Accredited Online Universities

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Although online education is so common today and many job applicants are applying for a job vacancy with their online degrees, but there are still many misconceptions about online education programs that can create a set of unexpected challenges when putting an online degree on your resume. If you are an online degree holder, how to explain to employers that your education qualification is meeting the job requirements and the degree has no different from the traditional campus-based degree?

Here are a few useful tips to inform the employers about the merits and validity of your education:

1. Explain by focusing on the institution’s academic strengths

The most common perception about online degree in the eye of some employers is the validity of the degree. So, if the school where you pursue an online degree is regionally accredited, this is the first thing you need to let the employers know. If you are not sure about your school’s accreditation status, you can always check it up at the website of Department of Education. Schools that are listed in the database of accredited colleges and universities maintained by the Department of Education have been accredited to offer education programs that meet the standard of requirements.

2. Highlight your hard works and achievement in earning the degree

It is a common concern among employers that applicants try to secure job opportunity with a fake degree. There are many diploma mills offering easy online degrees to students that required minimum or zero efforts of studying. So, you have to assure to employers that your online degree isn’t pursued in this way; instead, you have putting a lot of hard works to complete the degree program offered by an accredited school. So, it will be helpful to a job interview if you bring along a portfolio of your projects, papers, etc to be presented during the interview session. It would be a good idea to prepare some talking points about your academic achievements and try to highlight on the coursework that is related to the job position you are applying. You should explain as detail as possible about your education because it helps the employers realize its legitimacy and clear any doubt arises from their misconceptions.

3. Emphasize the skills you have gained as an online student

Earning an online degree is not as easy as most people think of, especially if you are juggling a job or family obligations at the same time. Your experience as an online student not only helps you to gain the necessary degree that shapes your career future, but you also gain valuable internet and technology skills that are important in nearly every profession. Use the job interview session to let your future boss know how the e-learning experience enables you to manage a diverse array of task effectively using the advanced internet technology that you have learned as an online student.

Summary

You shouldn’t have a problem to start your career with an online degree. Use the above tips to explain to employers if they have questions about your degree.

The need for you to register with any of the uncountable accredited distance education universities out there cannot be exaggerated. In other words, you must not only be contented with just finding and going to a university, you should make certain that it is absolutely accredited. It is not clever of you to just take the utterance of the university for it. You have to check their claim from the proper accrediting bureau. Have in mind, they spent huge sums of money to own that lovely sites you are viewing. And they are free to put any affirmations on their online page but it is required of you to check that you are attending a duly accredited university.

In addition}, most people finish at only recognizing that the university is accredited. They neglect to find out if the course they are attracted to is also accredited. In other words, there are two types of accreditation. The school, plus the course you want to put your name down for must be absolutely accredited before any employer out there can accept you and your certificate.

Due carefulness is desired when in the hunt for accredited distance education universities. This is because not all of them are genuine. There are so many fake universities offering distance education out there and if you are not careful enough, you will drop into their trap. Make use of the world wide web to look for these universities. When you are offered with innumerable universities, you should not be lethargic as countless individuals do. Keep in mind, it is your job and advancement we are speaking about here. Consequently, you can’t afford to tease with this. Patiently go through the list. Check first for accreditation of the university. The next thing you should hunt for is whether your course is accredited.

Employers are acquainted of the several diploma mills on the net. They know them and can notice when you are presenting the certificates of one of them. Hence, in your own interest, stay away from them and search for accredited universities presenting distance education. You can be convinced that employers will consider you well. Also, you won’t be skipped when it is time for elevation. When attempting to enhance your career through distance education, you should be unwearied to do all that is requested of you to get a respected certificate. Don’t connect with the list of folks searching for a short cut. Moreover, I exhort you to disregard mails from universities that you don’t apply for information from. This is an example of an unaccredited university. Distance yourself from them like plague for your own good.

Scams exist in any industry that generates a good profit. Educational industry is one of the highly profitable fields due to the high market demands. And online education is one of the rapid growth areas that attract many scams who try to cut into the market shares with their diploma mills. In order to control the diploma mills, the US department of education has accredited the online universities and colleges that provide “real” online degree programs.

It is important that you get a degree from an accredited online university in order to ensure that your degree is recognized by your future employer when you start your career path after graduation.

Why is Accreditation Important?

Accreditation is a formal recognition on an entire school or college or one of its programs meets certain standards and provides quality education as by the accreditation agencies appointed by the US department of education.

Although graduating from an accredited program does not guarantee you a successful career, it is a key starter when you step your foot into the job market. A degree from accredited online university reflects the quality of the education programs conducted by the university. It provides a sense of public trust and professional quality.

