Cool Things about an Online Education

Know where you are going and count the cost first.

I teach at two online schools. Students sometimes get alarmed that they are not at the right school.

I tell them about being at Yale and hearing students concerned about not being at Harvard. I said, "Yale has fairly good reputation, too."

Some people knock online schools, but all the universities are online now. The Ivy League also has online classes. In many cases, more can be accomplished online than in person. Even the traditional classroom has gone online, a hybrid, because content is delivered and papers are submitted through the Internet. Paper is over-rated. I would rather grade a Word file and use all the nifty tools available for editing and adding comments.

Here are some cool things about an online education:

1. An infinite amount of material can be made available to students. For instance, I provide lengthy posts about academic success and how to find a job.

2. Participation is required and enjoyable. Traditional classrooms limit the participation due to time. Some students participate, but the shy ones do not. Online students participate as much as they want. I post extra material, so I get a lot more participation and the students enjoy the higher energy level.

3. Online research is so vast, people need to learn how to do it properly. This is the Information Age, based on the vastly expanding Internet. Everyone needs to learn computer technology, how to tame it and make it work for them.

4. All jobs require confidence and efficiency with computers. An online education gives each student a chance to learn computer applications and see their potential.
5. Teams are part of all work assignments, and many of them are multi-national. Online students learn how to work with team members they may never meet face-to-face.

6. Online students are often disabled, but no one knows it. No matter what they claim, a traditional campus has trouble with quadriplegic students or those with noisy, cumbersome equipment. Online education levels the field and makes everyone with a keyboard equal.

7. Online teachers have to do their jobs. Almost no one has tenure. If they do not show up or grade papers, they stop working. Tenure, unfortunately, makes professors take their positions for granted.

8. Pretty pictures, videos, and sound aside, online education comes down to reading and writing. The Information Age requires a greater volume of reading than ever before and clear, articulate writers.

9. Parents of young children benefit from the freedom of doing their work once the children are in bed. I am proud of the many young parents who have been my students. Several Axia students have given birth during the course and still finished with great grades.

10. Many crises hit a large population: medical emergencies in the family, the death of a family member, and eviction. I can be flexible with students.

11. Students come from all over the world and all cultures.

12. Best of all, our military people can complete a degree while serving our country. I have had students in Iraq and on an aircraft carrier. Some have silence imposed on them due to their duties, and the school works around that.


Students have to count the cost of an education. A degree in art history may be fun but the job market is not crying for that diploma. A school may brag about its job placement, but most of that result belongs to the drive of the student and the health of the economy.

I finished six computer certifications, just in time for the dot.com fever to turn frosty. I had one technical writing job after that and became a teacher at my community college. Teaching computer science led me into online education.

The person who got me started at the University of Phoenix said, "I would like to be like you, Greg, working only from home." One of my students said the same thing. At home, rush hour means my wife and I are headed to the coffee maker at the same time.

The economy is moving toward more people working from home. Outside my window, blue jays are feeding their babies. I will watch them for a little while.

PS - Anyone can quote from my posts.

What PBS Does Not Know about Higher Education Would Fill an Hour's Program

"From 1983 to 1987, Mr. Mueller was a professor
at Concordia University.
Mr. Mueller earned his Master of Arts in Education degree
and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Education from Concordia University."

One evil genius behind for-profit education
saved Grand Canyon University from insolvency.
Find him. Stop him from doing it again.

PBS, heavily subsidized by taxpayer grants, could not exist on its own. Neither could any institution of higher education, whether it is non-profit or for-profit.

Nevertheless, PBS broadcast a heavy-breathing episode called "Colllege, Inc," calling on for-profit schools to be tethered by even more government regulation. I have studied at a wide variety of schools and taught at three - a community college and two for-profits (Grand Canyon University and the University of Phoenix). I found most of the episode to be an excellent satire about what journalism could be, if reporters only had some integrity.

The journalistic technique used for this show is called the focus feature, which begins with one person, zooms out for the big picture, and concludes with a follow-up about that individual.

In this show, the focus is on Michael Clifford, an Evangelical with no college training but a knack for turning small colleges into profitable online schools. The prime example shown is Grand Canyon University, which became insolvent when its funds were lost to the biggest charitable scandal in history - the Arizona Baptist Foundation, a ponzi scheme promising investors a 15% return on their savings. They lost 90% instead.

GCU was going to close, so one man bought it for a group of investors. The transformed a bankrupt Baptist school of 3,000 students into a profitable online school of 40,000 students. They have spent millions on the local campus in Phoenix.

My former boss at UOP, Brian Mueller, is my current boss at GCU. He comes originally from a Missouri Synod school.

