Thinking About More Education or Going Back to School?

If you have found this piece then you probably already know what an online degree is, and are more than likely thinking about returning to school in the very near future.

But, just to make sure we are all on the same page, an online degree is a college degree (associate's or bachelor's primarily) that you can obtain by working over the internet rather than attending traditional college lectures are currently a popular method of working while attending school to either upgrade your resume or retrain for a different career.
Distance learning is a good choice for people who are mid-career, who perhaps do not have all the money up front to pay for an entire education or people just looking to go back to school without disrupting the rhythm of their everyday lives. So now that you have decided you are going to get your online degree, how do you go about making sense of the myriad of options available to you? Set your goals What do you hope to achieve with this additional qualification? Is it to expand your own knowledge base or advance your career options? The answer will determine whether the name of the educational institution is priority for you or not.
Work out your budget While cheaper than a traditional college degree, online degrees are still not free.

The pricing is as diverse as a few dollars per credit course to a few hundred dollars! So make sure you know exactly how much you will need to shell out and whether you can afford it.
Accreditation Are you pursuing a course that will hopefully see you accredited in a specific field? If so, you want to make sure that the accreditation is, where possible, regional and at the very least that it covers the area you will want to practice in.

Admission requirements These vary from college to college and are worth looking at closely to ensure you qualify.
Get your technology on As the course will be done online, you need to be clear on the hardware, software and internet speed requirements for your course.
There is nothing worse than having to wait forever to download graphs or charts because your internet connection is too slow. Get value for your money.

Just because it is an online degree does not mean it should not make the grade.

Be sure to do your homework and find out the following: Is the college accredited (and this does not mean a state license)? What are the credentials of the teaching faculty - are they actually qualified to teach the courses they are offering? How big are the classes? Big classes would suggest a good reputation for the school but smaller classes could mean more individualised attention for you from your lecturer.
What is this college's reputation? Do a web search, find independent reviews and, if possible, talk to people who received their online degrees from there to find out what their experiences were.
It is not an exhaustive list but it should go a long way towards helping you narrow your list of potential colleges.