Dear Tired:

I did an informal survey of four Network Computing contributors who participate in hiring (Don MacVittie, Jonathan Feldman) or work in an educational setting (David Molta, Dean Ellerton). I also checked with two human resources professionals: Alan Anderson, vice president of consulting services with management consultants The Lytle Group; and Tony Arendt, HR manager at Neohapsis, a partner lab of this magazine.

Answers were mixed. The HR pros and Ellerton, director of technology for a college prep school, say they look less favorably on degrees earned online, citing the value of interactions found in a classroom setting. Feldman, Molta and MacVittie were more flexible and would consider experience and the quality of the school (see the complete discussion below.).

Bottom line: Choose a top-flight school for your online studies. If possible, take a few classes in a traditional setting. And play up your experience, which most IT pros agree is paramount. Once you enter a degree program, note this on your resumé; you don't have to wait until you complete the degree.



Dear Career Coach:
I'd like to hire a trainer whose sole responsibility will be to educate end users on a new IT initiative. I firmly believe that the ROI for this program is lagging because users are not taking full advantage of the added capabilities. Management says my IT staff should be able to handle user training, but it's not working. How can I make my case for this hire?
Not a Teacher

Dear UnTeacher:

Accenture, a management consulting and technology services firm, recently published a report, "Running Training Like a Business," that should give you ammo. The survey of more than 31,000 Accenture professionals presents a method to calculate the ROI of learning programs. One highlight: Employees who have access to training are more than twice as likely to say they expect to still be working for the company in two years.

To assign financial values, Accenture examined more than 250,000 employee records containing detailed data on factors such as training, time with the company and promotion dates. The results: People in the top 50th percentile in terms of the amount of training are 17 percent more productive and stay with the company 14 percent longer. You can download the full report here.

Post a comment or question on this story.

Schmoozing now has an "e" prefix at eSchmooze. Since 75 percent of positions are found by networking (well, according to eSchmooze, anyway), the company sets up networking events in major cities where attendees can make connections and sometimes hear an educational lecture. To find or host an event go to www.eschmooze.net.

Lorna Garey: I'm taking an informal survey for CareerCoach: If you were looking to hire a network engineer, would you think less of a degree earned online vs. in a traditional program? Assume the online university is accredited, and all else being equal, such as the courses required.

Don Macvittie: The trend is toward more online degrees, but I don't know what hiring trends are...

Tony Arendt: There needs to be an ability for employees, at any level, to properly interact with co-workers and clients. Learning at traditional programs almost always involves teamwork when working on class projects or even through the day-to-day process.

Dean Ellerton: With us being in a college prep school, the answer would be "yes" [we would think less of an online degree]. We are pretty traditional, and while I wouldn't mind that much, our "higher-ups" would.

Jonathan Feldman: When hiring, I personally don't really care where someone gets his or her degree. I'm going to quiz them down anyway, particularly for a network engineer position.

David Molta: I doubt it would matter to me, but I'm on the inside, so to speak, since I teach a lot of distance students at the Masters level.

Overall, they are better students than their full-time cohorts, more focused, more enthusiastic, harder workers. For a student who got his/her undergraduate degree online, I might be tempted to just ask why? When someone doesn't complete college right after high-school, or takes an alternative path (like online courses), you always wonder why. Is this a person who had no direction or discipline or brains or social skills? Or is it someone who was lacking in money or needed greater challenges. It can cut both ways. So I'd basically pull a Paul Harvey, ask for the rest of the story.

Alan Anderson: I would have to examine the credentials of the online curiculum and investigate the process by which the online university certifies the acquisition of the required content areas. However, even if these requirements are rigorous, I would rate a candidate with a traditional degree more highly than one with an online degree if all other factors are equal

David Molta: Alan, I would be able to appreciate your position better if you could explain WHY you would rate a traditional degree more highly. I could make the argument that getting a traditional degree is much easier than doing it online, that the online learner is likely to posess the type of self- and life-long learning skills that often prove to be the most important attributes of an effective technical professional.

Alan Anderson: Dave, My rationale is based primarily on my observation of the learning that occurs within a classroom setting as a result of the interaction between students, and between the students and professor. As an example, I teach a graduate course in leadership in which I typically have 15 students. Much of my course design utilizes peer interaction and feedback, and students invariably rate this aspect of the course as the most beneficial. Perhaps this dimension is not as important in a hard-skill content area such as IT, but I do believe it adds a richness that can't be replicated online. The essence of learning, in my opinion, is the assimilation of information in a way which leads to practical application, and in the absence of the interaction that occurs in a classroom, much of that group knowledge and experience is lost.

Dave Molta: Frankly, I don't really like teaching online and I, too, value the interaction that comes with the classroom experience. However, there are alternative skills and experiences available on-line that may offset some of the disadvantages. For example, in an online environment, you are more likely to have a wider variety of participants, including many practitioners, that can make for more realistic interaction. In addition, online students have a tendency to develop better written communications skills, skills that are often lacking amongst technical professionals, yet skills that are increasingly important in today's organizations.

I think you are correct that some topics may be more suitable for distance education than others. That's important to point out. However, I still assert that the best technical professionals I know didn't learn what they know in the classroom. They learned it through personal experience. And the skills that allow people to learn on their own are often better reinforced online.

Alan Anderson: I think this exercise illustrates your contention that online learning can offer some advantages over the classroom. Moreover, I agree with your assertion that many of the top technical professionals have acquired much of their knowledge through various forms of independent study and other types of experiential learning. On the other hand, coming from the perspective of a human resources practitioner, I suspect that many HR professionals share a certain bias that tends to confer less weight to online learning vs. classroom instruction, much the same as being more impressed by a degree from Harvard vs. a similar degree from a less prestigious university. However, as online learning becomes more common, perhaps this bias will diminish. In the meantime, it is my belief that as long as HR professionals are involved in the hiring process, a candidate with online credentials is likely to be viewed less favorably than one with traditional educational credentials.

Dave Molta: Thanks, Alan. I guess we just need to work on you HR types a little more! Your perspective is valuable to me as relates to the direction of our own distance programs here at Syracuse.

Don MacVittie: I believe I would agree with Dave on this one. Having gone on-campus to get your bachelor's shows that you are capable of making it in a cooperative environment. Your master's online is a different matter. I would also question a 100 percent online doctorate. Can you really fulfill your doctorate strictly online? Seems shaky to me... I'd have less concern about someone who took a couple years off between high school and college than someone that has only online education.

Jonathan Feldman: In general, as with Don and Dave, I have my personal bias. I personally like in-person classes because of the social interaction, which I feel produces a better learning experience all around. But I don't see why someone couldn't get a solid foundation of an education from an online course, and soak up the "collective wisdom" either on the job, through a professional association, or at conferences. That said, I am always (on paper, before I quiz someone down) swayed by the quality of the school more so than the method of delivery: All things being equal, I prefer the MIT candidate over the "Miskatonic U." candidate.