Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,155.
Getting an online degree.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,155.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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The learning guide contains a complete transcript of everything we say, in addition to a complete list of the vocabulary words and a culture note related to this episode's topic.
The topic of this episode is getting an online degree getting a college degree from a college on the Internet.
Sounds cool.
Let's get started.
So where are you planning on attending college?
I've picked Harford University.
The only Harford University I've heard of is a degree mill.
I'm sure it's not the same one.
The Harvard University I'm attending is accredited.
At least, I'm pretty sure it is.
The best part of going to Harvard is I'll never have to attend classes on campus.
I can do all of my coursework online.
You want to attend an online university?
There are some legitimate ones that offer good distance education, but many have low admission standards and don't provide a very good education, not Harvard.
It's a good degree-granting institution, and they even give you credit for relevant life experience.
I won't need to take very many courses to graduate.
That sounds pretty fishy to me.
Don't worry.
My transcript and degree will be indistinguishable from those from a traditional university without nearly as much work.
That should tell you something.
How is their job placement rate?
If you say so.
What are you doing right now?
I'm playing a video game stealing cars at Harvard.
That's considered relevant life experience.
Cool, huh?
Yeah, cool.
Carlos says to Tori, so where are you planning on attending college?
To attend, A-T-T-E-N-D, college, means to be a student at a college, to go to a university.
Tori says, I've picked Harford University.
To pick, P-I-C-K, means to select, to choose.
Carlos says, the only Harford University I've heard of is a degree mill.
A degree, D-E-G-R-E-E, is what you get after you complete a course of study at a university.
If you study for four years, you usually get a bachelor's degree.
A degree mill, M-I-L-L, however, is actually a business that sells degrees, basically.
It looks like a college or university on the internet or in the newspaper, but really it just gives out degrees pieces of paper without you having to do very much.
Tori says, I'm sure it's not the same one.
She's sure that the Hartford University she's going to study at isn't a degree mill.
She says, the Hartford University I'm attending is accredited.
At least, I'm pretty sure it is.
For a university to be accredited A-C-C-R-E-D-I-T-E-D means that some professional organization, some professional association, has examined the college and determined that it meets certain standards.
Who runs this organization?
Well, the colleges that accredit themselves.
It's an interesting system.
Anyway, in the United States, most people try to get a degree from an accredited university because it's recognized, rightly or wrongly, as having a certain level of quality.
Torrey says, the best part of going to Harvard is I'll never have to attend classes on campus.
A campus, C-A-M-P-U-S, is the land and the buildings that a college or university has.
Some colleges have more than one campus.
They have buildings and land in different parts of a city or even a state or country.
Tori says that she will not have to attend or go to classes on campus.
She says, I can do all of my coursework online.
Coursework C-O-U-R-S-E-W-O-R-K.
One word here just means classes, the classes that you are taking online.
Carlos says you want to attend an online university.
An online university is a university that offers all or most of its classes over the internet.
This isn't really a new idea, in the sense that colleges and universities and schools sometimes offered classes before the internet and using what we would call correspondence courses.
They would mail things to you and you would read the books and take the tests and then mail them back to the university.
So the idea of getting an education without actually going to a school building or going on campus isn't completely new.
Carlos says that offer good distance education, but many have low admissions standards and don't provide a very good education.
Legitimate, L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E, means real or not false, not fake, valid, we might say.
A legitimate university is one that does what a university is supposed to do.
Distance education is a general term that refers to any kind of education or coursework that is done without you going to a school's campus.
Distance education could involve video education, having video courses or even seeing a lecture by a professor over the internet on live video.
It could include sending things in the mail.
It could include going to a website.
All of these are kinds of distance education.
Carlos warns, however, that many of these online universities have low admissions standards.
Admissions standards refers to the requirements that you have to have in order to get into a college, university or school.
To have low admissions standards means it's not very difficult to get into the school.
Again, people associate the difficulty of getting into a college with the quality of that college.
I don't think that's always the case, but that's what people think.
Just like people think accredited universities are somehow better than unaccredited universities.
That might be true in general, but it isn't always true.
Anyway, I'm giving my own opinions here.
Let's get back to the story.
Torrey says that Harford is not one of these universities that has low admissions standards.
She says it's a good degree-granting institution.
Degree-granting institutions are ones that well give you a degree, such as a bachelor's degree or some other kind of degree.
Torrey says they even give you credit for relevant life experience.
There are two kinds of classes you can take at a university or college.
One is a credit, C-R-E-D-I-T class.
The other is a non-credit class.
