Posts Tagged ‘Online School’

Attend Online Classes For Nursing Degrees

November 3rd, 2011

With today’s economy at a less than ideal state, the concept of a secure job and a steady, exorbitant paycheck are more than most people can even dare to dream about. The stress and money required to alter your current path and pursue a brand new career are two of the reasons that many students don’t make the decision. However, many students are researching distance learning masters and going back to college imagining exactly that, despite the stress.

Students who worry about all of these stressors don’t need to look much further than the nearest college that has a vocational program. Vocational programs have been created specifically to aid students in earning all of the qualifications they need in order to be successful in a new job. One of the careers that’s in highest demand lately is nursing, and many schools offer programs to help students begin a new job in that field.

As the baby boomer population hits retirement age, the number of qualified healthcare professionals decreases rapidly. The need for these professionals is dire, especially in wake of situations like the H1N1 epidemic. To meet this demand, increasing amounts of people are filling the gap by learning accredited degree options for their future contribution in the industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millions of new nursing jobs will be created within the next eight years, leaving plenty of holes for graduates to fill after earning their degrees.

Vocational schools are designed specifically to guide students through the process of learning about their future careers, and one of the most important steps in that process is selecting a specialization. Students may find that some specializations are more lucrative and opportunity-laden than others – geriatric medicine is a prime example of a burgeoning market, for example. No matter what the final selection is, new graduates who start today will have perfect time when it comes to finding one of those brand-new jobs.

Vocational programs are designed to grant students the preparation they need to work in the nursing field, and hands-on experience is a necessary aspect of that preparation. In order to work in a hospital or private clinic, students will need to become personally familiar with all aspects of the work. As a result of the programs, many students find that they are set with the right skills to jump right into the role of handling patients and equipment after entering the workforce.

The beauty of a vocational study program is that it can be completed online, which grants students a flexibility that traditional colleges may not be able to. While working on an online degree, students will have the free time to complete fieldwork or obtain an internship in the nursing field. That sort of hands-on experience can be directly applied to schoolwork and eventually become knowledge that is integral to a future career in the healthcare industry as well.

The projected need for trained healthcare professionals has left many employers in a desperate situation, willing to employ students prior to the completion of their nursing degree. Students who can prove their dedication to earning their degree may find that opportunities in the healthcare industry are available to them even before graduation. Determination and a job well done may leave many students in a situation where they find themselves on a fast track to a nursing career immediately after they’re done with their vocational program.

There is no shortage of vocational programs in nursing for college students who are searching for an online education that works for them. All you have to do is take the first steps towards returning to school and enroll for your distance learning college degree.

How Science And Math Can Get You A Hot New Job

October 29th, 2011

Spend time during summer recess at school without being required to do so? That’s precisely what a group of Boston, Massachusetts, area students were slated to do – skip the beach to instead test local swimming waters for bacteria. To explore how the same nanotechnology that makes iPods possible can be ushered through the body to shut down cancer genes. The teens were expected to participate in an annual, six week research internship program through a Boston university.

At that Boston college, a separate group of high school seniors also participated in a six week research program. Since its 1978 inception, the Research Internship in Science and Engineering Program at that institution has welcomed more than 500 teenagers. One of them, Neel Hajare, in 2007 designed, programmed and built a CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography) scanning robot with Legos, motors, software programs, lasers, and knitting needles.

“It was very different from anything at school,” Hajare is quoted on the program website as saying. “This was all about going out and figuring out how to do something. I had to improvise – it was very intellectually stimulating.”

That’s the idea behind innovative college and university programs in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects: To stimulate interest in young people so that they might more greatly consider moving onto science, technology, engineering and math degrees. As part of the President Barack Obama Administration’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign, schools, organizations and agencies are these days more often partnering to offer progressive programs for students considering or enrolled in STEM degree programs and those with the potential to become future STEM degree students. Those interested will find information for online college helpful as they progress.

Some of the STEM careers that students might land after obtaining varied science, technology, engineering and math degrees are expected to see some of the fastest employment growth of all occupations. That’s in part because these same careers involve the environment, which has been receiving greater attention, and because of areas such as healthcare and technology. Students with certain technology degrees might work to help hospitals and healthcare agencies with computer technologies that can improve efficiency and patient care. Others with specific engineering degrees might help secure drinking water supplies or develop new medical products.

