Meet Caroline. She is someone you have to admire. Although her job requires that she spends most of her time at sea, managing over 300 staff on board a P&O Cruise Liner, Caroline is over half-way through her MBA, studying it online at the University Of Liverpool.
We were lucky enough to ask her about her study life, what it’s like to study her MBA online, and whether she would recommend studying an MBA.
Posted in MBA, Online learning experience, Online student interviews.
It’s important to keep your skills sharp, and it’s not always possible to invest in improving your skills. We’ve put together a list of free business courses focussed on a variety of subject areas that will help you increase your own value to your company.
All the courses we’ve listed are from well-respected learning institutions such as MIT, UC Davis, Yale, and the Open University in the UK. The courses do not give you a formal qualification, so will benefit you in terms of skill but not merit.
Our list covers a wide range of business topics, such as management, business, strategy, marketing, ebusiness, creative thinking, entrepreneurship, leadership, ebusiness, human resources, accounting, economics and law.
If you are serious about skill and knowledge development in business, then you might want to consider studying a degree, diploma or certificate. See our online business degree directory for some options.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online business degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online entrepreneurship degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online marketing degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online ebusiness degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online human resources degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online economics degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online finance degree or online accounting degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online IT degree.
Click here if you’re interested in studying an online law degree.
Posted in Free Online Courses.
The Financial Times have published a list of forty international online MBAs, ranked by the number of students enrolled. It lists three UK online MBAs in the top five – Edinburgh Business School (Heriot Watt University) in second position, the Open University Business School in third and Henley Business School in forth. The University of Phoneix MBA is in first place (with an impressive 67,700 students), and Global U21 from Singapore is in fifth place.
The listing also tells you where the MBA is accredited, the percentage of materials which are online, and the percentage of students whom have completed the course after five years.
See it at: Online MBA 2009 Listing.
Posted in MBA.
From 2002 to 2008 more than 1.5m people joined the online student population. It had reached nearly 2m students by last year, 2008 (Eduventures Inc). Studying online is becoming mainstream because every year it is more widely accepted as a legimate method of learning to earn a degree. Indeed some would much prefer to study online, and others say it offers some of the virtues of the education systems developed in the 16th century Oxford and Cambridge.
To illustrate that online learning is becoming mainstream, we have have compiled a list of facts, reports and commentry about its adoption. We hope it gives you, the potential online student, confidence that you’re not alone!
According to Eduventures Inc. in 2008, the online education student market represented 10.6% of all students in the U.S. In 2013 it predict it will represent 18%.
According to the Sloan Consortium, in fall 2007, 22 percent of U.S. college students took at least one web-based class.
A recent study conducted for the United States’s Department of Education, examining research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008, found that “on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.
3.94 million people were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2007, up 12.9% from 2006 (Sloan Consortium). This increase is up from a 9.7% increase the previous year (Sloan Consortium). Therefore online learning enrolements grew faster in 2007 than 2006.
This 9.7% growth rate for online enrolments, during the fall 2006 term, far exceeded the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher education student population (Sloan Consortium).
Some argue that online learning more closely resembles the “tutorial system” pioneered at Oxford and Cambridge in the 16th Century, “nurturing young minds one to one, inquiring, prodding and encouraging.” (NY Times). Research shows that the tutorial system results in the best student performance.
As outlined in a recent article in the New York Times, the technology that delivers online learning enables a closer, ongoing interaction with tutors and teachers. This allows more one-on-one teaching, offering to some extent, the benefits of the tutorial system.
In the 2006–07 academic year, 66 percent of the 4,160 accredited US colleges offered college-level distance education courses (National Centre for Education Statistics).
In general, there is research and commentary indicating that employers are becoming more likely to hold an online degree in the same esteem as a campus-based one. As their understanding of elearning and the technologies that delivers it (e.g. video streaming on YouTube) grows, and as they appreciate the value it offers their business (by providing their staff with better access to education), then it is thought that they will become more accepting of it.
According to a survey conducted by Excelsior College/Zogby International in January 2008, among those who are familiar with online or distance learning programs, more than four in five (83%) strongly believe that a degree earned via an online program is as credible as one earned through a traditional campus-based program.
Further, a survey organised by the Society of Human Resource Management in 2007, that gained 425 responses from randomly selected human resource professionals, revealed that 71 percent of companies reimburse their employees for degrees earned online from regionally accredited and/or professionally accredited higher education institutions and programs. This indicates that nearly 3/4 of employers are willing to invest in online learning.
