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Sorry it has taken me so long to post this hit. Thank you to the many people who shared their experiences with distance learning programs. The feeling was generally positive, though many expressed the thought that distance learning takes more time than being in an on-site classroom. Other cons included equipment incompatibility and the difficulty in clarifying assignments with professors on-line vs. in an on-site classroom discussion. Many people have included websites for their on-line programs. For comments on specific programs and more detailed discussion of the pros and cons, please read the individual responses below. Cheryl ______________________________________ I began working on my MLS a few years ago in a more traditional setting but when class offerings became fewer and less convenient, transferred to a program offerred at the University of North Texas which is available entirely via the Internet. I LOVE IT! I can "go to school" at my convenience. I feel the Internet and computer experience I am getting is invaluable and I think the education I am receiving is top notch. But there are drawbacks. I miss the more personal interaction of a classroom and classmates, but if you stick with it you do begin to recognize your web classmates too. On the down side, sometimes the technology fails and you MUST be a self starting kind of person who is not afraid to ask questions. You must recognize from the beginning that you will have to take care of yourself, and getting support materials is not as easy as if you are on campus. But I have compared notes with others who have taken classes on line and I would suggest that you enroll with a program that is VERY experienced with web courses. These programs have already worked out the bugs and know how to best deliver on line classes. Those I have talked to who are unhappy with their web courses have generally been from schools just beginning to offer these types of classes. You don't want to be a guinna pig. It may cost more, but go with a proven program. Feel free to contact me if you want more info. ___________________________________________________ I enrolled in Syracuse University's distance program and it was terrific. I did 5 on site visits but you could it in 3 if you really pushed it. THe visits were for a week in Sept and Jan and then 2 or 3 weeks for 2 summers. The program is outstanding, the people I met, teachers, students were unbelievable. We spent the rest of the semester working on the classes we had in the fall and spring. I know the problem with distance from Guam, University of Washington is now starting a similiar distance program led by Mike Eisenberg, one of my Syracuse professors, author the Big Six. So that is a bit closer to home. What does UH offer for distance? Anyway Syracuse is wonderful, for a distance program. Take a look at this website for UW www.ischool.washington.edu/dmlis __________________________________ I am currently enrolled in an MLS program with the University of Missouri - Columbia, MO. I live in St. Louis (a couple of hours away from Columbia) and can take some traditional extension courses in the St. Louis area as well as Internet courses. MU also offers something called web-based classes in which most of the work is done over the Internet, but there are 2 or 3 class meetings. I have been a school librarian for ten years, already have my certification but decided to complete the MLS. There are definitely pros and cons to distance education. pros - It's nice to be able to access the web site and contribute to the discussion board any time of the day or night. I have enjoyed working the class around my personal schedule rather than vice-versa. If you are a disciplined, independent learner, this is a great environment. There is a wide variety of students in the class, and you do get to know them pretty well as you go along through the discussions. cons - I do miss class discussions and meeting with people face to face. You feel like you are in a vacuum sometimes. In my first Internet class, there was a compatibility problem between my computer and the professor's, which I didn't find out about until a week after the assignment was due. This caused a lot of stress, and I finally had to fax all my documents to her. Relying on networks and technology entails a higher stress level, I think. I would have trouble envisioning a program that is totally online, but if that is all that is available, I guess you can make the best of it. ______ I live in a small town in central Texas. There are only three schools in this state that offer MLIS degrees. One is south of here (140 miles away), which is the University of Texas. The other two are northeast of here, also 140 miles away, and are Texas Women's University and the University of North Texas. Whichever one I would choose, driving to attend classes would have been impossible. UNT offers the courses online and while I am getting my masters I am also getting my public school librarian certification. I have really enjoyed taking the classes this way. It is by no means easier than attend class in person, except that I have found myself participating in discussions more because people "cannot see me". I think this is a bonus to the distance program. I really like the flexibility with taking courses online. One does have to become quite disciplined to get the coursework done on time. I was worried about my computer skills, but have increased them as I have taken more courses. Also, there is always a TA in each class to assist us. I am currently taking my 6th and 7th classes online. I hope this helps, ______________________________________ It will, of course, depend on the instructor! I've taken 5 classes on-line through the University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida, USA). You'ld have to pay out of state tuition. Some classes have lots of interaction through the communication system on-line. Some don't. Some professors are very organized and quite involved, others aren't. I think you end up "doing" more because you check the site daily to check on student comments. It takes getting used to but I've found it rewarding. The hardest part is getting clear