"Don’t Discredit My Online Degree" is an article in Library Journal by Karen Glover.

OK, I agree Ms. Glover, I won’t.  But I’ll ask you the same thing, don’t discredit my on campus degree.

This is an article that had great potential.  It points out that many employers still undervalue and may even devalue online degrees, that distance education students may well possess traits that should be highly valued by employers, and that there are advantages to an online degree.  No argument from me there.

But Ms. Glover crosses a few lines in her exuberance to defend her choice of education.  It is these that I want to address. 

But first, disclaimers and my credentials.  I have sat on academic library search committees.  I did e-reserves for three years, to include ensuring that our distance ed students had access.  I also worked full-time while pursuing portions of my education.  My job at library school is the technical end of distance education.  This includes the broadcasting of the synchronous portion, that is, the actual class, and support of all underlying technologies from the student’s perspective.  In this capacity I am actively involved with our distance ed students every time they come to campus, and, of course, several times a week when doing my job.  I am also taking a distance ed class this semester.  I have also written at the graduate level on the theoretical/philosophical limitations of distance education.  I am, thus, very much well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of distance education in an LIS school.

"That means 60 percent of employers view my degree as second
class, which makes finding a job that much harder for me than someone
with a traditional degree."  Sad but quite probably true.  I do not argue with this point from your view and, unfortunately, I can do nothing to change it.  All I can say is that when I sat on search committees we did not devalue online degrees.  Many of our librarians attended this school and several got their degrees via distance ed, or at least a large part of it.  To devalue an online degree would have meant devaluing their own or their peers own education.

Students don’t socially interact with peers.

"As far as social interaction goes, I found my online program to be better than my traditional undergraduate program."  I’m not convinced that comparing your level of social interaction in graduate compared to undergraduate education is a good one.  Graduate education is something entirely different, and your social interaction is supposed to be of another order completely. 

In my situation as an on campus student I find myself starving for professional social interaction.  I go to the bar, to movies, etc. with my fellow students but that matters none for me as a future librarian.  Most of them do not want to discuss "professional" topics outside of the classroom.  But I do have the alternative of hanging out with the doctoral students who are more likely to be engaging in discussions of professional merit, IMHO.

I have commented to several folks about the level of engagement of the distance students when they come to campus compared to on campus students.  I always try to find a few to hang out with when they are here because I can then find the sort of social engagement that I am looking for.  They are simply incredible to be around when they are here.  During the on campus session for my distance ed class this semester I went to lunch and dinner with several of my classmates and we never once stopped discussing material relevant to our course or librarianship in general.  I wish I could remember half of the conversations I had.

Now lest you think that I am making Ms. Glover’s argument for her, just hold on.  A very wise distance ed friend of mine replied to me when I told her this that it is probably because "we are starving for this kind of interaction and we only get it when we come to campus."  Well, well.  It’s not an everday thing for them either.  Now that I think about it, I am willing to bet that the amount of external class stimulation that I got over the weekend that the distance ed students were here is no more nor less than what I get in a semester from my on campus cohorts.  And that is a shame!  But is does not add up to more social interaction for distance ed students.

Ms. Glover mentions that she and her classmates communicated "via chat, discussion boards, and email," and that much of it was graded.  Well, the same is true in our on campus courses.  Distance ed classes may ensure that this is in a different ratio, but it is not inherently the case.

Too new?

"Students in the online program take the same exact courses."  Maybe in your program, but not necessarily in ours.  Sometimes on campus students take a course that is only available via distance ed, such as the one I am taking this semester.  In that case they are the same.  But we have many courses that must be offered in both formats.  These are often taught by different instructors, using highly varied material.  I will only provide one example, one which I do feel is vastly different in the different settings, and that is Storytelling.  I broadcast the distance ed version of this class the same semester I took it on campus.  Now let me first stipulate that I believe the distance ed instructor did a wonderful job, and so did the students.  BUT.  There is simply no way that the students in that class had the same quality level of experience as we did.  If the goal was to teach storytelling over the phone then fine.  But that is not the goal of Storytelling.  Telling stories over the phone to be broadcast to others is vastly different than doing it in front of a group of 25 other live persons.  Over the phone storytelling ignores a good 3/4s of everything having to do with knowing/reading your audience.  Plus, being drawn into a story over the phone versus face-to-face is vastly different.  Can it be done?  Sure.  I’m not totally ignorant of, say, old radio serials.  Is face-to-face storytelling vastly different than non-face-to-face, for both teller and audience?  Yes and yes.  And while I believe, again, that the instructor for the distance ed version did a fabulous job, she has a few decades and maybe a few lifetimes before she can, if ever, be another Betsy Hearne.   

"How many traditional instructors demand that you come to their office once a week and ask a question or propose an idea?"  Well, I think that’s the point of all the reading responses/critiques that we do in many of our classes.  So the answer for me is a large portion do.

More value

Those of us who choose to take online courses, or earn an online
degree, do so because we often have jobs, families, and lives that cannot just stop for school. We may be nontraditional, but that does not make us less valuable. In fact, it may even make us more valuable.
We multitask and organize. Our time management skills are impressive, and our commitment to our education is unmatched. Until employers know more about what it takes to succeed in an online program, however, the stigma will remain.

OK, I’ll agree with the first two and the last sentences.  But I’m also going to call "snarky."  First off, I and I am sure many of my on campus cohort would be glad to know that we don’t have jobs, families, or lives.  Many of these people have all of those Ms. Glover.  Many have quit well paying jobs and uprooted their families, even including a spouse quitting their job too, to move here to attend school as they best see fit.  Many of fellow on campus students, and their families, are making huge sacrifices for their educations.  The multitasking, organization, and time management skills of many distance ed students is impressive.  But to imply that on campus students neither need nor have these too is simply ignorant.

"If questions about your online degree come up in an interview, be honest and state all of the reasons why your online degree is more valuable than a traditional one."  I concur.  Do be honest.  But your degree is more valuable than mine?  That really is the height of hubris. 

Yes, I understand that you are currently at a disadvantage due to the views of many involved in the hiring process in our field, but that is simply no reason to make shit up.  Your choice of education, just like mine, comes with a whole set of advantages and disadvantages, many of which overlap or are exactly the same.  So, certainly downplay the disadvantages and highlight the advantages of your edcuation in an interview.  But to claim that online education as a whole is "more valuable than a traditional one" is complete bullshit. 

Notice I am not claiming the opposite here.  What is relevant is the quality of your education for you and how well it prepared you for the jobs you are seeking.  What is not relevant is how it was acquired, as long as it is from an accredited source when that is required.

So, one last time Ms. Glover, I’ll ask you to not discredit my on campus degree.

Credit:  Article found at Wanderings of a Student Librarian.