Web sites for graduate degree programs

The web makes education, and information about quality of education, cheaper and easier to find. This will challenge institutions to improve both their education and the information they publish about it.

Using web-based materials and the textbooks that the web makes so easy to evaluate and locate, an adult may, in some fields, be able to learn the material more efficiently on his own than in a degree program. What does the program provide beyond textbooks and lectures? How much interaction does it foster, and with whom; how well do its professors teach, how tough do they grade, how well-connected are they, how weighty is their recommendation, how well-regarded is the degree as a credential, and if so, where?

I think that any web site describing a degree program should strive to answer these questions:

1. What is the target market for the program's graduates? Which organizations were consulted on the program's design, and have any of them vouched for it? Answers to these questions are more informative to a prospective student than is accreditation, as the best and worst programs in a given region all are accredited by the same body, but their graduates will not be equally sought-after.

2.Who should apply?

3. What are some options for subsequent study? If the program is a MS, are there any PhD programs that would accept this program's MS credits toward their PhD?

4. How good is the instruction? Why not post course syllabi online? Why not post the course and professor evaluations collected from students by the department? Why not videotape at least one course session from each instructor and offer it on DVD for a nominal fee of, say, $10? Prospective students considering an investment of probably at least two years and on the order of $7,000-12,000 should be happy to spend $10 to inform their choice.