Accounting online

By: Glenda Thorne, Ph.D.

DESCRIPTION OF GRAPHOMOTOR SKILLS

Handwriting is complex perceptual-motor skill that is dependent upon the maturation and integration of a number of cognitive, perceptual and motor skills, and is developed through instruction (Hamstra-Bletz and Blote, 1993; Maeland, 1992). While a plethora of information exists in lay and professional literature about many of the common problems experienced by school age children, difficulty with handwriting is often overlooked and poorly understood. Students with graphomotor problems are frequently called “lazy”, “unmotivated” and/or “oppositional” because they are reluctant to produce written work. Many times, these are the children who dislike school the most. Because they are sometimes able to write legibly if they write slowly enough, they are accused of writing neatly “when they want to”. This statement has moral implications and is untrue; for children with graphomotor problems, neat handwriting at a reasonable pace is often not a choice.

When required to write, children with written production problems frequently engage in numerous avoidance behaviors. They have to go to the bathroom; they need to sharpen their pencils; they need a Kleenex from their backpack. Sometimes they just sit and stare. Even disrupting the class and getting in trouble may be less painful for them than writing. Work that could be completed in one hour takes three hours because they put off the dreadful task of writing.

The following paragraphs will attempt to elucidate the various components of handwriting and the characteristics which students display when there are breakdowns in these components. Components of graphomotor or handwriting skills include visual-perceptual skills, orthographic coding, motor planning and execution, kinesthetic feedback and visual-motor coordination.

Visual-Perceptual Skills. Visual-perceptual skills enable children to visually discriminate among graphic forms and to judge their correctness. Thus, visual-perceptual skills involve the ability or capacity to accurately interpret or give meaning to what is seen. Generally a number of specific skills fall into this category including visual discrimination, or the ability to distinguish one visual pattern from another, and visual closure, or the ability to perceive a whole pattern when shown only parts of that pattern. Adequate visual-perceptual skills are a necessary but not sufficient condition for legible written output.

Orthographic Coding. A second factor important to the production of legible handwriting is orthographic coding. Berninger and her colleagues (Berninger, Yates, Cartwright, Rutberg, Remy and Abbott, 1992) define orthographic coding as the “ability to represent a printed word in memory and then to access the whole word pattern, a single letter, or letter cluster in that representation” (pg. 260). Thus, orthographic coding refers to the ability to both store in memory and retrieve from memory letters and word patterns. The relationship between poor handwriting and orthographic coding deficits has been empirically established (Berninger et. al., 1992).

Motor Planning and Execution. A third component of handwriting is praxis or the ability to plan and execute motor actions or behavior. Fitts and Posner (1967) describe motor skill acquisition as proceeding through three stages. The first phase is called the cognitive or early phase. In this phase, the learner establishes an understanding of the task and a cognitive map of the movements required to accomplish the task. In the second phase, the associated or intermediate phase, the movement patterns become more coordinated in time and space. During this phase, proprioceptive feedback (the feedback that the brain receives from the muscles and nerves) becomes increasingly important and the importance of visual feedback decreases. The final phase, the autonomous phase, is characterized by the development of larger functional units that are translated into a motor program which then occurs with minimal conscious attention.

Luria (1966) notes that a motor action begins with an idea about the purpose of an action and the possible ways in which this action may be performed. The ideas are stored as motor engrams. Thus, in order to carry out a motor behavior, we must have both the idea or image for what must be accomplished (i.e., the plan) and the ability to match our motor output to that plan. Therefore, both adequate motor planning and execution are necessary for handwriting.

Levine (1987) includes in the definition of dyspraxia difficulty with assigning the various muscles or muscle groups to their roles in the writing task. This definition focuses on the execution or output aspect of dyspraxia. According to Levine, in order to hold a pencil effectively and produce legible handwriting at an acceptable rate, the fingers must hold the writing utensil in such a way that some fingers are responsible for stabilizing the pencil or pen and others are responsible for mobilizing it. In a normal tripod grasp, the index finger is responsible for stabilizing the writing instrument and the thumb and middle finger are responsible for the mobility of the instrument during writing.

