How My Dog Earned His Degree Online

Today’s guest post is by Vicky Phillips, CEO and Founder of GetEducated.com.  She shares with you today a cautionary tale about diploma mills and how not to get stung by one.  As always, remember that the information you find on collegechoicesforadults.org is from institutions accredited by accrediting bodies recognized by the US Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

My dog is special.  He has a college degree. A graduate degree that he earned online.

I wish the little pooch had buckled down and earned his paper pedigree the old fashioned way, by taking a bite out of some thick juicy textbooks, but alas, my pug gave in to temptation and bought his college diploma cheap at a degree mill site.

Poor Chester the Pug, he fell for one of those flashy online ads that promised him an “affordable online degree fast,” based on a review of his life experience.

Chester faxed in a copy of his resume — which truthfully declared he had substantial life experience in food tasting and bowl licking –  to an online school named Rochville University.  Ten days later, he received an express mail packet of college credentials from Dubai.

Chester Ludlow, MBA dog

Total cost of his online MBA degree $499.

Rochville University kept its word.  My dog had an instant, fast degree. It was also a very cheap degree, considering the average real online MBA degree program costs close to $25,000 for tuition and fees.  The instant degree package sent to my dog contained a gold-embossed MBA diploma, two sets of college transcripts with decent grades, a certificate of distinction in finance — apparently my little pug is especially gifted in corporate number-crunching — and a student council certificate of participation. Also included were official signed letters from Rochville University officials and faculty that Chester was instructed to use to impress potential new employers.

The highly embossed “college” paperwork says my smart little pooch graduated with a GPA of 3.19 (for an additional $100, he could have graduated with honors).

Chester also also received a flashy Rochville University window decal for his car (though we are at present refusing to let him drive).

Rochville University is one of scores of online universities operating from foreign post office boxes that advertise cheap, fast degrees online for one flat fee. The university advertises (truthfully) as being “fully accredited.”

The trick is that they are accredited by the “Board of Online Universities Accreditation” and the “Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation.”  The scam lies in the fact that neither of these agencies is recognized as a college accreditor by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council of Higher Education Accreditation. In fact there are more than 30 fake online college accreditation mills, that attest to the “authenticity” of bought diplomas and transcripts from more than 300 reputed diploma mills.

Chester’s tail — er, tale? — should alert everywhere to the dangers of falling for high pressure ads from fly by night colleges that only exist in the form of web page pixels.

All degree mills are accredited — but by fake agencies. Believe it or not, degree mills create fake accrediting agencies so they can say, “yes, we are indeed accredited.”  They rely on consumer ignorance about accreditation to keep them safe. Since few people other than higher ed nerds know the names of real college accreditation agencies the scam often works.

Want to ensure your fellow online students aren’t real dogs?
Make sure your online college is properly accredited by a recognized agency.

To help combat degree mill fraud, Chester is now a watchdog for the free consumer protection service, The Diploma Mill Police,
This free service will help you verify the accreditation status of any online college.

If that “fast” online degree smells too good to be true it probably is.
Be safe. Get Educated before you enroll.

What’s up with rankings?

Americans like to rank.  The “best” cheeseburgers, “best” coffee, “best” nail salon, “best” dog groomer, and yes, the “best” college.  If there’s a market for it, there’s probably a ranking for it out there somewhere.  But really what does the “best” mean?  What criteria are used to judge which is the “best” and what level of personal taste goes into calling something the best?

Photo by Lantente http://www.flickr.com/photos/e-coli/2316945309/

I can almost guarantee, your “best” coffee and the “best” coffee of the guy sitting next to you on the train are completely different.  He might think

Sanka is the best because it’s so easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive.  While you might enjoy the complexity and smooth flavor of cold-pressed iced coffee which must sit for 12+ hours in a coffee press to achieve the perfect flavor.  Different criteria yield different results.

This is why we here at College Choices for Adults do not produce rankings of the “best” college.  Because the “best” college is different for every person.  It’s a complex choice that must take into account each individual’s professional goals, personal time commitments, finances, and learning styles just to name a few factors.   Many of these things cannot be standardized in a manner that will still create a ranking that has meaning for all people.  Instead we provide you with data on our featured programs that no one else does – program level learning outcomes, assessments and recent results of those assessments.  With these you can match your professional goals with those learning outcomes, understand if how those learning outcomes are assessed and how well recent students have performed therefore allowing you to deduce if that program would be a good fit for your learning style and goals.  While many rankings actually make the choice for you, we empower you to make your own choice.

That said, all rankings are not a bad thing.  What you’ll want to look out for:

• How the rankings are produced?
• What criteria are used?
• By whom and how are those criteria rated?
• Is the ranking independent or do the schools themselves provide information?
• Are the rankings tied at all to any kind of revenue for the site that produces them?
• Do you have any input to what rankings are shown (i.e. if you say cost is most important, does it produce that list? Or if distance from your current location is important, does it produce that? etc.)?

