In fact, the diploma doesn’t say “online” at all and the only way the employer would know is if you tell them or if you attend one of those schools that everyone knows is online.

Reality is that almost every college in the US is now teaching online and very many offer their degrees wholly online. Some people who are stuck in 1982 haven’t figured that out yet and will tell you “online = bad” but you can look around yourself – Harvard, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and Oxford (among many others) are teaching online so they must think it viable.

To verify “well ranked” – check the US News and World Reports rankings – the best online programs are at the best traditional colleges.

To verify accreditation – take a minute to learn what regional accreditation is. It’s what you want. http://distancelearn.about.com/od/accreditationinfo/a/regional.htm

Check your choices against the accreditors web site list. Be careful not to fall for “we’re accredited” claims if schools that accredited themselves.

Frankly, it should not make a difference whether you got your degree from an online program or from a university, you are essentially learning the same thing.

in fact, it might be advisable to study online, you are able to work at your own pace which means that by the end of the course you have learned something thoroughly versus at a university level where you are rushed through learning everything and scarcely remember things the next day.