Sunday, March 04, 2007
How to Find an Accredited Online Accounting Degree Program
The key word in the title of this article is "accredited." It is important to understand first just what this word means and why it is vital in your selection of a degree program. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is the national organization that oversees the six regional accreditation agencies in the United States. There is not going to be any question that an institution offering online education is going to have an accurate and complete website. The website will give you the agency that has accredited the school or degree program. This means they have examined the program and that it conforms to very rigid and exacting standards.
The internet is a wonderful thing, and has brought education into the homes of many people who would not have been able to attend a traditional on campus school. It has also created countless opportunities for fraud and dishonesty. It is a lot easier to build a bogus online educational web page than it would be to build a phony college campus. When you are investigating degree programs online, look for the accreditation, and do not be reluctant to check it out by contacting the regional agency directly or CHEA itself. You can be sure that the personal department of a prospective employer is going to take the time to check it.
Once you have established the validity of the program, you can begin to investigate it in very much the same way you would evaluate a traditional school. Any search engine will give you a long list of schools to choose from and should give complete descriptions of courses and requirements. Make sure that you can understand the information easily and can navigate around the web site with ease. The school's web site platform is going to be your campus, and if you can not easily get around the orientation site, you are going to have trouble when it comes to classes and tests.
It is a good idea to narrow your list to four or five programs and then do a side by side comparison much in the manner you would make a campus visit. The one factor that you do not need to consider is distance from your home. The other factors remain the same. What are the basic degree requirements? What is the cost? Are there time limits on the completion of courses, or of tests? Is the school an extension of a regular campus or is it solely an online degree colleges? Your list of pertinent questions will depend on your own needs and expectations.
The key word in the title of this article is "accredited." It is important to understand first just what this word means and why it is vital in your selection of a degree program. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is the national organization that oversees the six regional accreditation agencies in the United States. There is not going to be any question that an institution offering online education is going to have an accurate and complete website. The website will give you the agency that has accredited the school or degree program. This means they have examined the program and that it conforms to very rigid and exacting standards.
The internet is a wonderful thing, and has brought education into the homes of many people who would not have been able to attend a traditional on campus school. It has also created countless opportunities for fraud and dishonesty. It is a lot easier to build a bogus online educational web page than it would be to build a phony college campus. When you are investigating degree programs online, look for the accreditation, and do not be reluctant to check it out by contacting the regional agency directly or CHEA itself. You can be sure that the personal department of a prospective employer is going to take the time to check it.
Once you have established the validity of the program, you can begin to investigate it in very much the same way you would evaluate a traditional school. Any search engine will give you a long list of schools to choose from and should give complete descriptions of courses and requirements. Make sure that you can understand the information easily and can navigate around the web site with ease. The school's web site platform is going to be your campus, and if you can not easily get around the orientation site, you are going to have trouble when it comes to classes and tests.
It is a good idea to narrow your list to four or five programs and then do a side by side comparison much in the manner you would make a campus visit. The one factor that you do not need to consider is distance from your home. The other factors remain the same. What are the basic degree requirements? What is the cost? Are there time limits on the completion of courses, or of tests? Is the school an extension of a regular campus or is it solely an online degree colleges? Your list of pertinent questions will depend on your own needs and expectations.
Labels: accounting, online education
