Online Engineering Courses In The 21st Century

Distance Education Online - Online Engineering Courses In The 21st Century

It should not be surprising that engineers are making full use of the internet for educational purposes. Engineering programs are at the forefront of innovative online education.

Engineering Degrees

Many engineering schools offer bachelors degrees, graduate certificates, masters degrees and doctoral degrees online. The standard distance learning colleges offer online engineering courses, but so do some of the best engineering colleges and universities in the country. Unlike other professions, in engineering, an online degree is completely equal to a traditional degree.

Continuing Education

Engineers will find plenty of online engineering courses for continuing education. Most will satisfy continuing education requirements for PE (Professional Engineer) licensure. A lot can be applied toward an advanced degree. You can find online continuing education in any area of engineering-industrial, civil, mining-all of the engineering specialties.

Some universities offer what they call non-credit short courses for engineers, too. These courses allow them to keep up with the latest developments in a fast-changing field without the study time necessary for regular college courses.

In order to improve initial and continuing education for mechanical engineers, the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) has partnered with several very good, accredited engineering schools to provide online courses in Mechanical Engineering. This is an example of members of the engineering profession ensuring the quality of education for new members of their profession.

One very cool development in online engineering courses is MIT's Open Courseware Program. The program crosses all fields of study, but is especially pertinent to engineers because MIT is the premier engineering school in the country. The Open Courseware Program makes all of MIT's classes available online for free. The school cautions that this is for independent study, and it's not the same as a for-credit MIT class, where there is student-instructor interaction. It is, however, a great learning resource for engineers.

Computers and online education and training are increasingly part of the engineering world. Men and women earn their engineering degrees by taking online courses, and then they earn advanced degrees by taking online engineering courses. They do continuing education online. They use the internet for every facet of engineering education.