Monday, January 2, 2012

The Downside of Doing an Online Masters in Education

Online learning, also known as distance education, is no longer thought of as a passing trend in education. For example, you can now complete a Masters in Education without ever having to sit in an actual classroom Internet teaching is now so advanced that you can even earn a master's diploma online.

A big draw card for doing your master in education online is that you can structure the classes to suit your schedule. 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. Apart from the fact that it tends to be cheaper than the conventional on-campus education, it lets students be taught in a more straightforward and personal environment.

Even though distance learning does have a number of benefits, it is imperative that you are aware of some of the limitations of these postgraduate courses. It is quite difficult to get motivated when you are working from home, as there is a lot of temptation. The biggest negative possibility is the fact that you could get scammed.

You need to consider all of the merits of the course that you are going to be taken, starting with its various accreditation documents. The accreditation process means that the course has been evaluated in terms of the standard of education that you can expect to receive. An accreditation is a sign that the course conforms to all of the accreditation body's standards.

If you sign up for any online program that has not been fully accredited, your degree may be worthless. The major problem with this situation is that potential employers won't recognize the degree, and you cannot transfer with the credit that you have earned. If you are studying and working, your employer is not obligated to give you tuition fee assistance if the course is not accredited.

Remember that not all accreditations are equal, and some are government approved while others are not. For example, accreditation in the US is carried out by an external peer-review body and not the government. However, the government checks the quality of these accreditation-giving agencies through 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. More often than not the general standard for graduate education is regional accreditation. Most legit online schools that offer a master's in education program will present their accreditation information in a way easily noticeable on their website.

Look out for diploma mills - these are schemes that pose as schools where you will receive a diploma in exchange for cash. In general, these programs involve little or no coursework. Another giveaway is the fact that they say your work experience will count for course credit.

To add, such a school’s admission standards often appear to be very lax or may tell students that they can complete the degree for a shorter time than what is normally required to earn the degree. 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 extreme cases people even set up false accreditation agencies so that they seem more professional

Indeed, taking up an online master's in education program seems a fantastic option, but one should be very careful these days. One last piece of advice is to verify the URL of the site that you are using, as bogus schools can often be found out by not using the correct suffix. If a URL ends in '.edu', it can be trusted.


When in need of reliable info about masters in education programs, do not hesitate in hitting the links.