John Bear

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John Bjorn Bear, Ph.D. (born in 1938) is an American expert on and proponent of distance education, and a writer of creative reference works. [1] He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate from Michigan State University. ^[1] He is the author of Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning. 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. [2]

In the past, Dr. Bear was involved with several unaccredited start-up distance learning institutions. He lists these previous affiliations in Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning.

In 2004, Bear was interviewed by CBS's 60 Minutes for an investigation involving Hamilton University. [3] 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 34 books (involving major publishers) on education, cooking, consumerism, humor, computers, and the world of publishing. One of these books is "The Blackmail Diet", a quasi-humorous but psychologically valid method of imparting motivation to lose weight by blackmailing oneself in various ways. Essentially, one creates a contract that, once given to others, has hugely unacceptable consequences to the dieter which are out of his control.