Online College Offers Flexibility Paired With Credibility

Online college courses require commitment and self discipline-traits that many members of the military already hold. And the flexibility that's inherent with on-line degree programs can prove a welcome constant for soldiers deployed into service or transferred to another base. Continuing education during off-duty time is voluntary and is often free, and experts say there are several benefits to it.

"Voluntary education programs help members improve their mission performance, prepare members for greater responsibility and enhance their professional, as well as their personal, potential," Education Technician Lori Popp of the Lifelong Learning section of Marine and Family Services aboard North Carolina's Camp Lejeune told the Jacksonville Daily News in July 2009.

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act, also known as the GI Bill, was signed in to law in 1944 in part as a means of offering college scholarships to anyone who served in uniform. By 1947, veterans accounted for nearly half of all college students in the United States, according to a Time Magazine article. A Post 9/11 GI Bill has since made as much as 100 percent tuition available to service members on active duty after Sept. 10, 2001. The Post 9/11 Bill covers graduate and undergraduate degrees as well as vocational or technical training provided by approved institutions and provides stipends for books and housing.

Members of the military can gain academic credit for military training and experience. The U.S. Army reportedly partners with more than 1,900 community colleges and universities that accept military training credits from soldiers pursuing a college education during or after service. Many bases are said to feature satellite branches of local, accredited universities and, for many members of the military, online college offerings might be the only option.

Online classes involve obtaining 80 to 100 percent of a course's content online, according to the Sloan Consortium, and distance education typically attract students who otherwise might not be able to attend classes at a traditional campus. Lori Popp told the Jacksonville Daily News that technological advances in distance education now make it easier for deployed service members to continue their education. The consortium, comprised of organizations and institutions committed to quality online education, recently released the results of a study entitled "Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States." Between the falls of 2007 and 2008, the study noted, the number of online students increased by 17 percent, to 4.6 million.

More than 1,000 deployed Marines and sailors are benefiting from tuition assistance, Popp told the Daily News. And an October article in The Chronicle of Higher Education described online courses as a "boon for soldiers who want to participate in college despite geographic displacement." The story, about a professor and National Guardsman who continued teaching online classes in economics during a tour of duty in Iraq, reported that soldiers keep occupied during stretches down time by working, reading, exercising, playing video games and watching movies. Many soldiers and other members of the military also enroll in online college or graduate school courses during deployment, The Chronicle piece noted.

Review of Legitimate Offers to Get a Free Apple iPad, iPhone 4 or iPod

Of all the gadgets and technologies to come out over the past decade, none have been as revolutionary and captivating as the Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod. Over the years not only have these technologies become an integral part of our daily lives, but they've also drastically changed how we interact with mediums such as email and the internet. They've brought us closer together with technologies such as "Face Time" real time video chat, mobile instant messaging, and instant connectivity to just about anyone in the world. In short, people love their iPods and iPhones.

One thing that these gadgets are not, however, is "cheap". You can expect to pay anywhere from $100-200 for base model iPods to as much as $1000 or more for an iPad with all the bells and whistles and 3G access. Fortunately there are a number of offers and programs on the internet which allow fans of Apple's gadgets to get their hands on one without having to empty their pockets or charge up their credit cards. While there is no shortage of offers, one should be diligent in using common sense to avoid scams and offers which do nothing but waste your time.

One of the more popular offers is one that promises a chance to win a free iPad, free iPod, or free iPhone 4 from Apple in exchange for participating in a raffle or similar program. What these programs fail to reveal though, is that most times there are tens of thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of people who are participating for what usually amounts to 1 or 2 actual free iPhones or iPads available to win. Given odds like these, it would be easier to win most lotteries than to get your hands on a free Apple iPhone.

Other offers that promise a free iPhone or iPod can be seen on Facebook in varying shapes and forms and usually involve requiring a participant to "like" a fanpage and suggest it to a certain number of their friends in order to have a shot at one. Most or all of these offers end with participants never receiving anything for their efforts let alone a free iPhone. It's silly to think that one could get a free iPad or iPod just for liking and suggesting a Facebook fanpage to their friends, but many people fall for these kinds of offers because suggesting the page to friends gives the false impression that the offer is somehow more legitimate than it really is. When trying to gauge the legitimacy of a free offer, one should ask themselves if an offer seems "too good to be true" before participating. That is to say, why would anyone give away a free iPhone 4 or iPad that costs hundreds of dollars just for suggesting a Facebook page.

The third type of offer is one that produces legitimate results in exchange for minimal effort on the part of the participant. Marketing and Research & Development departments of large companies spend a great deal of money testing their products both before releasing them on the market and after in order to better mold their products to their target users. In order to better cater their gadgets to their users, they need honest feedback from real people who use the iPhone, iPad or iPod gadgets on a daily basis.

There are websites that offer regular people the opportunity to participate in these programs by becoming Beta Testers in exchange for nothing more than their opinions and feedback about the product that they choose to test. Participants are shipped either a free iPhone, iPad, or iPod model within a few days and are asked to begin using it on a daily basis just as if they had bought one from a store. In the course of using their gadgets, they're also asked to note any features or software which they find to be extremely useful or hard to use. The only downside is that users can only participate in one Beta Tester program at a time, that is, you cannot have both a free iPhone and a free iPad shipped to you at the same time. The upside is that after using your gadget for 3-4 weeks and providing feedback on your experience, the iPhone, iPad or iPod that you were shipped is yours to keep for free.