Archive for the 'Reviews' Category
April 11th, 2008 by Jorge Goncalves
Online Colleges, part of the huge College Scholarships, Colleges, and Online Degrees portal, main goal is helping students to choose suitable online colleges, degrees and courses.
The all site is designed like a notebook page making use of a user-friendly right navigational toolbar where we can find several links to other site’s pages.
My main purpose visiting this site was to check the Undergraduate and Graduate Online Degrees section. Here we can find a very detailed directory of institutions offering accredited online degrees and courses complemented by a Quick Degree Finder search engine. We can search choosing several options: degree level, category and subject. The results link to pages located on external sites. The same happens when you try to obtain more information using the directory links. For each institution a brief description is presented but when we click the links we go to external pages, most of them located at elearners.com, where we have to submit a form to obtain more information about the online course we have chosen. I didn’t like this. I would prefer a direct link to the institution instead of going to another site to fill a form.
Nevertheless, I recommend this site for those who are starting to look for an online degree. The many choices presented in almost every field of knowledge are a strong point in favor of Online Colleges. For beginners, I also recommend the reading of the Ten Rules for Choosing Online Colleges and Universities and the 10 Tips for College-Bound Students.
July 17th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Guide to Healthcare Schools. Guide to Healthcare Schools is a directory of online and campus-based schools that offer health-related degrees and training. This directory, aimed at adult students and working professionals, offers more than 1000 healthcare degrees and training programs.
Particularly for online schools, this site lists 28 colleges and universities offering healthcare degrees. For each one of these institutions a page is presented with the different degrees offered. The student can also fill a form to get more information.
I have tested the site looking for some degrees. For example, for Nursing I obtained 6 schools offering online degrees and several others offering traditional learning, ordered by State. Looking for Ultrasound Tech/Sonographer, no online schools offer this degree, only campus-based institutions. For some more technical specialties it could be difficult to find suitable online degrees.
The site is very well organized, with all the data available through a few clicks. On the left sidebar we find links to the different programs available and to some partner sites. On the main body, we find links to popular searches and to the most searched schools, degrees by type (online, associate, bachelor, master or PhD) and educational resources. A search engine is also available.
In the Educational Resources section we can find helpful information on important topics like how to search for healthcare schools, choosing an online degree and the importance of accreditation. The information is concise but very relevant.
The site works well but looks too much packed. I would prefer a lighter version with less information on the front page. The visitor could be puzzled with so many options. I would suggest a three column layout with some graphical elements. The first impression is almost always the most important.
Overall impression: Guide To Healthcare Schools is a valuable tool for a prospective student looking for healthcare-related degrees. With minor improvements it can become a reference in this area.
[This a sponsored post]
June 7th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Regis University Online Education. Founded in 1877, Regis University is a prestigious Jesuit school, accredited by the North Central Association (NCA) Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (CASI), the highest level of accreditation a college can earn, and is regularly ranked by U.S. News and World Report one of the Top Universities in the West.
Regis University is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization comprised of three schools: Regis College, offering long-established programs in liberal arts, sciences, business and education; the School for Health Care Professions, offering undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in healthcare and the School for Professional Studies (SPS), offering programs for adult students with the option to choose between classroom-based or online courses.
The School for Professional Studies (SPS) was established in the 1970s to offer programs designed specifically for working adults. According to the site, SPS serves more than 13,000 adult students world-wide, in the classroom and online and more than 6,500 of these students earn their degree online through accredited distance learning programs. In fact, Regis University’s online MBA program has the largest distance learning MBA enrollment in the USA.
Regis University Online offers online Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and certificate programs, including: Accounting, Applied Science, Business Administration, Computer Information Systems, Computer Science, Criminology, Finance, Marketing, Public Administration, Social Science, Teacher Education and Technology.
Prospective students can obtain more information at Regis University Online Education site. It’s a very user-friendly site, with all the relevant information organized in easily available sections. My advice is that they should start by taking Is Online Learning Right for You? questionnaire. If the answers are positive then they should be ready for their online learning journey.
[This is a Sponsored Post]
June 5th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
For those looking for a place to practice SAT tests online, SAT Exam Prep could be it. This site offers a SAT Study Guide with practice tests (free registration needed) and some summarized information about objectives, structure and scores of the official SAT Test.
SATexamprep.com also offers brief recommendations about the three parts of the test (Writing, Critical Reading and Mathematics) and a very detailed FAQ section, the one I liked most.
In brief: This site should fulfill the essential needs in SAT Prep. It is well organized, with all the main sections easily available through a top navigation bar. However, to get the full potential of SATexamprep.com, a (free) registration is required.
[This is a Sponsored Review]
April 10th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Are you interested in learning Spanish or Italian? Recently, I’ve discovered Language Trainers and they offer not only Spanish and Italian Courses but also language courses in English, French, German, Swedish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. Language Trainers are specialists in one-to-one and small group language training for business people and busy individuals who need language skills for work, travel and family needs. They have locally-based teachers to reduce travel time and expenses, e.g. a Spanish course in Bristol will be taught by a Spanish teacher living in the Bristol area, an Arabic course in Dubai will be taught by an Arabic teacher living in Dubai.