Kinesthetic Feedback. Yet another component of motor control for legible handwriting produced at an acceptable rate is feedback of the sensorimotor system, especially kinesthetic feedback, during the performance of motor actions. Luria (1966) points out that for effective motor action, there must be afferent impulses from the body to the brain that inform the brain about the location and movement of the body. The body then makes adjustments based on these impulses to alter its movement pattern until the desired pattern is achieved. Thus, it is kinesthetic feedback that facilitates a good match between the motor plan and motor execution. In writing, the writer has a kinesthetic plan in mind and compares this plan to the kinesthetic feedback and then either corrects, persists or terminates the graphomotor pattern (Levine, 1987).

Visual-Motor Coordination. Visual-motor coordination is the ability to match motor output with visual input. Although it is the nonvisual or kinesthetic feedback that is crucial for handwriting, visual feedback is also important. Visual feedback provides gross monitoring of writing rather than the fine-tuned monitoring provided by nonvisual feedback. It is this gross monitoring that prevents us from writing on the desk, crossing over lines (Levine, 1987) and staying within the margins.

PROBLEMS WITH GRAPHOMOTOR SKILLS

Deficits in Visual-Perceptual Skills. Children with visual-perceptual problems may have a history of reading problems because of difficulty with letter and word recognition. In addition, if a child cannot accurately visually discriminate the letter b from the letter d, he/she will be unable to reliably reproduce these letters upon demand. If students have problems with visual closure, they may have difficulty with accurate letter formation and handwriting legibility may be poor. For example, they may print the letter o with a space in the top, but perceive the letter as closed. When deficits in visual-perceptual skills are suspected, they can be readily identified by informal or standardized tests.

Deficits in Orthographic Coding. Students who have trouble with orthographic coding will often forget how to form certain letters in the middle of a writing task. They frequently retrace letters or exhibit false starts or hesitancies as they write. Observations of their written output may show that they have formed the same letter several different ways. When asked, these students can usually report if they have difficulty remembering what letters look like. Children who cannot reliably make use of visual recall to form letters and words often prefer to print rather than write in cursive because print involves only twenty-six different visual letter patterns, whereas letters written in cursive have a seemingly endless number of visual patterns. Their spelling errors may be phonetic in nature (Levine, 1987, 1994).

Deficits in Motor Planning and Execution. Poor motor planning and execution is referred to as dyspraxia. Deuel and Doar (1992) define dyspraxia as the “inability to learn or perform serial voluntary movements with the proficiency expected for age and/or verbal intelligence” (pg. 100). Helmer and Myklebust (1965) discuss the role that memory for motor sequences play in correctly forming letters when writing. Luria (1966) described two forms of dyspraxia. The first form involves difficulty in creating an image of a required motor movement. The second involves a breakdown in the central nervous system mechanism that is responsible for putting the plan into action. Thus, the child has the blueprint for the action/behavior, but has difficulty implementing it motorically (Levine, 1987).

Ayres (1972, 1975, 1985) suggested that the problem in developmental dyspraxia is in the neural activity that takes place prior to motor execution. According to Ayres, dyspraxia is generally viewed as an output problem because the motor component is more observable than the sensory component. However, in her view, dyspraxia is an inability to integrate sensory and motor information, rather than merely motor production.

Children who suffer from fine motor dyspraxia show poor motor coordination. At times, they assign too many muscles to stabilizing the pencil or pen and too few muscles to mobilizing it. At other times, they assign too many muscles to mobilizing the writing utensil and too few muscles to stabilizing it. Thus, their pencil grips are often inefficient. They may develop a hooked grip in which they stretch out the tendons in the back of the arm so that the fingers move very little if at all during writing. With this grip, they are using the larger muscles of the wrist and forearm which may be easier to control than the smaller muscles in the fingers. They often perform poorly with other fine motor tasks that involve coordinated motor movements such as tying shoes or holding a fork correctly (Levine, 1987).

Another pencil grip which suggests fine motor dyspraxia is one in which the child holds the pencil very tightly and near the point when writing. Further, students with dyspraxia often change pencil grips and prefer writing in cursive rather than print. They do not like to write and complain that their hand hurts when they write. Writing for them is a labor-intensive task. Fine motor dyspraxia is frequently associated with speech production problems because these children often have difficulty assigning the muscles in the mouth to specific speech sounds (Levine, 1987, 1994).

