Over the past 15 years there has been a major drive to make high quality educational material available on the internet, under open commons licensing.  This course makes use of OER material which is used by thousands of educators around the world.

OER Project is a non-profit open educational resources provider co-founded in 2011 by Bill Gates and David Christian. Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license.

The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Social Media (SM) for academic information seeking is common among undergraduates. Research shows that the main reasons for accessing OER is the availability of information at any time (36.1%), and ease of information access (31.5%).  Currently OER represent a small but growing portion of the educational resources market.

The question that is asked worldwide is "Why spend extra time sitting in class when you can get your bachelor’s degree faster online?"

An on-campus degree is a 3 year course. Universities are finding that the same curriculum takes only 18 months when taught on-line.

Once upon a time, a term such as “fast online degree” might have rung alarm bells. After all, a qualification isn’t meant to be fast, it’s meant to be thorough. One of the fastest online degrees is the Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of New Mexico. This program can be completed in one year instead of two, through eight-week courses.

Competency-based education (CBE) is where you move through a degree based on how quickly you are learning—independent of traditional semester schedules. CBE is ideal for those who want to earn a high quality, fast, online degree.

There is one sign that you are a good candidate to earn a degree in just one year.

1. You’re ready to put in the work.
Completing a fast, online bachelor’s degree in 12 months is possible, and there are several University of Wisconsin  Flexible Option graduates who have done it. However, it is challenging.

You will likely need to dedicate 30 to 40 hours to your studies each week. If your goal is to finish in one year, you will want to think about your studies like you would a full-time job. Students who do this are typically self-starters, disciplined, and highly motivated.