A credit class is a class that counts towards or is included in the total number of that you need to take in order to graduate.
Most universities assign or give classes a certain number of credits.
You need a certain number of credits then to graduate.
You could take a class that gives you five credits.
Usually that's a class that meets more or has more class time and is more work than a class that is only three credits.
To graduate from a university or college in the United States usually requires, I think, around 180 credits or so, more or less.
The number is arbitrary in a way, but the university needs a way of determining how much education you are getting and it needs some sort of standard to determine how much is enough to get a degree.
A non-credit class is a class that you take but doesn't count toward your degree.
That is, the university won't include those credits when it counts up the number that you need to graduate to get a degree.
Torrey says that Harford University gives you credit for relevant, R-E-L-E-V-A-N-T, life experience.
Relevant means it's related to or is significant for some particular purpose or topic.
Some colleges and universities will look at your experience say if you worked in business for many years and give you a certain number of credits for that experience, so you don't have to take classes about things that you already know about.
Now, most colleges and universities don't do very much of this, but there are some that will give you credit for relevant life experience if it is connected to the content of a certain class.
Torrey says, Carlos says that sounds pretty fishy, F-I-S-H-Y to me.
Something that is fishy is something that is suspicious, something that doesn't seem right, something that may be dishonest even.
Torrey says, however, don't worry.
My transcript and degree will be indistinguishable from those from a traditional university without nearly as much work.
Your transcript T-R-A-N-S-C-R-I-P-T is an official list of the classes or courses that you took and the grades that you received in a college or university or any school really.
To be indistinguishable.
I-N-D-I-S-T-I-N-G-U-I-S-H-A-B-L-E means to be unable to tell the difference between two different things.
To be indistinguishable means that you can't tell the difference.
You can't say this one is from here and this one is from there.
What Tori is saying here is that her transcript and degree will be the same or will look the same as any traditional university's transcript and degree.
But she won't have to do very much work.
Carlos then says, that should tell you something.
That expression, that should tell you something, means...
You should realize that there's a problem here.
You should realize that there's something wrong.
He then asks, how is their job placement rate?
Job placement refers to getting a job once you finish your degree.
So Carlos is asking how good is this college at getting its graduates, the people who finish studying there, a job when they're done, when they're done with their education?
Torrey says, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I'll be as competitive as any other college graduate.
To be competitive.
C-O-M-P-E-T-I-T-I-V-E here means to have the same qualifications as someone from a different college.
The word competitive can also refer to someone who likes to win, who likes to beat other people in games and contests.
Here however, it really just means that you have the same talent or you have the same qualifications as someone else, so that you will have as good a chance as another person of getting a job.
A graduate G-R-A-D-U-A-T-E is a person who has finished his or her education and has, we would say, earned E-A-R-N-E-D a degree.
You can be a high school graduate, you can be a college graduate.
Carlos says if you say so, that expression, depending on how it's said, usually indicates that the person doesn't really believe you.
Well, if you say so, that means I don't think you're right, but I'm not going to argue with you.
Carlos continues, what are you doing right now?
Tori says, I'm playing a video game stealing cars.
At Harford, that's considered relevant life experience.
Cool, huh?
So Tori says that she's playing a video game and at this online university she's going to, they will give her for that life experience.
She'll get college credit for playing video games.
Tori says, cool, huh?
She thinks it's okay.
She thinks it's wonderful.
Carlos says, yeah, cool.
But he says it in such a way to mean, well...
Unfortunately, that means that you really are going to a college that is a degree mill, that this university isn't really legitimate.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
So where are you planning on attending college?
I've picked Harvard University.
The only Harvard University I've heard of is a degree mill.
I'm sure it's not the same one.
The Harvard University I'm attending is accredited.
At least I'm pretty sure it is.
The best part of going to Harvard is I'll never have to attend classes on campus.
I can do all of my coursework online.
You want to attend an online university?
There are some legitimate ones that offer good distance education, but many have low admission standards and don't provide a very good education.
Not Harvard.
It's a good degree-granting institution, and they even give you credit for relevant life experience.
I won't need to take very many courses to graduate.
That sounds pretty fishy to me.
Don't worry.
My transcript and degree will be indistinguishable from those from a traditional university without nearly as much work.
That should tell you something.
How is their job placement rate?
I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I'll be as competitive as any other college graduate.
If you say so.
What are you doing right now?
I'm playing a video game stealing cars.
At Harvard, that's considered relevant life experience.
Cool, huh?
Yeah, cool.
Our thanks to the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say for her wonderful script.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
