Online Education - Could it Be For You?

So you've decided to go back to school to earn a degree. Whether you are finishing your Bachelors degree, pursuing a Masters or even a PhD, going back to school is a big decision. With online classes or "distance learning" as an option, your decision might be a little easier. Accredited colleges and universities offer Undergraduate, Masters and even Doctorate programs in an on-line environment so you can attend class at a time that is convenient for you.

Asynchronous learning makes getting a degree more of an option for many, including working adults and parents. Many on-line programs are reasonably priced and offer tremendous flexibility. But don't mistake on-line classes as being easier than traditional brick and mortar classes. For typical degree programs in an on-line environment, you can expect to have to put a lot of time and effort into your academic pursuits.

These are the things you must consider before making your final decision:

Time to complete the degree: You must consider the time it will take to complete the degree and make sure you can stick with it for the duration. An undergraduate degree can take anywhere from two to four years to complete depending on how many classes you can take at once and how many breaks you take during the program. Masters programs might take approximately a year and a half to two years, and a PhD or Doctorate could take as long as five or six years, or as little as three years. Many schools allow you to take extended breaks if you need to, but when you do this, there is more temptation not to return.

Monetary concerns: Going back to school requires a significant financial investment and understanding your options is very important. You must consider how you will pay for your continuing education. Will you pay out of pocket, get a loan or apply for scholarships? Whichever route you choose, you must plan ahead and stay on top of your financial obligations. Schools have financial aid counselors available to help you choose the best options for you.

Time needed for classes and studying: Earning a degree requires a considerable investment of time every week. While on-line classes allow flexibility with your schedule during the week, the coursework can be quite intense at times and you must be prepared to meet attendance requirements and assignment deadlines. On-line classes could require anywhere from 10-20 hours per week, when you are a working adult. While this may seem like a lot when you are working or parenting, it is manageable if you are dedicated. So make sure you have the time to invest before making the jump.

Impact to those close to you: You may not think that going back to school will have such a big impact to family members, but think again. You will not have as much time to spend with loved ones when you are focused on a paper that is due the next day. You may have to forgo a social event or family function in order to meet a deadline and while others in the house are asleep, you may be chugging coffee and reading a textbook.

So prepare yourself and your family members for this commitment. Make sure that the ones closest to you are completely supportive. When you are particularly stressed and complain about school, the last thing you need is someone you love saying, "I told you this wasn't a good idea!" You need the people closest to you offering support and encouragement. They will be very proud when you have degree in hand.

Going back to school to pursue a degree can be an extremely rewarding experience. On-line education offers flexibility and options that you just could not get from traditional schools. Take the time to consider all of the options before jumping in. The more time and planning you put in to the decision, the more likely you are to be successful. When you complete the program and have degree in hand, all that time and effort will be well worth your while.

Lucia is a freelance writer who has worked in the IT Industry for over 15 years. Lucia specializes in IT Management, Technical Improvement, Gap Analysis, Process Improvement and Implementation, and much more. Lucia is also a mother of 4 and a perpetual student.

Lucia enjoys writing and is always looking forward to her next opportunity.

Online Psychology Degree Programs - Is Now the Right Time to Pursue Your Psychology Degree Online?

There are now lots of available options for accredited online psychology degrees. Psychology has always been a highly popular course of study for collegiate students. It offers a number of benefits which can be applied to a great deal of diverse fields. It also provides the chance to acquire advanced degrees such as masters and doctoral degrees and to understand more about yourself and your connections and relationships. With the ever expanding availability of online psychology degrees, right now you have more alternatives than ever before to undertake this form of education.

Psychology is in essence an in-depth look at what molds and controls human behavior. What exactly is going on in a person's head? Why have they made the choices that they have? What in their life has influenced the way they conduct themselves today?

When you study psychology you will certainly learn plenty about yourself. You'll learn how to to interpret your own behavioral patterns and take a look at your own relationships. With these tools you'll be equipped to progress your personal life.

