Thursday, December 11, 2008

Before Starting an Online Learning Program!

Online learning is gaining popularity quickly. There are many people seeking online universities or other educational resources to continue their education or just to get additional training if a specific field. On the other hand there are a lot of people who believe online learning has nothing to do with the traditional learning and that its quality is significantly lower.

If you are on the crossroad of choosing how you will continue your educations - online or at a regular brick-and-mortar education institution, check out the points in the list below.

Can you attend a regular education institution?

Are there any obstacles preventing you from attending regular classes at a university, college or another learning institution? If there aren't any than online learning is not for you. It is not that you will not get the correct amount or quality of academic knowledge, it is that traditional learning provides much more than learning itself. There are tutors who can help and people of the same social level as yours - these are great advantages that should not be neglected.

Choose the best online learning center.

Similar to buying a car you should do various checks before the actual purchase. The same rule applies for those who are looking for the right online learning center.

There are a lot of online courses available and not all of them are good. Select several that have long history and good feedback from other online students. The ones that provide access to teachers and have good learning software are the ones anyone looking for online education should aim for.

Established online universities and colleges will also provide you with a diploma accepted by other education institutions and employers.

If you want to continue the traditional way.

If you want to continue your online education in a traditional brick-and-mortar college or university you should make sure the credits you have gained so far will be recognized. If you have been attending an accredited online learning center this should not be a problem.

Get ready to study.

If the only reason for choosing an online school instead of a traditional one is that you believe studying will be less difficult you are terribly wrong. The recognized and respectable online schools provide the same level of education both in their classrooms and online. The difference is that there is much more flexibility in online learning allowing students more time.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Online Education Tips - Getting Your Forensic Accounting Degree Online

Forensic accounting is the fastest growing area of accounting today. It is a special type of career that involves the use of accounting, auditing and investigative skills to assist in legal matters. If you are looking for a career that is both exciting and financially rewarding, consider becoming a forensic accountant, but you need to own a required degree and license to start with. With the available of online education and the increasing market demands for forensic accounting careers, more and more universities are offering forensic accounting degree online.



The standard education requirement to start a career as forensic accountant is a bachelor business degree in accounting or finance, and you need to have a CPA (Certified Public Account) license. In additional to the requirements, you will also need to own a forensic accounting certification such as the Forensic Examiner Diplomat or the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) designation. Hence, if you are interested to enter this career field, then be prepared to equip yourself with the required degree, certification & license.



Many online forensic accounting degree programs offered by accredited universities have integrated CPA and CPE credits. The degree program can prepares you with the education requirement to become a forensic accountant. The key advantages of taking the forensic accounting degree online are Flexibility and Convenient. You do not need to commute to and from the school, save your money in term of transportation cost and your valuable time. In additional, you can enroll into the forensic accounting degree program offered by your preference university without the need to consider geography factor; this means you even can pursue a degree offered by university abroad as long as they open their courses to international students.



Although there are many similar online forensic accounting degrees offered by various online universities, a few things you must confirm before you sign up with your selected degree program are:



* Your selected online degree program must be offered by a properly accredited university which the accrediting agency must be recognized by the Department of Education.

* If you intend to use the degree to enter into forensic accounting career, you must ensure that the forensic accounting degree program contains the courses that meet your goal.

* If the degree program requires you to attend certain hours of face-to-face classes or practical works, you need to find out the closest facility within your convenient distance that provides by the university.

* If you need a financial aid, then you may want to review the financial aid packages offered by the university.



In additional to the above, you must request the details information about the forensic accounting program from your short listed universities for carefully review, and talk to the admission officer to get all your questions answered before you finalized the degree program to enroll with. Most information requests and enquiries are all free of charge; you should utilize this benefit to get as detail information as possible about the degree program before you make your ultimate decision to enroll into the selected one.



Summary



Forensic accounting is a career that requires the knowledge of accounting, auditing and investigative skills. Forensic accounting degree program can prepares you to meet the requirements. The degree is offered as online degree program by many accredited universities which you can enroll and earn the degree from your comfort home.

