"To question all things; - never to turn away from any difficulty; to accept no doctrine either from ourselves or from other people without a rigid scrutiny by negative criticism; letting no fallacy, no incoherence, or confusion of thought step by unperceived; above all to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood before using it, and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to it; - these are the lessons we learn from the ancient dialecticians."

John Stuart Mill, Inaugural address as Rector, University of St. Andrews
1 February 1867

THE EUCLID APPROACH TO EXCEPTIONAL DISTANCE LEARNING

EUCLID's aim is to offer the most varied, most dynamic, most enjoyable approach to distance academic learning. In this section, we will discuss the supports or courseware being used, as well as the actual methods of learning, interaction and evaluation. Our goal is to achieve the following: use (when possible) campus recorded lectures / courses by the world's best professors provide a strong foundation in critical thinking in general culture (great books, world religions) ensure that essential IT skills (Word Templates, Internet, basic graphics design) are acquired document all courses and update all syllabi every year develop professional paper/article writing skills prepare students for global engagement and realistic career goals.

Program and Course Brochures Promoting Sustainability and Development through Education.

In order to help our students achieve these goals, our syllabi/course database includes a large selection of curriculum-documented courses delivered by various means: lectures on VHS/ DVD, MP3s, as well as textbook-based mentor-directed self-studies.

To make this possible, EUCLID builds on the products and services offered by the following resources:

The Teaching Company (TT) is a key courseware resource for life-long learners, both independent and school-affiliated. EUCLID incorporates a large number of TT courses as required courseware. These DVDs allow students to experience top-rated US professors without having to incur the expense of attending an physical Ivy League institution. It should be said that in many campuses around the world, actual teaching is often delivered by unmotivated adjunt faculty whose teaching skills (and enthusiasm) may not be satisfactory. For this reason, relying on TT courses provides the students with the assurance of accurate, standard, and engaging lectures.

The Teaching Company brings engaging professors into your home or car through courses on DVD, audio CD, and other formats. Since 1990, great teachers from the Ivy League, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities have crafted over 200 courses for lifelong learners. The Teaching Company does not offer post-course grading and credits - but EUCLID does.

In additional to Teaching Company recordings, EUCLID relies on standard textbooks (e.g. "Diplomacy Theory and Practice (Berridge)" + "Modern Diplomacy" (Barston)") for its courses. This policy ensures program comparison and equivalencies. In this regard, EUCLID often uses textbooks that can be electronically accessed on the SafariX Textbooks Online, a joint venture between the industry's leading technical publishers, O'Reilly Media, Inc., and The Pearson Technology Group.

For programming and IT professionals, general knowledge workers and business professionals, SafariX offers a series of premium e-reference libraries where users can search thousands of books simultaneously. Users can pinpoint exactly the answer they need in a matter of seconds. Unlike an online bookstore, SafariX houses the entire, cover-to-cover digital version of books from O'Reilly Media, Inc. and Pearson's many imprints: Addison Wesley Professional, Adobe Press, Cisco Press, Macromedia Press, New Riders, Peachpit Press, Prentice Hall PTR, Sun Microsystems, Que and Sams. Euclid uses SafariX for those who learn faster with a textbook driven approach.

EUCLID faculty members, with the support of volunteer students and interns, are always looking for relevant educational or professional webcasts that may be added to the course requirements and in many cases incorporated into the syllabi. The International Monetary Fund webcasts (coupled with the regular World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Reports) as well as the public lectures held at the London School of Economics are integrated in a number of courses.

For most of its IT/MIS programs, EUCLID has retained online and CD-bases award-winning. Both VTC and TrainSignal offer high quality courses, labs and certification preparation solutions that enable EUCLID to deliver best-of-class IT training to its international student body, at very low cost.

The EUCLID course database leverages the extension computer-based training resources offered by CBT Planet. Their course catalog covers all aspects of IT knowledge as well as MBA type skills and soft-skills.

Each degree programs consists of a recommended sequence of required and elective credit-granting courses. The sequences constitutes the backbone of the student's degree Roadmap. The student is guided step by step and track his or her advancement with a progress chart (below).

Credits are granted when the course requirements and assignments are achieved. A moderate to fast learner can normally complete a 2 credit course in 2-5 weeks, especially if her or she used commuting time to listen to audio classes.

Euclid's study requirements (on any format) are carefully selected to offer the best delivery of information on the subject at hand. In all fields, reference works are privileged over controversial or complex publications.

At EUCLID, our goal is to offer students the tools needed to acquire critical knowledge and skills as fast as possible, and to make sure that your academic progress is matched with proper and documented credits.

"You may have heard that distance learning is not for everyone. There is some truth to this statement: distance learning lacks intense student interaction, immediate contact with faculty and it often requires being a self-motivated reader. Indeed, EUCLID is primarily a distance learning framework, which means that if the experience of campus life and peer support is essential, you should consider traditional studies, at least for part of your program."

Remember that the 'downside' of intensive distance programs that rely on self-discipline and self-learning abilities is that you may have more limited access to faculty and peers. This is not a problem for self-motivated students, but some subjects (especially in the field of science) may require 'outside help'. For this reason, EUCLID accepts credits from other governmental, public or accredited institutions, and may even recommend that certain difficult classes be taken in a classroom environment.

Is Distance Learning Right for You?

Find Out if You Have the Five Qualities of Successful Distance Learners...

Read the full article at:

• http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/considering.htm