Brain Tease Blog

With online education becoming so popular nowadays, it is necessary to ensure that there is some kind of protection to the people who are planning to educate themselves with these courses. There are a lot many fake degrees available online, which would be of no use when you are planning to take a college transfer in the future, or apply for a job. Hence, it is important that the online college program you are enrolling in is genuine and accepted by other organizations. This kind of protection is provided by accreditation.

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is the process by which online schools and colleges are certified by government authorities for their genuineness, after they meet certain quality criteria in education. The institution is provided with the accreditation generally after a review conducted by the accrediting authority, and it can be a long process.

Who can give Accreditation to an Online College Program?

There are many organizations that have the power to accredit online college programs. At the forefront is the US Department of Education. Accreditation provided by the US Department of Education is considered to be the best form of accreditation, and the norms to pass through this accreditation process are quite stringent.

There are many third party agencies that have the power to grant accreditation to online educational institutions. A list of these accrediting agencies is maintained with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). However, it must be kept in mind that all accreditation is not treated equally by the further education and recruitment bodies.

National Accreditation versus Regional Accreditation

Another important aspect about accreditation is to decide between accreditation provided by national accrediting agencies and that provided by regional accreditation agencies. When a college is nationally accredited, it has a wider scope and hence it also gains in respect in comparison to a regionally accredited online college program. That means, if one is looking for job recruitments after the online degree program, national accreditation will be the best. A degree taken from a nationally accredited online educational institute will be accepted nationally, and hence will be better for job prospects.

However, there might be a problem if the student wishes to continue learning in a mainstream college program after the online degree is attained. Even if the student wishes to transfer to a physical college after one year of the online college program, national accreditation might be unacceptable. In this case, colleges taking on transfer pupils will want to see that they have been educated in the state pattern of education. Hence, students who might be switching to a fulltime course after some time in an online college program will do better with regionally accredited online degree courses.

Why is Accreditation so Important in Online Education?

When you are learning through an online college program, you must be assured that the college you are choosing is a recognized one, and its degree will be acceptable for your future educational pursuits, or your career. That is very important. However, you cannot be the best judge of which educational program is good and which is not at the outset, because you have not yet seen how the studies offered by them are. This is where the online accrediting agencies become important. By accrediting online college programs, they are ensuring that the course offered by these institutions is genuine and accepted by higher education and recruiting bodies.

It is very important for you to undertake your distance learning program through accredited institutions only, or your degree will be counted a waste when you try to use it for further pursuits. It is okay if you are doing a once-in-a-while short term course, like a cooking course or a typing course, but for any course that is important to the further program of your education or career, you should opt for nothing less than an accredited online college learning program.