Amazon.com Review
If taking classes or earning a degree online is in your game plan, but you're not sure where to start, Internet University has everything you need. The text clearly outlines the hardware and software requirements you will need and where to go to find more information and a variety of online resources to aid you in your scholastic research. The most valuable section of the book, however, is the comprehensive online course catalog, which lists over 30 major universities and includes course descriptions, contact information, pricing, and prerequisites. The book is arranged by university, but the subjects are included in the book index for quick referral.
From Booklist
Less than half of this book is a directory of online course offerings. In the "Course Catalog," more than 700 courses offered by more than 30 providers are indexed by field of study (business, languages, etc.), followed by course descriptions organized by institution. Entries for each school do not follow a standardized format, although most provide accreditation, contact information, and what appears to be the institution's own description of itself and its electronic-classroom philosophy. It is difficult to determine without reading the full text whether degrees have an on-site attendance requirement or whether a full degree may be obtained online.
Articles about distance learning, lists of Internet resources (providers, ftp sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, etc.), and hardware and software descriptions round out the remainder of IU. The idea is to provide information about how to access the metaphoric "Internet University," or the "virtual academic community," but many other Internet handbooks do a better job with the overwhelming scope of this topic. Another distraction here is the crowded page layout and mishmash of fonts that make the book hard to read. The Oryx Guide to Distance Learning [RBB N 1 94] is a larger (116 institutions) and much better organized directory of courses.
