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CNN Saturday Morning News
PC Access can Mean a College Degree
Aired August 25, 2001 - 08:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN ANCHOR: With a personal computer at your disposal, a college education is right at your fingertips. With me now is Nick Fluge, whose Career Education Corporation operates two online campuses. And first of all, I've got to ask you, what the heck is an online campus?
NICK FLUGE, CAREER EDUCATION CORPORATION: Well, Jeff, it's a completely virtual university. You can attend any time, any place. It's very flexible, and it's 100 percent online.
FLOCK: All right, this is it behind us. Let's take a quick look, here, and we've got some questions as we go.
FLUGE: Sure, sure. This is a welcome center. It greets students, it gives them our contact information, the steps for application from AIU-.com on the Web to toll free phone numbers.
FLOCK: Take me to the next one.
FLUGE: You bet.
FLOCK: Virtual campus.
FLUGE: The virtual campus does a number of things. It really moves a student from enrollments to financial aide, courses, student support, graduation, even job placement.
FLOCK: Now, virtual campus. Does this mean we get a virtual education out of this, or do we get a real one?
FLUGE: It's a real education, but it's done virtually, at your convenience. We're looking at the learning portal, and really this put together the most often used functions of the virtual campus and it does it in one easy to use page. And then you move off this page.
FLOCK: So, you mean to tell me that we -- I go to college, but I don't talk to any professors? I don't put my hand up in class? I don't go to the Student Union? That's the case?
FLUGE: Well, again, it's virtual, it's at your pace and so on, but we do have instructor led sessions, we do have the opportunity to talk to other students, to the teachers, etcetera, at any time of the day or night. So, in fact, you can do that as well. FLOCK: Now, does this typically -- is this typically for folks that have already gotten a typical college education and they're looking for an advanced degree? Or is this for folks that are looking for their college diploma?
FLUGE: Well, we offer -- actually offer associate, bachelor and master degree programs, so you can come to us at any point and you can be pretty much anyone. You're going to be successful with the online environment.
FLOCK: What's this now? It looks like the student services...
FLUGE: Well, yeah. Right now we're looking at student services. You know, at our university we like to say there's no waiting in line. Here, everything is a click away. We're looking at education plans, and this is Jeff Flock, so we have you signed up, Jeff.
FLOCK: Oh, jeez.
FLUGE: So, we are looking forward to you attending.
It tells you how you're doing. It tells you course grades, what you're doing in the future, and that kind of thing.
FLOCK: I've got to ask you about -- I mean, you think of college and, you know, we think of our college experiences, and some of them may have not been pleasant, but some of them are, you know, tremendously formative experiences.
How do we get that same feel through the computer?
FLUGE: Well, again, pretty much everything we do replicates that campus experience, except that it's open 24/7.
Here we even have the orientation process, and that's available to all students before they start. It takes them step by step through the process. It's going to insure they're successful online learners.
FLOCK: And so, it is conceivable, as we move not only into the 21st century but right immediately, I guess, we're in the 21st century, that I can get a college diploma and never set foot in a typical college?
FLUGE: That's absolutely true.
FLOCK: And the quality of that education?
FLUGE: Is outstanding. We're regionally accredited, our courses are multimedia at the cutting edge of excellence. Incredible student support.
FLOCK: Nick, I appreciate the online introduction, here. This is a thing I'm going to have to think about a little bit.
FLUGE: You bet. You bet. All right.
FLOCK: Nick Fluge, appreciate it very much. That is the latest.
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