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Article Series: Online Degrees
Is An Online
Degree Program For Me?
Are
Online Degrees All The Same?
Unfortunately for those who wish to learn
online, not all online degrees are created equal. There are
some degrees which employers will be extremely impressed by,
and some degrees, which will make a prospective employer laugh
and point. What’s the main difference between the two? That
would be accreditation. Accreditation is what separates a real
online program, which allows you to learn with a fake one where
you can just pay money to get a diploma. Those are what you
would call diploma mills – there’s no course work, no tests,
no essays, and because of all of that there is no real diploma
– only a sheet of paper that looks like a diploma. Also, some
diplomas are going to be taken more seriously than others.
For example, if you received a degree from Harvard, obviously
you’re going to be taken a lot more serious than if you had
received a degree from Mike State. So just how do you navigate
the treacherous waters of the online degree world?
The first thing you should be doing when you see an online
degree you would like to pursue would be to look to see
if that online program is accredited or not. Generally there will
be a place somewhere on their website that you can find this
information out from. After you see that the program you are
interested in is actually accredited, you need to make sure
that the accreditation that they received is legitimate. Ever
since the rise of diploma mills there has been a rise in accreditation
mills. The only difference between these two is that while
one gives out diplomas the other one gives out accreditation
to the diploma mills, allowing them to pretend that they’re
legit. To be a legitimate accrediting agency it must be recognized
by either the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for
Higher Education Accreditation. The latter of these two has
a database on it’s website that will allow you to quickly search
for the accreditation agency that you’re looking for. In some
states it is against the law to use a degree as a credential
on a resume if the degree has not been accredited by a recognized
accreditation agency. This often comes back to bite would-be
employees, sometimes very hard. The moral of that story is
that not only do you need to look to make sure that the diploma
course is accredited, but look to make sure the accreditation
agency is legitimate.
Next you should spend your time comparing
schools and researching their reputations. Look closely at the credentials of whoever
is in charge of running the program – if there is a person.
If you want to learn about nuclear power, you’re going to want
someone who fully understands nuclear power to be running the
course. Many universities will boast about the credentials
of their teachers, so this information shouldn’t require too
much digging. Along the same lines, you may also want to look
into that course’s alumni. If one particular school is consistently
putting out people who are doing great work and finding jobs
in their field, you have to give that particular course an
advantage over the other ones. Finally, when evaluating a course,
make sure you look how long it has been running for. Generally
speaking the longer a course has been running the more refined
it is, and the better it has become. Every course is going
to have a few mistakes in it – maybe essays that should be
done on different topics, or maybe they neglect to focus on
a particular topic – but the fact is the longer the course
has been running the more time they have had to find these
mistakes, and thus, fix them.
If you’re really having a hard time deciding between two different
programs, one of the best ways to go is to contact
prospective employers and see if they know what that program is, and if
they do, what their thoughts are on it. This will give you
an inside edge into the mind of the field you’re looking to
enter. Also, make sure to look on various forums and ask for
information. If someone else has taken the class you’re looking
at, they can give you all the inside dirt that won’t be mentioned
on the website. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2007
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