Best Online Degrees 2017

Which degrees have the best career prospects for new professionals or career changers? Check our ranking of the top 25 online bachelors degrees before you choose a degree program.

Our analysis considered eight factors, including salary and job growth, to determine which degrees offer the most-promising outcomes.

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You've probably heard that the right education can deliver a boost to your earning power, but you don't often see hard data on just how much of a difference it can make. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published statistics from its own survey of the nation's job market, and there's some real food for thought in the numbers:

Salary advantages aren't the end of the story, either; the BLS also found that high school grads with no college experience are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as workers who have a bachelor's.

Online degrees are more accessible today than ever, thanks to advancements in broadband connectivity, software tech and a growing number of traditional institutions offering programs in virtual classrooms. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) counts 717 colleges and universities in the U.S. where students can earn various undergraduate business degrees online, and more than 1,200 schools in the country have online training options for students looking to enter the health care field.

Enrollment in online courses and programs climbed each year from 2003 to 2013, according to a 2014 report published by the Online Learning Consortium, more than tripling from 1.97 million to 6.71 million in just those ten years. It's also reported that negative perceptions of online programs among employers have declined considerably -- three out of four employers see a qualification earned online as equal to those earned on campus, according to a recent article in U.S. News and World Report.

If you're thinking of giving online education a shot, here's a list of some of the best online degrees available this year.

Originally posted here:
Explore Accredited Online Degrees & Programs | OnlineDegrees.com

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Hybrid and online-only options growing in Atlanta's professional education world Atlanta Business Chronicle Atlanta's colleges and universities have a mix of online offerings, from degreed to certification programs. Enlarge. Atlanta's colleges and universities have a mix of online offerings, from degreed to more. SHUTTERSTOCK. Professional online education ... and more »

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Hybrid and online-only options growing in Atlanta's professional education world - Atlanta Business Chronicle

LITTLE ROCK (AGFC) Boaters looking for a Boating Education course near them now have the option to take the complete course and test online, from the comfort of their own home.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has offered an online course option for many years, but participants were required to print a certificate at home and go to a testing site near them to complete their test. Thanks to recent legislation, the requirement of a proctored, in-person exam has been lifted to make it easier for people to get on Arkansass waters and stay safe while doing so.

If you pass the test, you will receive a temporary voucher to print until your permanent card arrives in the mail, said Alex Hinson, AGFC Boating Education coordinator. The online option is administered by Kalkomey, who handles boating and hunter education for many states, and is customized to fit Arkansass boating laws.

While convenient, the online option does cost a small fee. Kalkomey collects $24.50 for the online course.

The AGFC still offers, and recommends, free in-person classes for boater education. Classes last a six hours, which can be completed in two nights or a full day, depending on the course scheduled.

I personally feel that people get a lot more out of the in-person classes, especially younger students, Hinson said. Theres just more opportunity to have questions answered and clear up anything that a person might be confused about. But the new option is definitely more convenient.

Anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1986 and of legal age to operate a motorboat or sailboat, must have successfully completed an approved boating education course and carry proof while operating a motorboat or sailboat on Arkansas waters. To operate a motorboat powered by an engine of 10 horsepower or more, a person must be 12 or older, or be under the direct supervision of a person at least 18. To operate a personal watercraft, a person must be 16 or older, be 12 to 15 years old and under the direct supervision of someone at least 18. People younger than 12 may only operate a personal watercraft while under the direct supervision of someone at least 21.

Visit http://www.agfc.com/boatered for more information about Boater Education in Arkansas.

Original post:
Online test available for Boating Education - KAIT

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Penn State World Campus is using 360-degree videos and virtual reality for the first time with the goal of improving the educational experience for online learners.

The technology has been implemented in the curriculum of a graduate-level special education course in Penn States summer semester. Students can use a VR headset to watch 360-degree videos on a device such as a smartphone.

The course, Special Education 801, focuses on how teachers can respond to challenging behaviors, and the 360-degree videos place students in a classroom where they see an instructor explaining strategies for arranging the classroom in ways best-suited for the learning activity. The videos were produced using a 360-degree video camera and uploaded into the course in just a few a days.