Impaired Kinesthetic Feedback. Children with impaired kinesthetic feedback often develop a fist-like grip of the writing instrument. With this grip, they extend their thumb over the index and middle finger, limiting the mobility of the fingers. They may also press very hard on the paper with the writing utensil in an attempt to compensate for the lack of kinesthetic feedback. Further, they may look closely at the pencil or pen when writing thus attempting to guide the hand using visual feedback which is a much slower process. This is why children with impaired kinesthetic feedback may produce legible handwriting at a greatly reduced pace. As they progress in school, however, the demands placed on written output are too great and legibility deteriorates. These are the children who are often accused of writing neatly “when they want to”. They also often prefer to use mechanical pencils and “scratchy” pens because these provide more friction on the paper when writing. They complain that their hand hurts when writing and they do not like to write. Performance in other fine motor skills may be adequate or good because many fine motor skills do not place such reliance on kinesthetic feedback.

Research has shown that tasks which were designed to improve kinesthetic sensitivity improved handwriting performance more than a task that involved only practice in handwriting (Harris and Livesay, 1991).

Deficits in Visual-Motor Coordination. Children with visual-motor incoordination function much differently than those with impaired kinesthetic feedback because of the different demands of certain motor tasks. Poor visual-motor integration may lead to problems with fine motor tasks that rely heavily on visual feedback. These include threading a needle, drawing, painting, craftwork, building things with blocks, repairing things, playing games such as Nintendo and using a mouse on a computer.

Complete references are available at: http://www.cdl.org/resource-library/articles/graphomotor.php?type=subject&id=45

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By: Glenda Thorne, Ph.D.

1. For children who have difficulty with orthographic coding, it may be helpful to tape an alphabet line to the corner of their desk for easy reference.

2. Students with graphomotor problems should be given extended time to complete written assignments and/or a reduction in the volume of written output. For example, if the exercise given is to correctly capitalize and punctuate sentences or a passage, these should be provided to the student in typed form so that he/she has to only correct the work, rather than write it and then correct it. Also, if the assignment is to answer the questions at the end of the chapter in social studies, the student should be required only to write the answers, not both questions and answers. Additionally, he/she should be allowed to state answers in short phrases. In other words, if the subject matter being assessed is knowledge of information presented in the social studies chapter, it is this that should be assessed, not how competent the student is with the physical act of writing, or how much writing interferes with his/her ability to demonstrate his/her knowledge of social studies.

3. Children with handwriting difficulties may need to be given the opportunity to provide oral answers to exercises, quizzes, and tests.

4. Learning to type is helpful for these students. Writing assignments should be done in stages. Initially, the child would focus only on generating ideas. Next, he/she would organize his/her ideas. Finally, the student would attend to spelling and mechanical and grammatical rules. There are computer software programs available with spell and grammar checks.

5. Students with graphomotor problems may need to be provided with information presented on the board or on overheads in written form, such as teacher-prepared handouts or Xerox copies of other students’ notes.

6. Children with handwriting problems should be provided with written outlines so that they do not have to organize lectures or class materials themselves. This becomes particularly important in junior high grades.

7. Parents should be given the opportunity to purchase an extra set of textbooks for the purpose of highlighting, particularly for content area subjects. Also, notes may be made on Post-Its and then the Post-Its could be attached to a larger sheet.

8. It is often necessary to use alternative grading systems for children with graphomotor problems. One grade would be given for overall appearance and mechanics of writing, and the second for content.

9. When writing reports, it may be helpful for the student to identify his/her own errors and to correct these after learning specific strategies to do so. He/she would then list his/her most frequent errors in a workbook and refer to this list when self-correcting.

10. It should be stressed to school personnel that slow work habits are often a result of graphomotor difficulties and do not reflect deficits in motivation.

11. Electronic devices, such as the Franklin Speaking Spelling Ace may be helpful for students with handwriting problems.

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By: Pearl Deloria

You can improve your career prospects; get a degree next week.

Everyone has seen the ads. Employers have seen the ads too, so are suspicious of degrees from universities they have never heard of.

Is it necessary then to physically attend a university to obtain a degree that employers will recognize? No.

A university degree is no longer only available by physically attending university lectures, seminars and tutorials. Now you can work for your degree 100% online, never setting foot into the hallowed halls of learning unless you choose to.

