2004-9-22
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.
We continue our series of reports for students in other countries
who want to attend a United States college or university. This week,
in part four, we discuss how some students are able to stay in their
home country and still earn a degree.
Many students who take classes by computer over the Internet say
they like the independence of online education. Students do not have
to sit in a classroom and do not have to attend courses at a set
time. Professors say they have better communication with students
through e-mail than they do in many traditional classes.
American college and universities have been offering classes
online for a number of years. The University of Phoenix, in Arizona,
has been offering degrees online since nineteen eighty-nine.
University officials say they try to provide students with a social
experience as well as an educational one. In some programs, for
example, students in groups of six take all their classes together.
They communicate with each other by computer.
Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado, describes
itself as the first fully online accredited university. Jones
International offers both bachelor's and master's degrees.
Another online school is Cardean University, near Chicago,
Illinois. It began in two thousand. It offers a master's of business
administration degree. It says its courses are developed with five
top business schools and can be completed in as little as twenty-two
months. Cardean says it has taught students from ninety countries.
Lists of schools that offer online programs are easy to find on
the Internet. Just use a search engine like Google or Yahoo and type
in "online education."
Be careful, though, of offers for a college degree in return for
little or no work. Such operations are illegal in the United States.
Educational advisers say that before you enter any program, you
should make sure the work will be recognized in your country.
Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish dot
com. And for information from the State Department, go to
educationusa.state.gov. Again, educationusa.state.gov. Our series
continues next week.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen.