NY Times article about online universities

[Buzzard]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/educa ... l?_r=1&hpw

Shockingly, college minus didnt even register on their radar. I wonder why that is... I wish they would have mentioned the pitfalls of many of these online universities as the scams that some of them are.

My favorite line:

“Taking a course online, by yourself, is not the same as being in a classroom with a professor who can respond to you, present different viewpoints and push you to work a problem,†Professor Neem said. “There’s lots of porn and religion online, but people still have relationships and get married, and go to church and talk to a minister.â€

[GenerationCedarchip]

I would guess that College Minus doesn't have that big a reach compared to some of the online universities that have been around a long time. Also, I've noticed that many of the fundie-approved scams tend to get ignored by the mainstream media. By way of example, Pat Robertson has been up to various interesting shenanigans over the course of his career(work as a faith healer incl. trying to cure AIDS by prayer, investments in blood diamonds and other financial ties to overseas dictators, energy shake scam,etc...) but very rarely do you see articles going beyond the surface "Oh, he's a religious whacko."

[gustava]

I don't think that College Minus qualifies as a "college" that actually offers classes. It seems to be more a clearinghouse/tutorial support.

[Katiebug]

I don't think that College Minus qualifies as a "college" that actually offers classes. It seems to be more a clearinghouse/tutorial support.

Yes, this. Most College Minus degrees are actually awarded through Thomas Edison State College, a legit and regionally accredited institution that a lot of military and others who have accumulated credits from a variety of sources will use to obtain a degree.

College Minus offers some sort of Christian framework - it's basically advising services and recommending what CLEP tests can be taken to apply to meet requirements for various majors. The College Minus student will CLEP his/her way through as much of the degree as possible, then transfer the credits in to TESC (or Charter Oak State College or Excelsior College, the other two in the "Big Three" group of aggregator schools). The CLEP testing ostensibly reduces the number of courses to be taken online or through self-study through the degree-granting institution, thus saving the student money.

Almost anyone should be able to go right to the TESC website, read the college catalog, and figure out a plan of study accomplishing the exact same thing - for free. However, if the student's parents want their kid to continue to have that Christian framework even post-homeschooling, then I guess it serves a niche market.

[Katiebug]

My employer offers an industry-leading educational benefit, although in the last few years they've cut back on the program somewhat). They will pay all tuition and fees for each employee to get an associate's, a bachelor's, and/or a master's degree in any major of the employee-scholar's choosing. An employee has to have been employed for a year and work at least 24 hours a week to have this benefit. I've obtained one master's degree and am halfway through a second, all on the company dime.

Anyways, the program administrators now have a list of schools they will not pay for, and some of the big for-profits are on the unapproved list even though they're regionally accredited. University of Phoenix is a notable one, and at least one of the schools in the NYT article is also on the "we won't pay" list. The stated rationale is that for those institutions the company does not believe the quality of the education recieved warrants the amount of money charged in tuition - basically that the company feels they're glorified diploma mills.

Not all online university-level education is BS. I took a graduate level materials engineering course through Columbia University's distance learning program and found it quite challenging. I got an A but decided that doing a full master's program in engineering online was not my cup of tea, so I transferred to a local university.

[Buzzard]

I'm wondering if we should start referring it to by its "christian name" of COLLEGE PLUS so our friend to google bot will start linking to us should anyone try and do actual research on it.

I really like the school NYtimes refers to thats free. I understand the fundies would have to expose their kids to the ebil gayz who may teach said free courses but free is free... and its real credit...