Richard Garrett, senior research analyst for Eduventures, explains that most employers today have no qualms about the quality of online education. “If you ask employers about their sense of the quality of online education — is it of equal quality to traditional — the response you typically get is a growing adherence to it being of equal quality.”
The Department of Education recently announced that it was developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a “vision of how information and communications technologies can help transform American education.” (NY Times)
Kaplan University’s new advertising campaign says “the world needs talent more than ever”. They say: “talent just isn’t in schools, it’s everywhere”. Online learning enables better access to education so more can realise the benefits of a more advanced education.
Posted in Online learning.
Supposedly browsing the internet requires more brain power than watching television. Although judging from some of the websites we’ve come across that assumption is cast into doubt. Here’s some of the sites we like that might get your brain to sit up and listen.
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New Scientist
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Posted in Education.
When you look at the shiny white smiles walking the red carpet into their blockbuster movie premieres you may not realise that there is also a college degree in that dinner jacket.
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Natalie PortmanPsychology BSc, Harvard Natalie didn’t make the premiere of Star Wars Episode I because she was studying for her high school finals. She then went on to study Psychology at Harvard whilst filming the subsequent Star Wars titles. She’s quoted as saying “I’d rather be smart than a movie star.” |
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Denzel WashingtonDrama and Journalism BA, Fordham University Washington’s academic career initially lacked any real focus. He was originally interested in attending Texas Tech University because the college football team shared the same name and a similar uniform to his high school’s own side. A change of heart led him to Fordham. Washington dropped out of Fordham for a semester to work as a counselor at an overnight summer camp in Lakeville CT. During his time as a counselor he took part in a staff talent show where somebody casually suggested he think about a career as an actor. With renewed enthusiasm, Washington returned to Fordham and enroled on acting courses and gained the lead roles in several plays where critics loved him. After graduating Washington spent a year at the American Conservatory Theaer in San Fransisco before leaving to start his acting career in New York. |
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Kevin CostnerBusiness BA, California State University (Fullerton) Costner discovered his love of acting during his college years, but didn’t pursue it as a profession until after graduation. A chance meeting with Richard Burton on a flight during Costner’s honeymoon gave him some perspective. A job he was due to start in marketing lasted just a month before he took to acting professionally. |
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Donald SutherlandDouble major in Engineering and Drama, University of Toronto After graduating from the University of Toronto with a double major in Engineering and Drama, Sutherland set his sights on a career as an engineer, considering acting as more of a hobby. Although after spending some time in a Toronto comedy troupe called “UC Follies”, he found his true calling and moved to London to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. |
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Cate BlanchettEconomics and Fine Arts, University of Melbourne Blanchett’s interest in acting goes back to her secondary/high school years in Melbourne. After graduating from the University of Melbourne, Blanchett travelled to Egypt where she was asked to be a film extra. On her return to Australia she enroled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney to pursue a career as an actor. |
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Renée ZellwegerEnglish BA, University of Texas at Austin After high school (where she was on the cheerleader team and voted ‘best looking’ of her 1987 graduating class), Zellweger went on to study English at the University of Texas. She had no intention on a career in acting until she took a drama course to make up the credits she needed for her English degree. The course made her realise how much she enjoyed acting and after graduating she sought a career in acting in and around the Houston area, starring in at least one beef commercial before Hollywood came calling. |
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Forest WhitakerActing BA, University of Southern California Whitaker initially went to Cat Poly Pomona on a football scholarship, but after a back injury he sustained during a training session, Whitaker transferred to University of Southern California to study acting and opera as a tenor. Subsequently he was accepted into the university’s Drama Conservatory which helped in turn him win a scholarship to the Berkeley, California branch of the Drama Studio London. |
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Tommy Lee JonesEnglish BA, Harvard Jones is a Harvard graduate. He was roommates with Al Gore and John Lithgow. Jones played offensive tackle on Harvard’s undefeated 1968 varsity football team. He graduated cum laude in 1969. |
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Jerry SeinfeldCommunications and Theatre BA, Queens College, City University of New York Seinfeld attended SUNY Oswego but transferred to Queens College after his sophomore year. He developed an interest in stand-up comedy during his time at college, and after graduation tried out at an open mic night, leading him to an appearance on a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. |
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Adam SandlerFine Arts BA, New York University Like Jerry Seinfeld, Sandler started performing at stand-up nights during his college years. Known for making references to his youth in his work, his song ‘Lunchlady Land’ is about Emalee, the lunchlady at Hayden Dining Hall at New York University. |