There are universities that offer Bachelors and Masters degrees online. You can even get a Doctorate 100% online. You have a very wide choice of subject, as wide as if you physically attended the institution. Check out this site http://www.options-online-degrees.info

You can get an online degree from many traditional universities, including Harvard and Yale. There are other universities and colleges that only have online courses. Some of these universities are accredited universities; others are not.

If you apply to a non-accredited institution, future employers are unlikely to look favorably on your qualification. This is because some of these non-accredited universities are nothing more than printing shops, churning out degrees as the checks roll in. Everyone has seen the ads for these so-called degrees - The Get your doctorate next week type ads.

There have been cases of prominent government scientists losing their posts because their degrees were exposed to come from one of these non-accredited institutions that produce totally worthless degrees and doctorates.

There are Life Experience degrees where you gain credit for what you have learned in your job over the years, including for experience gained by staying at home and looking after the kids. Treat these especially with extreme caution and do not shell out your money too easily. If it is that easy to get a degree then it really is not worth the paper it is printed on.

How do you protect yourself?

Only do an online degree from a university that an educated friend, aged 40 or older, has heard of. Employers are likely to be in a similar age bracket and will have similar knowledge of universities as your friend.

Only follow degree courses in recognized disciplines. Forget Life Experience degrees.

Expect to have to work for your degree for at least two years.

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By: Dan Rosenfield -

The most important part of the college selection process is the initial identification of colleges and universities which are most appropriate for you. Soliciting recommendations from your school counselor is a good starting point, but there are many other valuable resources you should utilize.

Most guidance offices and public libraries have a collection of “generic” college guides with general information about individual colleges and helpful indexes enabling readers to quickly locate colleges offering particular majors, programs, and/or activities of interest. In addition, guidance offices and libraries are frequently well stocked with college catalogues, college viewbooks, and videos. Spend some time reviewing them.

There is even more, easier to access information on the internet. One of my websites (http://www.college-scholarships.com), for instance, includes a list of colleges by state with links to their websites and online applications, their toll free telephone numbers and email addresses, and more than thirty free online scholarship searches. Other sites let you search for colleges by major, location, and other criteria.

There are a number of magazines and college guides which “rank” colleges. Check them out, but do so with a grain of salt, as most knowledgeable educators consider their rankings and or evaluative methodology to be suspect.

In addition, there are at least a half dozen free publications which are mailed directly to students or distributed to guidance offices. While such magazines may be helpful in introducing you to colleges, bear in mind that they are supported by the colleges described therein, and even those that appear to “articles” about colleges are generally, in reality, advertisements written by the colleges or agencies compensated by them.

When you take the SAT or ACT - and I suggest you take them both as a high school junior - you will be asked questions about your high school grades and academic interests. If you indicate your willingness to allow the testing agency to release your name and address to colleges interested in students with your profile, you will probably receive a good deal of mail from colleges. Although there are no guarantees, particularly from the most highly select colleges, your chances of being admitted to the colleges which initiate contact with you tend to range from good to excellent. Students who review only the information sent to them by colleges with which they are already familiar miss an excellent potential opportunity to learn about institutions which may be a good “fit” for them.

Similarly, if you meet only with college admissions counselors (at your high school and at college fairs) from colleges and universities already on your list, you might miss out on some great colleges.

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By: Gerri Stone

Have you ever wished to become a teacher? Have you ever wanted to educate children with the right skills and concepts in order to survive life’s challenges?

If you are a parent and you believe in the benefits of homeschooling, then, you could be a homeschool teacher! With homeschooling, you have the option to teach your own child in ways that follow a particular homeschool curriculum. Hence, the learning process is not limited with the rules and regulations set by the typical school system.

In homeschooling, the parents-turned-home-school-teacher can freely incorporate the right values and knowledge that they want their child to know.

You do not need some specific technical requirements in order to become a home school teacher. What you need to have is the yearning to teach your children.

Teaching your children how to learn things and how to achieve something in life will be a rewarding experience, as you watch them grow and achieve successful.

Home schooling is a rapidly spreading alternative form of education. It requires a strong desire, but nothing too stringent. Even parents without a high school diploma can handle it.

Planning for Home school

Planning is essential for home schooling to make the flow of things smoother. Plan first the location. An extra room around the house can be perfect; however, if none is available, the dining room or the living room will do fine. Try using durable plastic bins as storage for the books, supplies, equipment and other stuff as well.

Also, include in the schedule the amount of time allotted for each subject.

