Top Universities Increasing Online Degrees Programs to Meet Needs of over 5 Million Learners
Top Universities Increasing Online Degrees Programs to Meet Needs of over 5 Million Learners
Arizona State University is just one of many major universities that have started to increase the number of online courses they offer. Within the next decade, ASU expects that 25% of their students will be exclusively taking virtual classes. ASU and other schools are keeping up with their learners’ desire to take online courses.
The Sloan Consortium, also known as Sloan-C, is an institutional and professional organization integrating online education into mainstream education. The consortium is committed to quality online education. The Arizona Republic reported, “According to an annual Sloan Survey of Online Learning at 2,500 colleges and universities, 29 percent of students took at least one course online in fall 2009, up from nearly 12 percent in fall 2003.”
In a recent webinar I created and delivered for Sloan-C, there was strong interest by educators to learn how to deliver effective online courses. There is no mistaking the popularity of online education. Even Bill Gates praised online learning in his 2010 Annual Letter stating, “A lot of people, including me, think this is the next place where the internet will surprise people in how it can improve things.” According to a recent survey by the Sloan Consortium, more than 5.6 million students took an online class last fall, which translates to about 30 percent of college students.
The days of thinking that online education is somehow inferior is changing. Arizona’s three main universities are all embracing online learning. ASU is ramping up their online program. University of Arizona (U of A) has nearly 30 degree programs exclusively available online; many of these programs are graduate-level. Northern Arizona University (NAU) has 63 exclusively online programs and anticipates a 10% growth increase per year.
Arizona universities are not the only major universities to get on board with online education. Some other very prominent universities that also offer online courses include:
- Stanford University Online Degree: Their Center for Professional Development offers 23 master’s degrees online and 35 certificate programs.
- New York University Online Degree: NYU offers a number of online programs through its School of Continuing Studies, including certificates and full master of science degrees (including an MBA) in business.
- Harvard University Online Degree: Harvard Extension School offers on-campus and online classes and undergraduate degree programs and graduate programs.
- University of Notre Dame Online Degree: Notre Dame Online offers several degree programs that can be completed entirely online.
If you or someone you know is considering taking an online class, it is important to understand the terminology, the process and the tricks to being successful as an independent learner. For help, check out: The Online Student’s User Manual: Everything You Need to Know to be a Successful Online Student.
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Boomerang Generation: College Graduates Giving up on Employment and Moving Back Home
There has been an unusual trend with recent college graduates. After working so hard to become educated for their new careers, recent grads are not jumping into the workplace right away. This has caused an increase in the numbers for unemployment in this population. However, this unemployment has been influenced by some of these grads actively making the choice not go to work.
It’s not only that employers don’t want the recent graduates. In fact, Wall Street Journal reported, “Employers plan to hire 19% more new graduates this year than in 2010.” Part of the choice has been due to the graduates opting to do other things. In that same article, it was reported, “Career counselors at colleges say that in the past two years they have seen increasing numbers of graduates opting to travel, volunteer, or get unpaid work experience rather than head straight into a tenuous job market.”
Recent statistics show that up to 54% of those under the age of 25 are without a job. Many of them feel that the economy is so bad at this time that they would be wasting their time even trying to get into the workplace. This has caused a trend of young adults moving back in with their parents. The New York Post reported, “This year, some three million young people are expected to graduate from college. Facing a double-digit unemployment rate for young people, 85 percent of them will initially move back home with their parents, and that’s up from 67 percent in 2006, according to a poll by researcher Twentysomething Inc.”
Some have referred to this new generation as the Boomerang Generation. Just as parents think their children have left the nest, they turn around and come right back. Some students are holding out for the job they want rather than taking “just any job”. Having gone through the time and effort to get a higher education, they are not willing to take employment beneath what they feel qualified to do.
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Generation of Haters Hiding Behind Social Media Anonymity
We’ve all seen the areas on Youtube, blogs, and other news areas where people make their anonymous comments about the topic at hand. It has become very easy for people to make comments that they might not otherwise have made should they have had to have their name or face associated with their remarks. Many comments are made by children under 18 and some of those comments may be just dismissed as immature. However, as more news stories surface about children killing themselves from cyber-bullying, there is growing concern about society accepting this kind of behavior. (For 11 facts about cyber-bullying click here). Cyberbullyingprotection.net reported that 75% of students have visited websites that bashed other students.
Many blogs, including this one, allow screening of posts before allowing them to be exposed. This is useful to avoid the deluge of spam that comes across from people trying to sell their unsolicited products. However, it can be reassuring to know that “haters” can’t just post anything they want.
Why are there so many angry people out there that want to write negative comments? Part of the issue that these people have, other than immaturity, is a lack of emotional intelligence (EI). Emotional intelligence may be defined in many ways. One of the easiest ways to think about it is to define emotional intelligence as the ability to understand one’s own emotions as well as those in others. People who write these posts have little consideration of the feeling of others. This shows a lack of interpersonal skills.
It brings forth a question as to whether any specific demographic has more issues with emotional intelligence than others. Rueven Bar-On, creator of the EQ-i emotional intelligence test, found that his model, “reveals that older people are more emotionally and socially intelligent than younger people, females are more aware of emotions than males while the latter are more adept at managing emotions than the former, and that there are no significant differences in emotional-social intelligence between the various ethnic groups that have been examined in North America.”
The good news is that emotional intelligence can be improved. Authors like Marcia Hughes and others have written several helpful books about how to increase levels of EI. Author and psychiatrist John Gottman discussed helping our children’s emotional development in his book, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child. Some of the things Gottman suggests are to:
- Listen to our children with empathy.
- Help your children name their feelings.
- Validate your child’s emotions.
- Turn their tantrums into teaching tools.
- Use conflicts to teach problem-solving.
- Set an example by remaining calm.
By helping our children develop emotional intelligence, perhaps we can see a future of less “haters” and cyber-bullies making anonymous hurtful comments.