As the number of students who are learning at a distance grows, it is quite possible that we will also witness the growth of a new industry characterized and populated by people with advanced degrees who lease their time, skills and knowledge to students who are enrolled in online courses. A distance learner who wants to earn a degree the easy way could very well enroll in a program and pay someone with an advanced degree to complete all the course requirements and give them all the necessary information, including usernames and passwords necessary to access course materials. People with advanced degrees could make a reasonably good living by selling their services to a few distance learners each year. As their reputations spread by word of mouth, so will their status and the fees that they command. Guaranteed degree completion in ten months or money back.
Fees are negotiable.
Confidential references available on request. Not being able to truly determine who is doing the work is indeed a very serious weakness in assessment in degree programs offered solely via distance education means. Another problem is that distance learners can learn content at a superficial level and still earn the degree that they seek. Since students have access to all the reading materials and discussion board messages posted by their classmates, just by timing their own remarks and by consulting the reading materials when they need to, distance learners can give the impression that they have mastered the content without actually internalizing it. As distance education grows and proliferates, students will invent more ways to obtain their degrees in the shortest possible time with the least amounts of effort and work.