Selling Your Online Degree in Hostile Markets
Is You Online Degree Marketable?
How do you know if your online degree is marketable? Will it really be accepted by academic admissions officers or potential employers? Cyberschools never mention this potential marketing challenge, but it's out there, and you should be ready to face it.
Realize the Potential Marketing Challenge. Don't be fooled! The explosion in communications and Internet technologies is real. But always know that, as the very first of many online graduates, you will have to be ready to jump a higher hurdle than traditional graduates. Don't let yourself think that everyone out there is dazzled by your new online degree You are a new phenomenon, a pioneer. You represent change and change always has its enemies. For instance:
- There are few people out there toting virtual diplomas. Many head hunters are taking a wait-and-see approach before they decide how they will view the future alumni of dot.com colleges (Interactive Week, 06/05/00, p108).
- Recruiters at Snelling and Snelling's 350 offices still view online degrees as "mail-order degrees." (Bill Wienhoff, vice president of training and development, Snelling and Snelling, Interactive Week, 06/05/00), p108).
- "While the value of any education-online or in-class is indisputable, don't be surprised if a significant number of (online) institutions fail to wow your would-be employers," says Mary Jane Range, President of recruiting firm BTS Search (Information Week, 9/3/01, p59).
- Almost a third of the supervisors surveyed had a preference for job applicants with traditional degrees (Distance Education Training Council, 2001).
- "The Dean of Instruction at my former place of employment (a community college), told me I was not qualified to instruct a certain course with my 18 hours in an online degree." (Listserv:Deos-L@lists.PSU.edu, 09/19/02, 06:02:33 EDT).
- "A survey shows that adult distance learners have a difficult time finding testing centers that will allow them to take required exams." (Times Educational Supplement, May 17, 2002).
Be Ready To Sell Your Degree
It doesn't matter that online education has made huge advances since the days when correspondence schools advertised on matchbook covers. It doesn't matter that we are entering a vast new era featuring omnipresent accessibility to online resources. The hard, cold reality is that many academic institutions and employers are just not prepared to accept the new world represented by your new online degree.
Very few people have yet met applicants with virtual diplomas. Most organizations have not decided how they will view, process and assimilate the coming wave of dot.com degree holders. Often it will be up to you to convince someone that you and your online degree are worth the additional inconvenience your application may cause. Be ready to sell your degree.
Here Are Five Ways to Sell Your Online Degree
1. Sell the quality of Online Courses.
The same standards that are applied to quality face-to-face courses also apply to quality open learning courses. Instructional design standards place a high value on the certification of the program, the credentials of the instructor and the evaluation of the student. Educators and employers alike should examine the quality of the school or program rather than the method of obtaining a degree.
2. Talk About How Course CONTENT, Not Delivery Mode Counts.
It is a universal academic truth that an institution's approval of curricula is based on course content, NOT the technology or the course delivery mode. Course objectives, what is taught, and course outcomes must remain the same, regardless of how the course is delivered. Otherwise the quality and integrity of any one course may be lost between teachers or technologies.
3. Emphasize How Much Class Interaction Took Place.
The biggest drawback to overall acceptance of distance learning is the perceived loss of real-time interaction and instant direct feedback between teachers and students. Your job is to show that it just ain't so. Be ready to talk about how your online courses encouraged interaction.
The Internet, e-mail, cell phones, wireless devices, intranets and extra nets, mini-cams are only some of the technological advances that have given online learners greater access to resources and to instructors and other students. How did you online programs use these technologies to maximize interaction?
Online learners often receive a broader perspective than traditional students do because they interact with students in other parts of the country and the world.
Be ready to talk about some of your most interesting classmates.
Stress that the quality of online class discussions tends to be much higher than in traditional classes. Students take time to prepare their statements knowing that they will be accessed by everyone in the class and possibly placed in a searchable class archive.
4. Is Your Degree From a Rated School?
If your distance learning program is nationally rated, then tout the fact. And tout often.
5. Portfolios.
All distance learners should prepare a portfolio that dramatically displays your successes in obtaining your online degree. A well designed portfolio can easily become the most persuasive part of your presentation. Include your best essays, research projects, performance evaluations, extracurricular activities, videotapes or anything else that will convince others about your initiative and success as an online student. Next week's Spotlight article will be on the "why's" and "how's" of portfolios.
Your job as a cybergrad is to be able to sell your degree, not just yourself, in getting into that school or getting that job. Remember, as an online learner, you are in a new frontier, not a suburb.
