What is the biggest time waster these days? Facebook! However did you know that Facebook is also a treasure trove of various high-end applications that can help college students excel. These apps enhance productivity, organization and time management, and allow communication and networking with like-minded people. Here we present half a dozen Facebook apps that can help college students, especially online college students, enhance their productivity.

6 Facebook Apps to Ace Your College

Statistics indicate that Facebook is used by over 160 million people daily. Out of this large number, most users are college students. Initially, it was launched with the intention of being a student-based social networking website and hence it contains various apps specifically for students. Some of them are:

1. Weekly Schedule – This Facebook app caters to online students who need to keep a track of their weekly schedule. It enables students to find out when their friends or classmates are free and has a schedule comparison feature. College students claim that this app helps them manage their time more effectively.
2. Yearbook -Yearbook is a virtual classroom which can help students connect to their classmates and students from both college and university. It can help students to improve upon and develop an assignment which they can pass on to their friends for suggestions and advice.
3. Quiz Monster – This app can help college students prepare for various exams. Students can create their own exams and evaluate themselves. As online education involves self-study, this Facebook app can help you get the necessary practice.
4. CourseTopia – CourseTopia helps students keep a track of the schedule for classes within a specific course. This ensures that there are no gaps and that no classes are missed.
5. Docs – This is a collection of assignments, schoolwork and lecture notes. It includes over 50,000 documents and has over 70,000 monthly users. However, special care should be taken to use Docs only as reference material and not for plagiarism as online instructors also make use of this app.
6. Scholarium – This app specifically caters to the needs of online students especially those attending university. It enables them to share their timetable with friends, search for their classmates and rate their professors. This can be then referred by other students so that they can find out more details about a specific professor.

There are many other Facebook apps as well which can help students ace their studies. These help students save valuable time, allow them to schedule their online courses and lets them complete it at their own pace. The best Facebook apps are those that utilize the tremendous networking power of Facebook and allow students to use this to become more productive.

Online students: what are your New Year’s Resolutions for 2012? If you need help finding suggestions then you’re in the right place.

Realistic New Year’s Resolutions for College Students

How often do you make New Year’s resolutions that you stick to? Most New Year’s resolutions are broken in the first few weeks because they are not realistic. The very first thing you want to do is to make sure that your goals are realistic and not too difficult to accomplish. Don’t set yourself up for failure by setting career goals that you know are too difficult to handle. Start off small the first year, and then increase the next.

New Year’s Resolution Wish List

When you set realistic goals, you are much more likely to stick to them. Make a list of all your New Year’s resolutions, then pick only a few easy ones that you can accomplish.

Here are some useful suggestions to add to your New Year’s Resolutions list as an online student:

• Get an extra hour of sleep every night by going to bed early.
• Spend an hour each day reviewing your notes and class material.
• Participate more in online discussions.
• Connect with other classmates.
• Don’t stay out too late on school nights.
• Spend less time watching TV.
• Spend a little less time socializing on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace
• Join online networking groups.
• Complete projects and assignments on time.
• Get up early for study online exams.
• Do your laundry more often.
• Don’t miss too much class time.
• Eat breakfast every day.
• Stay away from negative people.
• Cut back on buying unnecessary items.
• Use less credit.
• Eat healthier.
• Exercise more often.
• Get a study partner
• Sign on to your online classroom daily.

Are New Year’s Resolutions Attainable?

It all depends on what you want to accomplish and the time-frame you have. Unrealistic goals are not going to help you get to where you want to be, there are many career opportunities so make sure you pick things that are attainable. Only you know what you are capable of doing and achieving.

These are just a few simple New Year’s Resolutions that you can start off with. Don’t push yourself too hard or else you’ll get overwhelmed and will give up. Start with the easy things first, then advance to the ones that are a little more difficult to accomplish.

Do add on to the wish list by posting your suggestions in the comments below.

Happy New Year!

