What are your thoughts on uk online degrees both bachelors and masters

Hello people,

It's me again. After all the encouragement I got last time and thorough soul searching, I'm now ready to go back to school and was thinking about an online degree course from the uk. Are these degrees really accredited. Are they accepted here in switzerland?

The online degree seems better for me because I'm more flexible considering I have a daughter plus the language of instruction is English.

Also what are your takes on the post diplomas aimed at training you in specific field which is different from your original degree?

I have to be careful since they do cost a fortune .

Thanx alot for your responses.

Nothing wrong with the Open University .

I know several folk who used this and were satisfied (as well as other institutions for distance learning)

You have to think about why you are doing it. If it is with a specific employment area in mind, then you need to make sure the course you do is accepted and is relevant. To do this, find out as much as you can about job requirements here and have a close look at the course content, including the experience etc of lecturers.

I think postgrad diplomas can be good, but, again, would one year's training be enough to get you into a new field, or will you have to gain some experience, too? Without knowing your areas of interest it's a bit hard to say. Postgrad diplomas are often a good way for you to see if you like a particular area/subject, or a way of fast-tracking to a higher graduate programme, like a masters.

If you're doing it to broaden your skill base, then there is absolutely no harm at all with an undergrad or postgrad programme. I would check the cost, though. Even if you're British, if you've lived out of the country for more than a few years the cost can be more than if you were actually living there.

And before you commit yourself to a particular programme, make sure you really want to do it. If you're not sure then it might be better to start with something more general to test the waters, so in that case an undergrad programme might be better than starting with a more intense postrgrad diploma.

Kate

I'm more familiar with US models than UK. However, if you've got an bachelor's degree already, unless your interest is in a very specific field - something like nursing or engineering, then I don't see much use in getting another bachelor's degree. I'd say you should move on, given that you have all the necessary prerequisites.

Have you met all of the requiements to start a postgraduate degree? If so, you might as well do that, I think. In my experience (and my BA is different than my MS degrees), you just have to figure out how to promote yourself.

But the other thing is this.. have you checked MS programs in Switzerland. From what I understand, they are less expensive, and not all of them are highly structured. Many are conducted in English. But it depends on your interests and specialties.

I did a post grad qualification with Open University, I thought it will be easy but not quite so.

I believe the OU is much respected and they are very organized in making sure that you really work for the qualification you are given. Make sure that you can dedicate the time that your course requires from the indicated time of study and that you are available 1-2 weeks before the exams to revise. They have an online platform where students and teachers interact and a very good online library that you have access to.

There are a lot of really dodgy online degree courses out there but there are one or two genuine ones. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference!

The OU is well regarded (been thinking about doing someting with them myself) but if you choose another then make 100% certain it's genuine and well regarded and not just a diploma mill.

I am in my last months of an online MBA course from the UK. I am acutally online waiting for the grading... Before I started, I went to MBA fairs and compared courses for many hours.

Frankly: I never had a problem to immediately spot a "dodgy" course from a genuine one... just some very easy thoughts:

- a diploma mill gives out degrees for money. So if you do not really have to work for your diploma, it is probably not worth it. Any course that accepts "work experience" or anything else but hard study work for credits is not worth the paper the diploma is printed on.

- The UK had a decade ago a 50M GBP government program on online studying. The program was aparently one big failure, but many universities got a hold of the developments that were funded with the money - so it is no coincidence that there are especially many courses from the UK on the market. By now pretty much every larger state owned university offers some distance courses.

- The accreditation question: Especially with MBAs are there some organisations around that check and accredit private schools. The idea is to ensure a minimum quality. The accreditations are approximately as confusing as the courses themselves. I think they are a bonus if you consider some private institutions - especially if they are not too well known or deal in a niche market.

I personally went for a very large, state owned UK university which does not have any of the private "badges" - and I am still 100% sure that the title is accepted globally.

So much about the "choosing your school" part.

Now about studying: "Being flexible" was my key interest for online studies. Reality is that studying is not as flexible as the marketing of the schools make you believe it is: My school had a drop out rate of about one third - and nobody drops out easily after having invested a substantial amount of your hard earned money. Some students surely simply did not manage their course, but I'd say equally many did not manage to arrange their work and study schedules and finally decided to give their jobs the priority.

How it worked at my one: The course consisted of a defined amount of credits, credits were earned through modules. Some modules were mandatory, the rest could be picked out of a long list according to your interests. A module takes 8 weeks and while you are completely flexible to choose your module and which month you want to start it - as soon as it started, the flexibility stopped: During those 8 weeks, you needed to spend many hours on plenty of homework. I usually did roughly between 10 and 20 hours, if I knew the subject very well I needed ten, if it was completely new more like 20.

I personally met students who simply did not manage this: They had jobs where it was impossible to foresee the workload for eight weeks. So while doing great in the first month, were they then stressed out by their job schedule in week 7 or something.

Does it have to necessarily be a UK online degree?

There are plenty of US online degrees and one is even based in Geneva...that would make it more accessible in case you would have to go in for testing etc.

Which online degree is based in Geneva? Thanks.

I worked for SUNY for quite a while, that was running CDL (Centre for Distant Learning) with La Salle, New Paltz and Empire State. I have to say, it is not easy, the books cost students a fortune, the CDL course credits are also more expensive than regular ones, kids had no experience how to organize their time in order to be successful. But a lot of them did. The Bachelor courses had a high drop out rate, the Master Degrees did not, it is logical, older, more determined students had a much higher success rate and the MA or MBA courses are a lot shorter, too.

It is a very different way to study, you have to keep yourself on track, make your priorities clear, outline your work and stick to it, no matter what schedulling you pick (I assume you would have your study time at kid's nap times and night, make sure, though, you have somebody on hand for the critical periods as you might be too tired to work when your baby sleep and would just fall asleep too easily with her). Some students are straight As in the class and plunge right down on line since they miss the competetiveness and direct supervision. So, it is essential to have a plan backing you up in the moments who won't be too motivated (and, studying at home, with a warm pizza and cozy PJs, where all the housework is waiting for your excuse to procrastinate, your child needs you attention, all those trips in the beautiful Swiss countryside....not easy). On the other hand, some love the fact you can organize your own time, learning steps, MOs, sequencing, when to go to lib, etc. have to say, it has some great perks, it really suits some learning types..There are some great web communities to support you, for example, in times you need to write up a theses, I have used some and it works like charm. Last time I needed to hand in an article for a conf, we were doing the Pomodore method with an online support group, I and some dozens geeks together all over the world, checking on eachother's writing and our tomatoes. Another thing is trying to simulate the classroom, sometimes, eventhough you study at home it is important to replicate the studying conditions (breaks, giving yourself 45mins-90mins or couple of hours of undisturbed time before you "clock out", getting out of home if it is not possible to concentrate and study in lib/school/cafe/with others, erm, trains, aeroports, public transport work too, haha).

Most well known programs are no Mickey Mouse courses, you have to cram and have to do a lot of routine work to show determination. A lot of routine work is also requested from students form the beginning to weed out the weeklings and those who are not sufficiently motivated. I believe this is a field that is changing extremely fast so I have no idea how things are now, a few years later.

If you want to know more about what degrees Switzerland acredits, contact CDIP .

This one Webster . They advertise selected online graduate programs.

There is on in Zurich:

Robert Kennedy College http://college.ch/

Costs 14'000 Chuffs.

This rankings list might be useful to compare online-MBA programs:

http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoo...ngs/online-mba

Many British (and other) universities offer fully accredited distance learning degree/masters courses. Not just the OU.