Oklahoma university online degree

At first, Clint Stirling was apprehensive about going back to school. A retired member of U.S. Air Force, he was working in accounting for an insurance company in San Antonio. He knew he wanted to move to the next level in his career, but he wasn't sure whether he could handle the time, cost and inconvenience of returning to the classroom.

Then he met a recruiter for the University of Phoenix Online, a cyber-university that now serves more than 25,700 degree-seeking adult students worldwide.

He's now taking classes towards his bachelor's degree in information technology.

"I love to do school work from my home, online, at my convenience, any time of the day or night," Stirling says. "The schedule is very flexible. If I were to attend traditional night school I would have to drive, park, walk, sit for four hours, walk, drive and go home at 10 o'clock at night and be extremely tired. With online school, it is very relaxing and I don't have to fight traffic."

Students like Stirling log in to class bulletin boards whenever it fits into their schedule and post their contribution to the ongoing discussion between students and teacher. They do their reading and research for the class on their own time as well and may be required to check in five times a week to respond to various questions and assignments. Like other types of education, how much students get out of this type of learning depends on how much they put into it.

University of Phoenix has another 70,000 attending classes at more than 100 locations around the country, making it the largest private university in the country. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees as well as professional certificates, in a variety of business fields as well as others, such as education and nursing.

Each online undergraduate class lasts five weeks while graduate classes are six weeks long. If classes are taken continuously, one after another, students can expect to earn a degree in two to three years.

"There are some people for whom attending class one night a week is too difficult," says Anthony DiGiovanni, chief executive officer of University of Phoenix Online. "We cater to that individual."

The average student is in their 30s and has been in the work force for more than 7 years. This student wants practical knowledge, DiGiovanni says, not esoteric lectures with no application in the real world.

"People have a chance to come in and talk about their workplace, comment on the effectiveness of a theory," says DiGiovanni. "One of the keys to our success is that we are efficient educational tools not only for individuals but for employers as well."

He said 60 percent of the students have their tuition reimbursed by employers, and UOP Online students have a 95 percent completion rate. Classes cost between $400 and $450 a credit hour, averaging about $8,000 to $10,000 a year. This compares favorably to other programs, some of which cost up to $30,000 a year.

A leading force

There are two million students who are taking classes online at 1,670 institutions, according to the United States Distance Learning Association. Phoenix is one of the top schools, along with the University of Maryland, Oklahoma State University and Jones International University.

Robert Reilly, director of membership services for the association, says Phoenix was a pioneer in the field.

"University of Phoenix was nimble and sensed there was a market for this," says Reilly. "They took a gamble, and it turns out they were right. They were very entrepreneurial about it."

The University of Phoenix started with a class of just eight working adults in 1976 and grew to encompass 34 brick-and-mortar campuses and 71 learning centers. It is owned by the Apollo Group, which was founded in 1973 and is a conglomeration of for-profit educational companies. Other schools in the group are the Institute for Professional Development, the College for Financial Planning Institutes Corp. and Western International University.

They launched Phoenix Online in 1989, when many were just discovering the Internet, much less distance learning. "The University of Phoenix went into distance learning as a natural outgrowth of our institutional mission, which encompasses the idea of providing a variety of educational options for working adult students," says Laura Palmer Noone, an attorney and educator who was appointed president in September.

The Apollo Group, a public company, originally started the online university with an investment of about $500,000. Officials say the company broke even in its second year of operation and brought in $102 million in revenue last year. In 2000, Online increased its revenues by 47 percent and its profits were 17 percent, up from 11 percent the year before. Its initial public offering last year, which led to the hiring of DiGiovanni to handle the online division, brought in $70 million. The company says the money is being used to increase staffing and expand its marketing and sales.

Secrets to Success

UOP Online launched a national advertising campaign in March to help boost the school's profile. The university also markets through employers that support the program, the armed forces, and through faculty and members of its local advisory boards.

The best way to market the brand of UOP Online is to deliver the best education possible, says Palmer Noone.

"Branding isn't just about marketing or dollars spent," she says. "It is about your institutional culture and for the University of Phoenix, branding takes into account how we provide services to our constituents, how we treat our faculty, how we serve our communities and how closely we stick to our mission. We are spending a lot of time on branding but not a lot of dollars."

Officials said they concentrate on serving and retaining their current students to make sure they will continue their education and recommend the school to others.

"We constantly communicate with our students, and if we see that they have missed a complete course in their continuous schedule, we'll get on the phone with them and see how we can help," says DiGiovanni.

The online school has clearly been very profitable for the Apollo Group, which had revenues of $610 million last year. But is profit good for education?

Palmer Noone says the school for-profit status is irrelevant. "I would say that measuring academic quality has nothing to do with an institution's legal tax status," she says.

"Critics of for-profit education don't understand that being for-profit makes an institution highly accountable. However, to assume that educational quality is sacrificed by virtue of a for-profit status is to also assume that adults are incapable of discerning quality educational experiences.

"Adults are aware of what they need and want from an academic experience--if a for-profit doesn't deliver on its promises, students don't continue, don't pay tuition and then the institution ceases to be financially viable. Not-for-profit educational providers are subsidized by state tax dollars, or through donations, etc. and can often continue to exist without accountability measures in place."

Officials from the University of Phoenix Online say credits are transferable to other schools, and their degrees are respected in the work place. The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools accredits University of Phoenix.

Reilly says the only educators that criticize online education are the ones at prestigious schools because they are afraid of losing students. "I don't think students or parents worry, just the deans," says Reilly, a former dean of the University of Rhode Island. "I just talked to a gift who goes to one of the top universities, and she said, `I have classes with hundreds of students in which I never get to see the professor. Then I just finished a class online that had only 20 students where I got to see and talk to my professor during every class period' Who is going to say that's not better?"

Stirling wholeheartedly agrees: "I strongly believe and know I learn more from an online class, I don't have the fatigue factor that I would if I were attending night or weekend classes, UOP maintains the highest academic standards in their online classes, In my humble opinion, I learn better by applying the information from the text rather than listening to long lectures in a classroom and then testing your rote memory."

Cathleen Dehne, a management student in Biglerville, Pa., says she prefers learning online. "The `classroom' interaction is lifelike," she says. "It has been a long time since I have enjoyed going to school this much."

Stirling predicts that Phoenix is leading a revolution in education. "Watch out Harvard!" he says. "Online is the wave of the future and will not dwindle. UOP is on the leading edge of educational technology for this Century."

Who is providing the 500,000 online courses via the World Wide Web?