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Guides to Distance Education Courses and Programs
Bob Jensen at Trinity University
Aids for Finding Online Courses and Degree Programs
Technology
Updates: Paradigm Shifts in Prestige Universities
Onsite and Online Programs in General
Aids to
Finding Colleges, College Rankings, Financial Aid, and Online Programs --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm#EducationInGeneral
For higher education programs, it is still hard to beat Yahoo's links at http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/. Yahoo's service is not perfect, but I find it to be more comprehensive than any other web site that I have encountered (other than some things in Hungry Minds not found in Yahoo). For example, it is possible in Yahoo to drill down to Graduate Business Distance Education programs (which I could not drill down to in The AdmissionsOffice.com). In Yahoo's drilled-down listing, you can do key word searches such as "Executive MBA." Unfortunately, there were not any hits for "Accounting." Alas, persons seeking Masters of Accounting, Masters of Taxation, or doctoral degrees in accounting are left with the frustrating task of visiting web sites of selected universities. However, a drilled-down listing from Yahoo is much more efficient for searching than is The Admissions Office unless there is a search engine in The Admissions Office that I did not find. Hungry Mind is nearly as efficient when using a drilled-down listing under Places to Learn and may be even better with clever use under the category Subjects of Interest.
For higher education programs, it is possible to drill down at Yahoo as follows starting with the link http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/.
- Guidance (54)
- Honors Programs (34)
- Organizations (87)
- Policy Research Centers@
- Seminaries@
- Web Directories (9)
The distance learning link leads to the following:
- Business@
- Community Colleges (19)
- Consortia (9)
- Engineering@
- Graduate Programs (27)
- Web Directories (2)
The Graduate Education web site drills down to the following:
Then you click on "Distance Learning," which then leads to various choices, including graduate business distance education alternatives. This thins the herd, but is not perfect.
Online Programs in Greater Detail
Sloan-C Catalog of On-Line Educational Programs The Sloan ALN Consortium Catalog is a compilation of on-line degree and certification programs offered by universities, colleges, and community colleges who are members of the Sloan Consortium. http://www.sloan-c.org/catalog
Asynchronous Learning Networks course directory --- http://www.aln.org/coursedirectory/
ALN Publications
JALN: Journal of ALN ALN Magazine Publishing Guidelines Abstract Submission for JALN or ALN Magazine On-going Reviews of ALN Activities Adult Education: In the News :
Asynchronous Learning Networks home page --- http://www.aln.org/index.htm
The University of Texas World Lecture Hall set of links and search engine --- http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/index.html
Bear's Guide to the Best MBA's by Distance Learning. --- http://www.academyonline.com/bookshelf/index.htm
John and Maria Bear. A solid reference on the top distance-learning MBA degree programs. Bear's Guide not only provides a list of the programs, but also offers good advice on selecting the right school. This book reports on MBA programs that are entirely online, and those with a significant online portion. See Think Tank for a complete list of MBA programs and links to their websites.
Note from Bob Jensen: You may want to check out http://www.freshman-year.com/bearguide.html
There are links to over 100 colleges that offer accredited distance
education programs.
Wm. Dennis Huber indicates that the following two universities have graduate accounting degree programs:
University of Maryland University College: http://www.umuc.edu
Golden Gate University: http://www.ggu.edu
The following are "Virtual Universities" are listed by the ADEC Consortium of State and Land Grant Universities at http://www.adec.edu/virtual.html
- ADEC:
- News Articles:
- America Online Joins Western Governors University National Advisory Board
http://www.adec.edu/vuniv/wgu/AOL-WGU.html
- Links:
- California Virtual University http://www.california.edu
- The Globewide Network Academy http://www.gnacademy.org/
- Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University http://www.kcvu.org/
- Magellan University http://www.magellan.edu
- Michigan State University's Virtual University http://www.vu.msu.edu/
- The Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/frames.html
- Southern Regional Education Board http://www.sreb.org/
- Southern Regional Electronic Campus http://www.srec.sreb.org/
- University of Illinois Online http://oliver.pb.uiuc.edu/
- University of Maryland University College http://www.umuc.edu/
- Western Governors University http://www.wgu.edu
You can find much more information and great links at http://www.adec.edu/
The Peterson Guide to Distance Learning Online --- http://u10.petersons.com/dlearn/
Education
programs, rankings of
universities, and online distance education programs
Andrew Priest clued me into The AdmissionsOffice.com web site at http://www.theadmissionsoffice.com/
The Visit Schools button leads to the following:
College Locator
http://www.ecola.com/college/
Alphabetical Listing of Colleges with Web Sites
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/CLAS/american-universities.html