Amelia Turner, an educational article writer for http://www.your-online-degree.info You can find more details information and free resources about online forensic accounting degree and learn from guides to success in online study, financial aids and other accredited online education programs that can help you to make decision to earn your degree online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Amelia_Turner

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Educational Evaluation Quality - Good Results

An adequate educational evaluation enhances instruction. Just as evaluation impacts student learning and motivation, it also influences the nature of instruction in the classroom. There has been considerable recent literature that has promoted evaluation as something that is integrated with instruction. To her, when evaluation is integrated with instruction it informs teachers about what activities and assignments will be most useful, what level of teaching is most appropriate, and how summative evaluations provide diagnostic information. For instance, during instruction activities informal, formative evaluation helps teachers know when to move on, when to ask more questions, when to give more examples, and what responses to student questions are most appropriate. Standardized test scores, when used appropriately, help teachers understand student strengths and weaknesses to target further instruction.

Good assessment is valid and considers validity as a concept that needs to be fully understood. Like reliability, there are technical terms and issues associated with validity that are essential in helping teachers and administrators make reasonable and appropriate inferences from evaluation results (e.g., types of validity evidence, validity generalization, construct underrepresentation, construct-irrelevant variance, and discriminant and convergent evidence). Both intended and unintended consequences of evaluation need to be examined with appropriate evidence that supports particular arguments or points of view. Of equal importance is getting teachers and administrators to understand their role in gathering and interpreting validity evidence.

Good evaluation is fair and ethical and there are four views of fairness: as absence of bias (e.g., offensiveness and unfair penalization), as equitable treatment, as equality in outcomes, and as opportunity to learn. It includes entire chapters on the rights and responsibilities of test takers, testing individuals of diverse linguistic backgrounds, and testing individuals with disabilities or special needs.

According to his text, there are also three additional areas characterized as also important:

- Student knowledge of learning targets and the nature of the evaluations prior to instruction (e.g., knowing what will be tested, how it will be graded, scoring criteria, anchors, exemplars, and examples of performance).
- Student prerequisite knowledge and skills, including test-taking skills.
- Avoiding stereotypes.

Evaluation that is fair, leading to valid inferences with a minimum of error, is a series of measures that show student understanding through multiple methods. A complete picture of what students understand and can do is put together in pieces comprised by different approaches to evaluation. While testing experts and testing companies stress that important decisions should not be made on the basis of a single test score, some educators at the local level, and some (many?) politicians at the state at the national level, seem determined to violate this principle. There is a need to understand the entire range of evaluation techniques and methods, with the realization that each has limitations.

Good evaluation is efficient and feasible. Teachers and school administrators have limited time and resources. Consideration must be given to the efficiency of different approaches to evaluation, balancing needs to implement methods required to provide a full understanding with the time needed to develop and implement the methods, and score results. Teacher skills and knowledge are important to consider, as well as the level of support and resources.

We may consider a lot the importance in the fact of good evaluation appropriately incorporates technology. As technology advances and teachers become more proficient in the use of technology, there will be increased opportunities for teachers and administrators to use computer-based techniques (e.g., item banks, electronic grading, computer-adapted testing, computer-based simulations), Internet resources, and more complex, detailed ways of reporting results. There is to him, however, a danger that technology will contribute to the mindless use of new resources, such as using items on-line developed by some companies without adequate evidence of reliability, validity, and fairness, and crunching numbers with software programs without sufficient thought about weighting, error, and averaging.

To summarize, what is most essential about evaluation is understanding how general, fundamental evaluation principles and ideas can be used to enhance student learning and teacher effectiveness. This will be achieved as teachers and administrators learn about conceptual and technical evaluation concepts, methods, and procedures, for both large-scale and classroom evaluations, and apply these fundamentals to instruction.


About The Author
Luiz Gustavo is a Brazilian expert author and give classes of writing and research development in his country. Give him the pleasure to visit his website of Monografia de Educação. He also works for another company: TCC de Avaliação

Monografia de Educação - www.monografiaac.com.br/monografia.html

TCC de Avaliação - www.monografiaac.com.br/artigocientifico.html