From: nkraft@crash.cts.com (Norman Kraft)
Subject: Re: Need info on correspondence degree programs
Organization: CTS Network Services (crash, ctsnet), El Cajon, CA
Date: 02 Sep 92 14:34:44 PDT

In article <1992Sep2.154630.29584@news.vanderbilt.edu> Frank Sayre <sayre@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu> writes:
>
>There are number of "universities" offering BA/BS, MA/MS, PhD's
>to working professionals by correspondence, i.e. you don't attend
>classes but work from your home submitting classwork and papers
>via US mail or electronically.

This is called "distance education" these days. One can even earn 
(traditional) doctorates in the field.

>They usually claim to be accredited.

Well, as with anything else, such schools are very much a mixed bag.
Accreditation is a strange subject, with the important question being
"accredited by whom?". States do not accredit schools, they merely
(in places like CA) approved them to offer degrees, or (in places
like LA) they don't care about non-traditional schools at all. Universities
are accredited by regional accrediting agencies, such as WASC (Western
Association of Schools and Colleges), and these are, in turn, looked
after by the US Dept. of Education.

Many non-traditional schools claim accreditation, but if it is not
from one of the four major national accreditors (and a few accreditors
who look after religious schools), the value of the degree will vary
by who is looking at it. Grad programs, in general, won't take degrees
from schools without regional accreditation.

Accreditation claims are to be taken with several grains of salt in
all cases. I notice that the schools with regional accreditation don't
go on and on about how well accredited they are.

>Several of them are located in California.

In California, we have this strange thing called 'approved' schools.
Some are very good, more are not. In general, the state looks at a
school and its facilities, reviews its programs, and declares the
school to be awarding degrees which are "equivalent...to degrees
awarded by regionally accredited schools". Very few, if any, of
these schools, however, could obtain regional accreditation even
if they wanted it.

>Does anyone have any knowledge of such programs or experience with
>them? Please name which ones.

I have knowledge of numerous such programs. I have experience with
a few, all regionally accredited: University of Colorado, Western
Illinois University, Brigham Young University, and Thomas Edison
State College (in New Jersey). These all have excellent programs,
but mostly concentrate on undergraduate degrees. For graduate
programs there are many selections, too numerous to go into here.

>What is the course work like? Do they use textbooks, periodical
>articles, etc, as in traditional university programs, or do they use
>use their own workbooks or other "canned" materials?

It's a mixed bag. The accredited programs generally use the same
textbooks that are used in the residential classes, are guided by 
the same instructors, and substitute written material from the
professor in place of lectures. These classes are not easy, by
any measure, and require much more self-discipline than most people
can muster. After all, if you didn't have to go to class, no one
cared if you went to class, no one was watching you, and you had
no classmates with which to compare your progress, wouldn't you
find motivation an elusive thing? 

>How much leaway do they give students in defining projects, electing
>course work?

Generally, more than traditional students are used to, not as much
as students would like.

>If you were conducting interviews for a position in your organization
>for which an MBA would be a prerequisite or a plus, would you recognize  
>value in an MBA from a correspondence program?

For undergraduate degrees, distance education is a very valid approach,
and I would not hesitate to hire someone with such a degree (heck, I
got one of my two undergrad degrees that way). In graduate programs,
however, the considerations are different. Most employers would
be slightly suspicious of such degrees at the graduate level, but
many, many, such degrees have been accepted as equal to the traditional
variety in non-academic fields.

On the other hand, with the better programs the degree you receive
is indistinguishable from any other degree issued by that institution.
If you don't tell the employer it's a non-traditional degree, and 
the school is fully accredited, the employer will probably not 
discover this on their own.

>Are such degrees merely minor career enhancers for people who already 
>have traditional Bachelors or Masters, i.e. just icing on the cake?
>Or are they to some degree the "wave of the future", as traditional 
>higher education becomes untenably expensive?

In my experience, most people in distance education are of the
"finish up that college degree" variety. The majority are pursuing
undergraduate programs, for advancement or career change. Graduate
degrees are almost always in Business, and may or may not advance
one's career.

>Have you read or are you aware of any formal/published review or 
>other evaluation of correspondence programs?

The best of them (though some would argue with this) is John Bear's
_Bear's Guide to Earning College Degrees Non-Traditionally_. There
are very few programs anywhere in the world that do not appear in
this book, and Dr. Bear is a recognized expert on the subject.
If you want to read just one book on the subject, I'd recommend this
one.

There are also a couple of journals for distance education, but I
don't know the titles offhand. You might try this query in
alt.education.distance.

Hope this helped.

Norm.