Includes links to community colleges and foreign schools
http://clac.wabash.edu/clac-web.html
54 top-notch liberal arts colleges
http://www.acm.edu/
14 excellent liberal arts colleges in the Midwest
http://www.colleges.org/institutions.html
15 liberal arts colleges, this time in the South
http://www.beloit.edu/~i50/i50directory.html
50 colleges active in international studies
http://www.utexas.edu/world/comcol/state/
2. The School Rankings button leads to a listing of rankings services that do such rankings.
3. The College Tests button leads to links regarding admissions tests.
4. There are other helpful buttons for Applications, Financial Aid, etc. There is also an interesting Free Stuff button.
5. What is disappointing is the lack of an index by degree type, particularly graduate degrees. For example, there is no index for MBA programs, Masters of Taxation, or Masters of Accounting Programs. Presumably, one must go to each college link --- a very time consuming search process. There is a listing of 50 colleges with recommended international studies programs.
Wayne Bremser (from Villanova) clued me in on the Hungry Minds distance education web site --- http://www.hungryminds.com/
What is great about Hungry Minds is the ability to drill down to course topics. For example, a person searching distance education courses in taxation can start at http://www.hungryminds.com/catalog/node/00/00/00/06/40.html and click on the link for accounting topics of interest, including a link to selected distance education taxation courses. In this respect, Hungry Minds lets us drill down deeper than The AdmissionsOffice.com. However, neither The AdmissionsOffice.com nor Hungry Minds drill down to particular degree programs. Hungry Minds seems to have better links to distance education programs (see links under Places to Learn), but you must still search each college's web site for particular degree programs.
Although not restricted to distance education, SearchEdu.com has over 20 million university and education pages indexed and ranked in order of popularity --- http://www.searchedu.com/
GE Center for Financial Learning --- http://www.financiallearning.com/
Although not restricted to distance education programs, the following notice in the Scout Report on May 4, 2000 provides links to over 2,000 MBA programs, many of which are developing online alternatives:
MBA Info http://www.mbainfo.com/
MBA Info showcases detailed information about "2200 MBA programs from 1150 Universities, Business Schools and Management Colleges in 126 countries worldwide." The easy-to-use pull-down menus of options allow users to search the databases in fields including program structure, locations, program durations, and name of the school. The MBA Advice section gives a variety of information about applying to MBA programs including how to select a program and how to properly apply for admission. For those who have already earned their MBAs, MBA Info invites them to join their MBA Graduates Network to advise people who are considering entering MBA programs.
Prof. Jensen:
Have you seen this? I found a distance learning web site as part of about.com: http://distancelearn.about.com/education/distancelearn/
It has net links, chat rooms, even a starting point for someone writing a paper on the topic of distance learning http://distancelearn.about.com/education/distancelearn/library/weekly/aa0214 00a.htm
Spring is slowly coming to the northern Olympic Peninsula. Hope all is sunny & well in San Antonio.
Janet Flatley AVP-Controller 1st Fed S&L Assn Pt Angeles, WA (360) 417-3104
I am very grateful to Andrew, Wayne, and Janet for the above links to The AdmissionsOffice.com, Hungry Minds, and About.com. However, I did not find a "search engine" for programs in particular disciplines other than international studies programs among 50 recommended colleges in the AdmissionsOffice.com. Presumably, AdmissionsOffice.com and Hungry Mind users must visit each college web site that attracts their eyes and then go on a degree program hunt within that college's site. Hungry Minds allows for drilling down by topical areas (specific courses) but not degree programs per se. However, it is possible to get clues on where to search for programs by drilling down to course topics. For example, students seeking accounting degrees can get some clues from http://www.hungryminds.com/catalog/node/00/00/00/06/40.html .