Looking Up Resources and Instructional Materials

You do not need to put too much strain on the family budget to afford materials for home school instruction. If no curriculum is being followed, try to schedule enough topics and projects to last the whole school year. One can get tips online on which lessons to include plus the scope and the proper sequencing of lessons.

Finding the Right Curriculum

If the parents are trying to adapt one for their child, it is important to determine the means the child learns best, by first-hand experience, listening, reading or the like.

Home schooling is a great educational experience for both parents and children. It is for the parents to be resourceful and creative to maximize the resources and the learning of their children.

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By: Schools Abroad

Choosing a School Abroad

A major cause of concern for families moving abroad is the provision of education for their children. Many worry that schools in the destination country may not be able to offer the same standard of education that has previously been available in the country of citizenship. Research is vital prior to any move abroad in order to make the best decision for your family.

Many countries around the world, particularly those with a high proportion of expatriates, have a number of international schools which use familiar models of education such as American, British or other systems. These schools generally follow the curriculum of their chosen model and teach in their native language. A growing number of international schools follow the International Baccalaureate which is accepted as an entrance for university around the world. International Schools tend to be located in the major cities of the world, although a few are located in green spaces and these tend to offer boarding as an alternative to a long journey from home to school. Most good international schools offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities that broaden your child’s education as well as providing new interests and hobbies.

As well as the international school option, it may also be possible to enroll your child into a local bilingual school. The advantages of this would be that your child will quickly develop new language skills and would better assimilate into the local community. A downside however would be that the bilingual school would most probably follow a different system than your child is used to and there may be problems reintegrating back into schools at home or universities. An international school would be a safer choice, although these do tend to be more expensive than bilingual schools. Whilst a school may describe itself as an International School, it is important to check out the nationalities of the students on role as some international schools can have a student population comprising almost entirely of local students. In these situations overseas students can often feel isolated and unable to join in with the rest of the school community.

Careful Planning

Before enrolling your child in any school abroad, make a visit to the school and determine if the school offers the best for your child. Take your child with you on each visit so they also get a feel for the school. Some international schools will be selective and others may have long waiting lists. Make sure that the school you select is within traveling distance from home and there is adequate provision for transport to and from school. It is often quite beneficial to decide on a school first and then look for housing after.

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By: Jonathan Mayheart

Speed reading is a necessity, a skill that is needed to compete in this modern world, when information intake is a significant advantage in any job requirement. Many people believe that in order to improve their reading skills they should focus on reading speed increase in order to improve their reading skills. The focus on reading speed only takes energy away from the main task at hand, understanding and comprehending the text you are reading, so instead of concentrating on the speed in which you read you better focus on the reading, and as you improve you skills in reading you will probably find that you have increased your reading speed.

Reading comprehension may sound like something back from the school days, but it is actually the main purpose of any kind of reading at all, even if this particular reading assignment is not what you would normally do, and you keep thinking to yourself that you want this article to end, you will achieve much more by reading and understanding the text than just browsing and going for speed, only to realize that you do not know anything about this text once you are done reading. At that phase you will be sorry you didn’t pay attention to the content and understand that you have to go over this text again, thus not only failing to get a better reading speed, not even getting to the point of the matter.

So, when you have a reading assignment and you want to practice your speed reading techniques, you should have a task, a purpose, a clear idea what you need and what you expect to get out of this text. Getting to a main concept on the text, or an idea, you can efficiently visualize the idea or concept, because you will have a clear idea of what you need, you will know what you do not need, allowing you to overlook, and sort out the insignificant information in the text.

When hitting an important part of the text, like the results of a research, evidence or conclusions, anything that is important in the text itself, try and adjust your reading speed, try and focus on the part that is important, changing the speed will increase your attention to it and will allow you to pay more attention to crucial details you may need later. Increasing the reading focus is also called reading “consciously” so that the reader increases concentration to match the level of importance he attributes to the text.

This conscious reading also allows the reader to mark particular sections of the text thus alerting the brain to focus on these parts, and encouraging better information recall. To read efficiently the efficient reader also reads bigger chunks of text, not individual words and phrases.

Efficient readers also use a word template, its visual sign, as a marker, going over it without reading it, when they prepare to read the text, they start to think of this sign as visual thing, not a word to be read each time they see it, so they save themselves time by not having to read the word usually most frequently appearing in the text before them (imagine you will do this on this article, signing out “read” speed” and “reading”).

