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Are you accredited?
Whether you pursue it online or in a classroom, a career-enhancing
degree and life-enriching education is what you want. Accredited
universities have proven to an objective third-party commission
that they deliver both. That's why employers value degrees
earned at accredited institutions.
- Have your university's online courses and programs been
reviewed by an accrediting commission for quality?
- How long has your institution been awarding degrees?
- Do all of your instructors have doctoral degrees or terminal
degrees in their respective fields from fully accredited universities?
If you don't like the answers you get, consider another provider.
Do you publicize student success & satisfaction?
While protecting individual students' right of privacy, successful
programs make available data that indicates how well students
performed in online courses and programs, whether they persevered,
and their level of satisfaction. Low grades or completion
rates may indicate that students did not receive adequate
support or were unable to access online resources. And student
satisfaction surveys speak for themselves.
Do you provide students with comprehensive support?
You know how you feel about any company by how well it treats
you after you've paid the bill? An online program's level
of support for students after they enroll should be comprehensive,
well organized, and friendly. On those occasions when you
have a computer or administrative problem, help should be
easy to find and responsive. If in doubt, make sure you
ask questions like:
- Can I send my coursework and documents via mail if for
some reason my computer breaksdown or I dont have internet
connectivity.
- If I am in the same town as the college, will the professors
be willing to meet face to face if I have any questions.
So look for a university that has always been student-centered
and doesn't take its student community for granted. Ask
whether there's an office that attends specifically to online
students and whether essential resources, such as mentors
and library services, are available.
Do courses have a small teacher-student ratio?
In a face-to-face class, you walk into the classroom and the
ratio is visible. Not always so in the online class. A school
that doesn't publicize its ratio probably doesn't want you
to know. Universities that give students individual attention
want you to know how many students your instructor's limited
time is being spread across.
If you're just another number, you'll feel remote and isolated.
On the other hand, if instructors or course assistants are
responsive, you'll feel valued … and motivated to persevere
and succeed. And many online students have full lives, including
demanding jobs and family obligations, and will benefit from
the motivation they derive from online connections with their
instructors and classmates.
How do students "attend" classes online?
Students who don't find their educational experience stimulating
and efficient are likely to withdraw or lose motivation. So
before you choose, you may want to find out what kind of online
experience you will receive from a university.
Any college or university can take material intended for on-campus
courses and deliver it over the Internet. (Such programs are
simply using technology to offer a version of old correspondence
courses.) A good online program will be both equal in quality
to and fundamentally different than an on-campus program.
It will have developed a specific model for students learning
online.
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