According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 85% of public universities offer non-residential “distance learning” courses, degrees, or career credentials. Every day, new virtual training institutes open up that offer online career certification in business, computers, e-commerce, financial services, health services, and more.
1.Set Your Own Schedule
Go ahead, try to convince the board of directors of a physical school that 3AM is the perfect time for lectures because you do your best critical thinking and learning after midnight. When your lectures are in podcast form, you can listen in on them whenever it works best for you.
2. Your course materials are available at all times
If you thought you had a hard time trying to get the school board to change lecture times to 3 a.m., try getting your professor to repeat a lecture for you because you missed a few notes. Online course materials are available to you at any time for reading and re-reading, meaning you may actually get some sense out of them beyond illegible note scribbles.
3. Choose Your Own Learning Adventure
Everyone has a different learning style, but it’s hard to cater to everyone on an individual basis when you’re in a classroom of a hundred or more students. On the other hand, with an online degree, you are the driving force behind your own education. After all, if you don’t know how you learn best, who does?
4. There is something for everyone
In addition to catering to your unique learning styles, online colleges come in so many shapes and forms that you’re bound to find something to fit your needs, whether you’re looking for one-year vocational training or a post-graduate degree.
5. Lower Intimidation Factor
University can be huge—so huge that one can feel lost and insignificant, and end up falling through the cracks. Between course control and one-on-one correspondence with your professors, an online school is only as big as your own living room.
6. More affordable than the average school
Forget dorm costs, forget hefty private school tuition and wild out-of-state mark-ups, and forget the cost of gas it would take to drive you to campus and back every day. Load up on courses at sane prices, or take classes part-time to keep costs lower still without having to worry about getting kicked out for dropping below minimum units. Better still, look into financial aid; most reputable online schools have excellent programs. These schools are willing to work with you here.
7. Applied Technology Is a Valuable Skill
A solid command of internet technology for research and communication purposes is a significant skill to have within the workforce, and one that will not go unnoticed by employers. Your magnificent swiftness in finding funny pictures on Google Image Search won’t impress much at an interview, but the experience shown by completing an online degree just might.
8. You Weren’t Planning on Leaving Your Computer
Anyway, bad things might happen to your Second Life character if you leave him hanging indefinitely while you go off and earn a degree. It’s a good thing, then, that online colleges are cropping up in-game. If you make your study and career choices right, you will never have to leave the comfort of your computer desk again.
9. Acquire New Skills
Do you feel like you’re stuck in a rut, spinning your wheels at a dead-end job? In that case, you’re a perfect candidate for an online degree. Study on the sly, after work on your own time, and then surprise everyone when your newfound education and training pay off in the form of a superb new job.
10. Make Use of Old Skills
Do you love your job so much that you’d love to advance, only to find yourself running up against a brick wall because you don’t have the level of education your superiors are looking for (despite all your experience and qualifications)? In that case, you are also a perfect candidate for an online degree. Go for that masters degree or MBA degree, then shoot for the top when your CEO finally sits up and takes notice of what was there all along.
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