Engineering Degrees Online

andymorackle

I have done BS in engineering and looking for masters in same so as to have better job options. I am planning to start it through an online college program; being working can't leverage time to attend regular classes. I am afraid of getting trapped in bogus university programs, so need your help in selecting an online university.
Please share your viewpoint wrt online education.

shednik

What type of engineering are you looking to get your masters in?

ipconfig.all

Surf the web and find some online universities. Then do a research on them and contact some people who received their degree thorough that online university. Then you could make up your mind.

msteinhilber

Have you taken any online courses before? I personally dislike online courses, I am wrapping up my B.S. which is a hybrid between on-campus and online courses (finishing up in 3 weeks, woo hoo) and I'll share some of the trends with my online courses.

1. The instructors are more in the role of a facilitator rather than an instructor. The purpose of the online instructor is not as parallel of one teaching on-campus with lectures, interaction and examples on a whiteboard, raising questions to answer in class to spur discussion, etc. They sometimes will have lectures online, and will post questions to discussion boards online to spur interaction but the learning experience relies heavily upon you and the other students which brings me to point number 2.

2. You may have a lot of other students in your classes that are big time procrastinators. Each of my online classes had approximately 20 students in the class. Of these 20 students, I would estimate about only 5 of them would actually have their initial discussion responses posted by the due date (Tuesdays for us). The rest of the students very often would wait until Thursday or Friday night to post their initial discussion response. Another common issue with the majority of the students is when they post their initial discussion topic they will not respond to any of the other threads until later on in the week when the peer responses are due. So to summarize, your peer learning experience consists of a race to make your initial response, wait a few days, then post your follow-up responses - thus no real on-going discussion really occurs very often. Oh yea, a lot of those response posts are consisting of "You make excellent points <insert reiterated points here>". This builds into point #3.

3. In my classes, it was not uncommon to have group based assignments and to be split into a group of 4 or 5. Take the same communication problems from post 2 and apply them here. The end result is one or two people working on the project and the others skating along hoping to earn a good grade.

Those are just my observations from my online classes. I'm sure there are reputable online courses out there where the instructors actually keep a close enough eye on participation and reprimand those that do not actively participate which in turn prompts participation. Not at my school though, but I generally have fairly bitter feelings about my school experience - bitter feeilngs I will delve deep into when I complete my degree in the next few weeks and make a post about it.

Riskbling

Dude, no.

If you are going for an engineering degree, you are going to need to get your ass in the classroom and put that brain to work! Some degrees just cannot be earned online, it's just not practical.

If I found out someone that was about to perform surgery earned his/her degree online I would be looking for a new doctor.

Just my opinion.

eMeS

Riskbling wrote: »

Dude, no.

If you are going for an engineering degree, you are going to need to get your ass in the classroom and put that brain to work! Some degrees just cannot be earned online, it's just not practical.

If I found out someone that was about to perform surgery earned his/her degree online I would be looking for a new doctor.

Just my opinion.

I'm going to wholeheartedly agree with you and applaud you for speaking up and saying this.

While many degrees can be earned by taking online classes, not all should be. Engineering degrees at any level are just not appropriate for this mode of delivery. Give technology about 10 years and let the market mature and I might feel differently.

MS

veritas_libertas

msteinhilber wrote: »

Have you taken any online courses before? I personally dislike online courses, I am wrapping up my B.S. which is a hybrid between on-campus and online courses (finishing up in 3 weeks, woo hoo) and I'll share some of the trends with my online courses.

1. The instructors are more in the role of a facilitator rather than an instructor. The purpose of the online instructor is not as parallel of one teaching on-campus with lectures, interaction and examples on a whiteboard, raising questions to answer in class to spur discussion, etc. They sometimes will have lectures online, and will post questions to discussion boards online to spur interaction but the learning experience relies heavily upon you and the other students which brings me to point number 2.

2. You may have a lot of other students in your classes that are big time procrastinators. Each of my online classes had approximately 20 students in the class. Of these 20 students, I would estimate about only 5 of them would actually have their initial discussion responses posted by the due date (Tuesdays for us). The rest of the students very often would wait until Thursday or Friday night to post their initial discussion response. Another common issue with the majority of the students is when they post their initial discussion topic they will not respond to any of the other threads until later on in the week when the peer responses are due. So to summarize, your peer learning experience consists of a race to make your initial response, wait a few days, then post your follow-up responses - thus no real on-going discussion really occurs very often. Oh yea, a lot of those response posts are consisting of "You make excellent points <insert reiterated points here>". This builds into point #3.

3. In my classes, it was not uncommon to have group based assignments and to be split into a group of 4 or 5. Take the same communication problems from post 2 and apply them here. The end result is one or two people working on the project and the others skating along hoping to earn a good grade.

Those are just my observations from my online classes. I'm sure there are reputable online courses out there where the instructors actually keep a close enough eye on participation and reprimand those that do not actively participate which in turn prompts participation. Not at my school though, but I generally have fairly bitter feelings about my school experience - bitter feeilngs I will delve deep into when I complete my degree in the next few weeks and make a post about it.

Agreed, Agreed, and Agreed....

I am at a point in my life where it is tough to balance work, family, and college. I don't blame you for trying to do your degree online. I personally won't (unless I have to) because I need the extra push a class room provides.

Check out state colleges and see if any of them offer a MS in Engineering online. That way you do get recognized. Try to avoid online only colleges. Maybe you can find a college where half the classes are online? I know of some major colleges that are like that.

suzanemiller

For similar details, review this thread:
http://www.techexams.net/forums/jobs-degrees/44013-looking-accredited-online-universities-3.html

Kasor

Online program, you might not meet the people that you need. It is about networking. However attending instructor class cost too much. It is good if you already looking for 2nd M.S or something like graduate certificate.

veritas_libertas

Here is one I actually found while searching for something else on Google...

Iowa State University - College of Engineering

Online Engineering Education - Graduate Programs