If the online college or university is not accredited, you will have problems if you try to transfer your credits to a traditional college or university later. Many universities do not recognize credit earn from unaccredited online universities. Hence, your credits can not be transferred and you need to start over again.

Nowadays, employers know how to differential between a legitimate and “fake” degree. The first thing employer look at your degree when you applying a job is your degree, whether your degree is from an accredited university and which accreditation agency that accrediting the universities. If you are applying a job with degree from unaccredited university, you need to provide proof to the hiring company that your degree is legitimate. Else it is very high chances that you will not get the job.

Type of Accreditations

The most recognized and accepted type of accreditation in the United States is regional accreditation. There are six geographic regions of the United States regional accreditation agencies:

* The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

* The New England Association of Schools & Colleges.

* The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

* The Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.

* The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

* The Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Generally, college credits or degrees received at a regionally accredited institution are accepted by other regionally accredited colleges or universities. Beside the six regional accreditation agencies, there are 52 recognized national accrediting bodies that normally evaluate and accrediting private online universities.

In Summary

Scams use unethical ways to get the profit by offering diploma mills, a valueless degree that will not help your career after your graduation. Hence, it is important for you to ensure that your degree that you earn through online education is worth the value and will help you to secure a good job in your area of interest.

In U.S, online universities are accredited by any of either national or regional accrediting agencies recognized by the Department of Education. Previously accreditation is the quality assurance of degree programs offered by those accredited online universities. But, today, all online universities, including diploma mills do claim accredited. The only different is “Good” & “Bad” accreditation, but the problem it really confusing and many students accidentally fall into a diploma mills trap due to their accreditation look good to them. So, how to differentiate the good from bad accreditation of these online universities?

It is important for you to know how and where to access the resources needed to make an informed decision about legitimate online degree program before you enroll into the program. When you plan to pursue your degree online, internet is the best place for you to search for your preference degree program offered by various online universities. Here is where diploma mills with a “fake” or “bad” accreditation set up their traps waiting you to fall into and hand over your money to exchange with their fake degree.

As a student and consumer, you must be careful and be smart enough to detect any potential signs of scam. Any online degree program offered by unfamiliar online university and if you are unable to confirm it is from legitimate accreditation, it better to eliminate from your list than taking the risk to enroll into the program. Online universities should provide their contact and address on their website, if not, you should straightly erase them from your list.

In searching for your preference program, you can request detail information from the university. In fact, information request is free of charge; you should utilize this service to get as much information as possible which can help you make your ultimate decision. Before you go and sign up the program, the most important thing that you cannot miss is check the online university that offers your prefer degree program with the accreditation database which is recognized by Department of Education. Go to ope.ed.gov/accreditation/search.php and type in the name of online university or go to CHEA.org and explorer it’s “database and directories” to confirm whether the online university that offer your preference online degree program is listed in the database. If you can’t the online university listed in these databases, don’t take the risk to enroll into the program unless you can confirm its accreditation is from a recognized accrediting agency from other reliable resources.

There too many “fake” accreditation agencies that accrediting diploma mills to make them look like legitimate. Those accrediting agencies are naming their agency sound alike with those legitimate accrediting agency and having website address that is similar but different domain extension. If you did not see it carefully, you will easily think that the online universities are accredited by legitimate accreditation agencies, but in actual they are diploma mills. Hence, you must watch out the details when you do the checking.

People will make complaints if they found they have been cheated. So, a good resource to check for the filed complaints of any online universities is at Better Business Bureau (BBB.org). Other than that, try to look at what other people talk about the online degree program offered by your selected online university, you should get some useful information that can help in your decision making.

In Summary

You want your degree to worth its value. Hence, it is important that you enroll into a degree program offered by online university that is accredited by one of accrediting agencies that are recognized by Department of Education. Always get confirmation on accreditation information of the online university from reliable resources before you sign up the online degree program.

People who are looking for any online degree program will concerns about accreditation because accreditation is the keyword that differentiates online degree programs that are recognized and offered by reputable online colleges than degrees offer by diploma mills. But this keyword had been abused by diploma mills and most of fake’s online degree programs offer in the market are now claimed accreditation. Hence, you must be a smart consumer when searching for your favorite online degree program and beware of any sign that shows the potential of diploma mill. This article will outline some hints and alerts that you must be aware of when searching for an online degree.

Why Accreditation is Important?

Accreditation provides assurance on the online degree program which you are enrolled or are considering enrolling has met the education guideline of national standards in the profession and the degree you earned or going to earn is recognized and accepted in the job market. Accreditation is not only important to students; it also serves as a guide to employers who are going to hire those graduates, it indicates that these candidates have met the required education standard on the field written in their degree.

