Official College Network

Spring officially arrived on March 20, ushering in what some may say is truly the most wonderful time of the year. With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season a distant memory, it's time for the scrape and scrub of the spring cleaning season!

If you're anything like me, you love the sweet satisfaction that comes after you've successfully cleaned the house, washed the car, organized the garage, uncluttered the nightstand or even emptied your email inbox. The idea of starting anew with a bright, clean slate is invigorating and motivating. It's like the first sign of sunshine after a powerful, cleansing rain.

Most people associate spring cleaning with household chores, but have you ever thought about doing a spring cleanup of your work life? There are many steps you can take to move toward a brighter professional future. You can start by getting organized, prioritizing your goals, and purging negative thoughts about the status of your career.

The Chicago Tribune recently published an article about how to spring clean a career, and it advised professionals everywhere to cleanse themselves of bad work habits like being apathetic, worrying, and trying to do it all alone. If you want to see progress, you must care about your work and your future, you must face your professional fears, and you must allow others to help you reach your goals.

If you're proud of your work and ready to spruce up your career with an advanced education, do it this spring! Going back to school as an adult can be a scary prospect, but you can't let your fear hold you back. One of my favorite childhood authors, Judy Blume, once said, "Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it." You also must remember that you aren't  alone. The College Network can help you earn an online degree or a certificate from one of our professional partners through self-paced education and training. And our Academic Support department is here to assist you with every step of the journey.

Kick-start your spring cleaning with The College Network, and we'll help you dust away the educational barriers!

We are officially in the holiday season. It's a time that most of us look forward to seeing our family and friends, while enjoying the feeling of contentment we get from being around those we love. But it can also be really stressful. We try to manage our work, our shopping, our studying, our volunteering, our family--it's overwhelming at times.  

Because of everything going on in your life, you might think that it's a great time to stop studying, put aside your online education and take a break.  I want to encourage you not to do that.  Be sure that as you are scheduling your holiday get-togethers, you are also scheduling your study time.

Why not take a break?

Here's why. You will get to the first of the year and wish that you had studied so that you were further ahead in your associate degree in nursing or your RN to BS in nursing program. We want you to reach the first of the year, look back at 2012 and be happy with how much you accomplished. If for some reason you feel like you won't be able to do that--call us. 

The College Network's academic support team can work with you to help you get back on track and move forward. We can make sure you have a study plan and help you chart your course to make your degree attainable--for you. We know that you can do it, and everyone needs some help now and then. 

You can reach our academic team at 800-634-1443. Or call one of our program advisors at 800-395-1014 to learn more about our other online programs and what is the best fit for you. 

So it's mid June and Summer is officially in motion. If not already out, children will soon be leaving class for the summer and heading home to terrorize and occupy all of their parent's time.

It's hard to believe that even as busy as you already were, you now may have to devote even more time to watching children while they're back for the summer. How can you possibly fit in time to study in The College Network online Resource Center?

Well...it won't be easy, but it will be worth it. It's very important to make sure that you are still studying and putting time into your online degree program, even if isn't the amount of time that you are used to studying.

While I still encourage you to enjoy your summer to the fullest, it's important not to set your studies aside for the entire next two months. "Why is this?" you may ask, "I used to do it when I was in high school".

When you put something off for a long period of time (for example: the whole summer), you tend to not want to start it up again with the same enthusiasm that you may have once had. When do most people seem to get this "oomph" back? Probably right around New Year's Eve for their resolution.

So essentially, taking off two months can quickly lead to taking off 6 months. 6 months? For some of you, that could be half of your program!

In addition to procrastination, not studying for 2 months can often lead you to feel like you need to start over. It's easy to forget important information if you were still in the midst of learning it.

"Okay, okay! We get your point. So how can we make sure we continue to study this Summer?"

By setting a schedule, of course! While I don't expect you to stick to it 100% of the time (enjoy your summer!), I do ask that you try to stick to it 80% of the time. Even if you slow down to only 5 hours per week during the Summer, schedule time to study just like you would to work.

If you can do this and stick to it, I can almost guarantee that you will make it a routine and finish your program up in no time.

So best of luck parents, make a schedule and stick to it. Your progress will be your success!

Enrolling customers in online degree programs from top universities has never been easier.  A lot of folks I work with always wonder what we can do with any previous college credit they have, and if we need their transcripts to enroll them in the program.

The good news is at The College Network we will pull your official transcripts for you no matter what degree program you enroll into.  So, if you are working with a Program Advisor and do not currently have unofficial or official transcripts of your own, as long as you can remember what classes you have had previously, you can enroll before we see your transcripts with our preliminary evaluation.

