Calculate The Expense Of Online Degrees

Before starting out, students purchase the materials they'll need. Supplies may include books, articles, audio or videotapes, or CD-ROMs. Normally, students are assigned to a class made up of people who stay together as a group throughout the program.

Students use the Internet to access assignments, download lectures or other instructional material, or post messages to a discussion group. While the purpose of the group is to simulate the type of interaction found in a live classroom, the online discussions are usually asynchronous, so students do not have to be online at the same time. A student logs in when it's convenient.

One caveat for those in the market for an online program is that students are usually required to check in at least once a day. Many programs also require some amount of on-campus time, as well as some synchronous meetings using conference calls. Students in the Online MBA Degree participate in team projects that require all team members to be present at the same time. The Texas program also has four two-day retreats in a traditional lecture/seminar format, and one 10-day foreign study tour.

Despite the relative flexibility offered by Online MBA Degree, some students still found it hard to fit all the requirements of the program into their busy schedule. For example, a 10-day school trip to China last summer forced them to forgo their annual family vacation.

Plus, schoolwork was more demanding than they had anticipated. "I thought I could do most of it while on a plane or a few minutes at night in my hotel room. But as it turned out, I was spending about two hours a night on assignments," one of them says.

Rueben Muniz, senior manager of research and development at the Mobility Division of Nortel Networks, also logged hundreds of hours studying for the MIM program. Muniz, also based in Dallas, says he spent 10 to 15 hours a week on the program for 18 months, much of it late at night. Neither Muniz nor Kanaley feel their education was in any way inferior compared with what they would have received in a classroom.

Sure, it's tough to beat face-to-face contact with students and professors. But for many technology professionals, taking courses online is their only option.

Such details don't bother students, whose Indiana Wesleyan diploma will be no different from that of a student who attended classes on campus. Plus, their main goal is pursuit of knowledge, not networking and meeting with professors.

MBA Online