The Distance Learner

To those of you who made it to my talk at NCHE last Saturday, thanks for attending! One gentleman pointed out to me afterwards that Baker’s Guide to Christian Distance Education by Jason D. Baker was not listed in the handout. I apologize for the oversight. Aside from the book, Baker also has a new web site that provides a lot of good information on distance learning. Finally, if you didn’t get a copy of the handout at my talk then you can download a PDF version of it. Feel free to e-mail me with any additional questions you may have.

I’ll be speaking at the North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE) state conference in Winston-Salem again this year. I’m giving my distance education talk on Saturday, May 26th, from 12:30 to 1:30 PM in South Main 3. A few of the points I’ll cover include:

• Why distance education is a good alternative to traditional college for homeschool graduates
• How I earned my own four-year degree through distance education
• Which colleges currently offer distance education and how to choose wisely from among them
• An overview of the different methods that can be used to earn credit through distance education (portfolio review, CLEP, etc.)

There will be a few surprises too! I hope to see you there.

One question I received after the distance education workshop at NCHE this year was if ITT Technical Institute is accredited. I assume the attendee who asked was considering them as a possible distance education provider.

The answer is yes, ITT Tech is accredited, but not by a regional accrediting body. Regional accreditation is what to look for when choosing a good distance education school because regionally accredited schools have met very high educational standards. Also, if a school is regionally accredited it is typically easier to transfer college credit into and out of the school.

This goes back to the question of what your ultimate educational goals are. If you want to earn a degree that will generally be recognized by employers as being from a quality institution, regional accreditation is a must. If your only goal in attending school is learning a skill that you will then put to use in your own business or in an employment scenario that is less strict about such things, regional accreditation becomes less important.

The bottom line is that you should opt for regional accreditation as often as possible. For more information on the various types of accreditation, check out this article.

I printed several dozen copies of my extended handout for the NCHE workshop on Friday night, but due to very high interest in the topic I ran out. I’ve created a printable PDF version of the handout (47K) for those who didn’t get a copy. Enjoy!

We’re off to Winston-Salem for the convention tomorrow. I’ll have sporadic access to the Internet while I’m there so posts after the workshop may not be as frequent as I’d prefer, but be assured that they will pick up later next week. If you’re visiting for the first time after attending the workshop, welcome!

Welcome to my new distance education blog!

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be giving a workshop on distance education at this year’s NCHE conference. (NCHE stands for North Carolinians for Home Education; my brother and I were both home schooled K-12 and were members of the group at one point.)

The workshop is titled “Distance Education: An Alternative to Traditional College.” In it, I’ll be sharing the story of my own experience earning a four-year degree in Computer Science via distance education. I’ll also be sharing the many benefits distance education offers over traditional college, as well as providing some pragmatic steps that parents and high schoolers can take to find a good distance education program and succeed in it.

My reason for creating this blog is two-fold. First, I want to let you, my readers, know about the conference in case some of you might want to attend. For a description of the workshop and more information about the conference, visit the conference web page.

Second, and most importantly, I plan on sharing the URL of this blog during the workshop so folks can visit, ask any follow-up questions they might have, and possibly even use a discussion board (I’m considering adding one to this site). I’ll be continuing to post about distance education and its role in today’s economy over the next few months for those who are interested in the topic.

If anyone has any immediate questions or comments, feel free to post a comment here. I’d also enjoy hearing from you if you plan on attending any workshops at this year’s conference.