The Language Trainers owners also run a translation site, Translation Central, which can translate any type of documents or websites from any language into English and from English into any other language.
April 4th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
Online Degrees Today started as a portal built for prospective students looking for relevant information about online degrees. Nowadays, despite the name, Online Degrees Today is much more: it’s at the same time a directory of Online and Campus based academic institutions (presently with 248 schools and 21373 online degrees) and a knowledge base of educational materials.
In this well designed and pleasant site we can find everything we should expect to find in a site like this. The front page has a lot of content with some appealing sections like Featured Online Schools, Top Five Links, Degree of the Day, Popular Degrees, Popular Articles and Polls. The directory of academic institutions works perfectly well. We can browse or search by area of study or type of degree (certificates, diploma, bachelors, masters, MBA, PhD, etc.), find schools by state or city or schools for international students.
I’ve tested the search engine looking for an online MBA and the results were very satisfactory. Online Degrees Today has a lot of choices for a MBA in different institutions and I’ve found sufficient preliminary information for each of them to decide. After choosing the school, following a More Info link, the potential student is directed to the Institution’s page (inside Online Degrees Today site) where he can get more information about that particular school by filling a form. In my case everything went well.
What I liked most on Online Degrees Today was the repository of educational materials. Here we can find an Online Library with free e-books on subjects like college writing, test prep, job-seeking and self-improvement, advice (and links to) on College Scholarship Programs, a very useful Test Prep Guide and many others Knowledge Centers on several topics. Sometimes it’s not easy to retrieve all this information. I have used the Sitemap but I believe Online Degrees Today would benefit a lot with an internal search engine that is missing.
Browsing the Sitemap we can find some interesting articles like 5 Success Strategies for Distance Learners and some more unusual like the 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers list. For students, probably trying to balance the multiple demands of school, work and family, I definitely would also recommend David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. After that the students should be ready to start looking for The Best Places to Get Rich…
[This is a Sponsored Review]
March 11th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
I was just finishing a review for another site when I received an invitation from ReviewMe to review EarnMyDegree. Before accepting, I normally do a quick visit to the site just to see what I can expect. When I did this with EarnMyDregree site I was overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information available at this site. Visually, the impact is very positive because all the information is organized in a neat and user-friendly three-column layout where everything (lettering, colors, titles, pictures) seems to be in the right place.
Usually, I start my visits by the About Us section (which, by the way, reminds me that I have to write an appropriate text to my About page). They define the site as an information portal for potential students looking for relevant information about online and distance education programs. Their goal is to provide an easy way where these prospective students can find a program that suit their needs. I think EarnMyDegree accomplishes this in an efficient way. The visitors can browse or search online degrees by subject or level or simply look for online colleges and universities by location. An informative page is presented, for each degree, which gives a direct link to a form where the potential students can request more information.
What I found really impressive at EarnMyDegree was the Online Education Learning Center, their e-learning knowledge base. This section is subdivided in three main topics: Online Education, Careers Information and Education Tools and Resources. We can find a comprehensive Guide to Online Education, an Online Education FAQ, a fair comparison between online and traditional schools, information on career opportunities and how much earnings vary between those with and without college degrees and much more. One of the most important aspects of online learning is Accreditation. At EarnMyDegree we can find a very good Accreditation Guide and valuable advice on how to spot fake degrees and avoid frauds.
As you can see I have decided to accept the invitation to make the review. I have no doubt in recommending this site even to those that are not looking for online degrees. The relevant information contained in their Learning Center makes EarnMyDegree a very valuable resource. Enjoy!
March 5th, 2007 by Jorge Goncalves
123TeachMe is a non-profit site aimed at those interested in learning or teaching Spanish. In this elegant and easy to navigate site one can find a lot of interesting resources on this matter.
For students, 123TeachMe offers Spanish lessons with online Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries, grammar and some specific vocabulary with pronunciation. Recently, the authors have started a section on medical Spanish for health professionals which will include a complete medical Spanish course, presently in development.
123TeachMe also offers a comprehensive directory containing about 900 language schools throughout the world. Many of these schools have special programs and/or activities like dancing, cooking, hiking, surfing, mountain biking or wine tasting to name a few. A Spanish Immersion Programs directory is also included. The students are able to rate each one of these schools based on their personal experience which can be a valuable guide when choosing a school.
Spanish Resources for Teachers is the 123TeachMe section devoted mainly to Spanish language teachers. These resources contain reference materials, exercises, quizzes and tests which are, incidentally, also very useful for students.
For visitors interested in developing their conversational skills in Spanish, 123TeachMe offers a link to Nu Lengua, where they can choose an online tutor. The contacts with the tutors are made through Skype so this software and a Skype account are needed. Nu Lengua offers straightforward instructions on how to accomplish this.
Other sections of 123TeachMe include travel diaries, a forum for site members, games and Spanish for Kids a section specifically devoted to children.
In short: if you are interested in learning Spanish 123TeachMe is definitively a very useful resource. Why not to start testing your level of fluency in Spanish?
[This is a Sponsored Review]