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Matthew McConaugheyFilm Direction, University of Texas at Austin A member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity at the University of Texas, McConaughey balanced his acting career and education whilst at university. He was still studying when he filmed Dazed and Confused. He graduated in 1993. |
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Maggie GyllenhaalLiterature and Eastern Religions BA, University of Columbia The daughter of a director and screenwriter, there was a fair chance Gyllenhaal would pursue a career in the movies. Before her career as an actress, Gyllenhaal studied Literature and Eastern Religions at the University of Columbia. Interestingly her brother Jake also enroled on the same program, but didn’t graduate. After graduating in 1999 she went on to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. |
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David DuchovnyEnglish Literature BA, Princeton Duchovny’s possibly one of the more academically distinguished member of Hollywood society. Alumni to two of America’s top colleges, he has also received praise from the Academy of American Poets for his poetry. Duchovny almost completed a Phd. The title of his doctoral thesis was “Magic and Technology in Contemporary Poetry and Prose.” |
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Jodie FosterLiterature BA, Yale Foster had a rough time at Yale, where she was agressively stalked by John Hinckley Jr. He went on to attempt to assassinate then president Ronald Reagan, claiming that his motivation was that he wanted to impress Foster. The unwanted media attention meant she was constantly chased by the press through campus, leading her to take a year-long leave of absence. |
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Ashley JuddFrench BA, University of Kentucky Judd majored in French, and minored in anthropology, art history, theatre and women’s studies. As part of her major she spent a semester in France. She graduated in 2007, although mistakingly believed she was a few credits short of graduating. During an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show, DeGeneres presented Judd with her diploma. She’s now continuing her education at Harvard. |
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Will FerrellSports Information BSc, University of Southern California Ferrell studied sports broadcasting at USC graduating in 1990. Although he realised his own talent for comedy from an early age, Ferrell only joined a comedy group after graduating from USC as a member of The Groundlings. |
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Eva Longoria ParkerKinesiology BSc, Texas A&M University-Kingsville Eva originally set out to be a model, but was rejected because of her height (she’s a pint-sized 5′2″). Accepting she may not be destined for fame, she completed a degree in kinisiology (the study of human movement) at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. After college Eva won a talent contest that took her to LA. In LA she was spotted by a theatrical agent her career as an actor took off. |
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Tim AllenTelevision Production BA, Western Michigan University Allen’s notorious cocaine problem blighted his college years. He graduated from WMU in 1975 to set out as a comedian, although further problems with drugs led to his arrest in 1978 and a two year custodial sentence. |
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Meryl StreepDrama BA, Vassar College Streep attended Vassar College, a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was briefly tutored by Jean Arthur (movie actor from the 1940s known for her ’screwball comedy’ roles). She was an exchange student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire for a short time, and eventually enrolled at Yale School of Drama where she earned an MFA. |
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Lisa KudrowBiology BS, Vassar College Like Meryl Streep, Kudrow also attended Vassar College. She gained a degree in biology there with the intention to assist her father’s research into headaches (her father is Dr Lee N. Kudrow, a physician and headache researcher). She was on her father’s research team for eight years, earning her a research credit for his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches (Kudrow is left-handed herself). Her brother’s childhood friend Jon Lovitz convinced her to join The Groundlings comedy group (joining Will Ferrell). |
Posted in Education.
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”
Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001)
British Author
“It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.”
Aleck Bourne (1886 – 1974)
British Gynecologist and Writer
“A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.”
Thomas Carruthers (? – 1925)
British Physician
“Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”
John Dewey (1859 – 1952)
American Philosopher, Psychologist, and Educational Reformer
“Education is the transmission of civilization.”
Will (1885 – 1981) and Ariel (1898 – 1981) Durant
American and Russian/American Authors
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
German/Swiss/American Theoretical Physicist
“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”
Malcolm Forbes (1919 – 1990)
American Publisher
“Remember that our nation’s first great leaders were also our first great scholars.”
John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)
American President
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)
British Writer and Academic
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
American President
“Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.”
Maria Mitchell (1818 – 1889)
American Astronomer
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)
Spanish Artist
“Ye can lead a man up to the university, but you can’t make him think.”
Finley Peter Dunne (1867 – 1936)
American Author
“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.”
Carl Rogers (1902 – 1987)
American Psychologist
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”
Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC)
Classical Greek Philosopher
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler (b. 1928)
American Writer and Futurist
“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.”
Anonymous
“A professor is one who talks in someone else’s sleep.”
Anonymous
Posted in Education, Life-long learning.