How to differentiate “Fakes” & Real Accredited Online Degrees

“Fake” and real online degrees look so alike until sometimes it creates confusion to us. That’s why there are still many people who accidentally signed up the online degree programs offered by diploma mill, and then applying for a job with these fake degrees and get rejected by employers.

The fact is all “fakes” online degrees do claim accreditation nowadays; hence, you can’t just look at the word “accreditation” that attached to any online degree program and think that it is fine to enroll into this program. If it is a “real” online degree, you are lucky, but by chance it may be a degree program that is offered by diploma mills and accredited by a “fakes” accreditation agency; you will waste your time and money when you find out that you have earned a “fake” degree that does not help in your career. Hence, it worth to spend some time to confirm the degree program that you are going to enroll is properly accredited by an accreditation agency recognized by US Department of Education.

Which accreditation agencies are recognized by US Department of Education? There are two categories of accreditation agencies: National Institutional & Specialized Accrediting Agencies and Regional Institutional Accrediting Agencies. All the online universities and colleges accredited by these two groups of accrediting agencies are listed in accreditation database of ed.gov, website of US Education Of Department. So, the accreditation database of ed.gov is a good place to check whether your selected online university and online degree program are property accredited by one of these accreditation agencies.

Another place to check for listed accreditation agency is CHEA.org, it is a non-profit organization of colleges and universities serving as the national advocate for voluntary self-regulation through accreditation. Any accrediting agency or online university that is not list in this accreditation database, it needs to trigger your alert on diploma mills.

Summary

An accredited online degree program does not give assurance on it educational quality if it is not accredited by a proper accreditation agency that is recognized by the US Department of Department. You need to ensure that the online degree program that you are enrolling or considering enrolling is properly accredited in order to ensure the value of your degree you going to earn.

not diploma mills, or places like university of pheonix, i mean real established universities like university of houston.

Online education has become a trend and popular channel for many students and working adults to earn their degree. Online education creates a flexible and convenient environment for students to earn their degree while maintaining their preferred living style. But, many still doubt about the value of online degree, you may concern on how your potential employer will look at you during the job interview if you degree is earned through online education. Do employers look down on online degree? You may ask. This is an important question that needs to be answered because you need to ensure that your degree you going to earn through online will helps you to start your career smoothly after graduation.

According to Market Data Retrieval, a Connecticut-based firm that supplies education marketing information and services shows currently there are more than 4,700 accredited higher education institutions nationwide and nearly half of these schools offer an accredited degree, with the majority putting courses online. In fact, more and more prestige and reputable traditional universities offering online degree program that enable their students to attend online classes from remote locations. This is a good indication that online degree programs are widely acceptable in the job market else the online education will not grow so tremendously.

In fact, employers are more concern about “fake degree”. If you are earning a degree through online degree program from a reputable and properly accredited online university, your online degree has no different than those earned from “brick & mortar” universities. There are many online degree scams, most commonly known as diploma mills offering fast-track degree through their “fake” online degree programs where you can earn your degree extremely fast, some are within a few days. The degree earned from diploma mills is totally unacceptable in the job market. If you apply a job position using degree issued by diploma mills and is found out by the employer, the employer will definitely look down on your degree in concern to the “fake degree” instead of online degree.

If you have decided to pursue your degree through an online degree program, you need to spend some time to search for a right online university. There are many online universities offering the degree of you choice. What you need to do is get as many program information as you can from those online universities, then review each and every one carefully, eliminate those online degree programs that are not meeting your requirement AND those sound suspicious to be “fake” degrees. Once your short listed the degree programs that at the first glance are recognized and properly accredited, your next step is to confirm the accreditation of those online universities with the accreditation database from CHEA.org. Those legitimate and accredited online universities are listed in this database. As long as you are getting online degree from properly accredited by a recognized accreditation agency, you shouldn’t face any problem when you use this degree to start your career later.

Summary

Online degrees is compatible with on-campus degrees and it’s accepted by most of employers if your online degree is earned through a reputable online university that is properly accredited by an accredited agency that is recognized by U.S Department of Education.

Attaining an online education degree has opened opportunities for many students, especially those who find paying for traditional full-time courses outside their reach. But as much as acquiring an online education degree has many benefits over traditional learning, many factors play a role in order to make it successful for online students. Because of the differences in the way that online education is disseminated and acquired, some amendments in approaching this mode of learning need be put in place to make it a success.

1. Choosing the right accredited online college or university – The first step is to select the right institution to provide for your online education degree. Do your homework before starting school, and make sure the school has been accredited by the appropriate accrediting agencies. Unfortunately, without that educational stamp of approval, the degree will not be worth the paper on which it is printed. In fact, “diploma mills” offer substandard, or no education with the promise of a quick (but worthless) degree.