On the next article we will look at speed reading practice, how to practice it and when is it a good thing to do, I hope this information helped you increase your knowledge of speed reading.

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By: Lisa Scott

One of your first priorities when finishing up high school should be to look for financial aid for college. This way when you get into that University, you won’t be pondering numerous ways to pay for it. The funds will be in place. When you apply for student loans, the key is to be the early bird. Yes, that whole early bird gets the worm spiel that your grandma laid on you actually has some merit to it. I recall when I was anxious to head off to a University.

Are you headed off to college? Well, congrats on taking that next big step. Now it’s time for reality to kick in with a vengeance. If mom and dad aren’t footing the tuition bill, then it’s certainly time to start searching for student loans. When we finish high school, a great weight is lifted. It’s a good feeling to be done with that dry and awkward phase of life.

I was told by my high school math teacher to apply for student loans at the beginning of the year. Don’t wait till the fall when classes actually begin. All of the funds will be dispersed and you will be left broke. I’ve seen this happen far too many times. Students wait until the summer to apply for student loans and financial aid, but when the fall semester or quarter starts, the funds have not come through yet, or worse, there weren’t any left.

The cool thing about financial aid these days is the access. Now, I don’t necessarily mean that there are more funds at our beck and call, but it is certainly simpler to apply for them. With the keyboard at our fingertips, we can whip through FAFSA and apply for student loans with ease. The government has a large chunk of money available each year. If you’re a struggling student, then why not take advantage of this?

If you are in high school and getting ready to graduate, get a jump start on your search for student loans and grants. Just because you’ve found the college of your dreams doesn’t mean you can afford it. We have to take the initiative in this situation and apply for student loans, scholarships, and any other forms of financial aid we can find. Attending a four year University can cost some major bucks. Don’t wait until the last minute to deal with it. Jump online and begin your search for student loans today.

Finally, it’s time to venture out on our own. Maybe gain some independence. Oh, and don’t forget, grapple with some hefty expenses. However, don’t fret; financial aid is just around the corner. Your need for student loans is inevitable, but at least it’s easy.

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By: Mark Woodcock

Adult education involves the training and development of adult individuals in certain vocations or subjects for a variety of reasons. Adult education is not the same as the traditional education of young individuals due to the methods that are employed in order to capitalize on the accumulated knowledge and life experience of the adult individual. Because of these factors, adults can use what they know to add depth to their educational experience, and have a better understanding of how to apply it to their current life situations. Though often done in the workplace as training and development, or in a classroom setting for continuing education or basic education, it is becoming more and more common to see enrollment in online adult education programs. This method of training is a valid and convenient way for individuals to improve job skills, complete their educations, and stay in touch with new advances in vocational fields.

Often, employed adults enroll in adult education courses in order to reinforce knowledge in a career field, gain new skills for promotion or a new job, or to fulfill requirements set upon them by employers or licensing bodies. Online adult education programs give adults the opportunity to remain employed full time while fulfilling these professional requirements or learning new skills for career opportunities at their own pace and leisure, without having to commute to a classroom. This method of continuing education is especially helpful for those with family commitments in addition to job obligations.

There are other reasons that adult individuals might take advantage of online adult education programs. For example, an individual might find that dropping out of high school and not earning his diploma was not the best decision and has had trouble keeping stable employment. In this case, he is able to enroll in an online General Educational Development (GED) program, which will help him to fulfill the requirements he needs to get his high school equivalency. With a high school diploma, an individual can go on to college and earn a college degree, which will give him many more professional opportunities. Individuals can also learn basic computer operation skills, which will enable them to take on more job responsibilities.

Another type of adult education program available online is that kind which provides instruction in ESL (English as a second language). This is particularly useful for individuals that are new to the United States. They can learn the English language in a relatively short period of time, which will give them the ability to apply for jobs and function and communicate in American society, as well as study for the test to grant American citizenship.

