How to Choose an Online University Program

Deciding between a community college, a four-year university, and an online program can leave you stuck. The choices pile up fast. Still, as enrollment in online schools keeps climbing, the virtual route has turned into a practical choice rather than a fallback. A lot of this comes down to timing: people want to hold a job while they study, and plenty of parents return to school once their kids arrive. More adults are finishing a degree from their living rooms than at any earlier point in history.

Some numbers back this up. The Instructional Technology Council, or ITC, speaks for close to 400 institutions running distance education courses across the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. Every year the group polls its members about online learning. One of its findings: distance education enrollments rose 6.52 percent between fall 2011 and fall 2012.

If a virtual program is on your radar, the real work is figuring out which one fits you. The list of schools is long and getting longer. You can walk a physical campus before you commit; you can't do that with an online university. Some of these programs are arms of a traditional school, while others exist only online. What follows are a few things to weigh as you narrow the field.

Accreditation comes first, and it is not negotiable. Whatever online school you pick has to be accredited. That matters if you want financial aid, internships, a license after graduation, or a job once you finish. Accredited credits also stand a better chance of transferring to another university later. When a school holds accreditation, it means the program clears the academic standards it is supposed to meet. Most colleges post this on their site; if you can't find it quickly, ask the intake counselor, or check directly with the United States Department of Education. Find a school with no accreditation? Walk away and don't look back.

Cost deserves a hard look too. Does the school offer scholarships, grants, or loans, and is there any payment help on the table? Not every online university is set up to handle loans or grants. Some grants and scholarships won't touch online programs at all, or they only cover certain schools. Read the fine print on any tuition grant or loan and how it applies to online study, and know what you're agreeing to before you sign anything.

Match your ambitions against what the school actually delivers. Many online universities run bachelor's, master's, and even doctoral programs, so pin down the degree you want, plus any advanced degrees you might chase down the road. Enroll in the right coursework and knock out the prerequisites, which matters most if graduate school is in your plans. Look into the tracks inside each degree. Human services, for instance, might branch into counseling, social work, or general human services. Beyond whether the degree and level exist, find out how the school handles internships or a thesis. Because the program may have no ties to your state, check whether it can place you somewhere nearby and in a field you care about. An internship site two hours away probably isn't worth it.

Then there's how classes actually run. Are there set days and times? Do you have to log in with the rest of the group? What kind of past assignments or group projects have they handed out? Certain online courses skip the live virtual meeting entirely and just give you due dates, leaving the pace to you. That freedom can backfire if organization and time management aren't your strengths.

Finally, get to know who's teaching. The site should have a faculty page covering each professor's background, their experience, and how long they've taught online specifically. Running an online course is a different animal from standing in front of a classroom. A professor without online experience isn't automatically a bad one, but it can mean a few extra bumps along the way. - Kim B.