2. Analyze cost vs. benefit – Some students enroll in a distance learning program without considering the cost. Generally, the cost per credit hour is fairly expensive. However, decide whether the education will translate into better income opportunities down the road. Only after assessing the true benefits can students appreciate the rewards of obtaining an education online degree.

3. Degree validation by employers – No wonder many employers are wary of online degrees. With bogus institutions literally selling degrees, employers have good reason to be doubtful and cautious. Therefore, immediately alleviate any potential misgivings by your prospective employer by offering verification of accreditation through an agency sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Education and CHEA.

4. Practice discipline, time management and be determined to succeed – During the course of learning, many students simply lack discipline and are unable to focus. This makes it difficult to keep up with their online lessons and coursework, it is thus crucial for students in pursuit of online education degree to have a great determination to succeed. It is very easy to lose focus and motivation when studying alone. Exercising good time management and keeping in constant touch with classmates would increase the morale to succeed.

5. Utilize all the facilities provided by your college – Many education degree online courses provide online lectures and email access to facilitate communication among students, lecturers and administration staff. It’s important to take full advantage of these services as they keep you “connected” with your accredited online college. It helps further your motivation in your studies when you make use of these facilities to stay in touch.

6. Make use of credit transfers – Many online education degree colleges allow students to transfer their credits from courses they took in previous colleges, whether online or traditional. By doing this, it means students don’t have to repeat courses they learnt before. For this to be effected, it’s important for a student who intends to pursue an education online to make sure they get transcripts and results from their previous universities or colleges and make them available to their accredited online college so they can be passed as transfer credits.

7. Using Educational technology is essential – The only way to facilitate an excellent online education degree is to take full advantage of all the educational technology available. Virtual libraries generally have all the information necessary to complete research projects and other assignments. The online materials have been factored into the cost of the course. The convenience is another reason for using this benefit to the fullest.

The ability to obtain an online education degree has opened the educational doors for many students who cannot afford to attend school on campus as a full-time student.  Distance learning courses definitely provide some advantages over the traditional college education. But, because of the methods of delivering and receiving the material, students must consider the 7 things necessary in approaching an online education successfully.

1. Choosing the best education online institution – Make sure the institute for higher education chosen has adequate resources and accreditation recognized by the proper authorities.  Unless authenticity can be verified, find another school.  Sadly, unscrupulous degree mills offer degrees with short-term or no real education. Thus, the diplomas are bogus and absolutely worthless. Find a school that provides solid education, ample student support, and the facilities necessary to succeed in your distance learning.

2. Evaluate the cost and benefits – Generally, obtaining an online education is a costly venture. Most people do not realize the cost is often more than a traditional education.  So, it is important to evaluate the desired online education degree, and determine whether the benefit of future income opportunities will offer the reward for gaining an online degree.

3. How do employers view an online education degree? – There are many instances where employers were skeptical about the legitimacy of online education degrees. With so many “diploma mills” out there, it’s warranted for employers to be cautious. Although an online education degree might be legit, it would be very helpful to the employer if you provided the type of accreditation your college has beforehand to avoid any misunderstanding. By letting the employer know in advance that your institution was accredited by an institution that is recognized by CHEA and US department of Education, you will be a step ahead in qualifying for that dream job.

4. Discipline, determination, and time – First time distance learning students are often surprised by the amount of discipline necessary to stay on task and complete the online assignment.  It takes unfaltering determination to achieve an online education. In addition, without regularly scheduled classes, it is essential to exercise good time management skills. To keep focused, without the physical presence of educator and peers, it is important to establish communication with other students to have another push toward success in your education degree online

5. Utilize all the facilities provided – Online courses generally provide online lectures and email correspondence to ensure a means of communication with instructors, tutors, and fellow students.  Take advantage of every opportunity to utilize these resources of motivation and encouragement, as well as establish a sense of connection with the college or university.

6. Make use of credit transfers – Many online education degree colleges allow students to transfer their credits from courses they took in previous colleges, whether online or traditional. By doing this, it means students don’t have to repeat courses they learnt before. For this to be effected, it’s important for a student who intends to pursue an education online to make sure they get transcripts and results from their previous universities or colleges and make them available to their accredited online college so they can be passed as transfer credits.

7. Make use of the educational technology – Accredited online universities offer a plethora of opportunities for doing necessary research and other facilities to ensure adequate completion of the course.  Normally, the cost of virtual libraries, the programs to access online lectures, and even student online access and e-mail accounts are factored into the cost of the course. Therefore, it only makes sense to use all the technology available to make the most of the educational opportunity in achieving an online education degree.