Are Online University Programs the Same as Regular University Programs?

These days the vast majority of universities offer some kind of online degree. Most tend to be limited in the number of online degrees that they offer but the almost all offer at least a few. This does the raise the question of whether or not these degrees are the same as the ones that are offered on campus and more importantly if they are as well respected.

In general if you attend a school that offers both online and and on campus degrees they will be largely the same. There may be some small differences for practical reasons, for example it is difficult to do laboratory work with online courses so some universities don't require them for online students. In reality few universities offer online science courses at all for this reason. Other than that however the degree that you get taking online courses will be the same as the one regular students get. In fact it is becoming increasingly common to combine the two and do some courses online and some on campus.

Where things start to get a bit complicated is when it comes to online universities that only offer online courses. Obviously the degree is not going to the be the same as it is for regular on campus students since there are no on campus students. The question then becomes are these degrees at least as good as the ones earned at regular universities?

Unfortunately, the answer in most cases is no. To be sure there are some very good online only universities but you really have to pick through a lot of garbage to find the good ones. Most online universities are for profit businesses and are therefore more interested in making money than they are in providing a good education. It obviously costs them money if students flunk out so the result is that the courses tend to be too easy to ensure that they keep their paying customers enrolled.

If you are considering an online university our advice is to stick to the ones that offer both online and on campus courses. It is also generally a good idea to stick with public institutions rather than private for profit ones. This will help to ensure that your degree is taken seriously when you start looking for a job.