Respectable online/distance education degrees?

March 25, 2006 11:26 AM

Autodidact looking for respectable distance-ed degree in computer science

I've heard a lot of positive things about places like Athabasca and the University of Phoenix but only from people in the executive MBA programs. I'm more interested in how respectable a bachelor's degree is when obtained through distance education. So if you're in charge of hiring for a company would you look on a University of Phoenix BSIT degree less favorably than an equivalent degree at a brick and mortar university? Alternatively if you hold a bachelor's degree that you obtained through distance ed, have you had any problems getting hired because of it?

My reason for going this route is mostly because I'd like to continue working while I get it. Thanks

posted by saraswati to education (4 comments total)

Many many brick-and-mortar universities (read, almost all the tech schools) are offering Internet courses where you do all the course content online on your own time, except for the exams, which are taken in authorized testing facilities (you should be able to find one near you).

This will be a lot simpler if you're taking the courses from your own metropolitan area, but I'm pretty sure you could work out a deal with many Universities if you can get admitted to their Internet courses and you're willing to pay tuition.

For example, I point you to my alma mater's online site which has a global program(no affiliation aside from alumni status).
posted by onalark at 12:21 PM on March 25, 2006

I have a friend who's doing a CS distance learning program through CSU Chico who has been pretty happy with it. As far as I know, the degrees through this program are standard-issue Cailfornia State University degrees and would be indistinguishable from them to potential employers. Good luck in your studies!
posted by harmfulray at 12:43 PM on March 25, 2006

NJIT has a distance learning program. They're always bragging about how people from India enroll in it. The school is pretty respectable, at least in New Jersey.
posted by exhilaration at 8:10 PM on March 25, 2006

My recommendation is to find a school that's plausibly local to you that offers online classes, and do it through them. I did my degree online through Northeastern (in Boston) because I'm in Massachusetts, and I think it worked out well. Of course, they claimed I could take all my classes online, but they didn't actually offer some of them online in the three years I attended, so I had to go to campus for a number of classes. Even so, it was a great option and I think that doing it this way (through a school that is local to you) allows you to avoid the bad associations some employers still have of online classes.
posted by acridrabbit at 8:32 PM on March 25, 2006