Online Colleges and Degree Programs

I was recently made aware of  OnlineColleges.org by one of the sites co-creators, Chase Gugenheim. This site represents a remarkable amount of research into online and distance education resources and they are organized intelligently and intuitively.

I wish this site had existed when I was working as an Academic Adviser. This  database of 343 accredited online colleges and universities is a comprehensive and unbiased resource for students, educators, or anyone looking for a flexible option to further their education.

Take a look and see if you can find a program that fits your needs – and if you do, I recommend you follow an excellent piece of advice from Online Colleges: ‘If you are interested in enrolling in an online college, request information from at least 4 schools that have a degree you wish to pursue;  there are differences between each school’s program that are best explained by the schools themselves.’

Online Colleges :: 300+ Top Accredited Online Colleges.

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Further research continues to indicate that focusing on more than one task at a time actually decreases productivity and may jeopardize the fundamental quality of our work and communication. But this data seems to contradict what many people hold as the vision of a fully engaged and adapted 21st century worker.

The people who engage in media “multitasking” are those least able to do so well, according to researchers. This recent BBC article examines the results of a study done at Stanford University.

And this NPR radio segment also highlights some enlightening research into multi-tasking.

But in today’s workplace, and even just in our day to day lives in the information age, a certain amount of multi-tasking is unavoidable. So it seems the skill to develop is knowing when, where, and what to multi-task. Ali Hale weighs in with what I feel is a reasonable and well thought out opinion in her article ‘Multi-Tasking vs. Mono-Tasking’:

So how do you know when you should “multi-task” and when you should “mono-task”? And how do you manage to do the latter? Some things lend themselves brilliantly to multi-tasking. These tend to be activities which are purely physical, or which by their nature take a set amount of time to complete – however well you focus.

All of this has given me food for thought – as I am a person who is prone to multi-tasking and have convinced myself that I am pretty good at the juggling routine. In fact, I half-jokingly said to my brother just the other day, ‘I’ve got to focus, no more multi-tasking, from now on I’m only going to do two or three things at a time.’

So, here’s a little eye-opening challenge if you feel the same way: try this online game called MULTITASK and see if it might start to change your opinion.

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Post Graduate Programs in Remote and Distributed Work?

A blog visitor, Christian M., sent this question:

I’m a 27 year old business consultant in Germany. I want to write a PhD thesis about “work anywhere, anytime”. Do you know a professor at a university, business school etc. who could supervise a PhD thesis about this topic or do you have an advise for me to find one? He could be located anywhere in the world.

I hope you know somebody doing scientific research about this topic.

Thanks a lot,
Christian

My reply to Christian was as follows:

We do not personally know any one who does scientific research into remote work or global business teams, but I may be able to suggest a few places to begin your research.

I am listing below a few universities which offer graduate level programs in areas closely related to your field of interest. Unfortunately, only the first is a PhD program. I believe the other 2 are MBAs but perhaps someone there could offer insight. The final link is to a resource which lists PhD programs in information related fields.

It seems odd given the prevalence of distributed work in our world that the field is still so young and unformed as an academic discipline. I discovered much the same thing when I studied Comparative Religions. I always felt that one of the benefits of that was the diversity of faculty and departments I got to work with – I would get to study under  Anthropologists, Historians, Doctors of Divinity, Sociologists, and Psychologists all in the same program, with only the subject as a unifying principle. So while the newness of telework as a subject of serious study presents some challenges, it likely also presents great opportunities and flexibility.

I hope these links help, please keep in touch and let us know what you find and what you ultimately decide to do.

Does anyone else know of other programs or resources not listed below? Please comment and share them if you do.

The Center for Work, Technology & Organization (WTO) is a research center located within the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford University’s School of Engineering. WTO’s faculty, graduate students, and industrial research partners are committed to basic and applied research to understand how work is changing and to design more effective organizations and technologies. WTO sponsors research projects, colloquia, workshops, and conferences that bring together social scientists, engineers, designers, and managers within the context of an engineering school to address crucial social, organizational, and technical problems in an interdisciplinary manner.

The PhD degree in MS&E requires the fulfillment of certain disciplinary course requirements, as well as qualifying exams and a dissertation defense. Typically, students take about four to five years after entering the program to complete all PhD requirements.

The Virtual Team Management and Communication program in the Division of Graduate Professional Studies provides a framework for understanding and managing many sociocultural, regulatory, and geographic issues in a worldwide environment.

The program is targeted for team members, team leaders, and managers working in virtual and globally distributed teams.

Advanced Masters Program in Management of Globally Distributed Work (AMPM) is an executive education program in Global Management. It is designed for high potential professionals in technology organizations who, as a part of their job assignments need to develop markets and manage clients and work-sites around the globe. It is also designed for consulting professionals and MNC executives who may be transferred to various worldwide locations.

