How to Choose a School for Online Education

Searching for reputable online education programs can be a bit overwhelming when you don’t know what to look for. Online education has ballooned into a massive industry, with hundreds of universities currently offering programs online. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to help guide your research and decision-making. This article contains a few suggestions of things to search for when looking into online programs.

Accreditation

Accreditation is usually done by a respected agency and involves ensuring that the program meets certain regional and national performance standards. While being accredited is only part of the overall story and does not necessarily indicate that the program is right for you, it does assure you that the school has achieved a certain benchmark level of quality. Be sure to examine the accreditation closely, finding the agency that granted it and the degree of proficiency it indicates.

Reputation

Reputation can be a tricky consideration. On the one hand, reputation isn’t everything, and there are cases where you can find excellent education at less-known schools and disappointing education at well-known schools. On the other hand, reputation does provide a starting point of consideration for the society in which we live. It is not uncommon for employers to weigh the value of applications based on the reputation of the applicant’s attended college.

Researching reputation can be done in two ways: checking online national college rankings and reading through student reviews. National college rankings can give an idea of the external opinion of the school, while student reviews may help show what previous students have thought of their education experience. Both approaches can be useful tools in providing a well-rounded view of the school(s) in question.

Programs

Next, pay attention to the specific programs offered and decide whether they meet your needs. If you’re not sure where to begin, one option is to look at the list of all programs offered and pick out a few that sound desirable. The number of programs offered can also tell you something of the degree to which an online program is established.

If a school offers a number of different programs in diverse areas, one could conclude that the school has a strong online support structure and experience creating distance-learning programs. Even so, just because a school only offers one or two programs, this does not mean that these are in any way weaker. If the school has what you want to study, then it should be given consideration.

Requesting Information

The final step is to take what you have learned and request more information on how to apply. While the school may offer online instructions on how to complete an application, it can still be worth contacting an admissions representative or sending an email request for more detailed instructions. The dialogue formed with a representative can also help give you your first real contact with someone at the school, and may help solidify your decision to apply.