Instruction via the Internet

By Nate Legue

BusinessRockford.com

When Jeremy Brown decided to pursue a master’s degree to advance his social service career, he headed back to his alma mater — through cyberspace.

The Rockton resident didn’t have to set foot in a classroom at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to earn his hood. Instead, he spent three years taking classes online, querying his professors with instant messages, comparing notes in virtual chat rooms and submitting assignments over the Internet.

“It was great in the sense that you could work on it any time of night,” Brown said. “There were nights that after I was done putting the kids to bed at 8 o’clock, I was up until 1 (a.m.) working. I’d go to work the next day, and I could knock out a question or two over the lunch hour. The biggest thing that sold me on it was the convenience.”

The number of college students taking at least one online course more than doubled between 2002 and 2006, according to The Sloan Consortium, an association of schools promoting online education.

And growing support from employers as well as approval from educational accrediting bodies is changing the public’s perception of online schools — from diploma mills of questionable authenticity to bona fide institutions of higher learning. And the gradual acceptance of online degrees is spurring professionals to pursue advanced degrees in business, education and other fields.

Brown earned his graduate degree in criminal justice; he now works as a juvenile probation supervisor for Rock County, Wis. He started working on it in 2005 when he was a program manager at a family crisis center in Rockford. His then-employer, Children’s Home and Aid, supported his education and helped pay for a small portion of it, he said.

“The basis was that I would hopefully be promoted and be able to move up,” Brown said.

Like Brown, the majority of students seeking advanced degrees online are doing it while working, taking advantage of employer tuition reimbursements and the convenience of the flexible study schedule.

Employer blessing
Nearly all supervisors held favorable views of distance learning after their employees earned degrees, according to a 2006 survey by an industry trade group. Eighty-five percent of supervisors surveyed rated degrees earned online or through correspondence “just as valuable” as a traditional diploma, according to the Distance Education and Training Council.

And Walden University, an exclusively online degree-granting college, works with about 250 employers who reimburse their workers for advancing their education from their home computers.

Even local educational institutions are taking notice of the growing acceptance of online courses. Rock Valley College already has many classes available over the Internet, and plans to offer its business administration associate degree entirely through online classes. The college and United Parcel Service of America Inc. are developing an online degree for the delivery giant’s employees as part of a pilot program, said Greg Wear, dean of career programs. Rock Valley intends to seek full approval from the state before launching the full-fledged Web-based degree.

The college conducted a survey of the UPS work force to gauge interest in online courses and will offer two classes to employees this fall, Wear said. UPS grants tuition reimbursements to its employees.

“Over 500 workers said they were interested, which certainly got my attention,” Wear said.

Bricks, mortar crumbling?
But the virtual chat room isn’t about to replace the university classroom, said Paul Prabhaker, associate dean of the Northern Illinois University College of Business.

The college has experimented with delivering its content online but found that most of its students still prefer a face-to-face atmosphere, he said.

“We’re creating a world that users can come in to,” Prabhaker said. “Many of our students are in their 30s and 40s with young families, careers, responsibilities. For them, this is the time when they can leave everything behind. That’s not a trivial point ... Increasingly, I’m finding that we’re creating a social experience, not just delivering content.”

While students want the knowledge a diploma brings, they’re also buying a “brand” when they pay tuition, so for some students an online degree isn’t satisfying, Prabhaker said. There may be something to that. While online courses in two-year and postgraduate programs are proliferating, baccalaureate education largely remains within the boundaries of traditional bricks-and-mortar universities. Fewer than 5 percent of students taking online courses are in bachelor’s degree programs, according to the Sloan Consortium study.

But virtual universities counter that their flexibility expands educational access to students who would not have attended college. They also can offer an experience unavailable at traditional land-based schools, said Ivonne Chirino-Klevans, director of international programs at Walden University. The 38-year-old Baltimore-based school boasts 28,000 online students, including 1,600 who log in from more than 70 foreign countries.

“They get a different experience from being online,” Chirino-Klevans said. “Organizations that want to be more ahead of the game, they are becoming global. And (a student) can have exchange of experiences across the globe.”

Virtual limits
Most online courses include some kind of face-to-face component. Even Walden’s programs often include residencies, essentially one- or two-week immersion classes once a year for disciplines like psychology that require interaction.

Those courses are brutal, said Kim Maxwell, a human resources generalist who earned her master’s degree in business administration through Concordia University in 2004. She squeezed 16 weeks worth of credit hours into a single week for a capstone course at the Mequon, Wis., campus.

For all the convenience online degrees offer working professionals, they still can be rigorous. A graduate program is a graduate program, after all.

“It takes a certain type of person to do a degree online because it’s almost self-taught,” Maxwell said. “I think doing the online program forces people to take the initiative or motivation to use personal experience to advance their learning.”

Staff writer Nate Legue may be reached at 815-987-1346 or nlegue@rrstar.com.

How to do tuition assistance
Nearly every Fortune 1000 company offers a tuition assistance program in some form. E. Faith Ivery, who has a doctorate in education, runs a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based firm that advises companies on how to administer their tuition assistance and helps employees select college programs. Ivery spoke to BusinessRockford.com over the phone from Educational Advisory Services office:

Why should employers offer tuition assistance? Because there’s a shortage of qualified workers. Baby boomers will be retiring, and college enrollments in some disciplines like engineering are down, she said. “It’s not a cost to the company, it’s an investment.”

How should tuition assistance be implemented? “Administer it as an education program, not a benefit,” she said. Placing it among perks like health insurance, vacation days and 401(k) accounts means the company does little more than make sure the proper forms are filled out, she said. “The first thing we ask is, what do you want this to do for you?” By treating tuition assistance as training, the company will take a more active role.

College is expensive. How do you control the costs? By offering the employee more guidance in choosing an educational program. That can be a database of programs or a third-party assessment of the employee’s educational needs. “Tuition aid policies should be revised every two years, and they should be tailored to the business needs of the company.”

How do you keep employees from leaving the company after they’ve completed their degree? Threatening to require repayment of the tuition is wrongheaded, Ivery said. “That’s ridiculous because any company that wants your employee will pay that off as part of their signing bonus.” Instead, employers should offer positive reinforcements such as stock options, promotions and recognition.