This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Online education is our subject this week as we continue our Foreign Student
Series. Our reports are for students around the world who would like to attend a
college or university in the United States. Programs where students take classes
by computer over the Internet offer a way to earn a degree from home.
Online learning is also called distance education. Many American colleges and
universities have been offering it for years.
One example is New York University in Manhattan. The School of Continuing and
Professional Studies began online classes in 1992. Its Virtual College has
taught more than 10,000 students from across the United States and other
countries.
Last year, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies launched NYU
Online. It offers NYU's first online programs to earn a bachelor's degree.
Programs are offered in three areas: leadership and management, information
systems management and social sciences.
University officials say classes are highly interactive, where students
communicate with each other and their teachers. Some classes require students to
all log in at the same time so they can attend live lectures by a professor.
Students can also ask questions and work together on team projects.
The university says classes are taught by NYU professors who have been
trained in online teaching.
International students must take two admissions tests before they can be
accepted into the program. These are the SAT and the TOEFL. We will discuss
these tests later in our series.
The cost to attend NYU Online depends on how many classes a student takes. It
can cost as much as fifteen thousand dollars a year. NYU offers no financial aid
for international students in this program. You can get more details at nyu.edu.
Many other schools offer online education. Students should be especially
careful of programs that offer a degree in return for little or no work. These
are known as diploma mills, and are illegal in the United States.
Educational advisers also say that before you enter any program, make sure
the work will be recognized in your country. You should also make sure the
schools you are considering are accredited. That will be our subject next week.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy
Steinbach.
I'm Steve Ember.
Related stories: Choosing between a college or a
university
（來源：VOA 英語點津姍姍編輯）
