Today, I’ll try to debunk some of the seriously held misbeliefs about online education that some people are too reluctant to shed. Chances are that most of these wild assertions won’t disappear, since their basis lie on irrationality – stereotypes that become a part of your belief before you know it. A perception about a particular phenomenon that cannot be measured or geometrically proven will always have its share of critics. You can’t help it. And I have no intention to help it, because I have other more profitable jobs to do. But what sets one off is a constant drool of ideas and arguments that fuel such myths and feign to be on the track of truth. As someone pursuing an online degree with utmost ambitions, such cavil guesses don’t only make me sad, I believe they play a subtle role in jeopardizing my future and rob some of the opportunities of my success, to say the least. All these assertions are based on wild guesses, to this day I am still unable to find a valid reason that can independently stand firmly against this medium of acquiring education. Some of the most cherished one-liners darted by skeptics on the slightest discussion on the subject are:

·  Distance learning schools aren’t as good as traditional schools
·  Employers won’t accept degrees from distance learning universities
·  Distance learning credits don’t transfer to other colleges
·  Accredited schools always offer a good education
They won’t spare a chance, they won’t let you argue let alone give your arguments a serious thought. Firstly, the once clearly distinct line between traditional or brick and mortar schools and online schools is becoming hazier with time, today almost all major ‘traditional’ colleges and universities offer some kind of online courses just to utilize the outreach that the internet so economically provides. Therefore to say that online schools don’t provide us with quality education is to argue that traditional universities and colleges have compromised on their quality or else they would have never opted for the facility that the online medium provides. Secondly, the idea that employers don’t accept degrees acquired online is a fallacious and too childish a perception, since it is not mentioned in our transcripts that we studied for the program online or on-site. It’s the subject, coursework of the online degree program what matters.

Thirdly, this is also a laughable argument that the credit transfers gained in one online program is not transferable to another. As long as an online college or university is accredited it is almost bound by law to accept genuine documents that show the student has spent a certain amount of time studying thus they can enroll, provided that they have the essential papers, so this argument also doesn’t hold any water. Yes, the fourth point does have a point, in the realm of online education the greatest and the most embarrassing issue that crops up every time is of degree mills. It is true that accreditation is one of the first and the most important things to be watchful about. But then there is a question of the accrediting agency: is the accreditation of the accrediting agency valid or authentic? The fourth and last point is surely a crucible factor that determines your success and also your failure in going for online education.

Therefore, to say the least, these skeptics are suffering from a disease that can only be cured by the popularity and wider acceptance of online education world over, and I am glad that they will recover soon, since this is no more a dream but a distant reality.