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Champlain College Online
Computer Forensics Degree Review

When I decided to finish my bachelor’s degree, I wanted to specialize in a field including law enforcement and information technology. At the time, Champlain College in Burlington Vermont was one of the very few institutions running a Computer Forensics bachelor’s degree, and the only one offering it online. I thought it would be the perfect fit for me and enrolled just days after learning of the program.

About Champlain and the Computer and Digital Forensics Program

The Computer and Digital Forensics Degree is a hybrid of Information Security and Criminal Justice. Champlain’s description of the program:

Nearly every crime can leave a trail of digital evidence. Computers and cell phones play a key role in the commission of crimes such as financial fraud and identity theft. They also serve as record-keepers of conversations, files and transactions. Computer forensic analysts work for a variety of organizations in pursuit of that digital evidence.

Because computer and network security incidents are increasing, Computer & Digital Forensics majors are in particularly high demand. A Champlain College Computer & Digital Forensics degree will prepare for you the world of computer- and network-based crime investigation.

As a Computer & Digital Forensics student, you’ll learn about the law, the digital investigative process, and computer and network technology. You will learn to articulate the dynamics of white-collar crime and to apply your knowledge of computers, software and the law to research crimes.

It is offered online in a typical 120 credit / 4 year format or at an accelerated pace. The accelerated classes were only 6 weeks long instead of the usual 15. I believe they have increased that to 7 weeks presently. It is still a speedy pace for those wanting to finish rapidly and move on with their career.

Champlain College was recently designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education by the NSA and Department of Homeland Security. Champlain is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. These are two significant recognitions of the school as a whole.

I initially started with the accelerated Intro to Computer Forensics course to see how well I could manage school and work simultaneously. I did well, but it required some heavy time management. I continued taking one accelerated class until I had a system down. Eventually, I had budgeted time in such a way that I could take two accelerated classes together. During the last year of the program, my wife was earning enough money to allow me to quit my job and go full time. I finished and received a Bachelors in Computer and Digital Forensics with a 3.7 GPA after only three years, and while working two thirds of the time.

Professors
The professors were overall very good. Many of the instructors for the criminal justice courses work for the Vermont State Police or Burlington Police Department, and the Information Technology classes were taught by professors with impressive technical resumes. Each professor posted a short biography at the beginning of class that highlighted their credentials to teach the course. It was nice to see instructors currently or formerly work in the industry.

The program director Gary Kessler is a former network security analyst and IT manager holding a Masters in Computer Science. I spoke with Gary on a few occasions, but never had the pleasure of sitting in on his lectures.

My only complaint about the professors is that some would only marginally participate in the class. I found this to happen more so during the Summer Semesters than the traditional spring and fall. I call it GOLF fever. This made it difficult because students may have posted questions that go unanswered for weeks. During one summer course, I remember submitting 12 or so assignments with just the final exam left and received no feedback whatsoever. I had no idea where I stood grade-wise or if I understood the concepts correctly.

Course Work and Web Technology
Champlain College uses the virtual leaning environment WebCT. It is fairly straight forward and simple enough to use. However, Champlain lacked a virtual training environment. There was no system that gave hands on experience through a simulated online network and nothing to mirror the benefit of an on campus lab.

The forensic course instructors usually sent me a CD with an image of a hard drive. They would provide me a link to download trial versions of EnCase, FTK Toolkit, or WinHex to use for investigative case studies. I received assignments with general objectives and left to figure it out for myself. EnCase is an amazing tool, but very complex. I spent many hours reading the software manual and trying to examine the assignment image without any direct help. This is a big drawback to online learning.

Internship and Networking
Champlain requires either an internship or another course related to your degree to graduate. Unfortunately, most of the internship opportunities are located in Vermont. This doesn’t help distance learners from other states. I had to either contact companies myself to negotiate an internship or just take that extra class. I had to opt out of the internship and thus lose experience and potential professional contacts.

Tuition
The tuition when I attended was $400 per credit hour, but I believe it is nearing $500 now. I had an issue with Champlain’s tuition policy when I started taking two accelerated courses per term. 6 credits per term equals 12 credits per semester. Champlain considers a student full time anywhere between 12 and 18 credits taken per semester. If you are full time you cannot pay per credit and must pay the full time tuition cost of (then) roughly $6,000.

I ended up having to pay $1,200 more per semester to take four courses than if I was paying by the credit. I wanted to minimize my cost for the greatest benefit, so I began taking 18 credits per semester.

Curriculum, Registration, & Counselors
In my attempt to monetize my educational returns, I suffered hardship from my counselor. During my 3 years with Champlain my counselor changed 3 or so times. They never gave me any guidance or fought for what I needed.

During my last year, there was a course that was offered in the Summer and not again until the Spring. I had carefully orcastrated my curriculum to take this class and graduate by December. However, my counselor decided to deny approval of my registration because she thought 18 credits was too much for a summer semester. I was furious. She not only insisted to know what I can and cannot handle, but also would have postponed my graduation until May. I sent her a disgruntled email and went two steps above her head to get my registration approved.

I understand that the counselors are usually dealing with younger kids who need direction and recommendations. However, in the world of online learning, you’ll find the majority of students to be older, wiser, and able to handle their educational decisions.

Job Prospects
Should I have been able to intern somewhere, I probably would have landed a job much sooner. Instead, I did it the hard way by marketing myself on Monster.com and Dice.com . I received offers ranging from system administrator, network security analysis, computer forensic investigator, and information technology engineer. The starting salary offers ran from $40,000 - $80,000. I decided on a position with a company on the mid salary range, but they were the most respected organization of the bunch and the benefits package far exceeded all others.

The variety of jobs you can receive with this bachelor’s degree is quite extensive. I climbed the Information Security Career Tree and would like to eventually transition into more law enforcement forensic type work. The organization I work for has a forensic lab and a virtual network in which to test Malware functionality and perform investigations on policy violations, but it doesn’t process criminal cases.

For Computer Forensics, some options are:
- Large municipal police departments (Be ready to spend time as a patrol officer, most specialty jobs are given by seniority)
- State Police (also requires time as a patrol officer and is offered by seniority)
- Federal Agencies (long process to get in, and not available in many locations)
- Attorney’s office
- Contracting Lab (a for profit laboratory hired to process digital evidence)
- Private (hired to create a computer forensics report and be an expert witness during criminal trials. You would probably need to testify if working for law enforcement, an attorney’s office, and a private contracting lab as well)

You will receive job offers for a number of information technology positions. However, if you are just graduating, did not complete an internship, and do not have prior work experience, it will be much more difficult to choose your favored job initially. I would suggest starting with the Information Security Career Path . It is by far the most widespread for opportunities, it will provide you the experience to transition into a specialty, it will give you professional contacts and references, and the salary is on the higher end for IT related jobs.

Conclusion
It may have sounded like I highlighted mostly negatives of my time with Champlain College. I must stress that most of my criticisms are related to online learning more so than the degree or institution. The few issues I had with Champlain College specifically doesn’t even compare to the problems my wife had with Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (her college of choice). I would assume any where you attend is going to have its own nuisances.

I would never be where I am today without the doors Champlain’s Computer and Digital Forensic Degree had opened for me. When deciding on which university I wanted to pursue my masters from, Champlain College was the first place I explored. They offer a Masters in Managing Innovation & Information Technology and soon will have a Masters in Computer Forensics. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait for the Forensic Masters be born. So I decided to attend Capella University for the Masters of Information Assurance and Security.

Overall, Champlain College was a pleasant experience and the degree accomplished what it was meant to.