Online education?

I am interested in furthering my education and looking into taking something online, since I am a stay at home mom it seems about the best way for me to go about getting a degree. However does anyone know if employers look at online degrees the same way they do as a degree attained at an actual college, and what online colleges are crediable.

Online education?
If you go to an accredited college and take online courses you should be fine.





Our local community college has been offering online classes since 1997 and offers currently 9 Associate Degree programs completely online along with 100+ classes online. They also have traditional classes. The online classes have students from all over the country.





These programs are not like the self paced ones you see where you order a kit and do it all on your own and then get some certificate. These are real accredited junior college degrees.





I bet your local community may even have a college with online degree programs.





And as a note our school has both high transfer rates and high employment in field rates.
Reply:online degrees have the same value as general degrees
Reply:Most of the brick and mortar campuses have online degrees now, even Harvard has online programs. Online learning is here to stay. If you are interested in an online program then make sure the college is accredited by on of the accredited agencies recognized by the US Department of Education. Also make sure the institution is regionally accredited and not nationally accredited, so courses can transfer. If you are skeptical about online learning, then try a local community college, which will have online courses, so you can test out how online learning works.





Most employers will accept a regionally accredited degree if its online. I am currently working on a masters solely online, but the collage I am attending also has a regular campus.





To check the accreditation of a college, try the CHEA database.





www.chea.org
Reply:go ask a teacher
Reply:Chris N will never be a hiring manager due to his/her writing, so don't worry.





Online education is great- actually Mexico has been doing distance education really well for longer than the US because of their rural students.





Look for regional accreditation and avoid schools that don't have brick and mortar campuses or are for-profit. In NY, for example, the city university is well respected and your degree doesn't say ONLINE! It says city university of NY. Harvard has distance education, the stigma is decreaseing. (Chris N won't hire somebody from Harvard? or the state U that is respectable in the area? Ok, then, Chris ???)





Check out chea.org, but remember that regional accreditation is the only one that really counts.





Also remember, school is tough- you have to work your butt off! (ie. a 4 credit class= 10 hours of work). It's worth it, though. Being a stay at home parent is great. good for you!
Reply:Many 'regular' schools offer online degrees or at least online classes. At my university, in Canada, students can choose between taking all or some of their classes online, but do graduate with the exact same degree that those who took all their classes on campus recieve. Employers never know that you took online classes!





And as for the guy who claims that online equates to cheating? Ridiculous, I'm taking online courses right now and they take just as long as lecture courses, sometimes require more papers than the lecture courses do and obviously a lot more reading because instead of a lecture, online/distance courses require one to read everything instead of listening. All exams are supervised too!
Reply:It depends upon what you're planning on studying and which online college you attend.





For instance, I am an online student and am studying medical transcription. This is a very difficult field to break into because most of the work available is in the work-from-your-home format. In my case, I researched out the local colleges for prices and curriculum.





Additionally, I researched out the medical transcription field thoroughly. Ironically, the top two schools in the nation for medical transcription ARE online schools. I chose Andrews School because I wanted their prestigious name on my resume and because their students always have multiple job offers that waive the 2-8 years of experience needed to get a job. In this case, the online school graduates are preferred and are in very high demand--and that demand is not being met.





One thing I did learn in my search for education that involves the online schools--beware of matchbook schools. Remember the old-fashioned matchbooks that had ads printed on the inside cover? You could get a degree in this or that...but you could never get a job with that diploma. (Matchbooks: Stratford, Phoenix, etc.)





You can find more matchbook schools by looking in the informational racks at the local supermarkets. Beware of these types of schools. They "teach" everything under the sun: accounting, veterinary science, massage therapy, sewing, legal aide, etc. Anybody can enroll, and they have such poor standards that everybody passes no matter how crappy their work is. They will always take your money. Sure, you'll easily finish the course--probably with outstanding grades--but the likelihood of you ever getting any type of employment from this type of school is nil. Don't waste your money.





Now, there are good brick and mortar colleges that also have online schools, and they award diplomas that do not necessarily mention the online training. You can even go to the cap and gown ceremony with the good schools.





You may want to take just one online course to get the feel for it. It is a very difficult way to attend college. You have to be the go-getter here. You have to schedule your hours and stick to those hours. It's not as easy as a lot of people think it is.





I've attended traditional brick and mortar colleges, and I've done regular online colleges. I will say this about the experience: depending upon your ambition, your tenacity, and your quest for knowledge, you can get a better education via the online option.





I have found that online college work is much more difficult than attending regular classes, and I often found myself wishing that I went to the brick and mortar college because those classes tend to be much easier.





Bottom line: research thoroughly before investing your money. Some occupations (such as medical transcription) actually prefer the online graduates. Other occupations, I suspect, may look down on folks who went the online option.





As far as which online colleges are credible, I can't help you there. You don't mention what you want to study, what area of the country your are located (some schools require you going to the campus for proctored exams), and what type of employment you desire.





Start by checking out the websites of the colleges and universities in your area. You can call the local schools and talk to one of their counselors and recruiters too. You're more likely to get a straight answer from them.





I almost enrolled in Kaplan, but I am glad I didn't. After I signed up on the internet for more information (they all require your phone number), I got dozens of dunning phone calls. Beware of the big push and the "sign up now" lest you have to pay more tuition routine. The matchbook schools employ telemarketers that have to meet quotas and get bonuses for each person (fish) they snag with a binding contract.





Do your research here. There are many excellent online schools where you can get a legitimate diploma that doesn't say "online" school. It just lists the name of the university or college.





Good luck with your search for a school!
Reply:If I owned a business, an on line degree would not hold any more weight than a high-school degree. I don't know how on line colleges work, but I think the premise is to get through college faster and easier. Anything that is either fast and/or easoer is not worth doing. As such, I think an on line degree holds no weight. I equate it to cheating.