The University of Texas TeleCampus
The purpose of UTTC is to offer students a diversified learning environment in which professors from schools within the University of Texas System offer courses in the field in which you are studying. In general you must have already completed your first two years of basic courses before beginning a completion degree at UTTC. You must apply to and be accepted by one of the participating universities and that university will become your home campus. All courses transfer to your home campus with the resulting grade applied, rather than a grade of X, which is typically applied when transferring courses from one school to another. All financial aid is handled by your home campus as well.
The advantage of having professors from different University of Texas campus teach these courses is you have the opportunity to get differing view and educational methods that you may not receive from just the professors from your home campus. These different perspectives are invaluable to your education.
There are many other online programs with value available today, but with UTTC you know you are receiving your education from a reputable and accredited university. Accredited is an especially important thing to look for when researching a university or program as that is what will determine how seriously the degree you earn is likely to be taken by others. Be wary of other online universities that may not be accredited and may not give you a valuable education.
The classes that UTTC offers are generally not self-paced and do follow the standard semester format of a traditional university. This is because you must register through a traditional university just as you would if you were taking a class on the campus. The professors are top notch and willing to help in any way they can. In addition, UTTC offers resources such as SMARTHINKING to tutor or help with papers while you work on your classes.
There are a couple of cautions I would add. First, online learning is not for everyone. You must be a very self-disciplined individual for online learning to work for you. You must keep up with the work without having a professor to remind you every week. You must study on you own and keep up with a schedule so as not to get behind and be able to complete everything by the due date. Be aware that you will spend at least as much time, or more, as you would on a traditional college course. The second caution I would add is, if you are currently a traditional student be prepared for online classes to cost a bit more. They tack on fees for computers and such.
Overall, I find the University of Texas TeleCampus to be a very valuable program and I would recommend this program to anyone who needs to earn a college degree from an accredited university, and needed a more flexible way to do so.
