1. Access to Material: All online degree course material is instantly accessible online 24 7 via the online learning platform.
2. Self-Directed: You set your own pace and schedule, so you control the learning environment and how you study.
3. Accessibility: With an online degree course, students can study from any location work, home or on the move.
4. No Travel: Because our degree course is entirely online you do not incur the cost of time and money travelling to a campus based environment.
5. Flexibility: Our e-learning platforms allows you to easily balance the demands of your work with the your study commitments giving you instance access when and where ever you want.
6. Value for money: Our online degree courses are typically more affordable than traditional courses – all books and materials are included within the cost easily accessible online.
7. Rich Learning Experience: Our e-learning platform provides for a rich learning environment utilising the latest internet technology and features. This enable us to meet the diverse needs of our students and communicate material in wide range of formats.
8. Work with fellow students: Chat rooms, discussion boards and seminars enable you to interact with other students, build networks and benefit from each others’ work experiences.
9. Regular start dates: You never have to wait more than six weeks to start a course.
10. Supportive environment: Tutors and Academic Advisers are accessible through telephone, email and instant messaging during and outside normal working hours.
Find out more about distance learning at kaplanopenlearning.org.uk
10 benefits of studying for an online degree course
How to use the Internet to help you study
Discipline. Studying requires immense discipline, which should come naturally, once you’ve made an inroad; it requires commitment to stay on that road. This rule should apply in the library, at home with your textbooks, and on the web.
Unfortunately I’ve discovered distraction can happen without you knowing. On the internet, as part of a distance learning course, I once set out to get a simple set of statistics on employment change in my local area but somehow managed to spend two hours reading about the history narrow gauge railways in North Wales. How? Why?
Never mind. The same thing happens in the library, you just need to walk straight past the newspaper and CD sections, look straight ahead, straight to the non-fiction, find your book, sit down, read it, and learn the stuff!
Guidance is more important than you’d think if you’d never considered the Internet as a functional and viable studying tool. Simply typing in words relevant to your subject might not necessarily yield the most useful information.
I just started out with distance learning, and although the syllabus, tutorials and classes are conducted via the Internet, research is primarily through this means. The guidance and suggestions from my tutor are crucial for using the Internet to help you study.
There are a range of management papers and reference materials available in easy to use formats such as PDF documents. Knowing how to find them and make the time you spend researching online is a skill in itself. Some you can learn as you go along, the more familiar you become with following links, straightforward web searches, and searching within specialist web sites.
The Internet is a great way to help you study, and familiarity with search engine techniques means you can go straight to the information you need. Cross-referencing is easy too, because searches will often yield multiple sources. For important statistical information, it’s best to use bona fide governmental or academic resources online. You’ll quickly learn what types of sources you can rely on, take with a pinch of salt, or dismiss, and importantly, without decisions taking you too much time!
If you’re going to take a business degree online, or any online degree that can be done suitably via a range of web based teaching tools and learning methods then you’ll find studying on the Internet to be a brilliantly convenient way to get the information you need. Plus there is a range of ways to get in touch with your tutor or communicate with fellow students – email, forums, web chats, web video links etc. Communication over the Internet is cheap, easy and quick, and ideal for studying.
Of course, using time efficiently, especially when researching, is the key. There’s no point just going online and wandering around web sites idly hoping you’re going to get the information you need. By focusing your efforts on what you’re looking for, understanding what it is you’re looking for, the Internet will be an indispensable tool for studying.
By Sarah Maple
The Top 5 Songs About Education
The subject of school has been a big theme for pop songs since Chuck Berry goose-stepped his way through School Days (Ring Ring Goes The Bell) in 1957. However, it seems that the seventies heralded a certain golden age of school-related songs, despite it being something of a pop void to many music fans. What makes these songs so memorable? And what does the lack of quality edu-odes today say about education in the noughties?
5: Rock 'n' Roll High School - Ramones. "I don't care about history, 'cos that's not where I wanna be!" Although not often regarded as a Ramones classic, this 1979 soundtrack number to the movie of the same name stands proud as a thumping sing-along at a time when the band was spending a lot of time exploring new pop directions, and finally getting some chart recognition. It's funny how at no point during my life of education, even beyond university, I've never actually seen a student cruise around in a GTO.
