Online College Degrees

[MadVlad]

I'm looking to get my Bachelor's in Psychology, I don't have the luxury of actually going to a college to take classes, so I'd like to do it online. Anyone know what the best Online College's are? I've done some searching, and there are a ton out there (most schools offer online degrees at this point) but there are also a ton I've never heard of, so I don't even know if they are accredited or whatever, and they all list associations that they are endorsed by, but I have no idea which are legit or not. Anyone know anything?

[Neo]

The Department of Education has a list of all schools which are accredited: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/

[MadVlad]

Nice, thanks!

[cloudship]

Before you jump into an online degree, I would suggest you take a trial online course. Three are many students who excel in the online environment. There are also many who find that the lack of live contact and home distractions make online learning very difficult. Online classes take a lot of focus and discipline, and they are not usually easier than live classes. That being said, an online degree might just be the perfect match for your learning style.

There's more to an online degree than the accreditation, however. You also want to make sure you know how much true support the hosting college really gives to online degrees, make sure they truly are online and don't have special classes, meetings, or enrollment/graduation requirements that require you to go to the school. You also want to make sure you have faculty that are knowledgeable about and comfortable with teaching online classes.

[MadVlad]

Before you jump into an online degree, I would suggest you take a trial online course. Three are many students who excel in the online environment. There are also many who find that the lack of live contact and home distractions make online learning very difficult. Online classes take a lot of focus and discipline, and they are not usually easier than live classes. That being said, an online degree might just be the perfect match for your learning style.

There's more to an online degree than the accreditation, however. You also want to make sure you know how much true support the hosting college really gives to online degrees, make sure they truly are online and don't have special classes, meetings, or enrollment/graduation requirements that require you to go to the school. You also want to make sure you have faculty that are knowledgeable about and comfortable with teaching online classes.

Good advice. Now, I actually already have an online degree, so I know that the online environment is the right one for me. That being said, my last experience was a set-up through work, so I won't be going the same route, I'll be going to a different school, and I had no idea how to go about finding a good online college that won't charge me crazy money. I could always go the Un. of Phoenix route, but I wasn't sure if that's even a good school...

[Neo]

Good advice. Now, I actually already have an online degree, so I know that the online environment is the right one for me. That being said, my last experience was a set-up through work, so I won't be going the same route, I'll be going to a different school, and I had no idea how to go about finding a good online college that won't charge me crazy money. I could always go the Un. of Phoenix route, but I wasn't sure if that's even a good school...

Penn State has an online division that runs parallel to their onsite courses. You even graduate with the rest of the class and to my understanding there is no differentiation between attending classes onsite or via the Internet. Penn State is obviously a very good school (IMO) so you may want to look there. I would imagine that it would also carry more weight than a University of Phoenix degree when compared against other resumes. Not saying that's something that should be done, but I can imagine that happens all the time.

Most online colleges seem to require some onsite courses or visits, particularly for undergrad degrees which is a complete bummer. UoP and Penn State are two of the few I've seen that offer everything via the web. One thing about Penn State online is that you'll need to do testing via your own private proctor I believe whereas UoP has either no exams or exams online that don't require you to do such a thing in an offline environment.

[Gard]

I did my second Bachelors degree (that I'm now working on the Masters on as well the same way) completely online at Strayer University. They are a regionally accredited school that has campuses all all over the place and gives you the option of doing your classes online (both in asynchronous or synchronous format) , offline, or a combination of those. The quarters are 11 weeks long, with mid-terms in week 5 and mandatory term-papers for every class, even math. I've always done the asynchronous courses online, which also have a requirement of participating in the weekly discussion question(s), which are more or less like a message board where you post and respond to the question and comment to other students on their answer, etc. Some of the classes, like any college you go to, will be easy, others are tough and some are somewhere in between.

Aside from that, I think that online schools are rapidly gaining acceptance, with people seeing the convenience they offer (especially to working adults) and especially in this economy when people are seeking to increase their skill sets just to hold onto their jobs and adapt to the many changes in the workplace. With the decreases in staff at many companies, which is increasing the work hours of the staff left, in addition to the usual pressures of family life, many people can't find the time to go to a campus and attend classes at a fixed time, so online courses only make sense.

[MadVlad]

I got my Associates via Pace University 100% online. The tests were proctored, which is no big deal. I could have graduated with the "real" Pace students had I chosen to, and I almost did. Their campus is only about an hour from my house, but I have very small children, so it was just too difficult to swing. UoP having no proctors or just online exams would be phenomenal, I could just do them at my leisure (within their timeframe, of course). Penn State is a great school, I'll definitely look into that. One problem might be that my Associates is an Associates of Science in Applied IT, Telecommunications, but I want to switch direction and get my Bachelors in Psychology, so I'd have to determine what prereq's I'd have to take just to get in...