Online Design Schools Serve Up Virtual Experience

When Clara Craig wants to ask her professor a question about the week's assignment, she posts a message on her class's electronic bulletin board.

Not unusual for university students around the country who are communicating more and more through e-mail than face to face. Craig's never met her professor and she probably couldn't pick him out in a crowd. She's never met her classmates either - not in person.

One of the biggest complaints critics have about online education is that it's lacking the social element: no lectures, no heated debates, no contemplative discussions with professors over coffee, no frat parties. That's exactly what Craig doesn't miss.

"I don't have to go to class four nights a week, be bored and have to look at someone's face for a couple hours," said the 48-year-old account manager at Lucent Technologies in New York.

Besides, debates can get pretty intense online and students in Craig's program are awfully serious about getting their work done and getting it right. For most, going to school online was the only alternative in an already hectic life.

Roberta works full time, teaches nights and volunteers weekends. Before she found the master's in business administration program at the University of Phoenix Online Campus, she was leaving her job in Manhattan to commute to night school at Rutgers in New Jersey.

That was leaving her "tired, aggravated and ready to shoot someone." Now, Roberta's company gives her Fridays off for homework and she spends the rest of the weekend on her studies.

The majority of Phoenix's 2,600 students are 30-somethings eager to break through the mid-management ceiling. And 80% are getting tuition reimbursement from their employers.

"One of the misconceptions about online degree programs is that they're for computer nerds," said Terri Hedegaard, vice president of online programs at the University of Phoenix Online Campus. "But we get students representing just about every occupation."

A master's in business administration program takes about three years. It ends up costing about the same as a traditional course - $17,000 to $20,000 - with no physical presence required. Online, students aren't burdened by travel costs or time off work.

Students study and participate in class discussions at their convenience. That can mean popping open the laptop in an airport or hunkering down at the kitchen table at 3 a.m.

Whether Internet learning will work depends on each student's particular learning style, says learning style expert Renee Mollan-Masters. The Ashland, Ore.-based author of You are Smarter Than You Think (Reality Productions, $20) teaches students how to empower themselves, taking the burden off instructors.

"The Internet is very left-brain, linguistic, logical. For those of us who are more spatial, online learning could be difficult." And teacher-student contact is vital, she says.

For students to succeed in this type of academic program, they must be responsible for their own learning. Yet, very few students are that independent, Mollan-Master says. That's why she doesn't see a bright future for Internet learning programs.

Though skeptical, Mollan-Masters admits student chat rooms might supply some of the needed contact and sense of community. But nothing can replace face to face human contact.

Online learning supporters said their students do fine with the contact through e-mail and bulletin boards.

Since the style of the course is more like a seminar than a lecture, it's more suitable to the medium of the Internet, said Phoenix's Hedegaard.

"Adults don't like to be lectured to. They want to be involved and they want to talk back. Sure, you miss the nuances of body language and facial expression, but with this type of learning, you have the opportunity to think about what you want to say before you post it (on the electronic bulletin board)."

Hedegaar said that kind of reflection is important in the learning process. Because the Internet is a democratizing medium, students who might otherwise be intimidated in the classroom, aren't.

Apparently, distance is only one of the reasons people turn to online programs. There are cyber students living 10 minutes away from the campus at California State University Dominguez Hills. They choose instead to learn online.

"They want the asynchronous quality of the program," said Warren Ashley, director of distance learning at Dominguez Hills. The school's Web page appeals to the tired and weary, those who can't or won't bother with the demands of physically attending class.

"Just imagine - no more traffic, no lines, no waiting - professors you can reach by e-mail 24 hours a day ..." reads the intro page. One click later, you're staring at a reader-friendly page dotted with graphics of a computer donning top hat and cane.

Can it really be that easy? All the convenience aside, design students said it's harder than other courses they've experienced.

The only difference is - you're not really there.

Online design schools are becoming more popular than ever. If you are interested in pursuing your design degree online visit our Online Design Schools to review schools and to request more information.