Online Education: is it as valid as campus-based learning?

Before online education, securing a degree from a big-named college used to be the main way to lock down a high-paying job opportunity in the career world.

Now, hectic lives and busy schedules that seem to get busier by the day lack the amount of time that is required to physically attend traditional college courses for most people. Fortunately, the option to obtain a college degree online, and the possibility of studying 24/7, at one’s convenience and in the comfort of their space is quickly becoming the norm.

Back when distance learning was first launched, diploma and degree mills also sprung up and it was hard to tell the difference between a real degree (diploma) and the fake ones. Now, the question is: is a degree that is earned online through a distant learning institution as credible as a degree that is acquired at a traditional brick-and-mortar college?

In simplified form, the answer is: any accredited online college degree carries the same credibility as a degree that is acquired by attending traditional college courses, but accreditation can be confusing.

What is an accredited college?

In the U.S education system, true accreditation of a college is the act of receiving complete approval, after thorough evaluations, from an agency that has been recognized as an accrediting body by the United States Department of Education (USDE) and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The USDE and the CHEA are the two agencies that oversee and ensure the integrity and quality of education in the United States. The accreditation totem pole, to create a visual idea of the concept, would have the USDE and CHEA at the top, the regional and national accrediting agencies in the middle, and the colleges and universities, in addition to elementary, middle and high schools, at the bottom.

The two types of accrediting bodies that are acknowledged by the USDE and the CHEA are: regional and national, but the regional accreditation agencies carry more weight and are more widely accepted than the national accrediting bodies. Because online students have access to financial aid opportunities if they attend accredited colleges, either type of accreditation will qualify a college’s or university's attendees for federal financial aid, however.

Regional Accreditation

There are six regional accrediting bodies that are in charge of ensuring that institutions are held accountable for top-notch academic quality, across the United States. If a college has been granted this gold standard of recognition by one of the six regional agencies, the degree programs that they offer will result in a credible degree. This is true for both online universities and traditional on-campus learning colleges that receive regional accreditation. Each accrediting body has a listing on their main website that students can visit to check the accreditation of the postsecondary schools in the respective region that they are based.

The six regional agencies are:

Middle States Association of College and Schools
New England Association of Schools and Colleges
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Western Association of Schools and Colleges

While the regional accrediting agencies provide their recognition to colleges and universities as establishments, there are also independent agencies that grant their seal of approval to specific programs. For example, the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accredit business and nursing programs, respectively.

Regional vs. National Accreditation: what's the difference?

In most cases, the difference between regional and national accreditation is that the regionally accredited schools usually offer specific academic curricula and degrees, while the nationally accredited schools are quite often technical or vocational type schools that are geared toward a particular job position in the career world.

Although national accreditation is recognized by both the USDE and the CHEA and federal financial aid may be provided to students that attend these colleges or universities, some students may find that they experience trouble with transferring credits from a nationally accredited college course program to a regionally accredited college. The difference between the two types of schools and the nature of the courses that they provide is the reason that college credits may not be truly transferable.

The Distance Education Training Council (DETC) is one more of the well-known national accrediting bodies for online colleges and online education institutions and is recognized by both the USDE and CHEA. Credit transfers from DETC approved schools to regionally accredited institutions may become an issue for students, just like other nationally accredited colleges. According to the DETC, about one-third of these types of transfers are rejected, and their reasoning is that colleges are highly competitive.

Once accreditation has been granted to an online education college, every degree that it passes out to students is blessed with the seal of credibility. Students who graduate with one of these online degrees will be presented with the same opportunities that graduates who hold traditional degrees are offered.

Now that distance learning has become more prominent and students are realizing that working online classes into their busy schedules is more convenient, and ultimately less expensive than the traditional college, many employers are embracing the concept e-learning education and online degrees and honoring these credentials with the same amount of weight as a degree that was earned on campus.

How to find the credible online programs?

As distance learning becomes more popular, even campus colleges with commonly known reputations have also embraced online education by offering their rendition of online degree programs. It is important to be mindful when choosing an online college that sounds very similar to a well-known college, as many of the fake online degree websites have chosen a familiar-sounding name and simply developed a website with a seemingly recognizable URL. Before applying to an online college program, a student should do the research to ensure that the college is authentic and its accreditation is credible.

How do you verify a college accreditation?

To be sure that a U.S. college, whether campus-based or an online college is accredited, the type of accreditation it has and if the accreditation is legit, you can search the college in the US Department of Education or Council on Higher Education Accreditation's databases.

College websites, applications and registration

Once the accreditation of a school has been verified, a prospective student should double-check that the website is legitimate. In the U.S, most of the fully accredited post-secondary institutions of higher learning have a .edu domain, and this is one way of confirming you are at a college's official website.

If the online college is attached to a traditional campus college, the online classes should be at their regular college website, or an extension of it. As mentioned earlier, fake college websites tend to choose names that are similar to well-known colleges but may have url's that end with .org or .net etc. Students can be sure they are using the correct website by checking the address and contact information on the "About" or "Contact Us" page of the site, which should match the actual physical address of the college. Prospective e-learners can also ask the admissions office which website to use for applications, registration and the online classes.

In a nutshell, online degree programs have come a long way since their conception in regards to their reputation, content and credibility. Today's employers are not as swayed by the name of the college that a degree has on it as they are by the accreditation and level of the degree. Employers may even be impressed that a candidate worked full-time and managed a family while earning their degree online in order to obtain an upcoming promotion. Essentially, with the accreditation from one of the U.S accrediting agencies listed above, an online bachelor's degree, for example, will fulfill the degree requirement on job descriptions, whether it is acquired at a traditional campus college or through an online degree program.

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