience is essential for special education teachers when working with such students.
3. Stress management. Long workdays, near-constant administrative duties and students who can be extremely difficult on a daily basis make special education a challenging career. In order to be successful at it, you must be able to handle high stress levels and find ways to manage the personal and professional struggles that come with working in this field.
4. Commitment. Obviously, being a special needs teacher is not an easy job. And unfortunately, many positions in this field don’t pay as well as they should. In order to find lasting success in special education, you must be committed to the profession. Helping special needs children learn should be a reward for you in and of itself. If not, the financial compensation alone can seem insufficient considering the stress and difficulty inherent to the career.
5. Interpersonal skills. Special needs children often have a wide range of people working on their behalf. These can include parents, foster parents, other relatives or caregivers, state agencies, doctors, psychologists, social workers and more. You should be able to establish positive relationships with all such individuals and work closely with them to maximize your student’s learning potential.
More people than ever are taking online classes. A 2009 report by the Sloan Consortium indicates that over 4.6 million students took at least one online course in 2008 – a 17% increase over the year before. That greatly exceeds the 1.2% growth rate of the overall college student population*.
And yet rumors about distance learning – many of them quite negative – abound. So here are the top five myths about earning an online bachelor’s degree – busted!
1. Online bachelor’s degree programs aren’t accredited. There are certainly some distance learning programs that lack accreditation, so the first thing you need to know about any online school you’re considering is whether or not it is certified by one of the six national U.S. accrediting bodies. This is called regional accreditation, and it’s the highest form of accreditation a college or university can posses. Many online schools are regionally accredited, especially those associated with traditional brick-and-mortar institutions. Just make sure the one you select is among them.
2. Credits earned online won’t transfer to a campus-based program. One of the main reasons to choose an accredited online bachelor’s degree program is to make sure you can transfer your credits if necessary. One accredited school will typically accept credits from another – up to a point. Each institution sets its own limits on transfer credits; some accept an unlimited amount, but many set a maximum. Regardless, credits earned from an accredited online school should transfer just as well as those from an accredited on-campus school.
3. Employers don’t recognize online bachelor’s degrees. This particular myth held some truth at one time, but no longer. An Excelsior College/Zogby International survey released in 2008 found that 83% of CEOs and small business owners who were familiar with distance learning strongly agreed that a degree earned online was just as credible as one earned through a traditional campus-based program**. Once again, accreditation is the key; if your online bachelor’s degree comes from an accredited institution, a significant majority of employers will accept it.
4. Online courses are less challenging. This is simply not true. Accredited distance learning institutions offer a wide variety of undergraduate programs - including bachelor's degrees in healthcare administration, BS degree's in software engineering and online degree's in web development - that require discipline and hard work. You will be expected to keep up with the same course material as students who attend on-campus classes, and you must do so without constant reminders from an instructor. Online education provides a great deal of flexibility in when and where your do your coursework, but it places the responsibility for success squarely upon your shoulders.
5. Online students can’t interact with their instructors or peers. Also patently false. At minimum, you will engage your instructors and advisors through email. But more often than not, online education involves participation in chat rooms, group projects and Internet forums. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software such as Skype and Ventrilo is also frequently used, allowing real-time voice communication over the Web. Today, most distance learning programs do not merely encourage interaction – they require it.
*Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009
**Online Degrees Earn Wider Acceptance in the Business World, Excelsior College 2008
Completing your first two years of school at a community college is a sound financial decision. The College Board notes in a recent article that in-state students can expect their public two-year college to cost about $2,544 per year in tuition and fees, compared to $7,020 at a public four-year college*. That’s an impressive savings that eliminates a lot of potential debt.
However, you might worry about having to transfer your credits when you’re ready to continue working on your on-campus or online bachelor's degree at a four-year school. Thankfully, the process is now fairly straightforward. Here are some tips on how to make transferring your credits to a bachelor’s program go smoothly:
1. Make sure the community college you attend is regionally accredited. Regional accreditation – the highest form of accreditation in the country – is vitally important. Colleges and universities that are certified by one of the six regional U.S. accrediting agencies meet rigorous Department of Education standards, and credits earned at one such school can usually be transferred to another. On the other hand, most regionally accredited on-campus and online bachelor’s programs will not accept transfer credits from a non-accredited college.
2. See if your community college cooperates with any four-year institutions. Many community colleges are closely associated with nearby public four-year colleges, and might have established articulation agreements with them. Such agreements guarantee that most or all of the credits earned at the community college will transfer to the four-year college, and also make transferring credits between the two schools much faster and easier. If at all possible, choose a community college that has an articulation agreement with a four-year school that a) offers the on-campus or online bachelor’s program you want to pursue, and b) you are actually interested in transferring to.
3. Meet advisors and admissions officers from several colleges. Once you know which four-year schools you’re interested in attending, contact an advisor at each of them and set up a meeting (phone meetings are acceptable when necessary, but face-to-face is much better). These advisors will be able to tell you what requirements their school places on transfer students, such as a minimum GPA or standardized test score. They should also be able to tell you about their institution’s bachelor’s programs – or direct you to those who can – so that you’ll be able to choose the one that’s best for you.
4. Explore online bachelor’s degree program options. For many students – especially adults with work and/or family responsibilities – an online bachelor’s program offers the combination of affordability and flexibility they need. Such programs are usually less expensive than their on-campus counterparts and can be adapted to fit almost any schedule. To make sure you choose a legitimate online bachelor’s program that will provide you with the degree you need, learn these nine essential tips for students taking online courses.
*What It Costs to Go to College, The College Board (Accessed September 2010)
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