Each and every country maintains an army that consists of courageous individuals ready to defend the country and preserve the way of life. However, a career in the army leaves these army personnel little or no opportunity to pursue higher education for the betterment of their future, once they retire from the army. Some army training institutes may include some kind of formal education for these individuals, but it is not a norm. Online education thus comes in handy for army personnel, as they can obtain a degree at their convenience.

Online education has made it possible for everyone to obtain an education at their convenience. It has opened up a new world of equal opportunities for all individuals to pursue their learning interests. It has helped those individuals who did not have the opportunity to obtain a university degree, to attain the same level of education as that of anyone attending university courses. Online studies have made education accessible to all, and that includes army personnel as well. It has provided an opening for the military personnel who want to advance their educational qualifications but cannot find the time for it while performing their vital duties of serving the nation.

Most of the online schools and Colleges accept applications from army personnel and some of them may have reservation policy for seats for any course they might like to select. Online education is perfect for the army because they can study at their convenience while performing their military duty. The army encourages its personnel to pursue degrees so that they can be prepared for their future civilian life and also apply their skills to resolve various situations they may have to face, during their military career.

Since the increasing popularity of online education was observed among army personnel,
the military has set up its own online educational institution known as the American Military University or AMU. AMU offers a wide range of courses for army personnel and it has become very popular since its inception. The courses offered at AMU include space research, general studies, English Literature and many other subjects. There is something to suit everyone, from associate degree to the Master’s degree in every subject.

The flexible fee structure at AMU allows many recruits to pay for the course out of their salary. The fees are affordable and the arrangement is to pay as you learn, so most of the recruits simply pay for each semester rather than paying for the full course all at once. This way they are not financially burdened and can study at their own pace.

Online education has revolutionized the manner in which army personnel can benefit from education by preparing them for a post military career. The education levels give them specialized skill sets that they can use to further their overall earning potentials after their retirement from the army. They have every right to a formal education and they should be given every opportunity to pursue it.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-education-articles/online-education-a-boon-for-army-personnel-703399.html

I’m interested in moving from the US to England to study and I’m curious as to how the educational system – Universities, more specifically, grade assignments and go about ranking the students as well as each student choosing their specific profession. (Do they use majors or a GPA-like ranking system like the US educational system does?)

The more detail you can give me the better. If you are somewhat of an expert on this, please do not hesitate to email me. It’s a topic I desperately need to be educated about.

The university system is completely different. Remember that the UK has been around a LOT longer, Oxford and Cambridge started about 900 years ago, and the rest of it, especially the more "traditional" universities, have evolved slowly from that. Slow evolution and just moving with the times pretty much describes everything abou the UK – why else are we still a monarchy?

Majors and minors are, well, a minority thing. The most traditional courses consist simply of studying one subject for three years, like mine did. Two-subject degrees with a major and minor subject are also now common but you sign up for it right at the beginning. The nearest to the US way of doing things is, I suppose, the University of Keele, where everyone does the same "foundation year" and settles on a major and a minor after that – very unusual when it first started in the 1960s as that makes the course four years long, but even they now offer the traditional three-year single or double subject kind of degree.

It reflects the fact that British students specialise earlier anyway – school leaving age is 16, if you want to go to university you stay on for another two years to do A levels, and A levels are so rigorous that you do only three subjects or four at the most. University entrance is based on A level results. So if you have a specific future profession in mind you really need to be thinking about it at 16. It’s easier to switch around between arts subjects as the skills required are more transferable but if you want to do a science, you’re stuffed if you make the wrong choice at 16.

What we’re finding now is that A levels seem to be getting easier so the most popular universities are now introducing entrance tests for law and medicine, the key courses where you need a degree in the subject to get into the profession, as so many applicants are getting 3 grade As that the A level doesn’t discriminate sufficiently any more.

GPA or anything like it doesn’t exist. Each university will have its own system for giving results for exams taken during the course, but the only common thing is the classification system at the end. British universities don’t give Latin results of the "cum laude" kind – you get first class honours, upper second class honours, lower second class honours, third class honours, pass (or "a degree without honours") or fail. Even that is getting dumbed down… I entered university 27 years ago and my lower second class degree was perfectly respectable then, but I doubt I would get into the same profession now with it. It’s because the number of universities and graduates has exploded so much in recent years as a result of government policy.

Take me as an example… at 16 I chose A levels in pure mathematics, physics and chemistry as I knew my interest at that time was in the "hard sciences", passed well enough (AAB) to enter Imperial College and spent 3 years there studying nothing but physics, graduating with a BSc. We sat exams every year but the 1st and 2nd year exams were graded according to their own system which didn’t necessarily match up with the way any other university worked. (I have a BD and an MA as well but those are as a result of private study outside the "normal" system – in particular my MA is from the Open University which specialises in "distance learning". I really don’t like socialist governments but the one we had 40 years ago gave us the Open University and it’s an amazing thing. It tried setting up in the USA a few years ago and then folded again because there are so many US universities that offer the same kind of thing.)

