EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series 4: Online Educatio

EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series¹ #4: Online Education
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, September 23, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

We continue our series of reports for students in other countries who want to attend a United² States college or university. This week, in part four, we discuss how some students are able to stay in their home country and still earn a degree.

Many students who take classes by computer over the Internet say they like the independence of online education. Students do not have to sit in a classroom and do not have to attend courses at a set time. Professors say they have better communication with students through e-mail than they do in many traditional classes.

American college and universities have been offering³ classes online for a number of years. The University of Phoenix⁴, in Arizona, has been offering degrees online since nineteen eighty-nine. University officials say they try to provide students with a social experience as well as an educational one. In some programs, for example, students in groups of six take all their classes together. They communicate with each other by computer.

Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado, describes itself as the first fully⁵ online accredited⁶ university. Jones International offers both bachelor's and master's degrees.

Another online school is Cardean University, near Chicago, Illinois. It began in two thousand. It offers a master's of business administration⁷ degree. It says its courses are developed with five top business schools and can be completed in as little as twenty-two months. Cardean says it has taught students from ninety countries.

Lists of schools that offer online programs are easy to find on the Internet. Just use a search engine like Google or Yahoo and type in "online education."

Be careful, though, of offers for a college degree in return for little or no work. Such operations are illegal⁸ in the United States. Educational advisers⁹ say that before you enter any program, you should make sure the work will be recognized in your country.

Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish dot com. And for information from the State Department, go to educationusa.state.gov. Again, educationusa.state.gov. Our series continues next week.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen.

1 series   

n.连续；系列

参考例句：

• The students have put forward a series of questions.学生们提出了一系列问题。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

2 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

3 offering   

n.提供，奉献物，牲礼

参考例句：

• What is your competition offering?你的竞争者提出的条件是什么？
• The police are offering a big reward for information about the robbery.警方出大笔赏金要求提供那起抢劫案的破案线索。

4 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 accredited   

adj.可接受的；可信任的；公认的；质量合格的v.相信( accredit的过去式和过去分词 )；委托；委任；把…归结于

参考例句：

• The discovery of distillation is usually accredited to the Arabs of the 11th century. 通常认为，蒸馏法是阿拉伯人在11世纪发明的。
• Only accredited journalists were allowed entry. 只有正式认可的记者才获准入内。

7 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

8 illegal   

adj.不合法的，非法的，犯法的

参考例句：

• I don't want to get mixed up with any illegal organization.我不想与任何非法组织有牵连。
• It's illegal for people under 17 to drive a car in Britain.在英国，不满17岁的人驾驶车辆是违法的。

9 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。