My Ashford University Experience : bs

10 Traps, Pitfalls and Shortcomings of Earning a Degree Online Part II (6-10)

Cajun — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:56:00 GMT

This is part II of a two part series. (Click to view part I.)

6.) Technology. Technology is an inevitable part of being an online student. Using new, unfamiliar software and mastering the art of using it skillfully will become essential. If you are still carrying a pager, use a rotary phone, are afraid of a fax machine and believe scientific calculators are still over $100.00 you may need to reassess your ability to adapt quickly enough to learning via an online format.

7.) Will power. Also called grit, guts, stamina or courage. You must have the ability to get knocked down and get back up. You have to be able to motivate yourself, likely nobody else will do it for you. If you get an “F” on an assignment you really worked hard on, it’ll knock the wind out of you. But you have to get tough, work harder, be objective and keep slugging away. Nobody is likely going to be cheering you on, nobody will beg you to do the work, nobody will care if you drop out or fail other than you and possibly close relatives. It’s up to you to get it done. You have to be able to accept failure and move on. You have to be able to overcome your shortcomings and keep growing. You have to accept the fact that you are nowhere near perfect and get over yourself enough to get better. You have to have will power. Campus based students will have to have some of this but they will also have the support of a peer group and the knowledge that their friends are sharing their experience. You on the other hand are going to go it very much alone by comparison.

8.) Self -discipline. Self-discipline is not will power, but it is a close cousin. The difference between will power and self discipline is that will power is what motivates you. Will power is the voice in your head that tells you go get up and keep going when you’ve been knocked down, the thing that keeps your feet moving underneath you when you don’t think you can run anymore. Self-discipline is the fore knowledge of what you need to do, making a plan and sticking to that plan no matter what. Self-discipline is the ability to delay pleasure in the knowledge that the sacrifice will pay in the long run. Will power is the drive where self-discipline is the map. One without the other is useless. You have to be self-disciplined. You will not have the peer support or pressure to show up to class every day like your campus-based peers will have. You will not be meeting friends in study groups at night motivating you to do so. Your success and reaching goals will depend 100% on your ability to envision what needs to happen and stick to the plan.

9.) Reading comprehension. You will have to read everything you learn likely. Where your peers can sit through lectures and hear the information, you will have to read it. Where your peers can reinforce the knowledge imparted to the class through discussions, you will have to read and write about what you are learning. It is likely that you will be required to have a higher level of reading comprehension than your campus based peers because it is the primary if not the only means of communication in online learning. You likely will not have auditory reinforcement of the information like sitting through a lecture. You will not likely have the visual of seeing the information being demonstrated on a chalkboard. With rare exception all the information relayed to you will be via text and graphics, nothing more. You will have to learn to comprehend what you read. This will include skillful note taking, learning your reading comprehension limits (we all have them) and develop a means of overcoming your shortcomings. For example, I find it hard to concentrate on a text for over 30 straight minutes without a break. Otherwise I am reading, but not comprehending the text. The more precise and dry the material, the shorter my attention span is. As such I take careful, easily referenced notes and take a break of 5 to 10 minutes at least once every half-hour without fail. That is what works for me, you will have to develop a plan that works for you.

10.) Communication through writing. This is a shortcoming for many, many people. I revise reports daily as part of my official duties in the workplace and I continually see people who struggle in the area of communicating effectively in written word. You would not be alone in this struggle. I too have spent and continue to spend minutes upon hours upon years developing my writing skills. It is an art form that few people if any, ever perfect, yet one that must be mastered to a high level of competence in online learning as this will be your primary if not only means of expressing your thoughts and engaging in the communication process. You may have a way with words and wit in person, but translating this onto the page is a struggle I believe most people, myself included engage in.

Well there you have it. I hope this post does not scare you off of attempting a degree online, but there are things you need to be aware of before committing your time and money to such a momentous undertaking as earning a degree online.

I welcome any comments, questions or suggestions you may have here or email if you prefer.

Add to:

10 Traps, Pitfalls and Shortcomings of Earning a Degree Online Part I (1-5)

Cajun — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:40:00 GMT

Okay I know it seems strange for a guy who is all about distance education to write about the negative aspects of learning online, but for the sake of fairness sometimes it is necessary to look at the bad side of learning as well as the good. After all it is important to make a well-informed decision when considering going back to college. If you choose to become an online student sooner or later you will note some of the pitfalls, traps and shortcomings of learning online. Personally it is my belief that you should go into the decision informed and with fore knowledge of struggles you may face.