Theres something about putting that headset on and immersing yourself in your learning environment that allows you to make a deeper connection with what youre learning, said Chris Millet, director of Penn State World Campus learning design operations. Weve made a quantum leap in terms of the effectiveness of how these concepts are taught for a small amount of effort and expense.

The goal is to see if students retained the knowledge better by using the immersive videos compared to a two-dimensional illustration created in PowerPoint, the original method for illustrating this content, which is still available. The students also can watch 360-degree video on YouTube without a VR headset.

Millet said the research his team has done showed that concepts that have a spatial component that students can explore are the best applications for this technology.

The videos give students the opportunity to better understand the content and skills they are learning, said associate professor Katie Hoffman, who appears in the videos.

The idea is for teachers to think about their goals of a lesson or activity and how they physically arrange their rooms, said Hoffman, who is also the coordinator of online special education programs for the Penn State College of Education. The 360-degree videos allow them to see it from the teacher perspective and a student perspective.

The idea to use VR technology started with a group of World Campus learning designers. Designer Linas Mockus immediately thought of using it in the special education course.

Whats better than actually going into a classroom and capturing the environment? he said. The idea is that while youre immersed in this VR environment, you can control what you see and what you look at.

Millet is optimistic that 360-degree videos can be implemented in many courses offered online through Penn State World Campus. The same group of World Campus learning designers is working on using the technology for a lesson in a graduate-level nursing course to help students identify potentially unsafe living spaces for elderly people.

We always think about the pedagogical reasons why we are doing this, not just using technology to use it, Mockus said. 360-video lets students experience the virtual environment and understand concepts better. Thats why we think it shows a lot of promise in online education.

See original here:
Penn State World Campus implements 360-degree videos in online courses - Penn State News

Its weird what sorts of stories catch our eye.

Sometimes, Ill read something that I just cant shake. Ill learn about a trend or a statistic, and then Ill keep wondering about what that information means for the future of higher education.

The latest trend that I think must somehow illuminate the future world of colleges and universities has to do with laundromats. A recent article in The Atlantic called The Decline of the American Laundromat related the following statistics:

"According to data from the Census Bureau, the number of laundry facilities in the U.S. has declined by almost 20 percent since 2005, with especially precipitous drops in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles (17 percent) and Chicago (23 percent)."

The reasons that the author of The Atlantic piece gives for the decline in laundromats is the increasing value of the buildings in which they are located. In densely populated areas with rising property prices, such as San Francisco or Boston or New York (what Richard Florida calls superstar cities), coin operated laundromats simply cant generate enough revenues. They are being replaced by either upscale housing or retail businesses with high per-square foot sales. This is leaving city residents who depend on laundromats with few options to get their sheets, towels, and clothing cleaned.

So, is there anything that we can extract from the laundromat story about where higher ed might be going? Any weak signals that we can amplify?

The decline of laundromats makes me think of the disappearance of physical places where people once gathered. On campuses, the best example is probably computer labs. Many colleges once had game rooms, but like arcades everywhere they now gone.

When I was in college we used to go each week to watch movies chosen by the university film society - called the Filmboard. I never hear about my older daughter going to campus movie screenings, as she and her friends seem to gather around laptops to watch video.

Of course, there is the whole question of the long-term viability of much of our physical spaces. Who is not fascinated by dead malls - and deadmalls.com?

Who amongst us has wondered if the future of online education and physical classrooms will one-day mimic that of online shopping and bricks-and-mortar retail?

What about Moore's Law? (Or whatever the equivalent law that exists for durable appliances).Could one reason for the decline in laundromats be the drop in real prices for home washing machines and dryers?

A washer and dryer in 1953 cost an average of $495 dollars. In today's dollars that amount would be $4,541 dollars.

Could laundromats be following the trajectory of computer labs, disappearing because the real cost of owning the technology (as opposed to renting or using it) is going down?

Not all coin operated laundry machines are going away. They remain a fixture of residence halls, even if most are now moving from coin payments to being able to pay with your student ID.

What the decline of American laundromats really tells us about the future of higher education is a story that we dont like to talk about. That is the story of increasing inequality. Of the gap between those who can afford an ever-increasing bounty of amenities, and of others in our society who are increasingly excluded from these advantages.

For those that can afford higher education, the experiences that they will have in college are improving. Everything is better at my college today than when I was an undergraduate from 1987 to 1991. The teaching is better. The classrooms are better. The dorms are nicer. The food is much much better.

