Truth About Distance Education Misinformation
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Listening to Distance Learning Myths
Jan 28, 2009
Distance education or distance learning has had a bad rap for many years, primarily because distance education was not part of main stream higher education in the past. Today almost every technical school, community/junior college, four year college, and university has fully embraced distance education. This has lead to degrees earned through distance education becoming readily accepted by most organizations and businesses.
Even though distance education is main stream, there are still educational institutions and organizations on the Internet that are considered diploma mills. "Avoiding Diploma Mills" provides a guide to the typical characteristics of organizations that do not provide a quality education organizations and employers seek in new and current employees.
Myths about Distance Education
Even with the main stream acceptance of distance education, there is still a lot of inaccurate information being circulated by people who have suffered bad experiences at some Internet sources. This inaccurate information persists because of diploma mills. Spending time researching potential distance education programs will weed out diploma mills. The "Advantages of Distance Education" provides support for reasons why the following myths are incorrect.
The quality of distance education is not as good as traditional education.
- Quality distance education programs are just as good as attending traditional classroom instruction. Distance education programs provide opportunities for students to interact with follow students and instructors using multimedia programs. Students learn to work collaboratively online with people they may never see, build online portfolios of their work, learn to use the latest technologies in their careers, and more.
Employers will not accept an online degree.
- As long as the degree is earned from a fully accredited school, then an employer will accept the degree. Typically, accredited school transcripts do not state that courses were taken online. However, employers will not accept a degree earned from a diploma mill.
Credits earned through distance education do not transfer.
- As long as credits are earned from a legitimately accredited school, they will transfer to other colleges and universities. The only limitation a person may encounter is the number of transferable credits for a program they are applying to in a new college, due to program limitations.
Accreditation always means that a school provides a good education.
- This is not always true, because diploma mills claim to be accredited. Avoiding diploma mills is best accomplished by checking the legitimacy of their accreditation organizations. Also, even enrolling in a legitimately accredited school does not mean a good education. "Online Education Learning Strategies" provide proven methods for ensuring a school offers a good education.
Distance education schools offer a faster and easier path to a degree.
- Legitimate distance education programs do not take short cuts in time and quality of education. However, diploma mills use this claim as a method for hooking people into their programs. The advantage of distance education is the flexibility to complete a college or advanced degree based on anyone’s schedule and situation. Legitimate distance education programs are easier or harder strictly based on the school offering the program.
The important points to remember when enrolling in any distance education program are to: research the quality of the program, verify their accreditation credentials, if in doubt about a program or school check with human resources for acceptance, and ensure the program meets short and long term educational goals. Many myths circulate about distance education and most are untrue. Do your homework before enrolling in a distance education program to be safe.
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