We did a little research about online colleges and universities, to find out which ones seem to be the most conscious of the fact that adult learners need flexibility in their graduate degree programs. After all, grownup students usually have jobs, spouses and often even kids to take care of. Here’s a look at which schools have masters and other advanced degree programs designed with the adult learner in mind.

Here’s an intersting study by PayScale, a career website. It compares the earnings right after graduation and mid-career earnings of graduates from various state universities.

Methodology Annual pay for Bachelors graduates without higher degrees. Typical starting graduates have 3 years of experience; mid-career have 15.5 years. See full methodology for more.

My one question about the validity of this is: did the California schools do so well because they’re in a state with lots of high-paying jobs, and their grads tend to stay there after finishing school? The next tier of schools on the list are almost all in affluent northeastern states. Anyway, it’s a good tool for comparison, as it compares specific branches of state schools against each other. To see the complete list a visit PayScale

If you’re going to school online, Congress wants to horn it’s way into your living room, bedroom or wherever else you take your tests. Hidden deep in the new bill that renews the Higher Education Act for next year is a provision that requires schools to prove that the person who signs up for a course online is the same person who does the work. While this sounds reasonable, and could conceivably provide relief to some online students who must now travel to schools to take tests, it kicks the door open to all sorts of potential invasions of privacy. Not surprisingly, Congress is once again flaunting how utterly clueless it is about the Internet and technology in general. Although several vendors are developing cameras or fingerprint technologies meant to authenticate test takers, none of them are really proven, and it hardly seems desirable that their little devices should be forced into your home. Welcome to another federal education law requiring something — and providing zero financial help or technical instruction from the government on how to actually do it. Read More

Two Democratic senators are pushing to prevent lenders from discriminating against students at smaller, less-known college. Washington State’s Patty Murray and Chris Dodd of Connecticut think that lenders are getting too picky about which students they give loans to, and passing over the students at community colleges, among others, because the schools aren’t high on the prestige list. A new bill that’s been introduced by the two senators is designed to end discrimination in lending that’s done under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). The FFELP program covers Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans and Federal Consolidation Loans, all of which offer a chance for students to borrow money for their education at below-market rates. Although the money is lent to students by private banks and companies, it is almost entirely guaranteed by the federal government. Because Uncle Sam is taking all the risk away from the private lenders by guaranteeing these loans, Dodd and Murray want to make sure loans are made equally available to all, even in an economic environment where lenders are pulling back on just about all types of lending, including student ad. Read more on this at Senator Patty Murray’s website

Tiffin University in Ohio thinks it’s found a unique niche for online education: a two-year associates degree for people who start out with the intention of transferring to another school to finish a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree. Most associates degree programs online tend to serve adult students who want a particular credential that will help their career. But Tiffin’s program is angled at college-age kids who just aren’t ready to sign on for a four-year degree. The idea isn’t unique in higher education. Students at large universities often do a two-year program, and then make a choice about which direction they will go in to complete their four-year degrees (my older son did this at Boston University, doing two years in the school of general studies and then transferring to the communications school, and my younger son is about to do it at FIT, where almost all art students take a two-year associates degree and then choose a bachelor’s degree to focus on for their last two years of school). But it is a bit of a new idea in online education. Tiffin’s administrators point out that the two year “starter” option online is particularly good for freshmen who aren’t socially developed enough to go into a full-fledged university, and that disabled and home-schooled students may find it helpful as a way to ease themselves gradually into a four-year program.
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Here’s an important list for those of you who are saving money to put your kids through college or possibly socking away some dough to pay for your own continuing education. 529 plans are being pushed by many investment advisors as a good way to save tax-sheltered money for a kid’s college education. But I’ve learned from direct experience (I have a 529 plan for my younger son) that buying these investments is tricky. Each state has its own 529 plan, and you are not required to invest in your own state’s plan. Because state politicians choose who will run 529 investment plans, there’s a huge variation in quality of the plans from state to state. It’s important to shop around. If you’re in the market for a 529 plan, take a good look at Morningstar’s latest list of best and worst college 529 savings plans.
Also, here is a series of good articles on paying for your online college degree.

The new odd couple in distance learning is The China Continuing Education Association (CCEA) and The University of Massachusetts. UMass recently announced it has signed an agreement with CCEA to develop courses to make available online in China. Don’t expect the courses to be available soon. According to UMass’ announcement, the new courses will be developed over the next five years. The American school has been given exclusivity by the CCEA, but China’s Ministry of Education has yet to approve any foreign school teaching in their country. Although the Chinese have apparently been slow to embrace online learning, there’s little doubt that their red-hot economic growth will boost demand for all types of learning over the next few years. Read UMass Announcement Here

We came across this list from a little earlier this year of one Economist writer’s view of the ten best distance learning MBA’s. Given that The Economist is a European publication, it should come as little surprise that several of the schools listed here are European institutions you may never have heard of. The only two American schools to make the list are the Thunderbird School of Global Management and the Warrington College of Business of the University of Florida, neither of which are exactly household names here in the U.S. There are several pages linked to this article explaining the method of this survey, though I’m afraid I was left a bit confused by them. Nonetheless, it’s an unusual list worth checking out for any prospective online MBA student. See the list here

One of Wikipedia’s co-founders, Larry Sanger, is making noise about the need to make online learning more available to K-12 grade children all over the world. Writing on his “Citizendium Blog,” Mr. Sanger offers a petition that everyone in the world is invited to sign, and send to a philanthropist. If you don’t happen to know who your local major philanthropist is, you may have trouble figuring out what to do with this. If you do, however, you can use the petition to add your voice to Sanger’s call the people donating money to improve education should seize the “low hanging fruit” by funding the transfer of textbooks and educational videos into high-quality, easy to use digital formats so that kids all over the world can have equal access to information. While there is free educational content available online today, Sanger says, most of it “lacks either detail or high quality.” Copyright owners may not agree with his assertion that rich philanthropists can digitize any content they want without asking anyone’s permission, but his passionate call for making the best information available to all school kids worldwide sounds pretty good. One can’t help but notice his comment that other things than a lack of digital content may, at times, be to blame for the sorry state of American K-12 education: “Perhaps it has to do with teachers being low-paid, or parents not being involved, or something else. We do not offer an answer to that.” Read Citizendium Blog & petition here

Arkansas ranks next to last among U.S. states in the number of college graduates (only West Virginia lags behind it). The numbers are a bit shocking: Right now, just 12 out of every 100 ninth graders in the state earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of finishing high school.

A big problem is that many students in the state start college but never finish. Arkansas Higher Education Director Jim Purcell wants to respond with a $30 million dollar education program that has a strong online learning focus. By offering distance learning courses to people who’ve failed to complete their college degrees, he hopes to boost the number of graduates and make the state more attractive to employers.

It’s interesting that online learning is being called to the rescue here, since a common criticism of it is that students often take an online course or two but never finish a degree. Check out this interesting article about the tough conditions in Arkansas higher education, and how the state hopes to fix them, partly through online learning.