Once you enroll, part of your enrollment packet will be Transcript Request Forms, which allow us to pull your official transcripts from any previous regionally accredited college you attended.  This way, we can double check your previous credits so we can make sure we provide you with the correct classes you need to test out of to earn your credits and earn your degree.

No transcripts, no problem!  Feel free to contact a Program Advisor today, and we'll be happy to get you started!

Kevin Burton, Program Advisor, kburton@collegenetwork.com, 1-800-307-1006 Ext. 4734

Well, you better go check it.

Just recently The College Network has started to release brand new, “enhanced” versions of our Comprehensive Learning Modules. These enhanced learning modules offer you more.

• The modules now have more audio (someone actually speaks to you).
• The modules are more interactive (almost every section has an interactive portion for you to test your knowledge).
• The modules are more of what you have been requesting (you told us what you wanted, we listened).

Life Span Developmental Psychology is the first module that has officially been released, but be on the lookout for several others over the next couple of months.

Sociology – Coming in October

Introductory Psychology – Coming in October

Anatomy and Physiology – Coming in November

Introduction to World Religions – Coming in November
English Composition– Coming in December

THE COLLEGE NETWORK IS NOW OFFERING ANCC ACCREDITED CONTINUING NURSING EDUCATION

The College Network has officially begun offering three continuing education courses for nurses that provide valuable contact hours upon successful completion.

Indianapolis, Ind. – Aug 31, 2011 – The College Network is accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to offer continuing education courses for nurses.  Available today at http://collegenetwork.com/nursingCNE, these courses include Ethics in Nursing, Medication Safety and Patient Rights.  Upon completion of each course, nurses will receive 2.5 continuing education contact hours.

Developing continuing nursing education courses was a natural progression for The College Network, which has provided distance learning and education support for nurses for nearly 20 years.  The courses developed will allow nurses to increase their knowledge in specific areas, understand issues emerging within the rapidly changing healthcare industry, and retain licensure in the 33 states that require specific numbers of contact hours each year.

“The topics of the first continuing education courses launched by The College Network were chosen because they address some of the key issues facing nurses today,” said Gary Eyler, Chief Executive Officer at The College Network. “They are designed to be convenient and flexible so nurses can participate but also continue to maintain their current work/life balance, which reinforces our commitment to providing quality education to all nurses.”

The College Network plans to continue developing continuing education courses for nurses at all levels of their careers.  Future topics may include courses on preventing infections and effective confrontation skills.

Presidents from 71 colleges and universities have made public pledges to increase their commitments to the quality of their teaching and ensure that learning outcomes are met. These institutions, which range from community colleges to public universities to private universities to for-profit universities, have formed the  New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability. The College Network's educational affiliate, Indiana State University, is one of the founding members of the Alliance.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
71 Presidents Pledge to Improve Their Colleges' Teaching and Learning
By David Glenn

"Making a public vow is a time-honored way to stick to one's commitments. If you tell your colleagues that you plan to stop smoking, you know that they'll smirk if they spot you lighting up six months later. In August, 40 American billionaires said they would give away at least half of their wealth. They, too, know that they'll be scorned if they fail to deliver.

Now 71 college leaders have made some vows of their own. In a venture known as the Presidents' Alliance for Excellence in Student Learning and Accountability, they have promised to take specific steps to gather more evidence about student learning, to use that evidence to improve instruction, and to give the public more information about the quality of learning on their campuses.

The 71 pledges, officially announced on Friday, are essentially a dare to accreditors, parents, and the news media: Come visit in two years, and if we haven't done these things, you can zing us."

Read the rest of the article.

Dana Mills had experience with web-based learning before beginning her Certificate in Project Management from Boston University Corporate Education Center. “I found it to be pretty easy since I’d done it once before,” she said. “Overall I would rate my experience as a solid eight.”

Dana worked in the project management field for years before finally deciding to become PMP certified. “I’d been doing the work for years, but I wanted to be recognized as an official project manager. Now that I earned my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, I’m taken more seriously and so is my work,” she said. “Even in situations where I’m not necessarily given the title of ‘lead’, I still end up leading the project because I have the qualifications to back it up.”

Life outside of school had prepared Dana well for the additional responsibilities of school. “I had a lot of commitments outside class and studying. I was a mother, plus work was incredibly busy,” she said. “Because of her previous experience, Dana wasn’t worried. “I knew what I was getting into when I signed up, so I knew I was going to have to balance many things at once. It was just a matter of scheduling everything that needed to be done.”

Dana also has some advice for those who are still wavering on whether to go back to school: “Don’t procrastinate. I would have gone back and gotten my project management certification much sooner had I realized how much of a difference those little initials meant behind my name.”