Oxford and Cambridge are a little different – they actually classify the exam results in the middle of the course as well, so if you hear of historical personages getting a "double first" it just means they got a first class result both in the middle and at the end. Cambridge is the most different as the Tripos system there means you can switch course totally in the middle if you want to and it’s permitted as a result of your qualifications – Prince Charles did that. He did Part I Archaeology and Anthropology and then switched to Part II History. All Oxford and Cambridge bachelors’ degrees are BA anyway even if you study science so it works for them.

British universities tend to be popular with foreign students if only because the course is shorter so you graduate after only three years. It’s just more intense during those three years but it makes the total fee cheaper.

I hope that gives you a feel… feel free to email if you want to ask more.

Education is an important and necessary medium, which imparts knowledge and skill, so that everyone can have a secured and stable future. There is no doubt that education is the spine of a civilized society, but with increasing commercialization and in an effort to provide the best, pursuing education has become an expensive affair. What about those who want to pursue higher studies but do not have the finances to cover the expenses? In a major change of stance and to assist students and their parents alike, lenders have come up with education loans. These loans take cares of all the expenses pertaining to education on behalf of the students and that too at fairly easy terms and conditions.

Education loans are easy to access and are widely available in the loan market. Through these loans, one can actually derive the funds to pay admission fees, examination fees, hostel dues, library charges, purchasing books, equipments and computers along with personal expenses. Further, these loans are open to all and can be derived by students with both good credit as well as bad credit.

The best loan deals are offered by government agencies. The federal government approves these loans in the form of Stafford and Perkins. It offers one of the best interests and has flexible repayment schedule. On the other hand, loans are also offered by private lenders. These loans are categorized in to secured and unsecured form. Secured form of the loans offers a bigger amount but can be availed only by pledging collateral. On the other hand, unsecured form of the loans is absolutely collateral free. However, the interest rate charged is relatively high.

Students with bad credit can also source these loans, but they have to produce a cosigner with a good credit score.

The main criteria to derive education loans are that students should be above 18 years and that they must have access to a valid bank account. Prior to the availing of the loans, one should make an assessment of the total expenses before hand. This way, the students can derive the exact amount and it comes in handy at the time of repayment.

With education loans, students can now focus on their studies without worrying anymore about the financial constraints.

Julia Russell
http://www.articlesbase.com/loans-articles/education-loans-get-the-best-when-it-comes-to-education-678988.html

have had dreams in which i learn things. educational things.
Like for example in my dream someone would say something i don’t know the meaning to. so i wouldask in my dream and i would learn the meaning of the word. when i wake up i’d ask someone else adn the meanings would be the same. how is it possible that i am learning from my dreams? or that i can understand other languages?
I learn meanings of words.
I’d be able to understand different languages. when i wake up i’d remember some of these words and ask for translation. the meanings would be correct.

im looking for a meaning too, dreams to me are like different dimensions, like as if the soul travels, I’ve learned a lot of things too…
I wonder if its because its in our subconcious….they say its collaborations of our day, but i believe its deeper than that.

CRM in Higher Education

“Today, more than ever before in human history, wealth of nations depends on quality of higher education.”

Higher education, today, is undergoing a more radical transformation than perhaps any other aspect of our culture. Educational institutions world-wide are undergoing fundamental shifts in how they operate and interact with their “customers”: students, alumni, faculty members, and staff members. The quality of knowledge generated with higher educational institutions and its availability to wider economy is becoming increasingly critical to national competitiveness. New technology-based tools for gathering and disseminating knowledge have become central element of today’s education. Technological, economic, sociological, and governmental forces are altering education dramatically, impacting its institutions, teachers, students, funding sources, and basic function in society. To unlock potential and helping talented people to gain advanced training, whatever their background, requires customer-centric approach to education.

So, institutions need strategies that make them more receptive and responsive to their core constituencies – their students. Students increasingly see themselves as customers who purchase education services form competing providers. Kotler & Fox (1995) state, “The best organization in the world will be ineffective if the focus on ‘customers’ is lost. First and foremost is treatment of individual students, alumni, parents, friends, and each other (internal customers). Every contact counts!”

During the mid-1980s and late 1990s, over-crowded classes, inadequate library and laboratory facilities, and little student’s services have been the norms in most of the institutions. Rarely has an institution responded by creating remedial program for inadequately prepared students. But now colleges and universities have initiated re-structuring and re-engineering their operating processes to cut costs and become more efficient while responding to increased competition. Higher education customers are demanding more attention and immediate service. Proactive institutes are now adjusting their practices by refocusing their efforts externally. Because of the need to concentrate more on customers, many institutions are tuning to customer relationship management.

