Distance Degree Programs offer New Opportunities for Chronically Ill Students

Have you struggled with a debilitating illness or disease for years? Did you think that frequently hospitalizations placed your dreams of an undergraduate degree hopelessly out of reach? Through distance learning degree programs, you can achieve your dreams of getting a professional degree from a fully accredited college or university!

Often, students with chronic illnesses are stigmatized because people do not really understand their health condition. Uninformed people may believe that the disease is contagious, that they may become infected simply by sharing a classroom with someone who is ill. This kind of ignorance has caused people with AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), or even spina bifida to be shunned and feared.

Frequently, however, these students are bright young people who desire to obtain a social work degree, psychology degree, or other accredited degree. Many desire to help other students who have health problems that are the same as, or similar to, their own. Having been through the struggles with pain, fear, and ignorance, they desire to impart their survival skills to future students.

A distance education degree offers excellent opportunities for these students. They do not have to leave the comfort of their own homes to walk into a hostile classroom and take an exam. If they are hospitalized or not feeling well, the flexibility provided by on line degree programs allows them to catch up on coursework when they feel better. Furthermore, students aren’t visibly reminded of their “differences.” They are more able to interact with peers and professors naturally and without inhibitions, fears of cruel comments, or uncivil behavior.

Chronically ill students can choose from a wide variety of distance degree programs that meet their interests. These learning opportunities are ideally suited to students with unique physical and personal challenges. They have the chance to achieve the educational goals they have long desired - when they are well enough to achieve them.

Minority Students Seek Distance Degrees
 
Minority students are turning to online degree programs in record numbers. Traditional colleges are reporting decreasing enrollment figures for African American and Hispanic minority students. Ninety percent of Latino and African American minority parents, however, report that they find a university degree as critical to success as a high school diploma. If this is true, where are all of these students?

The answer may surprise many educators. Minority students are turning to distance education degree programs in record numbers. These distance degree programs are becoming so popular, in fact, that they rank among the highest in graduating black and Latino students. In fact, some on line degree universities report that their enrollment figures for minority students have climbed by as much as 500 percent in the last five years!

Two of the reasons reported by students working to complete degree requirements through online education are flexibility and convenience. According to minority leadership organizations, however, there is another, less frequently discussed reason why many students prefer to attend colleges online instead of on traditional campuses. This reason was discussed by Nancy Greer-Greer-Williams, who found that many minority students experienced some degree of racial discomfort while attending traditional on-campus programs, a perception corroborated by many minority students as well.

Whether racism is or is not a factor, the facts are clear: increasing numbers of minority students are electing to pursue their education through accredited degree programs online. Furthermore, these students are graduating and making the most of their educations. Online universities have made huge strides toward providing minority students equal acceptance, convenience, and flexibility in their pursuit of academic excellence!