Dennis Schmidt from the University of Northern Iowa sent the following helpful information for accounting education programs. The directories save you the trouble of having to separately look up each college's URL. However, you must visit programs of interest. The Business School & Program Directory does not provide capsule summaries or make comparisons between programs. Also Bobby Carmichael was quick to point out that the directory below only contains listings for colleges that pay to be listed at this web site. This obviously limits the number of colleges in the directory, particularly top programs who have less need to pay for this publicity.
You can view lists of graduate or u-grad accounting programs in the US (by state or region) or worldwide at the "Business School & Program Directory" site ( www.businessschools.com ).
TaxSearch maintains a searchable database of graduate tax programs (Masters, JD, and LLM) at: www.taxsearchinc.com/taxhtml/graduate.html
Earn your bachelors or masters degree online from the University of Maryland --- http://www.umuc.edu/mkting/market1.html
You can find some great links at Pam Silverthorn's Internet Essentials at http://www.internetessentials.com/ . Some of these will lead you to distance education alternatives.
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Computer Curriculum Corporation helps young and old find online help in over 9,000 skills --- http://www.ccclearn.com/
Computer Curriculum Corporation, a unit of Pearson Education, is the leading provider of K-12 educational software and services to schools.
Computer Curriculum Corporation Receives Highest Customer Satisfaction Ratings for Helping Educators Meet Their Goals.
SmartPlanet has over 350 self-study courses in Office, Java, NetWare, Windows, CGI, Notes, Windows NT, FrontPage, Explorer, and other technology subjects. http://www.smartplanet.com/learn.asps
Another connection between students and possible schools is WiredScholar at http://www.wiredscholar.com/. This website features checklists for students when applying for admission, visiting the campus, interviewing, and making choices when accepted by alternative schools.
How do you analyze acceptance and financial aid award letters from schools? If you've been accepted to a school and now are trying to decide on where to go to school, wiredscholar's online award analyzer can help. The award analyzer is designed to help you understand and compare award letters and is customized to take into account your personal finances.
John Howland clued me in a what seems to be a free quality online degree program with limited and very selective admissions for computer science majors. It is free due to foundation support. Go to http://arsdigita.org/university/
The ArsDigita University operated by the ArsDigita Foundation states its mission as follows:
The ArsDigita University operated by the ArsDigita Foundation states its mission as follows:
Our goal is to offer the world's best computer science education, at an undergraduate level, to people who are currently unable to obtain it.
There is an onsite campus in Cambridge, MA that only admits 30 students per year. But the main focus is on distance education where students only take one course at a time:
ArsDigita University exists to provide the world's best on-campus experience. That said, we also do everything in our power to make our curriculum, lectures, and teaching materials available to interested learners worldwide. This includes making all assignments and lecture notes available on the Web. We endeavor to videotape lectures and serve them as streaming media.
Faculty salaries are on the high side (over $150,000 per year), but then again how else can to get competent computer science faculty in these times.
WannaLearn.com --- http://www.wannalearn.com/
A large, perspicuously organized directory of free online tutorials, guides,
lessons and other instructional sites, covering many subjects and areas of
inter
I really like the design of this website. You can search for subsets very quickly and easily, and there are links to more detail with each listing.
Search by keyword or by college or university, subject, type of credit, or for more detailed information, including course descriptions and how the courses are delivered
For example, there are 34 accounting and business law courses to date. For some reason, one of the courses is a reading improvement course. None, except one of the accounting courses, are beyond undergraduate intermediate accounting. There is one graduate managerial accounting course. However, this is an introductory course designed for students with no previous credits in managerial accounting.
There are 20 engineering courses. There are a few graduate engineering courses.
As further examples, there are 32 psychology courses and 13 courses on philosophy and religion.
More than 2,000 online courses are available in the California.edu online
course catalog at http://www.cvc.edu/
I did not like the search engine for California.edu quite as well as I like the
search engine for Illinois Virtual University. There was no separate
search category for graduate courses. Add accounting courses were not
isolated from other business courses.
There are over 500 higher education business courses available online. There are 151 courses in engineering.
Kentucky Commonweath Virtual University --- http://www.kcvu.org/
The program listing is at http://www.kcvu.org/ccatalog.nsf/Category6 (this includes MBA courses.)
There is an interesting Faculty Resources link.
