Distance degrees: update your skills without setting foot in a classroom

T+D,  March, 2004  by Vicky Phillips

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You completed your college degree when overhead projectors were high tech. Now your boss wants you to motivate virtual teams, and your daughter needs help with her science homework--building a multimedia dissection lab on her PDA.

Are your skills a little antiquated? Now might be a good time to crack open the books. No, on second thought, forget the books; they're old school. You need something quicker and more interactive. How about a master's degree in e-learning or a certificate in using virtual reality for training, both available online?

Distance learning degree and certificate programs, once hawked on the back of penny matchbooks, are now offered by more than 400 institutions, ranging from Ivy League schools (Columbia University) to cyber-universities (University of Phoenix) that have tailored their curriculums to working adults.

Smarter by degrees?

If you already have a master's or doctoral degree in HR, training, or an associated field, ask yourself whether you really need another master's degree. An accredited online master's degree will take, on average, three years to complete and cost more than US$20,000.

If your goal is to quickly acquire a new skill set or enhance your employability in a new specialty such as online learning facilitation, consider a specialized certificate. Online certificate programs consisting of two to five courses can be completed in under a year and cost as little as $1000.

If you don't already have a master's degree or the one you have isn't sufficient for your career aspirations, consider programs that allow you to earn a certificate then apply your certificate credits toward a master's. That strategy will enable you to change your skill set quickly, and you'll lose no time in achieving your long-term goal of an advanced degree.

The University of Maryland, Pennsylvania State University, and Jones International University are examples of regionally accredited institutions that offer two-phased certificate to master's programs completely campus-flee.

Specialized versus generic

Work has grown increasingly specialized, and the training profession is no exception. But many academic degree programs remain generalized and offer more theory than practice. A one-size-fits-all curriculum of about a dozen courses (for example, master's in instructional technology or master's in educational technology) is offered by no fewer than 20 distance university programs.

If you've been in the training field for a while, a generic educational technology degree that's heavy on theory and light on modern-day relevancy may not be your most marketable investment. Newer degree programs created online in the past decade may better fit your needs.

Jones International University was founded online in 1993. As a result, its curriculum was born on the Web and shaped in response to modern day market demands. If you want to study e-learning return-on-investment and online student retention, Jones is the only regionally accredited virtual university that offers a master's degree in education with a major in e-learning research and assessment. The program covers retention, motivation, and other related topics. You can earn a certificate in five courses or a complete degree after 12 courses.

If you've been a stand-up trainer and now want to develop blended learning that mixes online and face-to-face delivery, look into the certificate in migrating traditional training to online delivery that's offered through George Mason University in Virginia.

Admission requirements

Professional schools typically require a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college with a 2.5 to 3.0 GPA. The most common admission exams are the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and the Miller Analogies Test (MAT). These exams test very different abilities: The GRE examines verbal and quantitative skills; the MAT looks at your ability to think comparatively. It's possible to gain a high score on the MAT and an average score on the GRE, and vice versa. If you're given a choice between the GRE and MAT, take both and submit your best score.

Because distance learning programs target older learners (the average age is 36 to 44), more than half waive traditional admission exams. And some programs that require the GRE or MAT may be willing to waive the exams if you already hold a graduate degree.

Residency requirements

Don't assume that a distance degree can be completed entirely in your pajamas. Of the more than 300 accredited graduate programs profiled in GetEducated. corn's Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools guidebook series, only two-thirds are completely campus-free.

Some programs offer all of their courses online but require weekend orientations on campus at the beginning of each semester. Students may also be required to come to campus to defend a thesis or master's project.

Make sure you understand residency requirements before beginning your degree. Airfare and lodging for a single weekend residency can tack as much as a thousand dollars onto your education bill.