Managers who are the products of the AMPM program will define global strategic plans for their companies and add value to execution of plans with their close knowledge and familiarity of markets, financial structures and work cultures of most important geographies and economies of the twenty first century represented by India, China, Europe and the US. Such managers will be “globally-ready” to take up challenging tasks in confronting competition either globally or locally.

A unique feature of the program is its delivery over four sites spanning South Asia, Europe, North America, and East Asia. The program will be delivered through a consortium of leading business schools from Asia, Europe, and North America. The consortium members are:

• Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
• SDA Bocconi-School of Management, Italy
• UCLA, Business and Information Technology Consortium, Anderson School of Business Los Angeles, USA
• Faculty of Business, City University of Hong Kong at Hong Kong/Shenzen, China.

Information-related Ph.D. degree programs

This page provides a listing of 143 Ph.D. degree programs in information-related fields, such as computer science, information systems or library and information science. You can view the list by school name, program name, or country.

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As our contribution to National Preparedness Month we have made our on-demand teleseminar, Riding the Storm Out, available FREE for the rest of the year.  Visit this page to listen to 4 South Florida experts discuss strategies, tips, and best practices for building a simple but effective business continuity and disaster recovery plan. The whole seminar is only about an hour and is packed full of real-deal advice, and each speaker also provided supporting documents that you can download.

2009 Business Fact Sheet Follows:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

Fact Sheet

September 1, 2009

READY BUSINESS

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Advertising Council launched the Ready Business Campaign in September 2004. This extension of Homeland Security’s successful Ready Campaign, designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies, focuses specifically on business preparedness. Ready Business helps owners and managers of small- and medium-sized businesses prepare their employees, operations and assets in the event of an emergency.

• Ready Business was developed by Homeland Security and launched in partnership with U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Administration, Society of Human Resource Management, The Business Roundtable, The 9/11 Public Discourse Project, ASIS International, Business Executives for National Security, International Safety Equipment Association, International Security Management Association, National Association of Manufacturers, National Federation of Independent Businesses, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
• The goal of Ready Business is to raise the business community’s awareness of the need for emergency planning and motivate businesses to take action. The campaign encourages business owners and managers to: plan to stay in business; talk to their employees; and protect their investment.
• Emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks, can paralyze business operations. Small- and medium-sized businesses in particular are most vulnerable to these events. Having an emergency plan can help protect a company and maximize its potential to survive and recover after an incident.
• According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses represent more than 99 percent of all employers; provide approximately 75 percent of the net new jobs added to the economy; and represent 97 percent of all U.S. exporters. If these businesses are prepared to survive and recover, the nation and the economy are more secure.
• The campaign’s messages are delivered through: television, radio, print, outdoor and Internet public service advertisements (PSAs) developed and produced by the Advertising Council; brochures; www.ready.gov and www.listo.gov Web sites; toll-free phone lines 1-800-BE-READY and 1-888-SE-LISTO; and partnerships with a wide variety of public and private sector organizations.
• The campaign’s resources provide businesses with practical steps and easy-to-use templates that include information on creating an evacuation plan; fire safety; including employees throughout the process; considering people with special needs; and protecting business investments by securing facilities and equipment and reviewing insurance coverage.
• As of September 1, 2009, the Ready Business effort has received more than $101.1 million in donated media support; its Web site has received more than 41.3 million hits and more than 4 million unique visitors; and more than 3.9 million Ready Business materials have been requested or downloaded from the Web site.
• A national survey of businesses with 2-999 employees conducted by The Ad Council in December 2007 found:

91 percent of respondents said that it is “very” or “somewhat” important for businesses to take steps to prepare for a catastrophic disaster, such as an earthquake, hurricane or terrorist attack.

38 percent said their company has an emergency plan in place in the event of a disaster .

59 percent assessed their own business as “very” or “somewhat” prepared in the event of a disaster.

55 percent of businesses surveyed said that they had take either significant or small steps to improve emergency preparedness in the past year.

The surveyed businesses said that the most important threats for them to address are fires followed by cyber attacks and then hurricanes, winter storms, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.

• The Department highlights public emergency preparedness through National Preparedness Month, a nationwide effort held each September to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. In 2008, the Ready Campaign was joined by more than 3,200 NPM Coalition Members to educate individuals, families and communities on the importance of emergency preparedness. The 2008 coalition of national, regional, state, and local organizations was the largest in the five year history of NPM, and represented a 4,000 percent increase in participation to date.

###

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“Aneesh will promote technological innovation to help achieve our most urgent priorities — from creating jobs and reducing health care costs to keeping our nation secure,” said Obama.