instructions from the teacher. In a "real" class you can ask if you don't understand or listen as others ask - on-line it's a little harder to get clear instructions (from some professors). USF has a system called Blackboard which is very easy to use. It's a snap to send projects on-line with Blackboard. USF is not a totally on-line program. Many classes are on-line. It would work for teacher credits. I think FSU (Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida, USA) is totally on-line. I think you have to go to Tallahassee for a two or three weeks session at some point but I'm not sure. Good luck. ___________________________________________ I live 250 miles from the Univeristy of Southern Mississippi so I have taken advantage of distance courses of all kinds. There was a man that had lived in Guam when he began working on his Masters in LIS. He stayed summers on campus. Since he started, there are more courses totally online. Also, one of the instructors worked with him and let him take a couple of courses online that others had to meet on campus or either a little of both. She made the exception since he was so far away. Anyway, USM is working on getting their MLIS program totally online. I love them. The only problem I have found is in finding some of the sources they have on campus to do the research project. That too is changing because now you can go through their library online and get more resources. You can contact thomas.walker@usm.edu and he will be very helpful with any questions you have. He is the head of the LIS department and a very nice person. I hope this is what you wanted to know. If you have different questions, just e-mail me back and I'll try to be more specific. _______________________________ Hi Cheryl, I am currently enrolled in the MLS from Connecticut State University, Southern campus. I have taken three courses and I have enjoyed them and learned. There are expensive but everything is done through the computer, no need to go. Easy to register and friendly professors. This third course I am taking is on reference is the one that the professor has best adapted to my needs, the first one was overall knowledge on computer technology and some research skills. The second course was related to situations happening through ALA or events in the states which were interesting and good knowledge but not entirely beneficial to my work area. I pay $812. for one 3 credit course. Plus books. _______ I am currently taking two courses towards my MLS from OnlineCSU, the distance learning component of Southern Connecticut State University in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. I previously took two courses at Pratt Institute in New York City. I think that OnlineCSU has done an excellent, thorough job of creating their distance learning MLS program. I have found the coursework to be much more thorough (and more difficult!) that the on-site courses I previously took at Pratt. The instructors are always available, we work in groups on projects with other students, and there is constant feedback. I would not hesitate to recommend this program - one of my colleagues in a final project is in Malaysia, and the rest of us are spread around the country and the world. Here is the link, if you are interested in learning more: http://onlinecsu.ctstateu.edu/index.real?action=Welcome ___________________________ I am a distance learning MLS student at Southern Connecticut State University. I am currently in my fifth course. I would highly recommend this format and this particular school to anyone. There is no on-ground requirement. The biggest pro is simply the ability to get this education even though I live two states away. After that comes the flexibility to schedule my own time to work on the school work. (That sometimes means doing nothing BUT schoolwork when I am not at one of my three jobs, but that's no different from on-ground school, anyway). The biggest con...there really isn't one, if you set your mind to mastering the distance ed. ropes and taking advantage of the opportunity. I have had far more interpersonal contact with fellow students and professors than I EVER had in undergrad on-ground school! The amount of contact is incredible. Some students don't take advantage of it, and that's their problem. The professor for my current course seems to live in his office...we get responses from him almost any time of any day, and he says he only does school e-mail at the office. This is an accredited school and I can tell you that the teaching staff is very helpful, but they are also sticklers for quality, participation and self-motivation. It's not easy, but it is enjoyable and challenging. ________________ I am currently enrolled in my last semester at San Jose State University which has a distance ed program. Some of my classes have been taught online, with only one meeting and I believe they actually have classes that are totally online. I have to say that I enjoyed my on-campus classes much more but the online classes offer a solid educational experience when needed. We used something called "Blackboard" that allowed the teacher to make announcements and monitor ongoing discussion by the students. This was supplemented by a course web page with discussion topics and readings for each week. We did have to submit papers by email and got responses back in the same way. I just missed the human interaction. ________________________ I teach in a totally online M. Ed. media program here at the University of Central Florida. Although I only teach one class, Cataloging and Classification, if I can help, just let me know. If it would help you to see information about how this program works, here is the link to the main program page: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~edmedia/ We do not have residency requirements, and have students from all over Florida. No travel to our campus is required. __________________________ The University of Northern Iowa's Distance Learning Courses are found at http://www.uni.edu/profdev/ The tuition for a 3 credit graduate course from UNI is $600. _______ I am currently enrolled in southern Connecticut University OnLine MLS program. The courses are totally online, no campus visits required