[Article] Online Degrees: Will it get you a job? How should one find the ideal course?

I recently took on a project to write two brief articles on online education and the issues involved. As some might imagine, online universities still face many challenges when it actually comes down to their credibility and relevance in the real world. Regrettably, the person involved backed out in the end, so i thought i might share and publish them for free instead.

Can a online degree secure a job? How do one pick the best online course? I hope the information helps those who needs it. Enjoy. -Mr Hans

Online Degrees: Will they get you a job?

Will an online degree secure you a job?

Increasingly so, experts proclaim, though admitting as well that online degrees are still generally viewed as less credible than their traditional equivalents.

One major challenge that online universities face has constantly been to convince employers who are trained in traditional schools and hold traditional degrees to acknowledge their virtual counterparts. The process is tough, yet necessary. It is, after all, meaningless to complete an entire course spanning up to four years if the economic opportunities don't open up.

Students of skill-based courses, such as Law or Medicine, are also perhaps the ones who are bearing the highest costs of this prejudice. Employers cite the lack of face-to-face interaction and likely inadequate practice as prime fears, pointing out that it is impossible to do chemistry experiments or courtroom argumentation without the necessary facilities that virtual classrooms simply cannot provide.

Thankfully, things are looking up. Concord Law School become the first ever virtual law school to receive approval from the American Bar Association during 2007, taking online education one step further in terms of legitimacy. Additionally, more and more prestigious universities such as the University of Scranton or Saint Joseph's University are setting up online courses as well. If anything, current trends indicate the industry will continue to expand and gain more credence in time to come.

Diploma mills may also soon eventually prove to be little more than a temporary phenomenon. Vital information warning prospective students and employers about these fraudulent universities are now ubiquitous through all forms of media. Websites specializing in reviewing and rating online universities are sprouting all over the internet and bringing greater awareness to people. A simple and quick search through the web is now all that is required to check on the legitimacy of an online course.

So what does this mean for all of us? Simple: don't chuck your online diploma into the bin, even if your current employers aren't valuing it. It might just be your ticket to greater success much sooner than you can imagine.



Online Degrees: Beginner Tips in Finding That Ideal Course

Online universities and their courses has long since been the subject of much controversy and debate, with concerns over the issues of accreditation or reliability often being raised.

Skeptics, for example, are often quick point out the countless ‘diploma mills', fraudulent online universities with little more than legitimate sounding names and issuing degrees holding no real value or credibility. Others may then contend that traditional degrees are still held in much higher regard than their online counterparts.

These may all be, to some extent, undeniable truths. Nevertheless, we cannot collectively dismiss all online degrees simply due to a few black sheep; that would be little more than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

How then should one find the ideal online course? First of all would obviously be finding a university that is actually legitimate. Thankfully, there are some distinct tell-tale signs of a fraudulent diploma mill: Heavy emphasis on "life experience", advertisements made through unsolicited e-mail, or the lack of any tangible teaching facilities are just some of the prime examples.

Additionally, take the time to find reviews from graduates to examine if the degree was actually useful or even recognized in the real world. Warren National University, for example, is notoriously rumored to have little more than bogus courses and has largely negative reviews while Columbia Southern University enjoy high ratings and accreditation by the DETC. A simple Google search can often save prospective students serious amounts of time and money from being potentially wasted.

Yet even with the right university, bridging the gap between online and traditional degrees can also often prove difficult. Thankfully, there have been industries which have been increasingly accepting towards online degrees. These inevitably tend to be primarily based around technology and the internet. Knowledge-based degrees are also commonly favored above their skill-based counterparts.

Pursuing an online education need not be as tricky or dangerous as some may imagine it might be. And should one manage to overcome the difficulties involved, the eventual benefits will definitely prove to be worth the effort in time to come.
-Mr Hans