by : Mark Bankos

Online degree programs, as the name says, are programs whose completion leads to obtaining an recognized higher education degree. However, to earn this kind of degree, you do not have to attend a college (at least physically), but you take your classes online. This allows you to be at different places, at your home, at work or at some far away tropical island while studying. The only requirement is that you have a good internet connection wherever you are.

There are quite a lot of terms used to describe these educational activities. The most frequent are e-Learning and online education. At DegreesBoard, we tend to avoid using these terms since they can be misinterpreted. E-Learning and online education also cover all those activities which do not lead to obtaining an recognized degree, such as online language courses, instructional courses, or any other courses and programs, varied in quality, which do not have to be administered by accredited institutions and which do not provide the learners with an officially recognized certification.

Therefore, you should pay attention that the program you are interested in is:

• Accredited - which means that one of regional or national accrediting agencies controls its quality
  
• Administered by a recognized institution - i.e. not some small internet company which has the word 'university' in its title,
  
• And that it leads to getting an recognized degree - being a Master of Television, with a specialization in Star Wars is highly unlikely to get you a good job.
  

DegreesBoard provides information only on those programs which satisfy all three demands mentioned above. If you are thinking about getting a degree online you should remember that any program which does not satisfy either of the three is a simple waste of your time, money and effort.