“Aneesh and Jeffrey [Zients, the newly appointed chief innovation officer] will work closely with our chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for setting technology policy across the government, and using technology to improve security, ensure transparency, and lower costs,” he added.

After hearing the news of Melissa Hathaway’s resignation I got to wondering how Mr. Chopra was holding up. I found this interview he gave on Buzz Out Loud just a couple of weeks ago.

BOL 1033: Special interview with federal CTO Aneesh Chopra | Buzz Out Loud Blog – CNET Blogs.

If you are interested in some background on Aneesh Chopra, Tim O’Rielly posted a comprehensive article on his O’Rielly Radar blog back in April entitled Why Aneesh Chopra is a Great Choice for Federal CTO.

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Here is a news item that Rachel Hastings at WFC Resources was righteous enough to bring to our attention. WFC carried this story in their Manager’s Quarterly Newsletter and I felt it was significant enough to pass along here as well. Check out where they list five practices found to be shared among effective distance teams and notice that only one of them relates specifically to technology… something to ponder. ~ J

Survey Offers Ideas for Managing Teleworkers

A new report from the Conference Board finds 80% of employers in agreement: the payoff for enabling employees to work at a distance is such that it’s worth the extra cost.

The purpose of the report, Meeting The Challenge of a Dispersed Workforce, was to identify effective ways to manage distance employees. The researchers studied high-performing, dispersed work teams, and found several differences in perception between managers and distance workers. More than half of managers (53%) said they spend more than an hour a week developing working relationships with their teleworkers; only 18% of those workers believe their manager spent that much time with them. And while 90% of managers felt the phone was the most effective communication tool, 70% of employees felt in-person meetings were most valuable. Those meetings were on the list of five practices found to be shared among effective distance teams: others were clear agreements on accessibility, good use of group software, adequate company support and clearly defined roles for members.

Great distance managers, said the report, must first and foremost be inclusive, empowering, supportive and trustworthy. Spending time building relationships is vital, and managers must master fundamentals like goal-setting, evaluating, giving feedback and coaching. Finally, they must be superb at three competencies: cultivating relationships, focusing on outcomes and developing employees. Says Conference Board economist Linda Barrington, telecommuting is “no longer a cost-benefit issue. It is simply the reality of doing business,” and effective management of dispersed employees is a key to success in that new reality.

WORLDATWORK NEWSLINE, 1-20-09

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It is significant to note that there are many search utilities on the web that are ‘powered’ by one of the major search engines, and are therefore essentially extensions of those engines. This means if you are registered with the main engine, you will likely also be included in the additional directories it is powering.

To learn more than you ever wanted to know about Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing consult Search Engine Marketing 101 by the good people at Search Engine Watch.

The 7 best FREE Places to Submit your Website for Increased Traffic

1. Google (also powers AOL Search & Netscape Search) – The King of Search Engines, the 600 Lbs. Gorilla, Google has the largest market share of U.S. based web searches at 67% of all searches as of April 2008. Google’s stated mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google is now widely recognized as the world’s largest search engine — an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.
Free Submit: http://www.google.com/addurl/

2. Yahoo! Search (also powers AltaVista & Alltheweb) – The #2 seed with a market share of 20%. The stated goal of Yahoo! Search is to discover and index all of the content available on the web to provide the best possible search experience to users. The Yahoo! Search index, which contains several billion web pages, is more than 99% populated through the free crawl process.
Free Submit: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

3. MSN Live Search –Microsoft Network’s search tool is third with a market share of 7%. Everyone knows Microsoft, and as hosts of msn.com and Hotmail it is understandable that MSN Live Search would place in the top 3 practically by default.
Free Submit: http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

4. Ask – Powered by Teoma: the first major search technology based upon the clustering concept of subject-specific popularity. The Teoma algorithm, now known as ExpertRank, claims to go beyond mere link popularity to determine popularity among pages considered to be experts on the topic of your search.
FAQs: http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/webmasters.shtml#18

5. Gigablast – In 2006 Gigablast began to focus on providing search services to businesses. A “re-launch” in 2008 aims to bring high-quality, highly-relevant search engine functionality to individual search users.
Free Submit: http://www.gigablast.com/addurl

6. Exact Seek - ExactSeek is an internet search engine and directory that also powers 6 other web search engines (Aesop.com, OnSeek.com, MaxPromo.com, Best-SearchEngine.com, SitesOnDisplay.com and MetaWebSearch.com).
Free Submit: http://www.exactseek.com/add.html

7. Entire Web - When you submit your site to Entireweb it gets listed throughout their partner network of more than 20 search engines.
Free Submit: http://www.entireweb.com/free_submission/

Also visit Do-It-Yourself SEO: A Beginner’s Checklist for a great introduction to Search Engine Optimitization published in EntireWeb.com’s newsletter in April, 2008.

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