What’s Behind the Popular Rise of Online Degrees?

Online learning has seen steady growth in recent years, with students taking advantage of the wide range of courses now offered by major universities. Some of these courses are free (MOOCs) so it’s easy to understand their popularity, but increasingly students are registering for full degree programs online that they have to pay good money for. So what are the advantages of an online course?

Online Courses Offer Flexibility

Studying for a degree online allows students to fit their studies around their other commitments. A degree can typically be completed in two years with around 15 hours of study each week. Many students are already in full-time work and have financial responsibilities, so taking time out to attend college (even part-time) isn’t feasible, but with an online degree they can put in a few hours after work and over the weekend to earn their degree in their spare time.

Students Have a Good Choice of Degree Programs

A wide range of degree programs are offered at the associate, bachelor’s and master’s levels. Students can opt to study a course closely linked to a particular career track, like computer science, civil engineering, criminal justice, finance, or health care, as well as most of the major STEM subjects.

They can also choose to study one of the traditional humanities, earning a masters degree in history by following an online master of art in history program, studying for a philosophy degree, or taking a course in English literature.

The Degrees are Well Respected

World leading educational institutions have offered many of their accredited degree programs online for several years now, and this has given employers time to become familiar with the idea of online degrees.

Colleges have also spent time educating hiring managers about their programs, explaining that the courses offer the same robust tuition and have the same grading standards as their traditional offerings.

For students, this means that they can enroll in prestigious schools around the world and earn degrees that employers have full confidence in.

Career Change is Easier with An Online Degree Program

Today, it’s unlikely that a career is for life and there are several reasons for this. Sometimes industries make changes which result in jobs becoming obsolete, but often the desire to train for a new career comes from individuals who realize that they don’t enjoy the work they initially trained to do, there aren’t the opportunities for career progression in their field they hoped for, or that exciting jobs have been created in new industries and they want to be part of that.

Having the ability to acquire new skills and qualifications without having to attend a college campus means that when people are ready for (or forced into) a career change, they can do so with minimal disruption to their lives.

Education, like so many areas of life, has moved online in a big way, and in doing so has opened up tremendous opportunities for students at home to earn their degrees, as well as making world class instruction affordable for students overseas who don’t have the money to live and study in the U.S.

As online degrees become more mainstream in the coming years, they may even become the new normal.