What do all students scream on Friday? “TGIF!” Come November and it changes to, “TGIBF!” (Thank Goodness it’s Black Friday!) Black Friday is to shopaholics what heaven is to the rest of us. The Friday following Thanksgiving, which falls on 25th November this year, is the busiest shopping day in the US.

Nothing digests your Thanksgiving dinner better than standing at the doors of shops as early as 3 am, braving the windy night with your friends waiting to get your hands on that door buster. However not everyone can deal with the parking hassles and the long lines. So what can the faint hearted do? Shop online! Yes, now all the major stores put their Black Friday ads online, even deals from retailers that do not have an online presence can be found there. Just as online colleges seem to be coming equal to their brick and mortar counterparts, the same is happening with shopping; and online Black Friday shopping seems to be getting ahead of traditional Black Friday shopping.

Best Black Friday Websites

In order to make Black Friday shopping easy for you, we have compiled a list of sites that can really help you in your search. While there are hundreds of sites telling you about the best Black Friday deals, we have chosen the following sites as they have neat interfaces, allow you to search for products category wise as well as store wise, and have mailing lists and community forums as well.

• fatwallet.com/black-friday/
• http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/
• http://bfads.net/
• Blackfriday2011.com
• http://www.black-friday.net/
• http://dealnews.com/black-friday/
• Amazon.com/blackfriday
• http://blackfriday.dealsofamerica.com/

Best Black Friday Tech Deals

Online students can buy all the gadgets and gizmos they will need for college by bookmarking the following sites which focus on the best Black Friday tech deals (yes that includes all the tablets, HDTVs and e-readers).

• www.techsaver.pcmag.com
• Gizmodo’s Ultimate Black Friday 2010 Cheat Sheet (We’re hoping they’ll put an updated one for 2011)

Comparison Shopping To Get the Best Deals

While you are searching for Black Friday deals, don’t forget to comparison shop at the following sites to make sure that you get the lowest rates.

• http://www.pricegrabber.com/
• http://www.shopzilla.com/

Have fun and make the most of this day (don’t wait for Cyber Monday because most of the good deals would be gone by then)!

Although online learning is still somewhat in its infancy stages, it has been used to deliver a wide range of subject matters and has obtained diverse learning outcomes. Many online colleges, universities, and companies have embraced distance education as an important delivery strategy. Today, online degree has influenced and changes attitudes of many because it has proven itself to be an effective and appealing education delivery system. The concerns about online learning are slowly shifting. Here are some real facts and figures about online degree legitimacy in the United States.

The Increase in Distance Education Programs are a Fact

• Polling information has found that in the United States enrollment for online degree programs have rapidly increased at a faster pace than traditional campus registrations by approximately 14 percent.
• Nearly five million people are enrolled in at least one online degree course in the fall 2008 semester, over a 14 percent growth from 2007, and an almost three fold increase from the over 1.5 million people that registered in previous years.
• Online degree program grew faster than traditional campus registrations.
• Just a little below 30 percent of all American college level students have taken at least one online course.
• Online degree programs are flexible, convenient and are best suited for working adults who would like to continue their education but cannot attend campus due to work and family obligations.
• Due to the popularity and legitimacy of online learning, many prestigious and well known traditional brick and mortar colleges have extended their campus programs to cater to the needs of online learners.
• Online learning may not be right for young learners and those who do not have the skills required for distance learning.
• According to a Department of Education report, 84 percent of the total U.S. college enrollment is nontraditional students.

Researching Online Colleges and Universities

Though there are many legitimate and reputable online institutions out there, however there are also a few bad apples. When looking for an online degree program do your research and a thorough background check on the online school of interest. The first thing you want to check on is to see if the school is accredited. Next, check on the quality of the program by comparing other similar programs, as well as the support provided, faculty and reputation of the school.

Online Education Today

Today, online degree programs are now considered mainstream to some extent. The popularity of online education is drawing the attention of many including the influence of government policy. The legitimacy of online learning has raised many important questions which have helped to diffuse many concerns and skepticism, eliminating questions of legitimacy over the years.

