Adult Education | Journal of Schooling

Step in a New Horizon of Learning

Completing a college degree can be the most influential and rewarding moment in your life. Whether you’re going back to school for job performance improvement, taking a new job or building your own business, your new degree can help you to be successful in the endeavor. Your degree may even take you to new places you never thought possible.

If you are going back to school, make sure you consider all your options. Some people find that continuing education is harder than they thought. You may find it difficult to make classes on time due to your job. Others don’t plan for the increase in travel expenses to go from work to school. You may even be uncomfortable with a younger crowd.

However, there is another option to attend school without ever having to set a foot on campus. Online courses have become the wave of the century. The Internet has allowed people from all over the world the chance to take classes online. Many people with full-time schedules are able to attend classes virtually, complete homework and graduate. This option is perfect for stay at home moms or dads because they can do everything from home.

You’ll find other advantages for online learning. One is the variety of degrees you can get. Most virtual colleges offer associates degrees, but you can find programs that will offer a Ph.D. The school you pick will depend on your career goals. If you feel you’ll benefit more from receiving a graduate degree as opposed to an undergraduate, then continue with your education until you succeed.

With online education, you can step into a new horizon of learning that will allow you to fit your education into your life.

Filed Under: Adult Education, Careers Tagged With: Academic degree, Associate's degree, E-learning

Writing Courses Offered Online

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If you are interested in obtaining your master degree, you may be concerned about how much your degree will cost you in terms of time and money. Luckily, there are many online learning opportunities to help you in your quest for a graduate degree. There are several writing courses offered online that may count as credit for your degree. These courses will help you to improve your writing skills and your understanding of the various types of writing required for those earning an advanced degree.

Basic Grammar Class

There are very few people that would not benefit from an online grammar class. Whether you take this course as a continuing education credit or as a more formal education credit, it will help you in writing the thesis required for your master degree . A firm grasp of grammar will make this a far less painful process. You may find that your current employer will pay for a grammar class, especially if written communication is one of your employment requirements.

Research and Writing

Understanding how to research and write a graduate level paper may seem like a natural progression, but, many graduate students need a course to learn the latest research techniques and to review changes to the standard writing rules (MLA). As we move to more forms of electronic research, this class will become invaluable. Again, this is a class that will assist you when it comes time to write your master degree thesis. Often, these classes are offered as continuing education credits.

Filed Under: Adult Education, Careers, Education Tagged With: Academic degree, Continuing education, Master's degree

Evaluating College Costs: Is it Worth it?

As our society continues to evolve, with more and more education being required in order to stay competitive for jobs that are increasingly technical, the value—and the cost—of higher education is continually increasing. The pressure is on for young people to pursue a higher education, even as those costs increase to astronomical levels.

The price of a college education can vary greatly, depending on the kind of college a student attends. In general, the cost for tuition and fees for a four-year undergraduate education now can run approximately $9,000 at about half of the state-run, public colleges nationwide. The same fees for private colleges can start at around $35,000 and can go up from there to $50,000 or more a year. Some of these private schools do have funding for scholarships and grants from private endowments, however, which c

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an mitigate the costs for some students who qualify.

Community colleges or two-year colleges, which can give a student their general, pre-major classes and prepare the

m for a transfer to a four-year school, average $2,700 a year for tuition and fees. These schools also offer an opportunity to gain a two-year associates’ degree that can prepare a student with career skills.

Many families today are looking at these costs and asking many hard questions about education and what it is worth. With states cutting budgets everywhere, tuition costs at state schools are going up, adding to the pressure on families to come up with more money.

Still, the value of an education is becoming ever more clear as job competition heats up in our now very technically sophisticated society. More than ever, families are looking at the value attached to an education and studying carefully to make sure the education they are financing will truly benefit the student down the road.

Filed Under: Adult Education, Careers, Education Tagged With: Higher education, Public university, Student

The Evolving Purpose of Higher Education

Like everything else these days, including jobs, money, corporations and careers, the educational system and our ideas about how education should be administered is changing.

Yes, we’re in a time of enormous social change, brought about by the incredible advances in communication technology and the Internet, as well as the economic changes currently facing the United States and the global community. What does all this mean for the future of education?

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Education is clearly in a state of transition, as many people are sorting through the educational concepts that have been used in higher education for the past several decades. Technology and the Internet are certainly changing the ways in which teaching is performed on campus, and all this is certainly impacting the public’s views of what education is all about.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that the public’s views on the real purpose of higher education are very much in flux. Most significantly, the public’s views on what the end result of a college education should be are split. The study found that just under half of the group surveyed felt that a college education should prepare a student for the workforce, while 39% of those surveyed felt that education’s purpose is to stimulate the intellectual growth of a student. What’s interesting is the dynamic involved in these views, with college graduates being more interested in an education providing intellectual growth. Those who did not graduate were more likely to want to emphasize work skills as the end result of an education.

As society continues to evolve, our views on education and our ways of disseminating it are sure to continue to change, hopefully for the good of those who are ready and willing to learn.

Filed Under: Adult Education, Careers, Education Tagged With: Education, Higher education, United States