Online Education

[dk]

Yes, I know, people from "real" schools tend to thumb their noses at online eduction. I am not here to debate this. It is just not reasonable or possible for me to take four or five years off of my life, pack my shit, and move to the states for my PhD. So, I have limited my searches to schools offering my degree in IT. So far, I have come up with Capella (http://www.capella.edu/schools_programs/degrees/phd.aspx), Walden (http://www.waldenu.edu/c/Schools/Schools_14312.htm), and Northcentral University (this (http://www.ncu.edu/academics/graduate/business_phd_specializations.aspx)and this (http://www.ncu.edu/academics/graduate/business_dba_specializations.aspx)).

I haven't yet decided if I want to do a PhD or a DBA, but I'll figure that out.

Have any of you dealt with these schools? Pros? Cons? Anything? I have spoken to Walden on the phone a few times and they have been great with my questions and helping me apply. They also seem to have a decent reputation online, but so does Northcentral (this is a pretty good read (http://www.onlinedegreereviews.org/college/northcentral-university/reviews/)).

I'm applying to all three. Northcentral seems to be the best fit, but Walden seems ok too. Any thoughts from anyone (aside from brick and morter university elitists) would be appreciated. This is an IT degree so it makes absolute sense to not require students to pack up and move their whole life for four years just to take classes about the internet.

I'm also having trouble choosing between these degrees, if anybody wants to help me figure that out:

Information Systems Management (general)
IT Project Management (I'd like to become a PM eventually, but I could just get PMI certified rather than spend years reasearching PM)
IT - Ecommerce (I'm pretty heavy into web development and I can see myself eventually leading a web shop or even using this to guide my work for JU and future companies in web development practices and tactics. The coursework looks a breeze for this, though, which I'm not sure if is what I want. It might be interesting though.
Thanks. :) It's not everyday I get to ask for help on my own forum.

[Blues]

Online education's reputation will probably be more legitimized as more established schools move towards it. I don't see any problem with distance education; seeing as how its physically impossible to attend classes in brick-mortar universities in the states.

I've been in face to face classes that were absolutely pointless because classmates wouldnt bother to give input on co-op assignments and thus negating the whole point of human interaction and feedback. Hell as long as I could as the professor questions online, thats all I care about.

I'd lean towards E-commerce given that most retail stores are closing in favor of online counterparts. But thats just a speculative educated guess.

[dk]

Thanks zero. I used Phoenix for my Masters and it was positively an awesome experience. My classmates were CEO's, security veterans, IT veterans, etc. Very sharp people. My classroom degrees at brick-morter, on the otherhand, wasn't all that great due to the classes being made up of either a) military members who haven't had any real-life experience in the field or b) college kids who haven't had any real-life experience in the field. It definitely made the conversations and group work more educational.

People who thumb their noses at online education, in my opinion, only make themselves look dumb and closed minded.

I'm kind of leaning towards that E-commerce one as well as my whole life has practically led me to being a web developer.

[TheLastDon]

Thanks zero. I used Phoenix for my Masters and it was positively an awesome experience. My classmates were CEO's, security veterans, IT veterans, etc. Very sharp people. My classroom degrees at brick-morter, on the otherhand, wasn't all that great due to the classes being made up of either a) military members who haven't had any real-life experience in the field or b) college kids who haven't had any real-life experience in the field. It definitely made the conversations and group work more educational.

People who thumb their noses at online education, in my opinion, only make themselves look dumb and closed minded.

I'm kind of leaning towards that E-commerce one as well as my whole life has practically led me to being a web developer.



Seriously? At the underlined part?

I would consider E-commerce but I think the best person to ask would be Danny Choo. http://www.dannychoo.com/ This guy knows his stuff.

[dk]

Yeah, very sharp classmates. The teachers all had very interesting IT histories as well.

[Blues]

IMO, military students were pretty flaky on reliability. Not by their own fault, they may have exercises that run 12 hours a day or have weird work shift hours. But if thats the case a person shouldnt sign up for a F2F class if they cant make attendance. It's bad when a person has to rely on other people to get the work done so one's GPA doesnt drop...

[TheLastDon]

It just drives me crazy actually. A guy I work with (E7) got his masters from Troy State. I mean we are friends and all but DAMN he can't even type an email with a compete sentence. Maybe I am too critical but I can write reports around this guy and it just pisses me off. [/end rant]

Ughh sorry dk.

[uriel]

It just drives me crazy actually. A guy I work with (E7) got his masters from Troy State. I mean we are friends and all but DAMN he can't even type an email with a compete sentence. Maybe I am too critical but I can write reports around this guy and it just pisses me off. [/end rant]

Ughh sorry dk.

tell me about it. i was at sgt's course and we were required to take the EDCP 103 writing class, and you wouldn't believe the backlash on that from the students. these bastards couldn't send out a coherent email, letter, sentence, or any other form of correspondence, but could not fathom why they would need this class. it was just bitch, bitch, bitch, the corps shouldn't do this to me, blah, blah, blah. i don't see why they were fighting so hard...

[dk]

IMO, military students were pretty flaky on reliability. Not by their own fault, they may have exercises that run 12 hours a day or have weird work shift hours. But if thats the case a person shouldnt sign up for a F2F class if they cant make attendance. It's bad when a person has to rely on other people to get the work done so one's GPA doesnt drop...
My 4.0 was killed on a group project, but it was because the prof flaked out at the end and not because of the quality of our work (he claimed he couldn't open the PowerPoint file and dropped my final grade down 4 points to a 93.25. I lost a 4.0 gpa by 0.75 points. :cursing:

[dk]

It just drives me crazy actually. A guy I work with (E7) got his masters from Troy State. I mean we are friends and all but DAMN he can't even type an email with a compete sentence. Maybe I am too critical but I can write reports around this guy and it just pisses me off. [/end rant]

Ughh sorry dk.
No problem. I know the type. :thumbup:

[dk]

Hmm, looking over the program for the E-commerce emphasis, the only thing I'd get out of the degree would be what I learn from research. The class topics seems very easy since I've been doing web development for nearly the past ten years... I wonder if it'd be better to actually study something that I know less about. Tough choice...

The options for the PhD in Business are:

Criminal Justice (no)
ECommerce (maybe)
Financial Management (hell no)
Health Care Administration (no)
Homeland Security: Leadership & Policy (no)
Human Resource Management (hell no)
Industrial/Organizational Psychology (interesting, but no)
International Business (maybe)
Management (no)
Management of Engineering and Technology (maybe)
Management Information Systems (maybe)
Marketing (no, don't want to work in Marketing...)
Organizational Leadership (maybe)
Project Management (strong maybe)
Public Administration (no)

[ryukyuboi]

I have taken only a couple of online classes in mathematics. The courses were excellent. Content was enlightening. I enjoyed communicating with people from around the world - which was a huge requirement of these courses. But I still prefer going to a class in real life, when possible.

[Blues]

DK, here's the perfect option. Pick the management major you like, and as a side track, take the e-commerce classes that would challenge you. Yeah it wont be part of your curriculum but it will enhance your skillset.

[dk]

Yeah, that might be the answer. One of the e-commerce classes has us make a website. Come on... I wonder if they'd give me credit for a decade of experience...

[Mizzes V]

Nice Graco baby stroller :D