GCU has retained its Christian identity without having a religious requirement. I have an atheist in one class, but most denominations are represented. A university is quite different from a denominational school. A denomination's seminary teaches people to be loyal to the organization and to play the political game. A university emphasizes academic merit and allows freedom of expression.

GCU is well run, its biggest problems coming from expansion. The TV show failed to explain that exponential growth is full of growing pains, such as having servers shut down from rush hour demands.

The students and staff at GCU are thoughtful, considerate, and appreciative. I teach Old Testament, New Testament, church history, Christian world view, and communication. Many of my professors were world famous scholars, so the students are getting their money's worth. Online schools want PhDs, while denominational schools get those who play the political game and have the right last names.

Community Colleges
I learned computers at Glendale Community College and taught there as well. Community college tuition is heavily subsidized by taxpayers and by adjunct faculty working at low wages. Very few faculty at GCC are tenured, so the majority of teaching is done by adjuncts who make about 25% of a full-time salary, without any benefits. Therefore, when the PBS journalist seethed that an online school charges five times what a community college does, he was missing the facts by a wide margin. A community college is a valuable addition to any town, but the system has limits, such as offering only an associate's degree. No one will get a bachelor's degree or a master's from a community college, and any graduate program is more expensive than an associate's program, for obvious reasons.

University of Phoenix
I earned a master's degree in education, online, from UOP, after earning a PhD from Notre Dame and a master's from Yale, so I can do some comparisons.

An online education consists of discussions and weekly assignments, including work with learning teams. I found the MA program challenging, and it led to more work in online education.

I normally teach graduate courses in education year around. My students have often been employees and managers at UOP/Axia, so I know how their system works from that perspective. They want to do a good job because so much time and money is wasted if the wrong people start the program and drop out.

UOP has about 450,000 students, according to the program. The school had only about 150,000 when I began teaching there in 2002, but I do not take all the credit for its enrollment growth.

UOP is an opportunity school (like community colleges and the famous City College of New York, now CUNY). Everyone is accepted but not all graduate. My boss at Glendale Community advised bearing down on the class from day one and getting rid of the 2/3rds who did not belong. Nevertheless, the day one enrollment kept the school afloat.

UOP grew because traditional universities run their programs for the benefit of tenured faculty. Full-time working adults could not complete a degree program at the state or private schools in California, so John Sperling devised a way to make an alternative work for them. He was so successful that the education establishment took away his accreditation. He moved to Phoenix and obtained accreditation from a different regional commission and became a billionaire. He wrote an autobiography, but I heard no references to it on the PBS show. Rebel with a Cause.

Some Glaring Problems with College Inc
All online schools were treated alike, and they were discussed as if they are exactly the same. Not all community colleges are the same. Mine, GCC, was especially good in computer science. I understand it was better than the others in Phoenix.

Contacting prospects and asking them to enroll was considered a horrible sin, yet non-profit colleges hire people full-time to do that. Non-profits also arrange student loans and hire people to move the applications forward. All schools need educational loans because few students have the funds to pay tuition.

Making a profit was the dark theme of the show. Non-profits depend on large endowments, alumni giving, and taxpayer funds.

For-profits are just as regulated as the non-profits. In fact, the loyalist alumni of traditional schools are quick to point out any flaws they find in a competing school. Many of my online students have wasted their time at a state university known for being a party school. As the student said in "Animal House," seven years of my life down the drain.

Students at for-profit schools are serious about getting an education, and there are many free services available to help them get through the program. No one wants them to fail, so software is used to track lazy instructors and inactive students.

ASU versus a For-Profit
I wanted to get credits in writing or literature, because that was hampering my ability to get writing classes to teach. I contacted Arizona State on their website and gave them all my contact information. I never heard from them. When I contacted a for-profit school, they worked with me immediately and I eventually earned 20 credits in journalism. So the taxpayers supported a staff that did not respond at ASU, while a for-profit school responded with their own staff time, their own money.

PBS is a socialist operation, so no one should be shocked that they hate a profitable enterprise. Regulation is seen the answer to everything, but no school escapes the reach of the higher education commission. I heard many discussions about why a program was offered or not offered, based upon accrediting groups and individual state requirements. Some states have fought to keep for-profit schools from competing with their own home-grown institutions.

If regulation of for-profit schools were the answer, then Detroit would be a boom town, run on solar powered yogurt, manufacturing cars that converted easily into compost. Instead, MoTown is no town to live in, only to escape from.

Main campus, UOP, Phoenix.

Profits and the need to advertise led UOP
to buy naming rights for the Cardinals' new stadium.
UOP subsidized a tax-payer project.
The horror! The horror!

Door Openings - Now They Make Sense

Where are you going?