My expectation is that the quality of higher education will continue to improve, but these improvements will be enjoyed by an ever fewer numbers of the very most privileged of students.

The decline of the American laundromat story, I fear, another indication of the concentration of privilege. This story, I suspect, will be the master trend that will shape the contours of U.S. postsecondary education over the next few decades.

How would you build a narrative around the history of the laundromat, and the future of higher education?

The rest is here:
The Decline of the Laundromat and the Future of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed (blog)

PALOS HILLS, IL -- Moraine Valley Community College offers a variety of options for adults wishing to earn class credits to transfer to four-year schools, earn certificates, prepared for their GED, or get extra training to further their careers. The community college also offers non-credit classes for students wishing to enrich their lives by learning new skills, tap into their creativity or expand their horizons.

Daytime, evening and weekend classes are offered throughout the Moraine Valley system.A complete listing of all the classes being offered at MVCCs main Palos Hills campus and the Blue Island and Southwest Education Center in Tinley Park, online and weekend classes can be found in the fall 2017 class schedule or online at morainevalley.edu. Registration is ongoing.

General registration is underway now at the Palos Hills campus for the fall semester which begins Aug. 21. Classes at the Moraine Valleys other locations are set to start Aug. 28 and later, as well as weekend and online class options.

Tuition is $122 per credit hour plus fees and books. Students who have applied to the college can register in the Registration Office, located on campus in the Student Services Center (Building S), 9000 W. College Parkway, in Palos Hills; by phone at (708) 974-2110 (TTY 711); or online at morainevalley.edu/register.

Classes at the Moraine Valley Community College Education Center at Blue Island are scheduled to start Aug. 28 and later. The college is offering more than 60 classes at its Blue Island location, 12940 S. Western Ave. Some credit classes at Blue Island include American Sign Language I, Art Appreciation, Composition I and II, Speech Fundamentals, Western Humanities I, Medical Terminology, Introduction to American Music, General Sociology, Spanish I, and Intermediate Algebra. One noncredit class being offered is Remodeling: Residential.

Residents in the Orland Park, Tinley Park and surrounding communities can take classes a little closer to home at Moraine Valley Community Colleges Southwest Education Center (SWEC), 17900 S. 94th Ave., in Tinley Park. SWEC offers more than 50 classes beginning Aug. 28 and later. Some credit classes include Composition I and II, Art Appreciation, Principles of Macroeconomics, Probability and Statistics, Business Law, Introduction to Psychology, Medical Terminology, General Sociology, and Music Appreciation. Noncredit classes include 50 Plus Computer Basics, Medicare Workshop, Tai Chi I/Qi Gong I, Yoga I, Fit for Life, Motivation for Life, Positive Thinking for Life, Beginning Conversational Italian, Beginning Conversational Spanish, and Intro to Mindful Meditation.

Students who prefer to take classes from home can enroll in Moraine Valley Community Colleges online and internet hybrid courses. More than 100 online classes are offered during the 2017 fall semester. Online classes are taught over the internet, while internet hybrid courses are taught through a combination of classroom and web-based instruction. Both types allow for students to attend all or part of their class online with the ability to access the instructor, classmates and course materials. Access to a web-equipped computer is required. Some of the online and web-assisted classes this fall include Arabic, Introductory Microbiology, Composition I and II, Introduction to Computer Science, Medical Terminology, Western Humanities I: Foundations, Network Essentials, Intermediate Algebra, Music Appreciation, American National Government, Abnormal Psychology, and Marriage and Family, among others.

Students with an already hectic schedule can still fit classes in by enrolling in a Moraine Valley Community College weekend class for the fall 2017 semester. Available classes include:

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Originally published August 2, 2017.

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Over 200 Courses Offered At Moraine Valley's Education Centers, Online and Weekends - Patch.com

Photo: Mint

Leverage Edu, an online platform for higher education services, has raised seed funding from a clutch of investors, the New Delhi-based start-up said Tuesday. It did not disclose the size of investment.

Angel investors include Kashyap Deorah, founder of HyperTrack; VRL Logistics managing director Anand Sankeshwar; Sadashiva NT, former chief financial officer of Babajobs; and Arjun Mehta, former CFO at American Express India, among others.

