Hello.

I'm a Linux enthusiast, and I want to find a fully-featured (with regard to spectrum of study) online university that will allow me to study from home, at my own pace, get a degree that employers/colleagues/peers will respect, and be able to do so using open source software and the operating system of my choice. Price is an issue, but is less important than the quality of education and meeting the above criteria.

I have diverse interests with regard to study, and I would like to be able to combine courses from several (probably not all) of them into a cohesive undergraduate degree, and perhaps continue on from there. My areas of academic interest are as follows, in no particular order:

-Computer Science (and Engineering to a lesser degree)
-Psychology (including the physiological study of the brain)
-Political Science
-Philosophy
-Religion (as relates to philosophy, politics, psychology, etc.)
-Music (composition, primarily)
-World History (the kind you learn from, not memorize the dates/names/places relating to)

I'm interested in the kind of education that makes me a better person and allows me to contribute something impactful and lasting to the world. Making a profit from it is a far second priority. (I find formal schooling to be of only dubious usefulness in terms of profitability, anyway.)

I am disabled in such a way that makes leaving the house very impractical for me, and will require the ability to study at completely my own pace (no semesters, quarters, terms, etc.).

A university that uses software similar to Moodle sounds like a good option, but I'm quite open to suggestions.

I would deeply appreciate any insights you all can give me on this topic. Thanks.

--Dane

http://www.redhat.com/training/

Strictly limited to computing, but their certifications are reputable and well-known.

And you can't get any more Linux-friendly then that.

NYS has Empire-State College which is more or less online and government funded. They are centered on the extension of high school (Liberal Arts) curriculum. Maybe your own state has a version. State schools are not like Techs or Institutes in which your education is more centered on one particular skill which you don't want anyways. Non-State online colleges resemble a scam in most ways. If they don't have a campus (not just a billing office) they are a scam basically. So along with something like this I would get certifications in Linux and maybe one by A+ on hardware. LPI's deal looked the best to me. They have contractors that proctor exams in most cities and they have smaller sized curriculums but more of them. If you fail a test you lose less because it included less. Redhat managed to establish it's self as the Linux incumbent. From my own experiences they are just better known.

Thanks for your replies; I'm continuing to look into it.

I probably should have been more explicit above, with regard to my interests and their priorities. I certainly do find comp. science something I would like to learn, but it's only one thing on the list. I agree that certifications are largely the way to go in that field (with some exceptions, of course), so if I do go that route, I'll probably stick to the kinds of things like what you've both mentioned.

I'll look into the state programs (for California, probably, since I live there). I know that some online universities are scams, but I hesitate to think that they all are. I would prefer to take a course from a place that is a regular university, too (and thus somewhere accredited and fully legitimate), but often the pricing of such places doesn't take into account that you won't be using any of the services that would require you to actually be physically present at their facility. Sometimes, they also require online course takers to actually show up in person once in a while, which would largely defeat the purpose for me.

If you all have any further suggestions, I would like to hear them.

Thanks.

--Dane