This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report.

We continue our series of reports for students in other countrieswho want to attend a United States college or university. This week,in part four, we discuss how some students are able to stay in theirhome country and still earn a degree.

Many students who take classes by computer over the Internet saythey like the independence of online education. Students do not haveto sit in a classroom and do not have to attend courses at a settime. Professors say they have better communication with studentsthrough e-mail than they do in many traditional classes.

American college and universities have been offering classesonline for a number of years. The University of Phoenix, in Arizona,has been offering degrees online since nineteen eighty-nine.University officials say they try to provide students with a socialexperience as well as an educational one. In some programs, forexample, students in groups of six take all their classes together.They communicate with each other by computer.

Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado, describesitself as the first fully online accredited university. JonesInternational offers both bachelor's and master's degrees.

Another online school is Cardean University, near Chicago,Illinois. It began in two thousand. It offers a master's of businessadministration degree. It says its courses are developed with fivetop business schools and can be completed in as little as twenty-twomonths. Cardean says it has taught students from ninety countries.

Lists of schools that offer online programs are easy to find onthe Internet. Just use a search engine like Google or Yahoo and typein "online education."

Be careful, though, of offers for a college degree in return forlittle or no work. Such operations are illegal in the United States.Educational advisers say that before you enter any program, youshould make sure the work will be recognized in your country.

Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish dotcom. And for information from the State Department, go toeducationusa.state.gov. Again, educationusa.state.gov. Our seriescontinues next week.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by NancySteinbach. This is Gwen Outen.