Eleanor Said:

What is the best prep for a career in web design and development?

We Answered:

Experience. Nothing beats it. Do your own site. Do someone else's small business site for free or in exchange for some product or service from them, and let them know that you are doing it to build up your experience and that you're going to put it on your resume as an example of your work. I built a website for my employer once just to teach myself how to use html, and it turned out pretty good. An acquaintance of mine built a site for a local cookie cutter company and did it pretty cheap, so they were happy and he got the experience and a little pay.

Elizabeth Said:

Should I take A Bachelor of arts in Community Studies Online, or travel the 3 hours to go in person?

We Answered:

You will be able to learn the material through online courses. However, part of college is also about interacting with others, debating, etc. I know that online colleges have resources to enable this, but at the end of the day, it's not the same as being in a room with a group of people and really pushing one another to think through the issues.

Additionally, online universities don't always have the credibility with employers. They may, but just be prepared for this. Finally, with education, you'll need to do student teaching - will the online college let you do this? If not, then you'll need to do this through another school regardless.

Melinda Said:

Online university degree?

We Answered:

Shan, it looks like Cape Breton University is an accredited, not-for-profit traditional university with a land campus that *happens* to be offering online courses. It's not a University of Phoenix type school. So I think most employers or BEd programs would be fine with you taking courses there.

Online degrees can be harder because you have to self-motivate to complete your coursework, but there's an article with some tips in my resources box below.

The US Department of Education recently conducted a good meta-analysis of online learning studies, and the evidence suggests that online learning is actually MORE effective than regular classroom learning (although a mix of both is best). You can check out a summary of that study in the NY Times article I linked to below.

Good luck!