We’ve noticed a growing number of websites offering life experience degrees in the last few months. These are websites selling degrees on the premise that your life experience could earn you a degree. The catch is that you also must pay thousands of dollars for the paperwork to come through.
As you may suspect, your life experience cannot earn you a degree outright. Worryingly, these websites are popping up more and more in searches for ‘online degrees’ and similar keywords.
Some accredited programs take your work experience into account in order to compensate for a lack of conventional qualifications. Although this would be in order to gain entry to the college, not for automatic completion of the program.
A degree, by definition, is an award attained through academic achievement – it has nothing to do with life experience. Employers do not accept life experience degrees. Aside from a novelty value, life experience degrees are worthless.
Study2U will only list accredited online degrees. We make every effort to ensure that we only list awards with high academic standards and the best career prospects.
There is no such thing as an accredited degree you don’t have to study for. Please be careful and avoid these scams!
For further information and examples, follow these links:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/PersonalFinance/story?id=8322412&page=1
http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=10986669
Posted in Online learning, Online learning experience.
UBIS campus in Geneva
The Swiss are famous for their precision, quality, and of course chocolate.
They also offer high-quality, English-based, accredited education, online. The University of Business and International Studies (UBIS), is a ‘bricks-and-mortar’ university based in Geneva which delivers campus-based degrees online to students in Switzerland, and all over the world.
I asked if they could give me an insight into what it’s like to study online at UBIS. They provided a series of diary entries from one of their Swiss-based students who descibes her experience of taking the first course (in May 2009) of the Bachelors of Business Administration online. She is an adult learner, having to study around a full-time job (in marketing), and a young family. She is returning to education after her first experience of a ‘correspondence’ course a few years ago, didn’t work out. So hoping for a better outcome this time round!
Here is her account of the first four-week course in the undergraduate programme:
PreStart, 1st entry
I have found everyone I spoke with at UBIS very encouraging but I am still a little nervous about starting my on-line course; I tried a correspondence course a number of years ago, and it was a real struggle so, I never finished it all:-( I hope that I am able to do better this time. I like that the UBIS courses only last 4 weeks for undergraduates, since I think I can stay motivated and on top of my work over such a short period.
First Look at the UBIS on-line learning site
I was relieved to see that the site was not as complicated as I was afraid it might be when I took the on-line orientation. I really like the fact that when I go to the login page, http://ubis.angellearning.com/default.asp they have helpful information posted that I can access before I even get my user name and password. The Distance Education Readiness Checklist was really helpful. It made me think about what I need to do and why I didn’t make it through my correspondence course…I think I am more ready this time! I was also glad to see a list of what is expected from on-line learners, so that I would be better prepared mentally for what I am about to embark on.
First Week of Classes
I put in a really late night on Wednesday, because the discussion questions and our comments on other students submissions/the teacher’s comments were due in before midnight EST. I didn’t want to just say something stupid off the top of my head, nor just recopy what was in the book, so I made sure I had read everything we were assigned before I answered and did some research on the topic to try to be interesting in my response. I had been worried that I wouldn’t like the topics and assignments, but this first one was interesting.
I worked on my end of week assignment almost all day on Sunday, because I work fulltime, so my week days are pretty full. I can get a little time in the evenings, once I get the kids to bed, but today was the only time I had to really sit down and work on my assignment. I can see what they mean about the necessity of being organized to succeed!
Second Week of Classes
I was so excited to see that all my hard work last week paid off. It was a pleasure to see full marks on my work and the teacher’s complements. Makes me want to work even harder this week, to make sure I don’t let her down. I wish I had had more teacher interaction and encouragement when I was on the correspondence course, I might have finished it then.
I am pleased with her flexibility as well. She is in the US, so had set office hours when she was available that didn’t work for me (1AM-2:30AM are just not possible for me) but when I talked to her about it, she was very happy to change them so they would be accessible for myself and other students in my class from around the world. It’s pretty cool to be in a class of 15 students and almost no one is from the same country, yet we are all using the same language to study the same thing!
I am really looking forward to the big Sunday assignment this week, since it is on a topic that completely ties in to my work and the reasons why I decided to study with UBIS on-line. I asked the teacher if I could modify the assignment to be real (based on my actual work situation) instead of the hypothetical situation that she had set up. She was as excited as I was that the assignment corresponded to my real life experience and was very happy to let me modify it to my needs.