For individuals that work in professions that require certifications or licenses in order to remain employed in that field, online adult education programs are very valuable from a time and convenience standpoint. This form of continuing education is often required by either the law or by an individual’s employer in order to develop and maintain skills that are applicable to the vocation. This type of training also helps individuals remain current on advances or improvements within a field. Such types of certification and training include computer programming, management training, and equipment and procedural training for lab technicians and other medical professions, equipment operators, or engineers. Higher-level professionals such as pharmacists, educators, physicians, and nurses are also often required or encouraged to take part in some type of continuing education. This guarantees that a certain level of competence is maintained and that a professional’s knowledge is always tested in a given field of practice. Having the opportunity to complete this instruction in an online adult education program is very helpful to professionals that have very busy work and family schedules, because they can take advantage of the flexibility of the approach, and do class work in their spare time.

Adult education gives many different types of individuals the opportunity for self-improvement and career advancement. Whether an individual is seeking to earn his high school diploma for more lucrative job opportunities, or for a new resident of the United States looking to learn the English language so that he can gain employment and become a part of the American culture, or for an employed individual who is required to renew a license or gain additional training for his job, adult education is a powerful tool. And taking advantage of the many online adult education programs helps people fulfill their professional requirements while not sacrificing their current way of life.

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By: Mark Woodcock

Civil engineering is among the oldest branches of the vast field of engineering. Civil engineers create, construct, and maintain all types of public systems and structures, and are literally the backbone of any city or town. Civil engineers are often responsible for any of the following tasks: design and/or construction of road systems, municipal buildings and centers, airports, as well as water supply and sewage systems that include tunnels, bridges, dams, and filtration structures. The general field of civil engineering is an umbrella under which there are many sub-fields, including structural engineering, building construction, environmental engineering, transportation, and geotechnical engineering (soil and rock mechanics). If you are currently working as a Civil Engineer, you know that there are a variety of jobs available within the discipline. And if you have a graduate degree in Civil Engineering, you know that the career prospects are even broader. It has never been easier to earn a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering. Online programs offer a great deal of convenience and flexibility. By earning your Civil Engineering Master’s degree online, you give yourself the chance to expand and develop your knowledge and scope of the field, and thus broaden your career possibilities.

Civil Engineers often find employment near cities that house major industrial and/or commercial hubs. In areas such as these, engineers are needed to design and build safe transportation systems, water and sewage systems, as well as maintain, repair, or replace current roads and municipal construction (bridges, tunnels, etc). Because employment opportunities within the field of Civil Engineering depend on the geographic area and need for specific work, it is important to be as competitive a candidate as possible when looking for employment. Earning an online graduate degree in Civil Engineering will give you an edge, even if you are currently employed in the field. The career opportunities are seemingly limitless in the field. A Civil Engineer can hold a managerial post, ranging from construction site manager working out in the field to a city engineer designing and implementing roads and structures on computer-based interfaces. There are also many types of support positions available for a Civil Engineer, including working as a designer, conducting research to further scientific knowledge and design methods in the field, and, of course, teaching. Many of the higher-ranking (and higher-paying) positions in the field of Civil Engineering are made available to those who hold a Master’s degree or higher.

If you are considering earning a graduate degree in Civil Engineering, consider enrolling in an online program. There are a number of good reasons to do so. Number one is convenience. You can continue working your regular work schedule and earn you degree simultaneously. Many online programs offer lectures via streaming video that you can watch at any time on your computer, from home or at work. And all of your assignments can be submitted to your professors using your email. With the convenience of online learning also comes flexibility. Because you can fit your class time into your schedule, you don’t have to sacrifice family commitments or leisure time. Earning your Civil Engineering degree online is an almost ideal way to achieve your highest career aspirations.

Many online graduate degree programs in Civil Engineering are specifically designed for the working Civil Engineering professional. They are offered through fully accredited Universities, and the programs are planned around the most current recommendations of the ASCE (the American Society of Civil Engineers). Among the degrees that can be earned are a Masters of Science in Civil Engineering with an emphasis on Construction Engineering or Structural Engineering. There are also programs available that emphasize the technological side of the field, providing instruction to those who are more inclined to do design work on a computer. Whatever you decide to do, you can often develop your own study strategy within a field of specialization that is related to your current occupation.

When you decide that you want and need a graduate degree in Civil Engineering, you must consider earning it online. The approach to continuing your education is convenient, it is adaptable, and it is simply the most current way to advance your career. Having a Master’s degree brings with it not only the professional development, but also a sense of accomplishment, and the testimony to current and future employers that you are resolute in being the best Civil Engineer that you can be.

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