Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE- Two years ago, Matt Tuttle was considering earning his graduate degree in project management, but was having trouble deciding on an online school. His manager recommended speaking with another employee who was enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's distance learning program. "I met this employee, she showed me the curriculum and told me how much she enjoyed it. I was sold that very minute."

Before applying to UWP, Tuttle's major concern was that his family not be adversely affected by his decision. "The main reason I did not want to do a traditional 'go to campus/lecture-style' program was to reduce my time away from my family at night. To further ensure that Daddy was home, I did most of my schoolwork from 6 to 7:30 a.m. at work." On occasions, however, Tuttle had to study on the weekends. At these times, he says his family was very supportive.

Tuttle is currently a project manager for Pearson Educational Measurement in Austin, Texas. "The MSPM coursework allowed me to immediately apply my new knowledge and skill to my job," he says. "I even began training my teammates on selected project management subject matter as well. I could go on and on about the specifics, but almost every subject, even the non-project management-related courses, was applied into my life and career."

"I think distance education certainly has its pros and cons," Tuttle notes. "Some of the more difficult topics were not as easy to understand through the Internet and not being able to meet face-to-face with a professor to discuss it made it a little more challenging. However, every professor I had was willing to discuss topics with me over the phone, through e-mail, or on the course homepage. The flexibility the Internet provided me certainly made the entire process much easier. I still think it takes a very dedicated, self-motivated person to attend classes through the Internet. I will recommend this medium to others; it was great!"

Tuttle suggests that anyone deciding to continue their education not look at the number of courses or years that may be involved in earning a degree. "Treat each class and each day as an opportunity to learn," he advises. "While obtaining an MSPM degree is nice, I started this program to learn. Doubling up on classes was never a priority to me; I wanted to learn as much as I could from each class. The day will come when the whole program is over. If that happens to be four years from now for some people, I'd look at that as an opportunity to learn something new every day for the next 48 months.

Now that he's earned his degree, Tuttle looks forward to more leisure reading, which he's been unable to do while studying. He also plans to go on vacations now that he doesn't have to worry about meeting school commitments. "I'm going to take the summer and fall to decide what I want to do next," he says. "Many colleagues are encouraging me to pursue a Ph.D. We'll have to see about that."

UWP offers four degrees at a distance: a bachelor of science in business administration, a master of science in criminal justice, a master of engineering, and a master of science in project management. For more information, visit online at www.uwplatt.edu/disted, call 800-362-5460 or e-maildisted@uwplatt.edu.

Contact: Ellen McFall, Distance Learning center, mcfalle@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Dan Humer, Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, humerd@uwplatt.edu