John Bear

John Bjorn Bear is an American businessman in the distance education industry. He is also a writer of creative reference works.

Bear attended Reed College in Oregon (class of 1959), and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from University of California, Berkeley (1959 and 1960, respectively) and a doctorate from Michigan State University (1966).

He is the author of Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning, whose 16th edition was published in 2006. He is also co-author of the first two editions (of five total) of the book now called Walston's Guide to Christian Distance Learning. He has been engaged by the FBI in its investigations of diploma mills for some twenty years.

In the past, Bear was involved with several unaccredited start-up distance learning institutions, including Columbia Pacific University, Fairfax University, and Greenwich University. He describes the nature of these affiliations in Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning and on his website. Bear is widely acknowledged to be a leading authority on distance learning and diploma mills. In 2004, he was interviewed by CBS's 60 Minutes for an investigation involving Hamilton University. He has appeared as a degree mill expert on TV shows including Good Morning America, Inside Edition and American Journal.

Bear has written or co-authored 35 books on education, cooking, consumerism, humor, computers, and the world of publishing.

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