Leverage was founded in April 2017 by Akshay Chaturvedi and Rajiv Ganjoo. Chaturvedi, an alumnus of Indian School of Business, was earlier a senior executive at recruitments portal Babajobs.

Leverage offers college admissions and finance services to students, including help in creating profiles for universities, writing research papers and dedicated counselling through experts. To universities, Leverage offers UnivGateway, a Saas-based (software-as-a service) tool to help them admit the right students.

The company said it will use the funds to grow its nine-member team and invest in product development.

Original post:
India: Online education startup Leverage Edu raises seed funding - DEALSTREETASIA

Online Education is one of the most necessary yet undermined topics in the field of education. Online education is the process of attending college through internet. It basically means that a student can sit in his computer and earn college equivalent degree without even leaving their room. As marvelous as it sounds, online education courses are far from being taken in by the students. The traditional belief of education by person to person interaction seems to be one of many problems.

The world population is ever increasing, while schools and colleges are getting crowded. The concept of mass education compromises the quality of education. Students also travel to their respective colleges in their vehicles. The gasoline demands are forever increasing and with the growing population, it is set to get even higher than ever.

In such a scenario, online education courses serve as an efficient and easy way of minimizing such problems. Colleges are expensive as they have to encompass a large housing space for their dorms and classrooms. As a result, more barren land is created by demolishing forests which inevitably points toward the danger of global warming, climate change and many other problems. Online education courses also provide a solution to this problem. When students use such courses, there is no need to create huge housing spaces for college and dorms. Hence a large portion of the forest can remain unharmed.

Online education courses can also limit the flow of immigrant students who leave their country for education. As the colleges are less crowded, teachers will have a less student to deal with, enabling them to pay much closer attention to details, ensuring a higher quality of education. It can also help financially backward students to attend courses of their choice. As they can just stay at home and get education, the cost of travelling and accommodation can be saved.

However, online education courses also have disadvantages. For instance, the only medium to attain online courses is computer and internet, and youll have nothing in your hands if these mediums somehow get disrupted. Online education can also be annoying for some who do not want to sit on their computers for hours and take lessons.Digital divide, lack of computer education and other factors can also make online education inaccessible. Meanwhile, electronic devices can also be distracting for some. Students might move on to playing online games or watching videos when they are studying online.

Although the concept of online education courses is promising, its implementation is complicated. Such courses can save time, money and fuel. But it is not a realistic idea for underdeveloped countries. People have yet to understand that education can also be completed beyond the four-walled classrooms.

Originally posted here:
Online Education A broader solution - Republica

I like nothing better than getting things wrong. When we are wrong, we learn something.

So I interested to read a NYTimes piece on 7/10/17 on e-commerce, the tech sector, and job creation.

For a while now Ive thought that the growth of online shopping is killing retail jobs, and that this trend would inevitably result in overall job losses as less the role of sales people and cashiers is eliminated.

But maybe Ive been wrong.

And if online shopping is really a jobs engine, couldnt online learning also be a job creator for educators?

The Times article summarizes research from Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute, that makes the case that online shopping has created more jobs than it has displaced in bricks-and-mortar retail stores.

According to Mandel, in the decade between 2007 to 2017 the e-commerce industry created 397,000 jobs in the United States. This compares to loss of 76,000 jobs in the traditional retail industry. Even better, the jobs created in e-commerce fulfillment - such as warehouse jobs - pay on average 30 percent more than retail positions.

The article is quick to point out that Mandels findings are controversial. It is difficult to assign job creation directly to the growth of e-commerce, as it is not always clear what tasks employees of Amazon or Google or other tech companies are assigned. Nor is it certain that warehouse job creation will not plateau, as productivity around online shipping grows as the sector grows, and as warehouses themselves become more automated.

Might online education be operating in some similar ways as online shopping?

How many good jobs in education have been created by the growth in online learning?

From 2002 to 2014 the number of students who took at least one online course rose from 1.6 million to 5.8 million. The bulk of all online learning programs are concentrated in non-profit institutions, accounting for over 2 million of the total 2.8 million enrolled in online only programs. From 2012 to 2014 the percentage of 4-year schools offering online degree programs rose from 46 percent to 59 percent.