And finally, be cautious about providing your personal contact information.  Know that many times when you provide that on a third party site, a rankings site for example, it is then forwarded on to recruiters who will call and email and even snail mail you information about colleges.   One site that does not ask for your information is geteducated.com which ranks “Best Buys” in colleges using publicly-available cost information collected independently.  They also have rankings based on ‘student satisfaction’ and ‘public perception’.  Just be sure to read how those are created.

All in all, the important thing to remember when looking for an online program or college, is that you need to be sure that the program will fulfill your personal and professional goals in a manner that fits into your lifestyle and is affordable.  We’d love to hear how you chose or are considering an institution and if you used any of the rankings to assist in that decision.

What the New Learner Progress Data Means for You, the Adult Learner

Today College Choices for Adults announced that it has released new Learner Progress data.  That may leave you asking, what’s that and what does it mean to me as an adult learner?

 

First, learner progress is a measure of learner retention and learner completion. Learner retention looks at a group of students – a cohort – to see if they are still enrolled or have completed a degree one year after joining the cohort (for most that means one year after enrolling in the institution).  That means that what ever percentage is listed, that’s how many students remained enrolled or graduated.   Learner completion looks at how many students from a cohort completed a degree within 150% and 200% of ‘normal time.’  ‘Normal  time’ is defined by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) as 2 years for an associate degree, 4 years for a baccalaureate degree, 2 years for a masters degree and 4 years for a doctoral degree.  The cohort for both of these measures includes part-time and transfer-in students in addition to first-time, full-time students. The only other similar data are NCES IPEDS retention and graduation rate measures currently found on College Navigator, however, these only measure first-time, full-time students.

 

So, what does this mean for you?
It means that we have provided you a more valid measure for how adult students persist and complete degrees at our partner institutions.  Opening our cohort up to include part-time and transfer-in students (those with credit hours from previous college experience), is more inclusive of the typical adult student.  Therefore, this measure lets you gauge how learners like you – those going to college part-time while balancing the many demands of adult life  – perform at our partner institutions.

A back-to-school list

A step into any major discount store right now will let you know that school is just around the corner.  For some kids it’s just around the corner, for others it’s still a mile away but you can smell the anticipation in the air.  It smells like markers, crayons, glue sticks and notebook paper.  For many a youngster, the anticipation of new school supplies even overrides the nerves about going to or returning to school.

Crayons by Ginger Me on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/rednut/3108121178/

 

What about for the adult learner? What tools should be on your back to school list?

• Organization.
• Not to be cliché but there’s an app for that.   If you don’t already have a calendar system set up, it would be wise to set one up for tracking all of your assignments as well as keeping the rest of your life organized.
• Organization extends beyond the digitizing of your schedule into keeping your workspace for learning organized as well.  We’ve written before about the physical space for your online learning, but just as a reminder, you want to set the right environment for learning.  Taking small steps to setting up and keeping this space organized will help you stay motivated to study.
• Of course, a piece of organization is making sure you have all the supplies you need.  Check your syllabi to see what supplies are listed.  These can range from notepaper and pencils to laptops and digital cameras.  Ensuring you have what you need ahead of time will save precious time in scrambling for what you need later.
• Motivation.
• Why are you back in school?  For personal satisfaction and learning? Career advancement? Whatever the reason, write it down and keep it handy for the days your motivation wanes.     Reminding yourself of why your skipping the 4th girls night out or  2nd basketball game in a row to study will help keep you focused and motivated.
• A fun tip from our friends over at the online learning tips blog, is to Create a Playlist for Motivation.  As an online learner you will often be learning in a physically solitary environment.  Adding a soundtrack can help keep you motivated.  If you’re not feeling particularly inspired by your personal music library, check out services like Pandora or Jango and look for genres you like.

What have we missed? What else is on your back-to-school list?

I Am Learner

I Am Learner

By John Connell Originally posted July 28, 2011

Licensed under a Creative Commons licence – see below for details.

I am learner.

Just as no one can see the colours I see, just as no one can hear the music I hear, just as no one can feel what I feel when I hold something in my hand, and just as no one can sense the world as I perceive it around me, no one can teach me.

No one can teach me.

I am learner.

I am not taught. I learn. I am human and a social animal, so I learn with others. I do learn from others, but what I learn is rarely, if ever, what is taught to me, and rarely, if ever, what others learn at the same time from the same teachers. Often I learn entirely alone.

I am learner.

I perceive. I use my senses to know the world around me. I discern patterns. I shape my understanding through metaphor and analogy. I seek to create purpose in my life. Sometimes I conceive purpose where there is none; often I accept others’ conceptions of purpose in life, others’ conceptions of purpose in the universe.

I am learner.

