Have you heard good - or bad - things about an online college? Share which online universities you feel are the best in a reputation review.
"Anybody who's thinking of enrolling in an online degree ... take a good look at GetEducated.com . Go ... get a free download of a detailed guide ."
Searching for an Online MBA?: "Several websites can help .. first, GetEducated.com offers free rankings of distance-learning MBA programs."
"Beware diploma mills... Go to GetEducated.com and ask the Diploma Mill Police."
"For a distance MBA you can pay from $6,000 to $120,000. To get the most bang for your buck ... check out GetEducated.com"
GetEducated.com – "a great source for weeding out phonies" (among online colleges).
"Thanks much for your wonderful site! I've recommended it to my students and entered a program I found at GetEducated.com." --Charles Balch, MBA, Ph.D. --Professor, Arizona Western College
Vicky Phillips -- Founder of GetEducated.com ... "for 20 years the leading consumer advocate for online college students" ... Different Paths to a College Degree, Sept. 2009
Vicky Phillips ... founder of GetEducated.com ... "one of the nation’s leading experts on educational fraud" ... . ~Joyce Lain Kennedy~ (Nov, 2009), LA Times
"Kiplinger Personal Finance" partners with Get Educated - Top 15 Picks Prestigious Online Masters Degrees
Get Educated helps LATimes Consumer Reporter David Lazarus in "Getting an Education Learning Over the Internet" -- Nov. 10, 2010
Get Educated's beloved mascot, Chester Ludlow, dog with online MBA, helps Neely Tucker, Washington Post reporter, expose murderous minister with degree mill pedigree - Dec. 2010
The University of California Berkeley announced last week it will launch its first online degree program in the Spring 2012 semester.
Responding to a growing need for professionals in the public health sector, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health says it is opening an online masters degree in Public Health that will require 85 percent of coursework to be completed online, and that the program will bolster learning with three on-campus sessions totaling 15 days.
Online Masters Degree Potentially Helps Demand for Public Health Workers
The UC Berkeley School of Public Health says it hopes the expansion to online learning will help with the estimated national shortage of 250,000 trained public health professionals. Next semester the class will pilot with 10 professionals, though they hope to expand the program to a capacity of 220.
"It's a diverse mix of clinicians, administrators, researchers, health educators, and one journalist," said Dr. Nap Hosang, director of U.C. Berkeley School of Public Health M.P.H program and online degree program.
According to Berkeley’s campus newspaper, the Daily Californian, campus officials determined that while they wish to meet educational demands, they had a space problem, since the physical structures of U.C. Berkeley School of Public Health are unable to accommodate any more students.
That’s when administrators started considering the web.
The faculty also recognized the “accessibility and innovation” of an online masters degree program.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for faculty to compare differences in student receptivity and knowledge acquisition,” Hopsang told the paper.
“I think we are the guinea pigs, and other professional schools may be watching closely to see what we are doing.”
UC Berkeley executive vice chancellor and provost George W. Breslauer added in a press release, "This innovative, well-designed program reflects our principles of access and excellence.”
Blasting the Online Masters Degree Program
While university officials laud the new effort, some students and alumni regard the move -- which is not unique for a state university in this day and age -- as having negative impact on the “value” of the highly regarded program.
Bahar Navab, the president of Graduate Assembly -- effectively the student union -- responded to the student newspaper only in an email, but wrote, “I think online degree programs have the potential to diminish the value of a UC Berkeley education.”
She said the assembly hadn’t voted on a stance, but was concerned about offering online classes. “Can we honestly say that an online course is the equivalent of hands-on training and face-to-face group discussion?”
Commenters on the newspaper’s site echoed the bias against the online masters degree in public health.
“As someone who actually worked to get my MPH from Cal I find this to be incredibly sad. So much for the value of my Cal MPH. Sigh,” wrote ‘Cycler.’
Another commented, “The day molecular bio becomes online I will cry and never again donate to this public Devry!”
About UC Berkeley's Online Masters Degree in Public Health
Get Educated lists 34 schools offering an online Master in Public Health -- among them are the highly regarded Boston University, George Washington University, and the frequently top-ranked health program at Johns Hopkins University.
The school’s site estimates it will cost $52,000 to $59,000 to complete the online degree program. Yet, the average cost of an online Masters Degree in Public Health was $28,265, according to data from early 2010 on GetEducated.com.
On their siteUC Berkeley's online masters degree in public health program notes that, “Curriculum consists of the same core requirements as the on-campus MPH programs, as well as eight additional courses that provide a broad-based interdisciplinary background in public health.”
It unclear whether that means the additional classes replace what on campus would be electives, or if it means online students have a longer enrollment period. At the time of this publication, no university personnel had returned an inquiry regarding the courses.