Education in India --- http://www.appuonline.com/education/Schools_and_Colleges/
There does not appear to be a separate listing of online alternatives.
The portal to other categories other than education is at the main page at http://www.appuonline.com/
Accreditation and Exam Proctoring
Hi Dhia,
Accreditation is a tough issue that I have not researched fully. I suspect that the main accreditation process must use one of the Federally-approved agencies. You can see a listing at http://ifap.ed.gov/85256508006391d1/005fd53d0d39dd4285256508006391ed/852565a7005d473f85256675004fbec9?OpenDocument
For general background, you can enter the search term "Accreditation" at http://ifap.ed.gov/dev_csb/new/srchsite.nsf/Web+Search+Simple?OpenForm
Accreditation processes have greatly delayed and frustrated some online programs. This is one of the major delay factors for Western Governors University --- http://www.wgu.edu/wgu/index.html
With respect to verification as to who is online, it is interesting to note that centuries ago in England, persons taking admissions tests to universities or qualifying examinations of various sorts had to have the examinations proctored by the village's vicar. I guess the vicar was deemed the most likely person in the village to be honest.
I have no easy solution for student identity verification until finger printing and eye scanning hardware become more prevalent. Even then, it might still be possible for a "friend" sit alongside and help a test taker to cheat.
My solution to reducing the odds of cheating is to assign two students (randomly) to partnerships each week. Each student must sign an attestation form that verifies that she/he proctored a partner during an online examination or quiz. The form also certifies that no unauthorized materials were used during the examination or the quiz. I still make my students take my main examinations in classes that I proctor. However, I do have weekly online quizzes that are taken weekly with partnership proctoring. Each week I re-assign the partnerships. I think this has helped reduce the odds of cheating a great deal.
If you have other questions, I love to help educators.
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen
Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210)
999-8134
Email: rjensen@trinity.edu
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
***************************************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Dhia D. AlHashim [mailto:dhia.alhashim@csun.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 8:42 AM
To: rjensen@trinity.edu
Subject: Thank You!
Hi Bob:
I would like to thank you for keeping us posted on development related to "distance learning," through your web site. I do have two questions for you:
1. Is there anything new on "accreditation" related to distance learning programs?
2. How would an instructor access and secure that the person registered in a distance learning program is actually the one taking the tests?
Thank you again, and congratulations for a job well done.
Dr. Dhia D. AlHashim Tel: (818) 677-2427
* Professor of Accounting & MIS and Director FAX: (818) 677-4903
* Center for International Business E-mail: dhia.alhashim@csun.edu
* California State University, Northridge * Northridge, California 91330-8245
***************************************************************************
What are the best and worst colleges according to the controversial website called TeacherReviews.com? --- http://www.teacherreviews.com/
The rankings are not consistent with the US News rankings
at
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/cohome.htm
Hi Scott,
There is a financial aid search engine at http://ifap.ed.gov/dev_csb/new/srchsite.nsf/Web+Search+Simple?OpenForm
For financial aid for your daughter, you will find a lot of links at http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Financial_Aid/
I also find the Wired Scholar helpful at http://www.wiredscholar.com/financing/content/index.jsp
Tuition Plans for each of the 50 states --- http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/dollars/dstuit.htm
On April 16, the Digital Duo on PBS reviewed three websites for applying to college. Their recommendations are linked at http://www.digitalduo.com/214_dig.html
The US News helper website for college applicants at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/cohome.htm Among other things, this website ranks both undergraduate and selected graduate programs. The US News site also has a service that will conduct a personalized search for each prospective student who is willing to provide SAT scores and high school ranking.
The clearinghouse for online applications is at Embark.com at https://apply.embark.com/ . This website is free, and works with many universities to apply directly online. Embark's service is free, but some schools charge $10 for electronic filing.
To find individual colleges, the Duo recommended Yahoo at http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Higher_Education/
(Bob Jensen also recommends http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob2.htm
(go to College and Other School Finders.) For online degree programs and
courses, I maintain a helper guide at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/245progs.htm
But the most complete financial aid information is at http://dir.yahoo.com/education/financial_aid/
Bob (Robert E.) Jensen Jesse H. Jones Distinguished Professor of Business Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212 Voice: (210) 999-7347 Fax: (210) 999-8134 Email: rjensen@trinity.edu http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen
-----Original Message----- From: Scott Bonacker [mailto:scottbonacker@MOCCPA.COM] Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 8:52 AM To: CPAS-L@VAX.LOYOLA.EDU Subject: Paying costs of education - Sec 529 plans
I have a daughter looking at colleges and thinking about her future, and I am thinking about colleges as well. Here are two sites I've found that have been useful to me, and may be useful to others as well.