I was taking some computer courses at Glendale Community College when an offer came up. Could I edit a series of books on Unix for an attractive hourly wage? My son was already involved in Unix/Linux, so I knew the name of the operating system but little else. I was asked because of my writing and editing experience, but I decided it would be good to learn Unix/Linux too.

I signed up for six credits in Unix and Linux. The professor mentioned the University of Phoenix in class, so I asked him about teaching there myself. He thought they would be very interested in me because of my academic degrees. When I wrote to JS at UOP, she replied within five minutes.

I decided to get the Linux+ certification at the same time. I applied to UOP and was accepted for teaching. The first course I taught in was Linux/Unix for that instructor. I switched into my main fields of writing and religion.

UOP led me into online teaching. JS - my first contact on the UOP staff - just wrote to me, "I wish I had your freedom to work from home."

UOP led me into teaching at Grand Canyon University, because I heard in the washroom at UOP that "someone bought GCU and wanted to turn it into a Christian UOP."

The computer background got me into teaching the first education classes, and I enjoyed them. The students encouraged me to earn the MA degree in education, and that got me teaching a steady stream of education students, mostly UOP staff.

The point of this story is this, as Aesop would say - I did not know that the book idea, which never developed, would lead to teaching at two online universities. The book idea pushed me into the training that opened the door to teaching. Now it all makes sense.

One of my favorite students of all time recently said to me, "I want to be like you. I want your freedom to teach online." That is a great compliment, and I enjoy seeing his success, which combined his insightful work with a formal education.

The Value of an MA in Education

One of my undergraduate students was finishing his degree in the capstone class. He already worked for an online university, so I encouraged him to get an MA in adult education, which focused on distance education.

I said, "Right now you are just a high school student." I said that to raise his hackles and it worked. Until someone is formally cleared to graduate, he is just a high school graduate or perhaps a GED, with some college. No one recognizes a degree until it is done.

I pointed out what was obvious to me. A previous student in the same position saw her income triple while the school paid all her costs to finish college and earn a master's degree in education.

All academic institutions love degrees, and they love education degrees most of all. It is like an automotive engineering degree where they manufacture cars. Universities manufacture graduates and they want people who know the theories behind that effort.

Also, every university wants to have credibility with its staff having advanced degrees. At the very least it shows they believe in the service they represent.

Soon enough, my former undergraduate student was in my adult education class. A few months later he completed his MA in adult education. He has been promoted and rewarded for his work and his academic achievements.

He said, "The MA gave me confidence, above all, in presenting myself."

We do not know the doors we are opening with a degree until that degree is earned. Often a different path is taken just because of that training. The post above explains how that worked for me.

Blogging Can Help Someone's Business and Feature One's Careeer

One of the best ways to learn about web design fast and have fun is to blog.

So far I have only used Google’s Blogger. I am happy with that software, which makes it easy for me to publish content, add photos, and embed videos. I have taught a number of people to blog to build up their businesses.

http://www.blogger.com/home

You need a gmail account, so start with that. Sign in to Blogger.

The name of the blog does not have to match the URL. It often does, to make it easier for people to remember. I normally make it match, so I can remember.

Pick a template and start posting. Add extra features later.

I had to add 101 to the URL because someone had the basic name:

http://educationprofessionals101.blogspot.com/

Note that I am posting this on the blog today, too. I will search my animal photo files for something to make it more interesting.

Strangely enough, in Phoenix, regular blogging was enough to bring in one new client a week for a chiropractor and another one of the associates in the business. Each had a blog. The chiropractor was running around town, trying to network for more business, and blogging made people walk in the door.

Another benefit of blogging is building up a professional portfolio to show people.

Blogger allows you to write in code or in WYSIWYG – pronounced wizziwig. What you see is what you get. Blogger (like Dreamweaver and other editors) will create the code for the look you want. Various editor buttons are on a menu, to select larger fonts, color, links, photos, and so forth. To place a video on the blog, get the embed code (not the link) and paste it onto the page in HTML edit mode.

The advantage is posting material immediately and correctly quickly.

The disadvantage is this – the more software does for the user, the more freedom is taken away.

I enjoy using blogger. I continue to be astonished at the reach of blogs. They are read all over the world.

The more someone blogs, the more likely Google will direct people to that blog. The search engine picks up labels and links from other blogs.

This is an important feature for professional work – getting people to one’s blog or website, instead of billions of others.

I will get into social networking soon, which is closely connected to blogs and websites.

Did You Know? The Original Version Was Called Shift Happens

AET 545 Class

Here is a good example of posting a video from You Tube, using the embed code found on most but not all videos. I chose a red border for this one.