Accredited Distance Education
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Accredited distance education is the perfect way for a student to work at a job and attend school or perhaps avoid the cost of room and board yet attend an educational institute where one has always dreamt of studying. In either case, the advent of the computer has opened a whole new educational panorama for students young or old. It is possible to attend the finest schools in the world and yet avoid the many on campus hassles that are so often prevalent. Distance education is almost always the choice of the adult learner looking to begin a course of study, or pursue a secondary degree. But the problem is in the details of this great option. Does the school offer the highest accredited distance education?
After all no one wants to go to a dentist who got his diploma from K-Mart. Neither does a law school want to admit a student who has had her Bachelor's training at an unaccredited school. Accredited distance education means that certain standards have been met by the school of choice. It means a graduate has acquired the knowledge and skills for his major and can meet the expected standard anywhere the accreditation is accepted. Accreditation is the gold standard, so to speak of education. An unaccredited school means that the graduates may have a difficult time finding work if the diploma bears weight in the hiring process. An unaccredited center of learning means that faculty standards may be low, that curricula may be substandard and that grade expectations may have been lowered.
Unaccredited centers of learning have not met the standards of the six regional accrediting agencies across the nation. These six agencies have been the judge and jury on educational standards not only here in America, but across Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific islands. The traditional brick and mortar schools that have enjoyed the blessing of these agencies now share this approval with many accredited distance education providers. The ability to receive a complete college degree online was not possible fifteen years ago, and the first few years of online education did not produce many accredited programs. But as the standards were raised for Internet education, so also have been the judgments of those agencies that accredit the online courses. Many online courses now have the same endorsement as the ones taken right on campus. But caution must be exercised because not all accreditations are the same.
The most sought after accreditations are the ones issued by the six regional agencies. These are Middle State Association of Colleges and Schools, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the Northwest Commissions on Colleges and Universities, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. For Bachelor's degree work and above, these are the agencies that give credence to any accredited distance education program. For some degrees and some jobs, this may not keep someone from being considered or hired for a position. But for a professional career, it is imperative that a degree be recognized by one of the agencies. The tricky part about accreditation is the other accrediting bodies that also sanction online education.
There are thousands of online educational programs that have the accreditation of some agency or governing body. Christian schools or certain business schools may fall under one of the big six accrediting bodies or may be sanctioned by another agency. While that other accrediting agency may have just as strict an academic standard as the big six possess, that accreditation does not have the same weight. This could prove a problem when trying to be admitted to another school for Masters or PhD work. Educational providers can be very particular and even elitist regarding the pedigree of one's accredited distance education work.
The word accredited is thrown around quite handily by many suppliers of online educational opportunities. Sadly a number of so called accredited distance education providers, in order to circumvent the accreditation issue, have created their own accrediting bodies in order to give credence to their online education offerings. This less than dubious practice is often followed in order to gain more students or cover up a lower than acceptable standard curriculum, faculty or other subpar aspect of its educational program. In other words, the word accredited cannot always be taken at face value. Neither can the word Christian. Jesus said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Deciding to do online college work or pursue an associate's degree with a distance education trade school is a big step. It will require the discipline of a soldier to sit down day after day and work on assignments and long papers without the supervision of someone looking over one's shoulders. But it is not only a disciplined decision, but it is also a financially costly decision. Once a degree program is completed, there may be a number of years involved in paying off the cost of that accredited distance education. It would be not only a costly monetary mistake but an extremely disappointing and perhaps highly discouraging mistake to discover later that one's hard work in achieving a college degree online was not valued by employers or other schools. Make sure all the right questions are asked before agreeing to an online course of study and consider all the ramifications of that decision before plunging ahead.
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