CRM is important because of the changes occurring in the competitive environment. Globalization and the Internet mean that competition can now come as easily from around the world as from around the corner. Power and choice are moving to the customer as never before, and leading to the commoditization of products and services in most situations.

In today’s scenario, most of the institutions want to compete with others. To compete with other institutions, some institutions are getting autonomous status, some of them are trying to get ISO Certification, others are looking for accreditation status, deemed university status, and some others are tied-up with multi-national companies (MNCs), and so on. The institutions, which are not ready to compete, will surely become as “Void and Vanish”.

It is essential that academic institutions have to concentrate about some strategies, techniques, or methods by which they can become “Brand Building”. And one such strategy is CRM. CRM strategy for an academic institution should lead to employment rather than merely giving education. At present, academic institutions are eager to maintain a long-term relationship with the students rather than a relation which is related only to their course duration.

Customer relationship management is all about satisfying and retaining the customer by providing the perquisites he/she desires for. The relations that are maintained are a kind of trust that the institutions provide to its customers (students) and fulfill them. Educational institutions are also among those profit-making institutions which are attaining the path of CRM. Academic institutions are themselves not different from any other organizations. They are themselves profit-making firms who impart education for money and try to grow as any other organization. Whether they are government-owned or self-financed private institutions; almost all educational institutions are profit-making organizations. Such organizations focus on CRM not only to impart state-of-the-art education to their students, but also have to maintain relations with their working staff, administrators, companies, vendors and with their primary customers – students. CRM plays an increasingly important role in maintaining such relationships in these organizations.

Why Implement a CRM Business Strategy in Higher Education

Because higher education is far enough behind the commercial sector to gain from the CRM and assume customer-centric approaches. Teaching departments and offices work as separate entities in many Colleges and universities today. Faced with divisional boundaries, it is often very difficult for these different institutional functions to focus on their customers in a coordinated fashion. By providing a common platform for customer communication and interaction, CRM applications are designed to increase the effectiveness of staff members who interact with customers or prospects.

Emerging CRM processes and technologies are going to drive the growth of new types of resources and services. Within the higher education enterprises, much of this new functionality is focused in the students’ area. The exciting new level of student-related functionality and performance is having an impact on students as well as on the administrative staff and management, companies, the faculty, media, and the institution as a whole. 

 A look at each of these areas: -

Students – Today’s system has little to offer students, particularly the new breed of technology-savvy students who want to be more in control of their learning environment. Today’s students demand a higher level of access to information about their options, their performance, and their future. They also demand the technology resources to be an integral part of their learning experience. The standard for access to faculty and student services will change as students come to expect virtual access to faculty and student services resources. The old ways of interacting with students will become untenable – like expecting them to line-up for hours when instead they can choose an institution that can meet their needs on their own terms, on their schedule, with virtual support system.

Companies – Companies come to educational institutions for recruiting their students in campus selection procedures. They are so amongst the most important clients of such education organizations. Keeping continuous and direct contacts with these companies will enable institutes to maintain good and Healthy relationships and improve contacts and service to them.

Administrators – A CRM business strategy for a college or university administrative system would also introduce a true self-service system that empowers the administrative team to rethink the investment to administrative resources in institutional services.

Faculty Members – Today’s system provides little value for faculty members. In the new learning environment, faculty and student services are closely linked, dynamically sharing resources and strategies to enable student learning. Imagine a process whereby a faculty member can make immediate student referrals to key support programs on campus-even when working at home.

The Institution - CRM delivers a new conceptual and structural framework for directing institutional activities to attract and retain its various customers. Most import is the ability of a truly robust set of institutional processes and tools to bring the entire institution together around its people.

Media – Academic institutions are many times interested in advertising, publicizing, promoting, and marketing for them. In doing this, they are required to maintain and be in contact with various media-based service-providers who help them for this purpose. CRM plays an important role in maintaining and making new such productive, profitable, rewarding, and fruitful relationships, which benefit these organizations on short and long runs both.

Fortunately, emerging methodologies in research and marketing offer higher education institutions the ability to adapt and evolve by building an ongoing dialogue with students, admissions representatives, parents, employers and alumni. This dialogue serves as the process by which an educational brand is built and maintained. Using an effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution is vital for education establishments to deal more efficiently with the complex multi-level relationships they have to manage. 