Has anyone counted the number of jobs, and what types of jobs, that the growth in online education has created?

Conventional wisdom would hold that online learning has the potential to displace full-time residential faculty with contingent online instructors. But is this really true?

Many schools that I know of draw their online faculty from the same pool of full-time and tenure-track/tenured faculty as their residential programs - as well as from the same pool of part-time and adjunct faculty teaching in-person. If anything, Ive seen online learning offer more opportunities for teaching gigs for all higher ed teachers.

Has anyone been able to count the number of instructional design and other non-faculty educator jobs that have been created by the growth of online education? Quality online programs require a team approach to course development. Faculty (subject matter experts) are paired with experts in learning design and technology.

The indirect impact of online learning on higher education employment may also be under-appreciated. Id like to see some national level data on the revenue impact of online programs on the budgets of non-profit institutions. How much cross-subsidization of residential programs is occurring from online units? How many higher ed jobs have been saved or created by profitable online units?

Where would one start in unpacking the higher education employment impact of online education?

Can we interest Michael Mandel and the Progressive Policy Institute in taking up this question?

Is this a question that WCET, OLC, EDUCAUSE, or the National Council for Online Education could answer?

When have you been wrong lately?

Read the original post:
Is Online Education a Jobs Engine? - Inside Higher Ed (blog)

How long is your commute?

Do you think that educators involved in online education think differently about commuting - including telecommuting?

Might the growing reach and acceptance of distance learning change how we think about commuting?

Ive been thinking about the relationship between commuting and online education after reading anarticle in this past Sundays NYTimes on extreme commuting.

According to the Times, the number of people who commute two hours or more (each way) to work is increasing. While solid data on the growth of extreme commuting is lacking, the consensus is that the trend towards long-distance commutes is accelerating.

Reasons for the growth in extreme commuting include:

Am I missing any of the reasons for the growth in extreme commuting?

In reading the Times article, my response was 'this is crazy'. A 4+ hour commute - even one by train that allows an extension of the workday into commuting time - just seems insane.

How much of my reaction against extreme commuting is driven by my experience with online education?

The one big thing that Ive learned in two decades of work in online education is that online education is really good. Done well, and for the right students and the right programs, online education is just as good as face-to-face.

How many jobs are there that truly require everyone to be in the same physical place at the same time?

Yes, I want the person who cuts my hair to be in the office when I go for a haircut. I suppose that there are some jobs that require physical proximity, such as most health care providers and firefighters and cops and other first responders. Construction workers cant work remotely. Nor can mechanics. Who else?

And yes, all the educators and staff who make residential colleges go need to come to campus - at least most days. Professors need to teach residential courses in classrooms. Researchers who work in labs need to come to the lab. The academic library would be a shell of itself without the presence of academic librarians. All the people who make the physical plant of the campus run need to come to campus to do so.

For most of the work that most workers do, however, Id venture that telecommuting would be just fine.

What weve learned from online education is that with a combination of thought, investment, and a willingness to make data-driven continuous improvements - that distance is not a barrier to quality.

Weve learned through online education that distance need not impede collaboration, community building, or the development of relationships.

The most important element in teaching an online class is developing a sense of presence. The best online courses are set-up so that there is a density of interactions. And the best online faculty prioritize rapid feedback, clear communication expectations, and the use of different platforms and tools for rich interactions.

This prioritization of presence and collaboration in online learning would translate well into the world of work. The biggest obstacle for telecommuting would be, Id guess, a concern about all those hallway conversations and micro-interactions that might be missed if people were not in the same physical space.

This concern, however, is a solved problem in online learning. We know how to build community, presence, and collaboration online - and we can take our methods and tools to goal of improving the productivity of telecommuting.

Have we done enough to take what weve learned in online education to improving telecommuting?

Should the champions of online learning also be advocating for telecommuting?

It seems strange that as we get more experience and comfort with distance education that extreme commuting should also be increasing.

Maybe some workers have jobs that truly require face-to-face in office time. I doubt, however, that the majority of extreme commuters are employed in such jobs.

Are online learning people also natural champions of telecommuting?

How do you see the relationship between online learning and extreme commuting?

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Extreme Commuting and Online Education - Inside Higher Ed (blog)