Distance Learning Experiences?

[atlasien]

What are your experiences with distance learning?

Last year, I completed a graduate degree from a reputable but mediocre distance learning program at a regular US university. My job paid for it.

I did a lot of research into the topic before I started my degree. There are a lot of shady operators out there running degree mills that target students in India and Southeast Asia.

[Televangelist]

IMHO, distance learning is best for getting a crash course on subjects that you don't know much about.

I'd recommend Carnegie Mellon's completely free Open Learning Initiative as one of the best:

http://www.cmu.edu/oli/

For a master's, I'm not so sure. The point of the masters is to pick up practical, professionally useful knowledge, and at that point it seems like you're better off interacting with real people -- both the mid-career types that will be your classmates and the senior people in your field who will (hopefully) be your instructors. That sort of organic interaction is usually far more useful than the course material itself.

[atlasien]

CMU also has a master's in software engineering that's completely distance learning.

Distance learning uses specialized software and forums, chat, even videocasts to add interaction between students and teachers. For some subjects it's great, and even better than face to face interaction, for other subjects it's inferior or even impossible. In my job I do a lot of work with virtual teams over IM and email, so using online collaboration to get my degree worked well.