President Barack Obama is among those who have emphasized that STEM careers can help the United remain a leader in the areas of innovation and technology. The National Science Board earlier this year issued a report showing that the number of bachelor’s degrees in the United States, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom has remained relatively flat. Those in China, on the other hand, have increased sharply since 2002, according to the report.

Some of today’s STEM programs are intended for populations in society that have not had the same exposure in science, technology, engineering and math as some of the larger groups. A “Connections” program from that Boston institution, for example, is for female middle and high school students and, at the middle school level, allows students and Girl Scout troops to explore bugs and plants with a microscope, learn how to program a robot using Lego’s Mindstorms software and gain hands-on education in engineering and science by building things. There are also programs for K-12 students and teachers, those who have the ability to capture and keep the interest of students. Through that university’s Project STAMP, for instance, graduate and undergraduate science, engineering, technology and math majors work with area K-12 teachers to develop curricula for their classes. Searching for online college degrees information shouldn’t require much time or energy, and it could prove to be worth the effort.

These efforts are referred to as a “pipeline” for future STEM degree candidates and professionals at an online school. By pursuing a STEM college degree students might find themselves surprised by their abilities and discoveries.

Military Personnel Advance Their Education Through Distance Learning Classes

September 16th, 2011

Many members of the military have the commitment and self-discipline it takes to succeed with online college courses. In the case of the military, online college offerings allow flexibility that can translate to stability, allowing studies to continue uninterrupted even in instances of transfers and deployments. College studies are conducted during off-duty time. Continuing education is not mandatory, but is often free, and military experts see several advantages to it as a bit of schools online research will demonstrate.

Voluntary education programs help improve mission performance, prepare for greater responsibility and enhance personal and professional potential, according to Lori Popp, an Education Technician with the Lifelong Learning section of Marine and Family Services aboard Camp Lejeune in North Carolina who addressed the topic as part of a July 2009 Jacksonville Daily News article.

U.S. Congress in 1944 passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act. Also known as the GI Bill, the law provided anyone who served in uniform the opportunity to obtain a college scholarship. By 1947, nearly 50 percent of all college students in America were veterans, according to a Time Magazine article. A Post 9/11 GI Bill has since made as much as full tuition money for graduate and undergraduate degrees and vocational or technical training as well as book and housing stipends available to service members on active duty after Sept. 10, 2001.

Military training and experience can translate to academic credits, and more than 1,900 community colleges and universities that have reportedly partnered with the U.S. Army accept these credits from soldiers during or after service. Many bases are said to include satellite campuses of local accredited universities. Many soldiers benefit from accredited degree online offerings as well. Technological advances in distance learning opportunities make it easier for deployed service members to continue their education, Popp told the Jacksonville Daily News.

With online classes, students access between 80 and 100 percent of their course content online, according to the Sloan Consortium that is comprised of organizations and institutions committed to quality online education. Students who otherwise might not be able to attend classes at a traditional campus are often drawn to online classes and online degree programs-and enrollment numbers continue to increase. The results of a recently released “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States” study showed that the fall 2008 semester saw a 17 percent increase in online students compared to fall 2007, bringing the total number of online class enrollees to 4.6 million.

More than 1,000 deployed Marines and sailors are benefiting from tuition assistance, Popp told the Daily News. And an October article in The Chronicle of Higher Education described online courses as a “boon for soldiers who want to participate in college despite geographic displacement.” The story, about a professor and National Guardsman who continued teaching online classes in economics during a tour of duty in Iraq, reported that soldiers keep occupied during stretches down time by working, reading, exercising, playing video games and watching movies. Many soldiers and other members of the military also enroll in online college or graduate school courses during deployment, The Chronicle piece noted.

Corporal Dakota Berg was reportedly doing just this when the Jacksonville Daily News told his story in July. Berg graduated high school in 2006 and joined the U.S. Marines for the tuition benefits. The military’s tuition assistance program alleviated a lot of financial and mental stress, Berg told the Daily News. He’s using them to pursue an online degree in accounting-an endeavor that his deployment from Parris Island, S.C., to Iraq hasn’t interrupted.

Preparation is a big part of being in the service and what our service men and women are doing with distance learning course education is preparing for their future. Be it in the service or in the civilian sector, the time spent participating in colleges online is time well spent on their future career path.