There are many career options for those who complete accredited online psychology degrees. One growing field is that of company or private firm psychologists. Businesses are trying to organizational behavior and how people can be motivated more successfully in the workplace. Having a psychology degree allows you to offer advice on how companies can improve their atmosphere and their environment to gain increased output and amplified success.

Another option is to continue learning about psychology as an academic. not many fields lend themselves to interesting research studies and experiments like psychology does. In addition to this, a great career for those who begin with a psychology background is to become a practicing therapist.

Careers in criminal psychology, law enforcement and the social services are also popular and common. Another career option is research and continued study. These are only a few examples of the many different career paths available to those with a psychology degree.

The main point here is that there are many different career prospects for people with a background in psychology. Combined with the added flexibility and benefits of online degree programs obtaining a psychology education has never been easier.

As pointed out previously there are advanced diplomas available in the field of psychology. These include masters degrees and PhDs. Some career paths, such as becoming a private therapist, will require you to pursue a degree of this level. Other career paths will only require a bachelors degree.

There are even more advanced degrees, including both masters degree programs and PhD programs in psychology. this higher level of qualification is generally needed if you want to start your own practice or if you aim to pursue therapy as the basis of your career.

Completing your psychology degree through an accredited online program can open up an entire new range of options for you and your career. Enrolling for and partaking in an online education has never been easier than it is today, so there's no need to delay to get your great new career in the world of psychology started.

To get started you should check out these accredited online psychology degree programs from the top schools for online psychology degrees. Go ahead, save yourself some time and explore your options right now. There will never be a better time!

Online Degree Programs Roadmap

The flexibility and convenience of earning an online degree has made it possible for a wide range wide range of people to make it. The choice of enrolling for the program has been better for most people due to it characteristic convenience and hassle free nature. As result all these characteristics many people have decided to choose online education especially people that are very busy and those that are usually at home, like house wives.

Institutions that offer online learning degree are mandated to run accredited online degrees in which there are statutory laws they should comply with. Research well to ensure that the institution you want to get online degree from has accredited online degree especially for the degree you want. This is because employers offer jobs to only accredited degree certificates holders.

Both student of regular and online program scored the same marks when a study was conducted using same exam questions, so both certificates are the same. Students earning accredited online bachelor degree are eligible for all the jobs reserved for a bachelor degree holder as the case might be. Beyond doubt, more often than not employers are aware of good traits in employee with online learning degree certificate such as motivation and hardworking.

Basically, at the initial time, you need to specifically carry out a comparative research for cost per credit of the various degrees you wish to enroll for. This will adequately allow you make a good choice and affordable degree program you want to register for.

Fleming passionately writes to enlighten people about Online Degrees and has made tremendous success as an online tutor with several years of experience. Recommended: Visit http://myonlinedegree.fateback.com for more information and also see his personal blog http://on-linedegree.blogspot.com which has many free useful online degree resource materials.

Financing Your Online Higher Education

The current economic situation is taking its toll on all facets of life, including education. For many, without the opportunity to take advantage of scholarships or federal aid, their educational aspirations will not be realized. This is true even in the realm of online education. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of opportunities to finance your education online. Read on for a few key points to help guide your financial aid search.

First of all, fill out a FAFSA form. FAFSA stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and is normally the first step in the financial aid process. The most efficient and quickest way to fill out the form would be online. The form is available at FAFSA website. Directions on how to complete the application and the necessary forms you'll need to guide you are given at the website. From the FAFSA it will be determined the amount of money you (or your parents) are expected to contribute and whether or not you are eligible for federal financial aid in the form of grants or loans.

If you receive a federal grant, most likely in the form of a Pell Grant, it is money that you do not have to pay back. A federal loan, on the other hand, normally has to be paid back eventually. The good news is that even if you receive a federal loan in the form of a Perkins loan, for example, the interest rate is relatively low, and you don't have to worry about paying it back until you leave school. There is even a grace period for certain loans, which means that you're given some time after graduation to start making payments.