So without further ado:

1.) A feeling of detachment and/or loneliness. Often times a distance education student will not feel part of the school by which they are earning their degree. I have experienced this myself at Southwestern College. The school is a private, campus-based college with colorful newsletters highlighting student life, showcasing beautiful pictures of the campus and there was even a forum by which students could post questions to the College’s administration. However online students really didn’t really have any representation in the literature or forums of the school other than what was provided on Blackboard. To make matters worse going online to the bookstore to order a tee-shirt or something would inevitably lead to a phone call the next day stating that they cannot process your order because the bookstore didn’t update their page with current stock. Instead you had to kind of blindly guess at what they did have and didn’t have at the moment making you feel just that much more out of touch. Often times as an online student you just feel alone and detached. Kind of like you are in an individual struggle and that you will make it or lose it by your will and determination alone. Though this isn’t true at all, it may be a feeling that you experience as I did when working for years on a degree online, where there is little to no tangible gain as you progress. Especially when the school is primarily geared towards campus based students and the online college is just an extension of a greater overall mission. Ironically however upon graduation, being able to walk around a campus and meeting dozens if not over a hundred of my fellow online graduates led me to feel an unbreakable attachment and source of pride in my school that I had not previously experienced. The very fact that there was this living, breathing organization that I was now a permanent part of, that I could see and touch just led me to a sense of belonging. Meeting people that had experienced what I had experienced only bolstered the feeling of belonging. Of course the faculty and staff made sure that we graduates experienced this even to the point of lining the halls and applauding us as we walked to our seats. The very thing that can cause you to feel isolated during the process can also lead you to feeling a part of an overall larger picture upon graduation, in my case it was the campus itself that I had never seen. I arrived a stranger and left as a part of a family.

2.) Distractions. It is so easy to be distracted when you are not expected to show up to class. All of a sudden hundreds of “more important” things will pop up that you have to take care of and before you know it, you are hopelessly behind. You absolutely must be self-disciplined and be pragmatic enough to say “no” when you have to. I know that at home we often have more distractions than anywhere else. We have kids, spouses, chores, internet, television, video games, our hobbies, books we enjoy, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. You have to cut things out of your life to go to school online, period. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Look at your life, is it full? Can you cut back on anything or cut anything out altogether? If you cannot, you will not be successful online.

3.) Fatigue. I have found that the only way to stave off fatigue as an online student is to stick to a rigid schedule. If you do not, you will get behind. If you get behind by the time you catch up you will be behind on the following week’s work and it will become a exhausting cycle of stress inducing, sleep depriving and relationship busting work. Once you become fatigued as a student online it can literally take months to recover if you do not get a break between classes. Avoiding fatigue is no joke when you make this type of commitment so beware this potentially fatal pitfall. Many students who hit the wall and take a “break” never come back.

4.) A feeling of being overwhelmed. Learning new things can be exhilarating yet stressful. Wonderful and altogether overwhelming. Most of the feeling of being overwhelmed is how you react emotionally to the stress of being forced to learn something new within a predetermined time frame. I have felt it, you likely will to. After a while though you just have to learn to control your emotions and not let them control you. A feeling of being overwhelmed can spoil the experience for you, sabotage your work, destroy your schedule and quickly lead to our #1 enemy, fatigue. Find ways to relax and calm down. Learn to embrace change. That sounds kind of corny but it is against our nature (for most of us anyway) to embrace change but it is absolutely vital for you to do just that.

5.) Venting. Being an online student does not mean that you are free of the stresses that classroom students experience. But it does mean that you are likely not going to have the same sort of outlet that your campus based peers will have like standing in the hallways after class complaining about the enormity of an assignment, or how your last grade was unfair, etc. Instead you will likely complain to your spouse, who will quickly tire of it. Then you may try your friends and coworkers who will likely tire of it just as quickly. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that most of them cannot relate or just do not share your feelings. Sooner or later you will have to find an alternate manner of venting and “letting go” of some of the pressure that can build up. I find that forums like eLearners provide or blogging helps a lot more than I could ever explain. Once you’ve experienced what I’m talking about, this will make more sense. By the way, do not fall for the temptation of complaining on the discussion boards on Blackboard in your classes. Trust me, it will not come off like you intended.

I welcome any comments, questions or suggestions you may have here or email if you prefer. Part II (numbers 6-10) will be posted tomorrow night.

Add to:

Hey you management/administration students and wannabes! Are you ready for this?

