SO has suggested that I stop taking courses that interest me and buckle down and get a degree in SOMEthing. Not a bad idea, since I’ve taken the odd course here and there for about 35 years and still don’t have any letters behind my name. Because of work responsibilities, I’ve decided that online learning might be best for me, so my question to the hordes is “what’s the best way to get an online degree?”
There seem to be as many options as there are banner ads; University of Phoenix is the largest, business schools are well-represented, etc. Is there research or personal experience that points to a particularly successful path?
Many people that will eventually look at your resume will be skeptical of treating a degree from the University Of Phoenix the same as traditional schools whether that is deserved or not.
The good news is that lots of traditional universities offer on-line degrees that supposedly give you a degree that is comparable in stature to their brick and mortar degrees. That is the way I would go. Unfortunately, there are so many these days that we can’t give you advise without more specifics.
You also want to look for a national accreditation (e.g., DETC) and/or a regional accreditation. And you may also want to make sure that their degrees don’t say ‘online’ anywhere on them. A good school shouldn’t break out their offerings like that–an online degree should be of equal weight as a brick and mortar degree.
Shagnasty is right on. The for-profit online schools like Phoenix are generally not considered equal to a traditional brick and mortar school. I’m sure some employers view them as one tier down, others look at them as diploma mills. That’s not an all out indictment of UofP Online; rather what I think is a realist view.
I was recently reading (Newsweek maybe) that roughly 50 percent of college students took at least one online course last year/semester. I graduated in December and, oddly enough, never took an online or distance learning class at all. I guess I’m starting to be in the minority.
The larger, state schools have tons of options, and I’m sure many of them offer complete online degree programs. It’s still expensive; a class is a class is a class. But if I were in your position, I would find an accredited university in your state that offers online degrees and go from there. Obviously, the choice of degree focus will be narrower than actually attending, but a business degree would be very do-able.
Generally, regional accreditation is more desirable than national accreditation. If you decide to transfer to a different program, you can generally transfer credits between any two regionally accredited programs (online or traditional, even if they’re not in the same region). But often regionally accredited institutions will not accept credits from nationally accredited institutions.
Go to a good library and find a current copy of volume 6 of The College Blue Book. It will probably be in the reference section. It’s by far the best guide I know to online and distance education.