The Internet Guide to Section 529 Plans http://www.savingforcollege.com/
On that site, there are many links to articles as well as other sites dealing with the subject of paying for college. http://www.savingforcollege.com/links.htm
The National Association of State Treasurers sponsors a site called "College Savings Plan Network" http://www.collegesavings.org/
And there are links there as well. http://www.collegesavings.org/links.htm
Scott Bonacker, CPA McCullough, Officer & Company, LLC Springfield, Missouri moccpa.com
For general background on accreditation, you can enter the search term "Accreditation" at http://ifap.ed.gov/dev_csb/new/srchsite.nsf/Web+Search+Simple?OpenForm
There are three sources of accreditation:
Type 1
Accrediting agencies of the government or sanctioned by the government (for
example the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
has a government sanction) Accreditation is a tough
issue that I have not researched fully. I suspect that the main
accreditation process must use one of the Federally-approved agencies. You
can see a listing at http://ifap.ed.gov/85256508006391d1/005fd53d0d39dd4285256508006391ed/852565a7005d473f85256675004fbec9?OpenDocument
Type 2
Accrediting agencies that carry the logo of prestige (for example, training
courses that have Microsoft certification)
Type 3
Accrediting agencies that start with neither a prestige logo nor government
blessing but attempt to build a reputation through standards and
membership. For example, a relatively popular accrediting agency
called Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) is a
Type 3 agency at http://www.acbsp.org/.
You can find a good deal about accreditation at About.com at http://distancelearn.about.com/education/distancelearn/msubaccred.htm
Richard Newmark forwarded the following information to me about the relatively new Association for Online Excellence:
For a new entity, AOAE has been quite busy -- they've accredited schools from Adams State College to Youngstown State University. ( http://www.aoaex.org/pbo.htm )
You might want to check to see if your university is on the list -- and the university legal department might want to contact AOAE.
On a related note, tomorrow (Tuesday July 18) I'll be offering an online chat focusing on how to evaluate school websites from 1 to 3, Central time. Drop by http://www.distancelearn.about.com/mpchat.htm to join in.
.Kristin Evenson Hirst
About.com Guide to Distance Learning
http://distancelearn.about.com/
email: distancelearn.guide@about.com
AOAE has a relatively long list accredited programs, including some major colleges and universities.
Yahoo claims that the most popular websites are the following:
Note that Yahoo claims that UNext.com is one of the five "most popular" distance education websites. UNext is partnering with prestigious colleges of business (e.g., Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Chicago, Columbia, and the London School of Economics) to develop courses to be delivered online. Michael Kirschenheiter is the key player in the coordination of the UNext and Columbia University partnering. In CPE Workshop 1 on August 12, Professor Kirschenheiter will discuss the mission and implementation of this partnership. See "Innovative Learning Programs for Accounting and Business: the Ivy League Goes Online, the Sloan Foundation Experiments in Asynchronous Learning, and Experiments in Self-Learning at Major Universities Using the BAM Pedagogy," with Anthony Catanach, Chuck Hickman, Bob Jensen, Michael Kirschenheiter, and Dan Stone, Continuing Education Program Workshop at the Annual Meetings of the American Accounting Association, Philadelphia, August 12, 2000. This is an all-day workshop on August 12. http://www.rutgers.edu/Accounting/raw/aaa/aen/meet00/cpe/00cpe1.htm
I was asked to evaluate a distributed education future document for Organization XXXX. I have placed a copy of my off-the-wall review at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/futurenet.htm
For Bob Jensen's Education Bookmarks, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookbob.htm
For Bob Jensen's Helpers for Educators, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default1.htm
For Bob Jensen's Helpers for Education Researchers, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default2.htm
For Bob Jensen's Helpers for Accounting Educators, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/default3.htm
For Bob Jensen's main website, go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/
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