I build a universe in my mind and I live there, a universe that changes constantly as I learn. All people, including the people I love, live alongside me in this constantly shifting universe. I see only glimpses of the lives they lead, because, just as they are players in my world, I am a player in all the universes created by every other person alive.

I am learner.

I connect. I connect with people and ideas in the physical and virtual worlds and discern no boundary between the two worlds. I learn in, across, through, with and from the networks in which I live, work, play and interact. I continually extend my own potential through my connections. I make connections between what I have already learned and what the world chooses to present to me through my own interactions with the world and through the interventions and actions of others.

I connect therefore I learn.

I am learner.

I am able to recite facts, echo the opinions of others, assume the attitudes of so-called authorities when urged to do so, but I prefer to seek real knowledge of the changing world in which we live, genuine understanding of the realities of the human condition, authentic insight into our intrinsic dependence on one another. My need to know for myself is stronger than my need to recite from or imitate others.

I am learner.

I imagine. I reach beyond the reality of my senses and there I build my own dreams and visions; sometimes I welcome others’ wishful thinking and create my own place in their fantasies, accepting the values they place before me, filtering and refining them to fit my universe. Often, by accidents of time and place and birth, I am conditioned by those around me to accept their social, moral, religious and political values. In these circumstances, I still create my own truth but I struggle to do so freely, constrained by the strictures imposed on me by others.

I am learner.

I listen to stories from others; I tell my own stories, to myself, to others; I participate in stories, mine and others’. I determine who I am through a prism of dramas, tales, myths, histories, lies, assumed truths, rituals, games and a complex and intricate narrative that I weave around the realities of my life. I live and learn from the drama of the now and I recall and learn from the narratives woven out of past dramas.

I am learner.

I am not taught.

I learn.

 

A plain text version of I Am Learner can be downloaded here.

I Am Learner by John Connell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.johnconnell.co.uk.

By licensing I Am Learner in this way, I am encouraging others to share it (to copy, distribute and transmit the work) and to remix it (to adapt the work) in any way they wish with the following conditions:

• Attribution — You must attribute the original work to me, by linking or referring your work back to this blog post at http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=2697 (but you must not in any way suggest that I endorse you or your use of the work).
• Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
• Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get my permission as the copyright holder

The full licence can be read here.

Advice for Online Learners

Today on the BlogU: Learn blog at Inside Higher Education, writer Josh Kim provides his advice for online learners.  Many of these things we have discussed in this blog previously – keep a schedule, embrace teamwork, proactively communicate – but this blog, and it’s comments do a great job of reminding us what’s important as online learners.

Photo by D'Arcy Norman on http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/3199486108/

Especially insightful is the comment from “S” – “You only get as much out of an online degree as you are willing to put in. Online isn’t easier except for the fact that you don’t have to find parking.”

 

What would you add to the list? Please post your comments here, on our twitter (@college4adults) or on this blog on Inside Higher Ed’s site.

Staying afloat in your studies

Keeping up with the work in your online studies can be especially difficult as the grass turns green and the mercury rises.  You may find yourself rationalizing putting off reading that article or writing that discussion board because its too pretty outside to be stuck behind a book or computer. Then you put it off again because you want to go to a BBQ at the park with friends.  Next thing you know you’re up all night finishing your work, producing what is likely not your best effort.  So, how do you do it when you just can’t face sitting down at the kitchen table or your desk for one more minute?

Photo by SlinkyDragon http://www.flickr.com/photos/wayy/2692892363/

First, follow the tip from our friends at onlinelearningtips.com – avoid distractions, study in a neutral area.  Studying where you sleep, eat or watch TV (aka the couch) can be distracting, even if all the appliances are turned off and no one else is around.  You can combat this distraction many ways.  First, you can set up a space in your home or office dedicated to your studies – check out our post on setting up your physical space for your online studies.  But what do you do if even that space is stifling your ability to concentrate?  As onlinelearningtips suggests, get the heck out of dodge.  Visit a coffee shop with a wireless internet connection or your local library if you need to be online.  Or, take advantage of the great weather and take that book and a blanket out to the park and read there.  If you make the most of your time and do it in an enjoyable space, it will help improve your productivity, freeing up more time for fun!

Speaking of fun, be sure to look for good excuses TO finish your work, rather than rationalizing why you can put it off.  You probably know that BBQ at the park is coming up.  Make a deal with yourself that if you finish all your reading, you can stay for an extra round of bocce ball.  Or if you want to spend the weekend camping in the wilderness with your family sans computer, use that as an excuse to get all your discussion posts done early.  Or, as online learning tips suggests pretend there is some odd consequence if you don’t finish your work on time, like your computer starts spitting fire at you – the more ridiculous the consequence the better!

So, now we’d love to hear from you – how do you stay on top of your online learning game when the float at the end of the pier is calling your name?