FAFSA is not only used to determine if you are eligible for federal funding, but it also helps schools decide if you're eligible for any need-based grants or scholarships they may have access to. This is especially important for those who don't receive financial aid from the government. While the government has its own qualifications for loans and grants, your school may have others. Meaning, even if you don't receive federal loans or grants, you may still qualify for money that the university of your choice has in the form of a need based scholarship.

Besides the FAFSA it is also a good idea to look for other sources of funding, such as scholarships. There is an array of scholarships available. Millions of dollars worth of scholarships go unapplied for every year. Do you belong to a certain ethnic group? Are you below 5' feet tall? How about a child of a veteran? Or are you an artist? How about a stay at home mom? A "non-traditional" college student? Or pursuing a specialized career? There are scholarships available for everyone, if you look hard enough. There are many websites that offer free registration that will send you a list of scholarships that you can apply for based on the questions you answer when registering at that site, a few that come to mind are www.fastweb.com and www.college-scholarships.com.

What some schools will tell you also is that they may have their own funding source, meaning scholarships that you're not even aware of, that they distribute to students after reviewing their financial situation or transcripts to determine if they meet a specific criterion. So don't be shy, ask your school if they have any university specific scholarships whether need or merit based that you could then apply for. Worst case scenario: if you don't receive a scholarship or loan, you can discuss payment plan options with your university, where instead of paying all your tuition up front, you can divide the payments over an agreed upon time frame.

Just remember, don't let a lack of sufficient funds stop you from pursuing your education. Try to take advantage of all the funding sources listed above, and you're sure to be able to finance your educational dreams.

David Eisenzimmer is a writer and webmaster for http://www.onlineschooling.com and can be reached at davide@onlineschooling.com for comments. There's also resources for financial aid and career testing. If anybody has any other resources they'd like to add please let us know.

Economic Downturn - The Best of Times, Especially For the Serious Student

I love that life is a challenge. I shop differently, I live differently, I work differently in 2009 than I did even one year ago. If I believed the newspapers, I'd believe the end of the world is upon us. But it isn't. Life is just different.

And this makes it all very exciting. I can't help but compare our current economic climate to the Great Depression. There is no getting away from the fact that the Depression was awful. Make no mistake, there is much bad news and scary parallels with what's going on today. But many people back then had little formal education. This made them very vulnerable in difficult times. Today, in 2009, so many people have solid formal education and skills. These do not disappear in a bad economic climate. Today access to education is vast and easy in comparison to the Great Depression. We hear a lot about corporate America, but the truth is educated owners of small businesses form the backbone of the economy. Knowledge makes people flexible and able to change as times change. It also means that in 2009, in spite of hard times, the accessibility of education make it the best of times to study.

That does not mean most college tuition won't keep going up; it will. But if it does, be sure you are getting your money's worth. And some institutions will learn to refocus. Do your homework. Find academic institutions that run leaner and focus on the goal of education instead of the niceties of campus life. For many this could mean some aspect of online study. Both public and private schools offer online courses and programs these days. But schools can seldom equip you with everything. So find other help as well. I'm all in favor of online help.

Think Great Depression again. Companies in the radio and printing mediums had boom times during the depression. Why? Because radio and printing were new and emerging mediums. What is the equivalent today? The internet of course. So make use of online studying options. Make use of good, free, online resources. Make use of good online help like academic editing and language reviewing when you need help with writing.

Start your online educational life by downloading your own copy of Language Online's 21 Proofreading Tips guide and requesting a weekly grammar tip. Indeed the best of times for the serious student.

Desray J Britz of Language Online enjoys writing on her blog about the issues that her clients ask about. Take a side trip to the site: http://blog.languageonline.us Desray invites you to comment on any blog post or to share a blog post you find interesting by using the ShareThis button.

Open Education - How to Think About Your Online Community's Purpose

Useful metaphors for creating a vision of your online education portal:

1. An InstructorNet Mall of available resources for instructors to meet their needs.

2. A Google "Knowledge Map" of available content that's searchable, zoomable, and subscribeable through RSS so the network alerts you for items meeting your interests instead of waiting for you to craft a search every time you feel a conscious need.

