iced lightning
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does anyone here have any experience with an online college? If you could recommend one that would be great.
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online colleges
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iced lightning
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Well, I don't really see a reason to laugh at it, especially considering I'm looking to go into web development... I've taken 2 years at Central Michigan University and I find that 3/4 of the classes just plain suck and mostly due to the professors.
Phoenix
Member
I know that I've never laughed at someone from an online college and actually one of my team members came from one - excellent guy and beat out a lot of people who did go to traditional 4 year universities. I never really look at the education line much, I just delve right into the work experience and interview based on what they need to know for the job. All of my interviews tend to focus on the practical and not the theoretical so if you know your stuff, I could care less if you just finished grad school or just came out of the womb - you're hired.
The salary people might batter around someone without a traditional 4 year university degree - but because I've known so many that just didn't want to go to college and were excellent, I don't discriminate. Can't say the same about some of my peers however. I know that they are very 'university' focussed and only seriously consider people from a certain "grade of school".
The salary people might batter around someone without a traditional 4 year university degree - but because I've known so many that just didn't want to go to college and were excellent, I don't discriminate. Can't say the same about some of my peers however. I know that they are very 'university' focussed and only seriously consider people from a certain "grade of school".
iced lightning
Member
Oh shit, I totally forgot about the ice cream. WTF was I thinking? 2 more years of soft serve, baby.
iced lightning said:
If you're looking to get into web development, taking a course from an online - and likely unaccredited university (I wouldn't take their word for it) won't get your foot into any doors. But then again, neither does a "real" degree.
Bad professors are part of the college experience, I've had psychology professors who likely didn't even know the meaning of the word. But you make up for it. In your case, either get an internship where you'll learn stuff in a real, non-academic environment, or buy some nice, used books on ASP, .NET, Javascript...whatever your weapons of choice may be.
In my short experience with college, I've found that the only difference between an online course and a lecture course is that in one you have to go to class and in the other you can stay in bed 
. Obviously if you want to go into something like Biology, you can't do that with an online college, and it may be hard to do a complete major without being at a real school, but for some classes, online is actually preferable to real.
. Obviously if you want to go into something like Biology, you can't do that with an online college, and it may be hard to do a complete major without being at a real school, but for some classes, online is actually preferable to real.Error Macro
Member
I've thought before, about finishing my degree through an online college. God knows I hated going to school my entire life. College really wasn't any different. Well, at least the people and professors were slightly more mature than high school.
I took a few online classes recently, and this is my two cents:
Research the actual structure of the online class.
The classes I had were disasters... the "classroom" was a message board, but it didn't contain posts within threads... it would just put the newest reply at the top. So if you made a post and four replies were made to it, you'd have to wade through pages and pages of other group's posts, and... bleh.
I'll take in-class over online, but I guess if you don't mind extra reading and no real reference points with the material (like you'd get in a lecture/discussion), it could work for you.
Research the actual structure of the online class.
The classes I had were disasters... the "classroom" was a message board, but it didn't contain posts within threads... it would just put the newest reply at the top. So if you made a post and four replies were made to it, you'd have to wade through pages and pages of other group's posts, and... bleh.
I'll take in-class over online, but I guess if you don't mind extra reading and no real reference points with the material (like you'd get in a lecture/discussion), it could work for you.
That is ridiculously stupid method of doing an online class, bjork. I always imagined the proffesor would post every few days a new lecture (one he might give via speech if it were a real class) and then there would be a messageboard a la gaf that would be there to discuss the lectures or outside material and ask the proffesor questions you may have.
NLB2 said:
Yeah, that's what I thought too.
The lectures/materials at least had their own section, but the rest was pretty much a mess.
When I switched back to on-site, the financial aid guy asked me why I wanted to do this... I explained the lousy format, and then said they should copy the style of forums I visit, and I send him a link to this place.
Online classes with sports threads and POST NEW PICS threads... heh
videogamer
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bjork said:
It's probably the school's fault for having such bad forums. The schools I've gone to have had forums that worked fine enough. The online class I took was introductory and pretty much right out of the book so it was as though the professor never existed.
My degree will not be from an online campus, but I've taken online/telecourses for lower division courses. They are great for people who want flexible hours and enjoy self-pacing. Being community college courses, they were pretty darn easy too.
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