Those of us that grew up in the 1960's and the 1970's, and maybe even the 1980's as well, remember the correspondence school jokes. Whenever a character wanted to relay the idea that someone had received an inferior education that would always say that they got their education from a correspondence course. A correspondence course was an education done through the mail by organizations that were usually not officially licensed educational facilities. Their process was suspect and the education they offered was very sub-standard. As the Internet came to life and offered more opportunities the idea of getting a decent education from home finally got a fair chance. The accredited universities that many people had heard of started to offer a distance learning online degree and suddenly methods for properly executing the distance learning online degree were being developed. The downfall of the older correspondence courses is that anyone could hire someone to do their work for them and just mail it in and get a degree. With the evolution of the distance learning online degree programs currently available the idea of cheating your way to a degree is quickly fading.
If a large university is going to offer a distance learning online degree then they are going to want to be able to offer a real distance learning university degree and not some cheap imitation. So the classroom would need to be virtualized in some way that would meet the standards of not only the university but also the accreditation board that it reports to. Over time these distance learning online degree programs have started to take on the look and feel of a real classroom and faking your way through it is no longer a viable option.
Their Name Is Everything
A degree from a university is not just a piece of paper. It is a trust between you and the university that you received a quality education. If you go out into the world and do not have the skills you require for your career then that reflects on your university. For that reason many universities have taken great pains to create distance learning online degree programs that not only reflect the quality of the education that the school has to offer but also make it so that you have to work for it regardless of where you are working from.
It has been an ongoing process but the distance learning online degree is starting to gain respect in the real world. It may be time for you to look into advancing your career and your life with a distance learning online degree.