and with 36 semester hours, an MLS degree can be earned. Taking an online course requires more self discipline than going to a class. Face to face discussions are much easier than "threaded discussions" where you type a response & then have to wait to see what the next person says. The website for SCSU is onlinecsu.ctstateu.edu/ I hope this helps. __________ I am doing my MApp. Sc in Teacher Librarianship through Distance - through Charles Sturt University in Australia. The course is fantastic and well supported online. The residentials are all optional. I am living in Hong Kong so I too have the problem of expense. Another distance course is offered through the University of Queensland. If you visit any of these university websites you will find the information req. Hope this is of some help - and seeing you are pretty close to asia this may be a viable option. ________________________ I am taking a second master's degree online from the U of Phoenix. IT is in curriculum and technology. My MLS is from U of Hawaii. At first I didn't like the online in comparison to the real classroom. However, as I continue in the program I am finding it is getting better and I am starting to like it. I wouldn't rec. online degrees for someone who never attended college (i.e. your regular college freshman) because school is more than just about academics...but if one is experienced and in the workplace, online is a better fit. It certainly is better than nothing. I am learning a lot about my subject, and we work in groups online so we actually start to develop "friendships" and collaboration. If your librarians need to keep updated, online is a perfect way to do it and I would highly recommend it. If you are new to librarianship, I would not suggest it to be the best way, but it is probably adequate. __________________________________ When I was going for my masters in educational media (NOT an ALA approved course - but good for school media specialists in my state) it was all class structured when I started. About halfway through some of the classes were on-line - and now the entire course is on-line only. I prefer meeting the people I am taking a class with - but I really feel that what I learned was just as viable on-line as it was being in a classroom. In your case I would most definitely recommend it! One plus was the teacher could not decide to just forget teaching for a day (I never could figure out why some graduate students, who are paying good money to learn something, thought they were 'getting away' with something when the teacher decided to cancel a class?!) ___________________________________ I've had a couple of web classes and they take a LOT of time! Plus, the professors may assume more computer skills than you have! Use caution. __________________ I am taking a distance class at this time. It's not online, it's a GSAMS class which uses satellite technology to show the professor and students with him on a television while we can communicate with them using microphones and they see us on a television at their site. I find that this type distance delivery is the next best thing to being there. (And it saves me a two-hour drive through the evening rush hour in Atlanta!) _________________________ The people I have known felt that they did more work, but didn't get that much out of it. I will say that the University of Montana distance library courses cost the same for in state or out of state students, so they are a bargain. I think a 3 hour course is about $500. _______________________ > >I teach in a totally online M. Ed. in Educational Media program >here at the University of > >Central Florida. Although I only teach one class, Cataloging and > >Classification, if I can help, just let me know. > > > >If it would help you to see information about how this program works, > >here is the link to the main program page: > >http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~edmedia/ > > > >We do not have residency requirements, and have students from all over > >Florida. No travel to our campus is required. _________________ Yes, I am taking a MA in Curriculum and Technology. I think it is a good adjunct to my MLS. At first I didn't like the isolation, but now that I am getting to "know" my classmates, it's much more fun. I can do it without leaving home, and that is very nice. It is very time intensive, and if I had small kids and a job I wouldn't try it. Also, if I were not familiar with the library, I don't think it would be as good as being on site since there are so many hands on things that a librarian needs to do. This course is working for me because I am an experienced teacher and computer person. UOP has a lot of degree plans, but I don't think they have a MLS. I know that several other universities do. Good luck. _________________ Here's the URL for information about the Distance ed program and San Jose State University. http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/disted.htm _______________________ Cheryl, you might not want to post this as part of your hit, but at UNT we have a cohort option so that if you get 20 students in a group, we can bring the on-campus portions TO YOU. It's a lot less expensive for one of us to go there than for all of you to come here. Our online courses are highly interactive, and they dispell the common conception that online learning is like an electronic correspondence course. I don't know what Guam requires to certify school librarians, but I'm sure our program could meet that requirement. We primarily certify school librarians in Texas, but we are also doing programs for teachers in Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota and Thailand. See our web page at http://www.unt.edu/slis and follow the links for school library certification. Most of the requirements are based on Texas certification, but as I said, they meet the requirements in most other states/countries. Please feel free to contact us if you have additional questions. -- Cheryl King, Librarian Agana Heights Elementary School, Guam Telephone: 671-477-3550 (w.) 671-563-1005(h.) Fax: 671-563-1006 E-mail: cherylk@ite.net =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. 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