C.Pavithira

M.Phil Scholar

 Department of Commerce,

Periyar University, Salem-11

C.Pavithira

I could really use some help here.
I need to think of a 50 minute fun and educational program for children that focuses on one of these values: individuality, curiosity, having fun, love, teamwork, acceptance, good manners.
If anyone can think of a fun and detailed children s activity I would appreciate it.
this is for young underprivileged kids, ranging from first grade to fifth grade.

Board games like Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble can be fun.
Have a old fashioned "games party", each person bring a game that doesn’t use electricity or batteries, and see what happens.

Children can work in pairs, against another pair, with winners having most points as a "team effort".

Chess and Checkers are old favorites too.
Problem with many of the Electronic TV games is that there often is NO human interaction, you play against a computer. That’s no fun, lol.

And, what adults present should strive for is teaching how to be a good loser, as well as a winner. Winners should be encouraged to shake hands with the loser.
Some youth sports teams also encourage sportsmanship too.

Character education is a term which is often heard and everyone claims to know what this term means. But in actual terms there are not so many people who have a clear understanding of this very important phrase. To comprehend this term, let’s begin with the term character. What is character? A character is the reflection of ones personality. Your traits, your habits, what you do, what you say, the way you walk, talk, eat, deal with people all comprises your character and personality.

Character education is, as defined by Lickona, “the deliberate, proactive effort to develop good character in kids—or, more simply, to teach children right from wrong. It assumes that right and wrong do exist, that there are objective moral standards that transcend individual choice—standards like respect, responsibility, honesty, and fairness—and that we should teach these directly to young people.”

In simpler words, character education means teaching good moral values, giving a concept of right and wrong, good and evil. Providing character education to kids includes all kind of your interaction with them, it’s in the way you talk to them, the behaviors you exhibit, the actions you encourage etc. In your every kind of dealing with the kids, no matter who you are, you are always contributing towards building their characters.

A common perception is that a child starts the education when he/she goes to school. But it is not correct. In fact the education begins from home. They are the parents and the family that contribute the most towards building up the child’s character. All parents want their children to posses an excellent character, with all positive traits in them. This is not an easy task. It imposes a lot of responsibility on the part of the parents. It’s their duty to filter their child’s activities so that it leads to his positive character building. Here comes a conflict of opinion. Some parents tend to adopt the system of rewards and penalties to bring their children to the correct path. But this act is not so effective because the kids should themselves be able to discriminate between right and wrong so that in the long run, even under pressurized circumstances, they should be able to take fair decisions on their own.

After the parents and family, next two most influential factors are teachers and school environment. The school authorities are responsible to include direct teaching of character education under school curriculum. Students visualize their teachers as role models. Therefore the teachers can play a very significant role in the character building of their students. Teaching emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or worse like any truly human activity. Being a good teacher does not only mean to have a complete grasp over your subject but it also demands be morally fair too in your dealings and talks. In a more formal way, one can say that good teaching comes from good people. Education does not only include teaching the curriculum and the technical stuff. But it also means to deliver good moral values to their students and if delivered in a correct way, this leads to the positive character building of the student. There should be regular seminars, conferences and character education programs conducted for the teachers by the school authorities, telling them how to indulge into positive character education of the students and also enlightening them with the fact that they hold very imperative position in the character building of their students. This will develop a sense of responsibility in teachers and they will feel themselves liable for the character building of their students. Effective character education is not which is only practiced by teachers but also it must be modeled by all other adults in the school with whom the student interacts like faculty, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, maintenance staff etc.

For providing proper character education it is very important to know the basic building blocks of a good character. Some of the attributes which are of foremost importance in building a good character are justice, self discipline and control, gratitude, wisdom, integrity, humanity, fortitude, hard work, love and positive attitude.

Media and books are also very important means of character education. Reading stories with a good moral generally inspires children, young boys and girls. Watching TV programs that deliver a lesson can also be very helpful in this regard.

Character educating no doubt holds the same importance in life as the normal technical education. Therefore this part should not be ignored and one should contribute to the maximum in positive character building of the people for whom he/she is liable for.

charactereducation
http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/character-education-670150.html

I would like to starta charitable educational trust in the US. I am unaware of anyone who has started such a thing, nor do I have much money to put in money from my pocket. I would like to know the legal formalities in starting charitable trust in the US.

There was an article called "Yes, you can start your own charitable foundation" by a writer at USA Today. Can’t reproduce it here, but you can read it online at the USA Today website.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/waggon/2006-06-29-charity_x.htm

If you are way below in social, economic, educational, professional status than your life partner, how do you cross beyond these gaps so they do not become stopping blocks in an otherwise successful and happy life?

Look at what you bring to the table and don’t focus on what you perceive as "gaps". Kindness, compassion, empathy, humor, and love far outweighs status in any relationship. These are the things of real substance and will help you sustain your relationship.