Posted by: Sarah
on Aug 17, 2011
As many colleges and universities open their doors to a new semester, many potential students may not be attending this year. Tuition rates for many state universities have increased dramatically this past year due to budget cuts, and many students cannot afford the tuition. With these challenges, higher education officials in the state of Washington and other Western states do have an affordable alternative. According to an article in The Columbian, the Western Governors University Washington offers students an affordable online alternative to the traditional state university and other for profit universities.
Posted by: Sarah
on Jul 22, 2011
For many years, students have relied upon various university and college ranking systems to compare the benefits that certain institutions of higher learning possessed. Each year, a new report of traditional colleges comes out to help students in there higher education options. There has not been such a ranking system for online bachelor's programs. According to U.S. News and World Report, they will begin collecting data for a ranking system for online bachelor's programs.
Posted by: Sarah
on Jul 20, 2011
With the popularity of for profit online universities, many human resource staffers have viewed this online degree as a liability for the potential job candidate. Online education, particularly in the post-secondary arena, offers access to the for profit schools as well as the established traditional universities. This has caused human resource staff and other employers to rethink how they view the online degree. According to an article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, employers see the expanding world of online education as beneficial for their companies and employees.
Posted by: Sarah
on Jul 19, 2011
In a recent study conducted in the state of Washington, researchers evaluated the online education courses and the completion rates for Washington's community colleges. The push for community colleges to offer some form of online degree programs and courses has improved enrollment rates; however, researchers also noticed a more alarming trend among those taking online courses. According to an article in Inside Higher Ed, community college students enrolled in online courses had a significantly higher rate of failing courses, leaving the degree program, or not returning the next semester.
Posted by: Sarah
on Jul 6, 2011
Prospective college students have used U.S. News & World Report universities and colleges ranking system to help compare various higher learning institutions. While some colleges do not look favorably on this poll, the ranking system does help students compare their top college choices with other schools around the nation. Until this year, all of the ranking focused on traditional schools, but now the U.S. News & World Report will offer a ranking system for online programs as well. According to an article in The Chronicle for Higher Education, U.S. News & World Report is in the beginning process of ranking online college programs.
Posted by: Sarah
on Jun 22, 2011
Online education draws more students each year through its flexible course schedules, asynchronous format, and cost effectiveness. All of these positive attributions, however, may also indicate the disparity of students entering online degree programs without graduating with a degree. According to the research conducted by Wallace E. Boston and Phil Ice in their journal article Assessing Retention in Online Learning: An Administrative Perspective, Boston and Ice studied a sampling of the undergraduate population at the American Public University System. The purpose of this study was to determine why the attrition rates for online students are higher than traditionally enrolled students and what measures can be taken to address these issues.
Posted by: Sarah
on Jun 2, 2011
From the Fall semester of 2009 to the Fall semester of 2010, students have chosen to enroll in online courses with increasing regularity. Community colleges have noted a significant increase in their online course enrollment and have incorporated cost effect online degree programs to meet the demands. According to an article on Inside Higher Ed, online courses and degree programs are meeting students' needs for a more flexible education option.
Posted by: Jason
on May 3, 2011
Having gone through accreditation and reaccreditation efforts as a university professor, I find them to be stressful, time-consuming, and expensive endeavors. So why should Christian colleges concern themselves with such difficulties? Well, to paraphrase Churchill, accreditation is the worst form of institutional quality control except all those other forms that have been tried.
Posted by: Jason
on May 2, 2011
I had the privilege of celebrating Easter at my sister's Mennonite church. There's something about hymns in four part a capella harmony and informal congregational sharing that reminds me of the value of community in worship. When I returned home, there was an email from a professor at Eastern Mennonite Seminary (which isn't that far away from where I had worshipped) mentioning their online courses. Although they don't offer full degree programs online, they offer more than a dozen online courses in areas of Anabaptist theology, church history, pastoral care, missional church, and leadership.
Posted by: Jason
on May 1, 2011
Despite near uniform opposition from all sectors of higher education, the latest Dear Colleague letters from the Department of Education continue the march toward requiring online learning providers to secure state authorization anywhere they have students.