3. The Amazon/eBay "smart network" that automates the search and recommend function based on stated interests AND by remembering searches and paths

4. Customer Service center for instructors seeking help

5. Tour guides/Marketing Aide to demonstrate "How to use these resources"

6. Magazine model of info mgt/distribution: a targeted demographic, whose readers shape the course of the magazine/tools (Dear Readers! We listened to you!) Lean 6 Sigma (LSS) techniques have a way of accomplishing this, and a partnership with an LSS project seems like a natural one

Other work to be done:

1. Considering how we encourage/reward professional writing like lesson notes, course content, blog/wiki work that contributes to the practice of knowledge, in the same way we have tied promotion and retention to academic writing.

2. A faculty Development Program that incorporates more ideas related to "Master Classes in graduate teaching" on a regular basis. Some ideas include: a. Group learning vs Team-Based learning. b. RSS in the classroom (and blogs and wikis and podcasts...oh my) c. Live dialogue mapping skills to frame group discussions better (Google "Compendium" for demonstrations) d. How about giving Voice to faculty to let them nominate classes they want to receive, or challenges they face, and target the top vote getters?

3. An instructorNet Mall should have a "store" that has searchable index of available, recorded Faculty Development Programs with quick summaries of what's available for the individual instructor looking to sharpen his practice.

I hope these ideas generate some quality ideas in your situation.

Ken Long, Chief of Research, Tortoise Capital Management

finance: http://www.tortoisecapital.com

essays: http://kansasreflections.wordpress.com

Independent research, combining technical analysis and behavioral psychology.

30 day free trial of reports and live trader chatroom.

Training, education, mentoring and coaching for professional traders.

Catch Up to Your Potential With an Online Degree

More than any other factor, education is what helps people climb the ladders of success, social status and self-esteem. However, it is not possible for everyone to make a smooth, seamless transition from high school to college and on to a career. People take various detours - the military, early marriages, world travel, "time off" - that often result in their never getting back to their educations. These are just the kind of people who would benefit from getting an online degree.

There are others, too, for whom an online degree would be superior to sitting in college classrooms for two, four, six or eight years. Often there are economic circumstances that not only prevent young people from going to college, but require them even to leave high school to work for the greater good of the family. There are also young people with very highly developed skills in a certain area, like mechanical engineering, who do not see the logic in studying literature or history to get a four-year degree.

Many people - of all races, in all age groups and from all social classes - were unable for one reason or another to enter college at around 18, graduate at around 22 with a bachelor's degree and start working in their chosen field. It used to be that, once one reached 30 years old or so, it was deemed "too late" to return to school. Only within the last few years has a solution arrived on the scene for "late bloomers" and "retreads" - an online degree.

An online degree can be an associate's, bachelor's, master's or even a doctorate. There are literally hundreds of colleges, trade schools and training institutes on the Internet that are accredited, and whose degrees and certificates are respected and recognized by business, industry and the educational establishment. Furthermore, just about any subject that can be studied on campus can be taken online as well. In a few disciplines, some in-class or laboratory time may be required, but even these requirements are flexible and simple to manage with the help of school counselors.

Whether for someone coming straight out of high school, or a middle-aged person seeking a career change, setting sights on an online degree is a challenge that has a big payoff. The payoff comes in the form of increased lifetime earnings, enhanced reputation, greater employment opportunities and heightened self-respect. There are few things in life that bring as many positive results as working hard, studying diligently and bringing home that online degree.

After founding his first security firm in 1990, Scott McQuarrie built several security-related companies into regional and national powerhouses over the ensuing years. Since 2000 he has focused his sales and marketing efforts on the Internet, which opened up a virtually unlimited, international market for his flagship product line, EZWatch Pro

The EZWatch Pro brand has come to stand for world-class expertise in electronic security, video surveillance and the myriad technologies involved in both fields. From small houses to gigantic international airports, there is an EZWatch Pro solution to meet any and every residential, business, commercial and government security challenge.