Online degrees are flexible, varied, and cost-effective. They’re a great way to return to education if you broke off your degree midway through, but equally fantastic if this is your first foray into higher education. With so much choice on offer, it can sometimes be difficult to find the right degree for you. These tips should narrow down your search.
Decide on your level
Online degrees are at least as, if not more, varied than their bricks and mortar equivalents. This means that there’s plenty of choices but also plenty of room for confusion. The best place to start is by working out your level of study. If you’ve never attended a higher education institute before, then a standard bachelor’s degree is probably your best bet. If your relationship with education is slightly more complex, then the choices become more nuanced.
If you’ve previously half completed a bachelor’s degree, then an online Pathway Bachelor Degree Completion program will give you the chance to finish what you started. These are less intense than starting from scratch but give you the same qualification in the end. If you’ve already completed a bachelor’s degree in the past, then you might want to look for a more advanced qualification like a Master’s or even a Ph.D. These are all readily available online, and no matter how far you advanced, nothing is stopping you from starting from scratch in a different area.
Decide on your career goal
Most people go into online education with their career prospects in mind. You might be eyeing up an attractive promotion or considering something even more dramatic. The qualifications granted by online degrees make changing career paths easy, and many people study online to make a big change.
Keeping your end goal in mind simplifies the selection process tenfold. Some online courses are more practically minded than others. They will offer career advice alongside your studies, perfect if you’re planning to change or even start a new business. Other courses are geared much more towards academia. They’re fantastic if you’re considering a career in that area (perhaps as a teacher or lecturer) but aren’t quite as strong on the business side. Whatever your goal, keep it in mind as you choose.
Study the curriculum and assessments
Online courses function in much the same way as those undertaken at bricks-and-mortar universities. The course will be laid out in a series of modules, each taking in a different area of the subject. There will also be assessments in the form of essays or even timed exams, both of which can be taken completely online. It’s easy to select a course based purely on the end qualification, but you should dig a little deeper.
Look carefully at the different models to determine whether they actually deliver the kind of education you want. For example, it’s all well and good to pursue a Business Studies degree, but less useful if there isn’t a module covering your area of interest. The same applies to assessments. You might prefer exams over essays or vice versa, so use this information to inform your decision.