Third Week of Classes
I can’t believe that we are halfway through the term already! It has been going so fast! I have to say I am really pleased with the presentation. When I took my correspondence course, I had to find or buy all the books myself, which is both hard and expensive in a non-anglophone country. My course requires only one textbook and then provides me with actual course lectures that I can listen to for each week, as well as Power Point presentations that summarize the main points of each chapter and help me remember those ideas. There are even little “pop quizzes” inside the slide show to test my retention. Granted, I sometimes have to redo the quizzes, but I am learning a lot and enjoying it.
I am starting to get into a routine now that functions to make sure I get all my work done and in as required. I have set aside time in the early mornings, late evenings and weekends. It is pretty cool that I can download the Power Point presentations onto my laptop, so I can study while I travel to and from work on the train. The lectures can even be put on MP3 players to listen to as well, but I don’t have one to do so with. I am so relieved that I am surviving the technical aspect of studying on-line. Submissions of the Wednesday and Sunday assignments are really easy and straightforward, so that has been a relief as well.
Fourth Week of Classes
Almost done! I had been wondering how the final exam would function and now I know. There were two options on the course syllabus, either a final project or a final exam. The teacher decided on a final exam this time, so I just downloaded my exam and then spent the entire day Saturday researching every single answer and doing the work for it. Pretty funny that I was still learning during the final exam, but that is what it was created for, to test that I understood the theories and then could apply them to the assigned topics. Now I am just waiting for my final marks; the hardest part!
Final Results
Wow! I did it, and with the complements of the teacher. I have to say that having a supportive teacher has really made a big difference for me with this class.
I am so glad that I have decided to study with UBIS-on line. It has really been a study in flexibility for me. Everything I need for my classes is available for me when and where I need it during the time I am studying. I am not forced to arrange my work or family schedule to accommodate on ground classes, which really helps. I have also really enjoyed the different formats of presentation of the information, by seeing and hearing it in so many different manners, I have managed to retain it better.
I have already signed up for my next term’s class which starts right away, and I don’t feel half as nervous about it now, even though the next topic is one I feel will be more difficult for me, I feel that I am ready to succeed!
Posted in Online learning experience.
The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo
Many of us have dropped the term ‘Renaissance’ casually in to a conversation, aware of how impressive it sounds, but 
not entirely aware of its meaning or origin. We then hope like heck that we won’t be asked to explain…
Well, in a nutshell the term Renaissance comes from a French word meaning: re-birth. And that little nugget of information maybe more than enough to instil within you enough confidence to boldly brandish the word in your next uber-intellectual exchange. But some of you might indeed be curious to take this knowledge further!
My first introduction to the term came from studying Art History in High School, which I found to be a very helpful context to help me gain a wider understanding of what ‘Renaissance’ was all about.
The term is most commonly associated with a rather fascinating period in European history; roughly the 15th & 16th centuries. It defines a period of time nestled between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age. The whole notion of ‘rebirth’ links to the renewed interest and revitalisation of the art, literature and ideas of ancient Greece and Rome (Classical Age). The men and women of the Classical Age celebrated objects of beauty, independent thinking and the works of great writers and philosophers. They encouraged the pursuit of knowledge, and those ancient scholars possessed a spirit of inquiry about the world. Because this period of history pre-dated Christian civilisation, the Greco-Romans were free to question ideas without the constraints of the teachings of the Church.
And so it was that many, many years later, the restless hearts and minds of the 15th & 16th century Europeans were hungry for fresh inspiration on how to engage with the world around them. Suddenly, everything those clever, innovative and too-cool-for-school Greco-Romans dabbled with was big news for the Renaissance set. The climate was ripe for a cultural movement to sweep the continent, satiating intellectual and emotional appetites and creating a new spirit of human enterprise, poised to achieve great things.
What I find so captivating about this period in history is the way so many facets of life were impacted on as a result of this resurgence of ideas from Classical Antiquity. From art to politics; the Renaissance scholars admired and took seriously the attitudes and views of the ancient Greeks and Romans which they believed demonstrated advanced thinking.
There are so many aspects of the Renaissance worthy of further investigation and study – to list but some:
In summary, the Renaissance period is an exciting, vibrant and inspiring subject to study because its characters were re-exploring the artistic and intellectual possibilities of man. Even if you don’t want to major in it, it worth at least taking a course in it to cover the basics, as I promise that you’ll be richer for it!
Here are some places that you can study art history online/by distance learning:
Breyer State University – Bachelor of Fine Arts (online)
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania – Bachelor of Arts in Art History (online)
Open University (UK) – Department of Art History
Posted in Arts, Foundation degrees.
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