Cajun — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:00:00 GMT

Have you ever heard the phrase “It’s lonely at the top”? This phrase has been repeated for years and years because basically it’s true. Being the boss sometimes means making tough decisions about people who work for you. The fallout usually includes rumors which don’t even resemble the truth followed by speculation and then eventually judgements made about your character (for good or bad) regarding the situation. As manager you generally are not even to discuss the matter by which others seem to draw their conclusions about you, therefore there is nobody to defend you or your actions and intentions should they not be popular. There may be times as a manager that you even have to let someone go, give someone a reprimand, hand out a reduction in pay, turn down someone for a raise or even demote them. These are never easy decisions to come to and no decent person ever enjoys being in the position to do such.

Recently a friend of mine poured his heart out to me because during his few years as manager, he had to fire someone for the first time ever. He couldn’t eat or sleep for 2 days before it was to be done, his wife told me privately that he was being tormented by what he had to do. He eventually talked it over with me and debated questions like “I wonder if there is anything different I could have done” or “I wish I would have done this instead”. Naturally he struggled not so much with his conscience, but with his humanity. No decent person likes to see anyone suffer and no decent person ever wants to be viewed as the source of that suffering, especially around Christmas. He asked me “does this ever get easier?” I told him “no, it doesn’t, but you have to look back at their performance, which led up to this point. Satisfy yourself that you did everything in your power to correct their destructiveness to their own career, once you determine that you have, then realize that you have not fired them, they have fired themselves.”

This brings me to where the educational portion comes into play. You are most likely going to school to get ahead in your career. Doing so will mean that eventually, you are likely to end up in authority over others as a manager, supervisor or whatever. To this end you will be placed in charge of people’s very livelihoods, how they keep the lights on, a roof over their kids heads and food on the table. It doesn’t get any more personal than that. This attitude of “it’s just business” is crap, don’t ever believe it and don’t ever manage that way. When you do your coursework you need to realize that the skills you are learning and the knowledge that you are expected to have will affect people’s lives, especially when you are a manager. Don’t give a 2nd rate effort in school and don’t do it once you’ve arrived. Learning and working hard should become a lifestyle, not a goal that once attained is forgotten. One day you may be looking at the ceiling in the middle of the night, about to have to fire one of your employees and if you have any decency at all you will be asking yourself questions like my friend had. Your education should make you a better manager. It should give you skills and habits that you use to get the best out of your people and if you can’t you may find the answer to “did I do everything I could” to be most unsettling. However if you are serious about your education and apply your skills, commitment to excellence and your humanity in every situation and give 100% to your employees, you will sleep somewhat easier at night.

Make sure that you understand that graduation does not mean that you stop working hard and stop learning. Like in school you will learn something everyday and likely something from everyone, as a result you will increasingly become a better and better manager. Your employees deserve your best efforts. A terrible manager says, “they work for me” whereas an excellent manager says, “I work for them”. As an managerial or administration student you are making a commitment. You are either committing yourself to be a crappy manager in it for the money (don’t worry you’ll blend in, the world is full of them) or you are committing yourself to servant-hood. If you are a servant-oriented manager, you will find that when you have to make tough and unpopular decisions you are able to live with yourself just a little better.

Now go study.

Add to:

Are the Liberal Arts Dead? How about some feedback?

Cajun — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 06:47:00 GMT

It seems that in today's world whenever you ask someone what their major is in college you will almost certainly never hear "liberal arts". Nope, it seems that liberal arts has been relegated to "would you like fries with that" status among professional majors such as Business, Accounting, etc. In my last college I noticed that of the 300 to 400 graduating students we had 6 or 7 that had a liberal arts degree. I remember specifically because there were about 40 of us Criminal Justice majors sitting directly behind them and whispering "I guess they couldn't make up their minds" or "I bet every single one of them has managed to cram 150 or more credit hours into a 120 hour degree". Of course we giggled and poked gentle fun at our allegedly less decisive counterparts, but recently I've been researching a liberal arts education and I do see a lot of well rounded wisdom in choosing that route.

Of course many people think that a liberal arts education is less academically challenging since you are not required to declare a major in a specific field, like psychology, but can at many schools pick from a wide array of electives. Another joke I have heard is that liberal arts grads enjoy their education during school whereas other majors, like business, enjoy their education after graduation. I have no idea if this is true, I doubt it but I would bet there is something to that line of thought otherwise why would so many people share this misconception?

So are the liberal arts dead? I don't believe so and personally I kind of like the idea of a well rounded liberal arts education, but primarily on a personal level. I have no idea about professionally. But after all, school is not necessarily about hard and fast skills that you keep with you forever, instead it is about learning how to learn. Being able to conduct research, think critically, etc. Do not the liberal arts teach just that?

I'm curious as to what you guys think?

