Monday, January 2, 2012

Who Can Benefit From an Online Masters in Education?

It appears that online learning, also known as distance education, is here to stay. For example, you can now complete a Masters in Education without ever having to sit in an actual classroom If you are unable to attend actual classes, you can now earn your masters diploma online.

Part of the appeal with online masters in education programs is the flexibility in time as you can schedule your own classes. This freedom to arrange classes' means that anyone can fit the program into their daily lives - full-time mothers, professional and so on all have the chance. These courses are normally significantly cheaper, and they offer more personalized attention.

It isn't all sunshine and roses though, and a lot of people feel that doing a postgraduate qualification online has its disadvantages. For some, the full liberty enjoyed in distance learning makes it hard to develop self-motivation when submitting assignments on time and logging onto classes. Arguably, the major drawback to online programs is the possibility of being scammed.

The first thing that you need to look at is whether or not your chosen online master's degree in education program is accredited or not. All good courses go through this test process which evaluates the standard of education that you can expect to receive. This process means that all courses have met a certain standard, and the accreditation body has found that the course is acceptable.

Signing up for a course at a non-accredited school is asking for trouble. One may find that their degree is practically worthless to prospective employers and worse, the credentials may not be transferable to another school. Furthermore, a student must attend an accredited school to receive tuition fee assistance from employers.

However, accreditations vary: some are performed by government, some are not. For example, accreditation in the US is carried out by an external peer-review body and not the government. Having said that, the government does run quality checks on all of the accreditation bodies via the Council of Higher Education Accreditation and US Department of Education.

When you are comparing online masters in education learning options, you also have to consider the aspects of national, regional and specialized accreditations. Regional accreditation is generally the standard accreditation type for most graduate education. Reputable online schools who offer a master's in education program will display their accreditation proudly.

One of the biggest scams regarding online masters in education program is the phenomenon of diploma mills, or the so-called schools which give students an instant diploma in exchange for cash. A tell tale sign of such a scheme is the fact that they give little or no schoolwork. Any 'school' that says you will get course credit for work experience is not to be trusted.

You should also think twice about schools that have very low admissions standards, or very short courses where you can get your degree far quicker than usual For example, an online school that says their master's degree in education can be earned in one semester for a student with no past course credits should send red flags. In some cases these schools even create false accreditation agencies to appear more legitimate.

Before you agree to any online masters in education, you need to do some thorough research so that you reap real rewards. To avoid being scammed, pay attention to the website URL because some bogus schools use sophisticated websites or imitate the website layout of some popular schools to lure their potential victims. A valid academic URL will have the '.edu' suffix.


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