4: When I Kissed The Teacher - ABBA. "Leaning over me, he was trying to explain the laws of geometry, and I couldn't help it, I just had to kiss the teacher!" This cringe-worthy and decisively un-pc representation of teacher/student relations is the opener to the Swedish quartet's fourth album, Arrival. Aside from the story video acted by the band, the most disturbing aspect of the song is the teacher's response to Agnetha's affections. Simply put: he likes it.
3: Baggy Trousers - Madness. "All I learnt at school, was how to bend not break the rules." Yes, I know that this song is from 1980 but so what. How could anyone ignore this cheeky celebration of schoolyard vandalism and nostalgic pranks. Whatever happened to getting the cane? And to be fair, you're likely to receive an ASBO for pulling someone's hair today. Make me young.
2: Another Brick In The Wall - Pink Floyd. "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control." It all seems to get a bit gloomy and serious by the time The Floyd get involved. Still, Waters' tune and the accompanying animation and movie turned this into some kind of prog anthem for doomed youth. The innocent fondness, of which we are used to, is replaced by a strange haunting choir - and all of a sudden there's a reason to repel education beyond the juvenile need of 'getting kicks'.
1: School's Out - Alice Cooper. "Well we got no class, and we got no principles, and we got no intelligence, we can't even think of a word that rhymes." Here's a little post-modern excerpt about Cooper's acceptance of his lacking in ability to rhyme. But he just don't care! There's just something eternally visceral about that feeling of leaving school behind, and it's a tune to boot; it's also funny that he was 24 and four albums into his career when this song was released!
I accept that there are countless others from this era. But how many can you name from the last ten years? Not that many I reckon. And why? Well, it would seem that in this age of home teaching and a more varied school curriculum, there simply may well be less to complain about today. For the sake of pop music, that could well be a shame.
Rise of Online Universities Continues in Recession
As High School seniors scramble to complete college applications stories abound about rising tuition costs and shrinking endowments. I wondered if online universities might be benefiting from the recession. Visits to online universities are up 43% year over year compared to a 22% decline in visits to the Education - Institutions category as a whole. The data for online universities is based on a custom category of the 20 top online universities (based on website visits last week).
The top ranked Education Institutions are Online Universities. One of the University of Phoenix websites has ranked #1 for the past three years. This remains unchanged.
But University of Phoenix is not the only online university seeing strong growth. In fact, 16 of the top 20 online universities have seen visits increase over the past year. And all of the top 10 online universities have seen an increase in visits in the past year.
Using our soon to be released upgrade to the Hitwise Demographic and Lifestyle tool, I found that online universities appeal more to lower income segments, in particular those earning a household income of less than $30,000 a year.
In thinking about how online universities will weather the recession, it is important to keep in mind that lower income groups will be hardest hit by the recession. But, at the same time, those looking for lower cost options for education may turn to online universities.
From weblogs.hitwise.com
How to Be Successful in an Online Degree Program
Online Classes Are Not for Everyone
Online college programs for bachelor and masters degrees are popping up all over the place. Once reserved for more technical and business-oriented colleges, online college-degree programs are now available at most major universities. Despite the accessibility, online classes are not for everyone. In fact, the success rate in online degree programs is much worse than in traditional college classes. Here are some tips for finding success in an online college-degree program.
Set Aside Time. Online classes rarely require you to be anywhere at any particular time. While this is great for busy parents and working professionals, it also requires the college student to be very self-motivated. Before starting any online degree program set aside a few hours each week (at least three hours per class) to specifically work on your online class work. If you just decide to work whenever you feel like it, you may find yourself falling behind very quickly in your online classes.
Work ahead. Many online classes will provide a syllabus with due dates for the entire semester at the beginning of the class. This great feature of an online degree program allows you to work ahead. Every college student starts to get a little burned out near the end of the semester. Working ahead in your online classes will allow you to stay on top of your college coursework and finish ahead of time, before you really get burned out. Also, stay ahead with discussion board topics and forums which are an integral part of most online classes.
Brush up on your computer skills. If you aren't proficient in basic computer programs, make sure you brush up on your skills before starting any online degree program. Just about any online degree program will require proficient use of Microsoft programs including Word, Publisher, and Powerpoint. You may also be required to know additional software for specific online courses. Make sure you feel comfortable with these computer programs before starting an online degree program.
By E Harmon via Associatedcontent