Understanding Accreditation

Have you been considering an online school? There are a lot of choices available to you out there if you're looking for an online college. But, as with most schools, some are certainly better than others. You want to know what makes one school better than another before you make a decision. Probably the most important factor when looking for an online school, or any college for that matter, is to find out whether or not the school you're considering is accredited.

Finding a school that has been properly accredited will benefit you in many ways, including achieving higher education, and your ability to get your first job out of college.

So what is accreditation?
According to Websters Dictionary, accreditation is defined as the ability
" to recognize (an educational institution) as maintaining standards that qualify the graduates for admission to higher or more specialized institutions or for professional practice."

Legitimate accreditation agencies are off for educational institutions and independent review and offer assurance to the student, educational institutions and employers that this educational institution is a legitimate institution that meets certain minimum requirements necessary to receive accreditation.

What Are Diploma Mills
Although the lack of accreditation (here) doesn't always mean that an online school should be defined as a diploma mill, it is certainly one of the signs you want to use to determine whether or not you should choose their school. After all, it is your education and your future career that is at stake.

While the lack of accreditation may not mean the school you're considering is a diploma mill, diploma mills will not have accreditation, or if they do, it will be an illegitimate accrediting agency. They do exist, so while you would need to look into the school you're considering, you also need to look into the accrediting agency to be certain that the agency is recognized by the government. These diploma mills are only interested in getting your money and will promise anything. They will not look into your past academic history and will often apply your life experiences towards credit earned. They will promise you an impossibly easy degree in an impossibly short time that you know is just too good to be true. Save your money and avoid them like the plague.

Why Choose an Online School?
If you are making the choice between a traditional college and an online school, you'll have to take into account many factors. People today are finding out that there are many in bandages to an online education, but there are also a few disadvantages. You need to understand those disadvantages so as to make a better informed decision. As in all things in life, the best decisions are made after doing your homework.

Benefits of Online Schooling
If you're about to choose between a campus, and a qualified online school, you'll need to consider many factors. While there are many advantages to an online education, there are also a few disadvantages you'll need to be aware of Whatever your choice, you'll make better choices in education when you've done your homework.

The Growth of Online Education in Europe

The has been an incredible rise in the online degree program in Europe. After the technological developments gave rise to online learning in the USA, Europe quickly followed suite. The Europeans were quick to grasp the many advantages of online education, and schools quickly moved to serve the needs of this rapidly growing market.

The United States has invested heavily in online education in online education. By 2015, the demand for online education is expected to exceed that of traditional education. Today, prestigious institutions such as MIT and Stanford provide massive online courses to the general public - free online courses, with up to 100,000 students taking advantage of these online courses. You can learn more about free online classes here. Europe is quickly following America's example. the European Commission made more financial resources available to strengthen European online studies specifically, as part of their future "Erasmus for All" program.

In the past in Europe, an online degree is usually associated with cheap vendors of dubious reputation. But the many benefits of online study such as lower costs and increased flexibility has increases the acceptance of higher education. "The online study is an important response to the many educational challenges of our time and will permanently change our educational system," says Piet Henderikx, Secretary General of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU). Today, nearly 500 European institutions provide entire degree programs or just individual courses online. The number of students enrolled last year increased by 15-20%, and it continues to grow by 40% according to data from European universities. Online education is quickly becoming a serious alternative to the traditional campus? The prejudice against online education in Europe is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Free College Classes You Can "Virtually" Sit -In On

I've been taking a few classes "virtually" by sitting-in on them from my laptop. They are actually pretty interesting, especially if you've never been to college.

What most people don't know is that many colleges and universities upload their courses to the web for the entire world to utilize! This began with MIT and quickly spread. There are literally THOUSANDS of online college classes available for you to view and listen to over the web! But while they're free, you don't get college credit for them--at least not the traditional way. The truth is, you can get college credit for "knowledge learned" in everyday life.

Tests for Knowledge Learned
There are tests you can take for knowledge gained from life's experiences. You can save a fortune in college costs if you can get this credit. Also, you'll shave many months off your education.

You'll need to do a little research to get this credit, and you'll also want to brush up on the subjects. You can do that by taking the free classes. The link about will take you to a site that links to many thousands of free classes, so you'll want to take advantage of that.

Outsource Content to Your Computer?

Is this the next generation in "content creation"?

The new reporter on the US media scene takes no coffee breaks, churns out articles at lightning speed, and has no pension plan.

That's because the reporter is not a person, but a computer algorithm, honed to translate raw data such as corporate earnings reports and previews or sports statistics into readable prose.

Algorithms are producing a growing number of articles for newspapers and websites, such as this one produced by Narrative Science:

"Wall Street is high on Wells Fargo, expecting it to report earnings that are up 15.7 percent from a year ago when it reports its second quarter earnings on Friday, July 13, 2012," said the article on Forbes.com.

While computers cannot parse the subtleties of each story, they can take vast amounts of raw data and turn it into what passes for news, analysts say.

"This can work for anything that is basic and formulaic," says Ken Doctor, an analyst with the media research firm Outsell.

And with media companies under intense financial pressure, the move to automate some news production "does speak directly to the rebuilding of the cost economics of journalism," said Doctor.

Stephen Doig, a journalism professor at Arizona State University who has used computer systems to sift through data which is then provided to reporters, said the new computer-generated writing is a logical next step.

"I don't have a philosophical objection to that kind of writing being outsourced to a computer, if the reporter who would have been writing it could use the time for something more interesting," Doig said.

Scott Frederick, chief operating officer of Automated Insights, another firm in the sector, said he sees this as "the next generation of content creation."  read more

OpenCourseware: Get a Free Education Online

Unfortunately, there's no college credit for these classes. Well, actually, there are ways to get credit, but that's the subject of a later post.

While most people know about online college classes, few know that there are real  classes from major universities and colleges that you can sit in on absolutely free. You see, most colleges and universities these days actually upload many of their classes to the web for the entire world to view. This fact is not commonly known, but you can find tons of these free classes online and you can take full advantage of the free knowledge provided.

So how do you find these classes? You simply google "opencourseware" to see what's available. Here, let me google that for you.

Oh, and if after you've sat in on a few classes, you'll probably wonder how you can actually gain college credit by taking these online courses for college credit for free That site will explain in more detail, but basically, you need to take an exam to prove your knowledge of the subject. If you [pass, you'll get full college credit for knowledge gained in the real world. By taking these classes for free, you gain that real world knowledge. Understand?

83% of Doctors Consider Quitting Over Obamacare

Thanks to the Democrat nightmare that is Obamacare, 83% of America’s doctors are thinking about quiting.

 The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.

By 2025 the shortage will balloon to over 130,000, Len Marquez, the director of government relations at the American Association of Medical Colleges, told The Daily Caller.

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