The Future of Online Education

Despite any concerns and controversies, many individuals to some degree are well aware of the controversies surrounding online colleges and universities, but important factors such as maintaining full-time jobs, family responsibilities, flexibility, convenience, and freedom among other advantages lead individuals to choose online learning over traditional learning.

Accreditation is a vital factor when you are looking for an online degree program in United States. When you are planning to pursue further education from an online college, you need to ensure to go for accredited online colleges only. Most students seek employment after earning a degree. Employers in general do not recognize online degrees from an unaccredited source. Accredited online colleges and universities make their courses and syllabi stringent enough to meet the standards of Department of Education & other recognized accrediting organizations.

Online Accrediting Agencies

The primary purpose of online accrediting agencies is to monitor and review online colleges that offer distance education to students. An online college like campus colleges gets accreditation after meeting standards set by accrediting agency. These online colleges and universities are not required to have their accreditation agencies approve their curriculum this is done solely on voluntary basis. However, accreditation process benefits schools greatly.

Many Accredited Online Schools to Choose From

There are quite a few online colleges and universities with online degree programs on the internet, and not all of them are accredited. So how do you find an accredited online college or university in the United States? Start your search for an Online Accredited College through Internet. If the online college you have selected has not much of a presence in internet, it clearly means that the particular college is not accredited. After all, who will not like to publicize that they have got an accreditation from an accrediting agency.

Accredited Online Colleges Have Experienced Instructors

First, when you are looking for an accredited online college, it is crucial that one is aware of the type of instructors that are teaching at the school. Some instructors at online colleges and universities are new to the job & this is a red flag. The school may not have the proper accreditation.

Find out about an Online Schools Accreditation

Before enrolling in a school, you should talk to the admission office about their accreditation find out if the school is accredited or not.

Check with the IAS

Another way to easily discover the accreditation of an online school is to check the IAS (Institutional Accreditation System), it is presented by the Department of Education to assist students in learning about the accreditation of schools.

Do you like to cook? Do you enjoy making beautiful food displays for people to enjoy? Do you want to want to gain your culinary arts skills from the comfort of your home? Then you should be in an online culinary arts school. An online culinary arts school offers students a hands-on high level training into the many facets of cooking. This broad based course ranges from studies in basic cooking, knife skills through to restaurant management. The training gained from an online culinary course prepares students for all types of jobs in the field of culinary arts.

Many culinary arts students are required to have a degree in culinary arts to be able to break into the sector of culinary arts. They use the modern training they receive to overcome the challenged put up by those experienced individuals already existing in the field. Likewise, those in the field who do not have formal training utilize online culinary arts degree program to solidify their place and promote career growth in the sector.

Course Outline of an Online Course in Culinary Arts

It takes a special effort to deliver an online course in culinary arts. The course is divided into several modules with clear instruction and step-by-step illustrations that allow students to hone their culinary skills and be successful in the field.

The course begins with a module that teaches students how to train their pallet. You cannot be a good cook if you do not know what good food should taste like. It then graduates into different types of worldwide food and culinary cultures. At this level, students are taught knife skills, the difference between moist and dry heat cooking methods, pastry and sauce making and baking. As students increase their confidence levels, they are introduced to how to plan menus and create complicated dishes for large-scale cooking and display and restaurant management.

For those students who go on to specialize in restaurant management, they must also undergo training in food and beverage management, nutrition and sanitation, communications, human resource management, marketing, hospitality and business administration.

Types of Online Culinary Arts Courses

Online culinary arts courses are offered at all levels of study. Not all online universities will offer every level of study but in general, online courses in culinary arts are available at the associate, bachelor, master and PhD level.

The associate degree in culinary arts introduces students to the profession and develops their appreciation for good food. At the bachelor level, students begin to dissect the science of culinary arts and indulge into areas of management. At the master level, students begin to specialize in one of the many facets of the profession. By the time the at the PhD level, they are ready to do research that develops new concepts to improve the industry.