President-elect Barack Obama claims to support distance learning degree programs, citing technological advances as one means of assisting students to enter 21st century classrooms and benefit from increased access to learning technologies. However, he vocally criticizes for-profit educational institutions, such as online degree universities, explaining that they are responsible for draining public education funds.

His approach to distance degree programs seem ambivalent at best. Further, he strongly advocates expanding the services of colleges traditionally serviced by the United Negro College Fund. I wonder whether he has taken a moment to review the educational research that clearly shows that African American and Latino students are enrolling in online degree university programs at a much higher rate than they are choosing traditional university degree programs?

Indeed, the rate at which these students are opting to attend top online schools is unprecedented, and has been increasing every year. According to education researchers, the rate at which minority students are leaving traditional campus degree programs and attending online degree programs has increased by as much as 500 percent in the last five years. Graduation rates among these students are also higher in distance degree programs than in traditional campus based alternatives.

One thing is certain: if Mr. Obama fails to take note of this important trend, he will limit the very students he is attempting to assist. Failing to account for the needs of students who want to earn a degree online could seriously decrease his ability to achieve his goals for education reform. Let’s hope he takes a moment to listen to and understand the needs and desires of all the American people instead of just assuming that he knows what’s best!

In his last term of office, President Bush “blessed” our country with educational legislation designed to help American students keep pace with foreign degree students. But will “No Child Left Behind” actually help - or hurt future university degree program students?

One of the key goals of this legislation is to help offer students gain more access to educational programs. How? By advancing the right of any student to enroll in any degree course and to “learn” from that course. What this basically does, though, is to allow any student at any high school to decide that they want to enroll in any course - and be granted the right to take that class.

For example, even if Sally is one of the poorest math students in her high school, she can decide that she wants to take calculus, and enroll in that class. The teacher must teach the class so that Sally has a chance of succeeding in this class - no matter how much more every other student in the classroom understands about math.

The problem with “No Child Left Behind” is that it leaves every  student in every classroom in the United States at risk of being left behind. Because students like Sally can enroll in calculus, the professor has less opportunity to teach the other students, which means that they will learn less and do more poorly on entrance exams for college degree programs. Because American students do poorly on entrance exams, students from other countries have a greater opportunity to enroll in American degree programs.

Sure, other students from other countries have every right to enroll in American colleges and universities. Unfortunately, greater numbers of foreign students enrolling in top undergraduate and graduate degree programs throughout the country mean that fewer numbers of American students will benefit from the the nation’s best schools. This offers fewer educational and employment opportunities to American college graduates.

Congress wants to leave no child behind - instead every American student will be left behind. As the United States continues to lose ground in comparison to other countries with respect to education, perhaps one day government officials will wake up and take notice. This attempt to help more students get college degrees will actually help fewer students to succeed in the best traditional colleges, and possibly even the top online schools in the country.

When you thought about becoming a nurse, did you imagine wearing a white uniform, a stethoscope draped jauntily around your neck, racing down a hospital hallway to rescue a patient from himself? Did you picture yourself standing gravely at a hospital bedside, waiting to see whether your patient would make it through the night? While bedside nurses are indeed very valuable, both traditional and online degree university programs offer many other options to people with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing (BSN).

Online college degree programs offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing. Many other online degree courses and continuing education programs are available as well. For example, some top online schools offer certificate programs in forensic nursing. Forensic nurses are specially trained to help victims of assault and to collect physical evidence that will help policemen and attorneys catch a victim’s assailant.

Others decide to become legal nurse consultants, and offer their expert testimony on a wide variety of issues. Like forensic nursing, this is not a graduate degree program, but rather a post-baccalaureate certification program. These certifications can be obtained either through distance degree programs, by attending continuing education seminars, or at a traditional college campus.

Often, nurses become tired of working at the bedside after five to ten years of caregiving. Through nontraditional distant learning programs such as these, however, nurses can seek new interests and challenges in their profession. Rather than relinquish their skills for another career, they find new ways to use these skills within their chosen profession.

Believe it or not, online degree universities  struggle with certain ethical issues that are uniqe to online college degree programs. The ethical concerns voiced by both students and professors alike involve issues related to cheating, privacy, and the publication of educational materials online. Furthermore, top online schools have made the admirable commitment to making their distance education degrees universally accessible to all individuals, including those who are physically or cognitively challenged.

Cheating is often rampant among college students attending a traditional college or university. Students are so anxious to earn their college degrees that they often stoop to plagiarism or cheating on tests. Some online universities have attempted to address this problem through the use of open book testing, while others require students to be monitored. While neither of these suggestions is optimal, a more effective solution remains to be found.

Another difficulty faced by students taking online degree courses is the issue of privacy. Most distance learning degree programs use software that makes course content, such as outlines, student postings, and discussions private. Occasionally, however, information is made available to anyone searching. One of the problems with this is that many employers have taken to searching the internet to “dig up dirt” about prospective employees, and an unfortunate comment made while taking an online course could come back to haunt a student.

One other problem with online learning is the publication of education materials on the Internet. This can lead to copyright issues and disagreements between universities, professors, and students concerning who owns the rights to the information produced during an online degree course. While the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which became law in 1998, has offered some protection, this remains a concern.

Students who plan to earn a college degree at home need to be aware of these issues and be cautious about their use of the internet for sending and receiving information. Academic integrity is still important, and it may fall primarily upon the student to maintain this difficult standard. While universities work to extend their course offerings to meet the needs of a wide variety of challenged students, the students themselves should remain aware of these current ethical issues in distance learning.