Inside Online Learning

This question is a familiar one in online learning circles and recently caught my attention in a post by Marie-Pierre Renaud, (aka The Geek Anthropologist) in which she provides advice from a current student’s point of view. How do you decide if a graduate degree is right for you? How can you prepare yourself for [...]

If you are considering enrollment in your first online course, you may wonder how it all works. The online learning environment presents a number of challenges to communication and content presentation, all addressed through the use of technology. Your instructors in these courses are charged with a number of tasks – both educational and technological [...]

As the popularity of online learning continues to increase, with more than 6.7 million students in higher education taking at least one online course in 2011, new opportunities are emerging everyday. Some are free to experience while others may involve tuition, registration, or assessment fees. And the offerings extend beyond colleges and universities to include [...]

While researching a previous post for job seekers, I used an online calculator to estimate how my salary compares with that of others who do what I do, in my local area. After entering information about my education, I was prompted to answer an unexpected question: “Did you obtain that degree online?” This definitely got [...]

There’s a lot more to becoming an online student than navigating a virtual course site. Just as you might tour a traditional campus as a prospective student – to visit facilities, meet instructors and administrators, and just get a feel for the place – consider how you might accomplish this with an online school. If [...]

Last week, a prospective student wrote to me asking about how to “earn a degree online as quickly as possible.” While I am not a proponent of program selection based solely on how long it will take to graduate, I do understand that there are situations in which program length can make a big difference. [...]

All students should expect to interact with their classmates and work together on collaborative assignments in their online courses. This was my response when a staff member, working in an ombudsman role to advocate for students, called me with student complaints. At the time, I was working as an instructional designer and responsible for updating [...]

You’ve registered for your first online class … what’s next? Taking an online course may be a way to follow your interests as a lifelong learner or pursue specific career goals. Before you get started, you need to know that you’ll learn a lot more than just what is described in the course catalog. This [...]

Whether you are returning to school after military service or enrolling for the first time with civilian career goals in mind, there’s a lot to figure out before you start your first class. I not only made the transition myself, from active duty to full-time student, but also assisted students in my first-year seminar courses [...]

If you aren’t familiar with online learning, but are considering all of your education options, it’s important to factor in the benefits and challenges as you make decisions about what will help you reach your learning and career goals. Last year I answered the following question on Quora: What are the most challenging aspects of [...]