Add to:

Are you about to ask a question on the forum? Read this first

Cajun — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:14:00 GMT

In reading a lot of forum posts I am always encouraged by people who have found a website such as eLearners in order to gain information about furthering their education. Often times, however, many of these people ask about 1 or 2 schools specifically and have done little to no research or they are not even sure what it is they want to do.

This is not their fault, of course, as few things in life are as convoluted, complicated, and permanent as getting a higher education. So below I will answer a couple of questions I see most frequently on the eLearners forum and others like it.

1.) What do you think of (_________) school? Fill in the blank with whatever school it is that you are considering.

A.) Often people will ask about the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, Capella, etc. The answer is that there is no real answer. For me to give advice the factors to drawing an individual opinion are generally as follows:

Ø Is this school accredited?
Ø What is the general reputation of the school?
Ø What degree programs do they offer in your particular area of interest?
Ø Do they maintain a professional accreditation (for example ACBSP)?
Ø Does anyone on the forum have personal experience with the school?
Ø Do I know anyone with experience with that school and what have they said about it?
Ø Will this school meet the goals you have told me about?
Ø How much is the tuition for the school? Is it comparable to their competition?
Ø Do I consider the school a good value based upon tuition vs. benefit? For example I would be willing to pay more to obtain an MBA than an MSM for reasons of average return on investment.
Ø Have I read anything about the school from a RELIABLE source and not from someone who simply has a bone to pick?
Ø Based upon my professional experience, educational experience and of course mistakes I have made what would I do?

These are the factors I will always consider before giving my opinion on any school. My advice then to you would be to ask these same questions yourself before posting on the forum as nobody knows your criteria and personal desires and needs better than you. Picking a degree and school is a highly personal process. It would be better to instead look for people to make suggestions of schools you may not have considered to further your research or to possibly warn you off of a glaring mistake.

2.) What do you think about (___________) and what will recruiters and hiring managers think of it? Fill in the degree you are considering.

A.) As you may have guessed the answer is more often than not highly dependant upon the following factors:

Ø Will this degree meet your stated goals? For instance if you want to become a nurse, an MBA may not be the best option for you.
Ø What does this degree look like against its counterparts? For example I strongly considered getting a Master of Science in Management before pulling the trigger on an MBA. The primary determining factor was that the MBA has a much higher average return on investment (money wise) than most MSM degrees. Which leads me to ask...
Ø Why do you want the degree? Is money the primary factor? Personal satisfaction? Change of careers or moving up in your current job?
Ø What are the average earnings of a graduate with this degree in my area?

To answer the second part of the question, "what will recruiters and hiring managers think"? In actuality this is an impossible question as recruiters and hiring managers run the full gambit from education savvy to complete morons and everything in between. I am personally in a position to hire so I have to base my opinions off of my criteria and conversations I have with my peers (who are also hiring managers) and of course our bosses and human resources personnel. In my limited experience, most recruiters and hiring managers will usually consider the following in order of importance:

Ø The degree level. If they posted a minimum qualification of a Bachelor of Science, it would generally be futile to apply with an Associate of Science and expect a positive result.
Ø The degree major. Is this major in an area related to the job or one that demonstrates a desirable skill? For instance a BS in Nursing will likely not be of much value to a manager hiring an Accountant when your competition likely has a BS in Accounting.
Ø Where did you earn the degree? As much as I hate to admit it, school reputation does play a factor. It's better to have no reputation than a bad one. Some schools, such as University of Phoenix, elicit a strong response in recruiters as many have drawn personal opinions (positive and negative) of the school based upon their own personal knowledge or lack thereof. More often than not I will see resume listing a degree from a school I have never heard of or know little about, such as Western New England College. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it is relatively easy to research the school's accreditation, which is really where accreditation plays the biggest part. If they are regionally accredited, most hiring managers and recruiters, myself included, are pretty comfortable with educational portion of the resume. If it is a school I am familiar with, such as Boston University then I generally have a good feeling about the educational portion of their resume.
Ø Do you have the professional credentials needed for the job outside of education? For example, if 10 years experience and a BS are the minimum qualifications, likely someone with a BS and 5 years experience will not be considered. The only exception is if the person has a higher than minimum education, such as an MS and a reasonably close margin of experience, such as 7 to 8 years, I might consider them. Certainly I would weigh the option.

Try to consider these options when doing your research and be open to suggestions but realize that ultimately the decision is yours to make and it is a highly personal decision. Nobody can make it for you but perhaps we can provide you with new avenues to explore. So do your research and then be prepared to do a little more.

I hope this helps.

---Cajun

Add to: