The acquisition of online education is a growing market and online degrees are now generally being accepted by employers across the nation; ONLY if your online degree has been earned from an accredited online college or university. Individuals need to take certain steps in order to find a legitimate and accredited online school whose degree guarantees professional success. They are:

1. Verification of the Online School’s Legitimacy
The first step to be taken is that of verifying the legitimacy of your chosen online institution. You can do this by simply visiting the website of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) at http://www.ncahlc.org, which lists about 7,000 degree-granting and non-degree-granting institutions along with more than 17,000 programs that are accredited by accrediting agencies across United States, which have received recognition by CHEA or by the United States Department of Education (USDE) or both. Make note that accreditation is the first factor employers will look for when you apply for jobs and also by other higher education institutions incase you wish to go for higher education.

2. Make Sure You Are Paying the Right Price for Your Online DegreeBefore anything, you need to find out how much tuition fees you would be paying, along with a clear picture of additional costs such as any access fees, texts, other required purchases etc. You must make sure that you can afford the tuition costs. Even though studying online is far more affordable than traditional campus-based education, but it does not come cheap, so you need to ascertain your money’s worth and know what you are getting into.

3. Get In Touch With the Online Faculty
This is necessary. Before enrolling in an online degree program you need to check the experience of the people who would actually be teaching you your online degree subjects. You need to make sure they are worthy of providing you with the education you are interested in, particularly the area of your interest. They must be knowledgeable about the area of study they are going to teach to online learners. Make note that associate or junior college teachers usually have at least a Master’s degree in their area of expertise, while a majority of college professors hold a doctorate level degree.

4. Would You Get the Attention You Need?
You need to answer this question well in advance. Unlike studying in a classroom, there might be an uncountable number of students present in an online class, and obviously with a huge number of students you would not get the attention you need. You must find out the class size as teachers can pay better attention to their students in classes with a small number of students. Ascertain that your teachers are not over-burdened to guarantee that you would acquire the education you require and deserve.  

5. Assess the History of Your Online College or University
The next step is to appraise the history of the school you have chosen for your online education. Note that schools generally record their reputation for producing quality students, who are hired at well-reputed organizations. So the longer the history of your online school is the better.

6. Get to Learn about Your Virtual Class-fellows
Assess your class-fellows. Find out information about the total enrollment at the school as well as the percentage of students who actually graduate from your online college. Your school should be able to provide you information about students that are currently enrolled, particularly in your degree program. Vast number of students portrays both constancy and future recognition of your online degree in the job market. Also remember that a higher graduation rate portrays that students are generally satisfied with the programs offered by the online college or university. Be a bit distrustful if your school does not share these statistics with you.

7. Find Out What Resources Would You Be Required to Have
You must know right from the beginning as to what resources you need to have, considering that a number of online degree program require their students to access to a computer with an internet connection along with certain hardware so as to passably handle and run state-of-the-art multimedia and word processing types of programs. So you need to make sure that you computer is up to the task, or you are financially stable enough to buy a new one. When it comes to software, online degree programs usually present all the study material online from their site, but some might ask you to buy additional software on your own.

8. What Resources Would the School Provide You With?
You must make inquiries about what resources you would be provided with during the course of study of your online degree program. The most well-known online colleges and universities offer access to their virtual library along with other online resources to help students with their education.

9.  How Much Time Do You Need to Dedicate to Studies?
You further need to figure out that the span of time needed to earn your degree suits you and your lifestyle. The length of time differs greatly in the virtual world, so you need to make sure you know how much time you would be dedicating to education to earn your degree. Most online institutions provide you with the capability to complete your tasks at your own pace, while there are some others which would require you to take part in virtual class sessions and complete your projects with specific deadlines.

10. What Methods of Communication are Available for Students and Teachers?
Find out right from the beginning how you would be able to communicate with your teachers and class-fellows. Online schools usually offer interactive tools such as live chat, discussion boards etc for students and teachers to communicate with each other. Apart from that email and telephone are another option. Certain online colleges and universities additionally offer physical campus locations that you can visit for particular classes, sessions or extra help. The more options available, the better, but the school should at least have one legitimate phone number where your online faculty can be reached at.

The abovementioned factors can help individuals figure out whether their chosen online college or university is a legitimate school or not. Students must be ascertain of these aspects before enrolling in an online degree program as it is a decision which would effect their entire professional life.

Attaining an online degree is perhaps the best option for a vast number of people, but there are some who study online with certain wrong motives. People of all ages and backgrounds have started enrolling at online colleges & universities, inclusive of single mothers, 70 year olds who have a passion for life long learning etc. But at the same time there are several people out there who study online with all the wrong intentions, but most of them eventually drop out of their programs or fail due to their erroneous beliefs. Some of the most common misconceptions and motives are:

Acquiring an Online Degree Is Easy through eLearning as I Do Not Have to Attend Regular Classes

Yes, online education definitely is convenient and flexible particularly when you study through asynchronous learning. There is no need to travel to a particular location everyday, attend class at a certain time, you can continue work, keep up with social and personal responsibilities and commitments etc while studying at the same time. But what you must know is that convenience and flexibility do not come alone; they require self-discipline. Remember, even while you are enrolled in a distance education course, you would have semester, sub-term and project deadlines.

I Can Earn My Degree Quicker Through Online Education 

Yet another false notion that has been noted, particularly when an individual aspiring to earn a degree is exploring his or her study options is that the acquisition of an online degree would be quicker and not take as much time as it would if s/he enrolls at a traditional school. The crux of the matter here is that the workload for online students in a majority of distance education courses is competitive and at times even surpasses that of traditional degree programs offered at conventional school, particularly with certain online colleges and universities offering terms that last 5 – 8 weeks.  Yes, online learners can accelerate their online degree programs, provided their online institution allows them to, but how quickly the student would complete his or her online degree program depends upon the institution, the study schedule set by the student, his or her capacity and academic record, as well as the students’ ability and willingness to take on the rigidity of accelerated learning.

I Can Study Whenever I Want To, Even If It Is Just Once A Week

Another wrong motive behind opting for online education is that students believe they can study whenever they wish to, even merely over the weekends. But the truth is that you need to take out time somehow everyday to keep a check on your studies; no room should be left for procrastination! Online learners must steer clear from disturbances and diversions while studying, they can even put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign while studying so that everyone knows that a class is in session.