The Foreign Service Journal, December 2011

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 95 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT J ust as today’s Foreign Service fam- ilies cannot imagine how their pre- decessors lived without the Internet, we may soon be wondering how we ever got along without online education. Distance learning, as it is sometimes call- ed, offers an unparalleled opportunity for FS family members to target and tailor their educational needs to their circum- stances. Last year nearly five million students took at least one online course from a degree-granting institution of higher education in the United States. The tech- nology for delivering online courses and degree programs is rapidly growing more sophisticated. Professors are becoming more adept at teaching online. And most propitious of all, postsec- ondary institutions are passionate about the opportunity to present educational opportunities to a global “campus.” Universities offer online undergradu- ate degrees in nearly every possible topic — from interior design to accounting. Online master’s degrees cover the fields of business, health care, management, gov- ernment, human services, legal studies, education and information technology. Online doctorate programs include educa- tion, public policy, business administra- tion, religion — and more. One leader in the field, University of Maryland University College, offers undergraduate programs in everything from psychology to emergency manage- ment. Another, Boston University, offers both master’s degrees and doctorates in music education, among other online programs. And Stanford University offers a computer science master’s degree that can be completed online. Initially, educators approached online education sceptically. Could students stay motivated without face-to-face con- tact? Would online students cheat more? How do you measure knowledge gained by students when they are not present for testing? But with millions of students now online — and with more than a decade of experience — numer- ous strategies have evolved to address these issues. And among those who benefit the most are Foreign Service families. There is no one set of programs that works best for Foreign Service families — to suggest otherwise would be to ignore the wide array of circumstances of family members (age, educational level, English-language abilities, and interests and talents, to name a few). It would also ignore the fact that there are now thousands of options available to choose from. In fact, the plethora of opportunities for online students means that the buyer must beware. The online student must identify his or her educational goals clearly — a degree? a postgraduate degree? a certificate? continuing edu- cation credits? — and then carefully choose the appropriate institution and program. This is excerpted from the article of the same title by Kristi Streiffert, a Foreign Service spouse and freelance writer, that was published in the June 2010 issue of the Foreign Service Journal. The complete article can be accessed online a t www.afsa.org/fsj. The plethora of opportunities for online students means that the student must identify his or her educational goals clearly. F ROM THE J UNE 2010 FSJ S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT Online Education: Unprecedented Opportunities