This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.
We continue our series of reports for students in other countries who want to attend a United States college or university. This week, in part four, we discuss how some students are able to stay in their home country and still earn a degree.
Many students who take classes by computer over the Internet say they like the independence of online education. Students do not have to sit in a classroom and do not have to attend courses at a set time. Professors say they have better communication with students through e-mail than they do in many traditional classes.
American college and universities have been offering classes online for a number of years. The University of Phoenix, in Arizona, has been offering degrees online since nineteen eighty-nine. University officials say they try to provide students with a social experience as well as an educational one. In some programs, for example, students in groups of six take all their classes together. They communicate with each other by computer.
Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado, describes itself as the first fully online accredited university. Jones International offers both bachelor's and master's degrees.
Another online school is Cardean University, near Chicago, Illinois. It began in two thousand. It offers a master's of business administration degree. It says its courses are developed with five top business schools and can be completed in as little as twenty-two months. Cardean says it has taught students from ninety countries.
Lists of schools that offer online programs are easy to find on the Internet. Just use a search engine like Google or Yahoo and type in "online education."
Be careful, though, of offers for a college degree in return for little or no work. Such operations are illegal in the United States. Educational advisers say that before you enter any program, you should make sure the work will be recognized in your country.
Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish dot com. And for information from the State Department, go to educationusa.state.gov. Again, educationusa.state.gov. Our series continues next week.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen.