The U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Technology Policy has forecasted that some 1.4 million new workers will be needed to meet the projected demands for technical workers in the United States between now and 2006. Through a newly created Associate of Science degree in Applied Technology offered exclusively online, the consortium hopes to meets its goals of providing employees and union members with the skills they need to become qualified network technicians. The program's technical concentrations emphasize course offerings from electronic and telecommunication areas, and the completion of the program results in a Certificate in Electronics for Telecommunications.
Students also have the option of transferring their credits into a bachelor's degree program.
This is really a revolutionary program. However, the degree program pioneers new ground on multiple levels. Enhanced student support services should do that, mentoring should do that, and the secure online testing will let all of us know that the students who are taking these courses are really who we think they are. Sachs explains that the mentoring and advising components of the program are intended to be exclusively online features. This critical blend of activities to increase student interactions could indeed catapult distance learning one step forward and fill in the motivation pothole that trips up so many adults when they return to school on a strictly online basis.