Arts and Design School: The Benefits of Distance Learning

Because art and design programs are inherently visual, they sync well with the distance learning format. You’ll appreciate the variety of standard benefits that online study has to offer: classes from home, convenient scheduling, reduced expenses, and the ability to maintain your personal and professional obligations, just to name a few. As an arts student, you’ll love the way the online degree format develops the technical skills that could give you the edge in a competitive hiring market.

College of Applied Arts: Program FAQs

Committing to a particular field of study for four or five years deserves thoughtful consideration. Here are just a few frequently asked questions that potential art and design school students have:

• Will I have to attend any campus sessions? This depends entirely on the program of study. Most online programs are just that–distance learning sessions that you can complete entirely from home. Some programs may require periodic meetings on campus to turn in portfolios or deliver recitals
• How long before I must declare a major? Many programs allow you to complete prerequisite classes for the first year or two before requiring you to declare. Due to their complexity, some art and design programs require immediate commitment
• How will the content be delivered? Online programs combine electronic textbooks, class blog and chat technologies and video conferencing in a web-based framework
• Will professional certifications help me to get hired? Professional certifications are particularly helpful in the technical design fields, such as graphic design and multi-media arts

From Classroom to Career: What to Expect

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics paints an encouraging picture of the employment opportunities for graduates of arts and design school. Here are just some of the professions that you’ll qualify for with the job outlook and salary potential for each.

• Artists and Related Workers. Employment of artists and related workers is projected to increase by 16 percent from 2006 through 2016–that’s faster than the national average for all occupations. May 2008 salary projections vary widely, from art directors at $76,980 per year to multi-media artists at $56,330 per year
• Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation. The career fields poised to see the largest growth in hiring from 2006 to 2016 include management, business, and financial occupations at 26.4 percent and professional and related occupations at 24.2 percent
• Other Arts-based Career Options . Graduates of college and applied arts programs may also choose careers as commercial and industrial designers, fashion designers, floral designers, and graphic and interior designers

The bottom line is that you can earn a living by doing what you love by graduating from a college of applied arts. Also, attending an arts and design school online makes the transition from classroom to career convenient and affordable.

Accreditation
For any successful interior designing program, accreditation is the only aspect of successful grading of your career path. If the chosen online institution is an accredited one, than students should have no worries at all about the acceptance of their degrees and job feasibility options for their career. Accreditation is important, considering the fact that many employers have particular selection criteria for employees in which accreditation is at times considered a major factor, so you need to make sure your chosen online college or university is accredited.

What to Expect in an Online Interior Designing Program
A good online university integrates the theoretical and practical aspects of interior designing fundamentals and concepts in such a way which provides balanced, yet in-depth learning of the subject. What is important here is that a student must have flair of reasoning, creativity and planning to gear up his/her successful acquisition of degree and attainment of a good career in the competitive field of interior designing. This means that simply acquiring a degree will not do the trick; you need to be creative and innovative to prove yourself in the job market.

College and Universities Which Offer Interior Designing Programs
The Council for Interior Design Accreditation lists various online schools and institutions, which currently offer online courses in the field and sub-field of interior designing. All of the listed online colleges and universities have been ranked as quality institutions in America. Some of them are:

• The University of Cincinnati in Ohio
• Pratt Institute in New York
• Kansas State in Kansas
• Cornell in New York
• Arizona State in Arizona

In addition to the above listed colleges and institutes, the Council recognizes two major online interior design programs offered by:

• The Art Institute of Toronto in Toronto, Canada
• American Intercontinental University in London, UK

The Art Institute of Toronto
This institute offers a student-centric curriculum and various practical insights to equip aspirants about the fundamentals of interior designing concepts and subject matter on the whole.

American Intercontinental University in London, UK
This university offers an associate and a bachelor’s interior design degree program for its aspirant online students. The bachelor’s program is well-acclaimed for its professionalism edge and student-centric approach. To earn an online associate degree, aspirants have to shell a tuition cost of around 4,000 British pounds per quarter.

The choice of an institute and college offering specialization certification courses and post-graduate diploma courses can be many but it is up to a student to choose wisely the kind of degree course best suited for his/her future career needs.

What are the Main Pros and Cons of an Online Interior Design Programs?
The main advantages of acquiring an online interior designing degree is definitely the ability to acquire it online, which saves time, money and other valuable resources. An aspirant can make use of online resources and reference database of knowledge mostly without spending money on it. Moreover, many web-based tools are available for streamlining the e-learning method to help students in transcending boundaries of conservative learning methodology.

The main disadvantages of acquiring an online interior designing degree is its accreditation factor, impersonal interface between trainer-student and lack of proper understanding of practical problems and on-site demonstrations in absence of proper guidance and motivation like that available for students learning in conventional class room settings.

Interior designing degrees can now be acquired online, thank to the wonders of the internet. But it is not as easy as it might sound, considering that there are not many online colleges and universities which offer the program and then comes the accreditation factor, which makes the process even harder. But after deciding upon which online institution you wish to go to, the online learning experience can be very interactive and upon acquisition of the degree, graduates can expect to hold good positions in the job market.