Online Education

There are many online schools on the web that want you to enroll with them, but which one is the best one? Well, you shouldn’t only look at the school to determine this. First you need to determine what your needs are. Do you plan on learning strictly online, or, depending on the degree you are seeking, are you going to want to attend a few classes on campus to make sure you get some hands on experience. If you are looking to obtain a Business degree strictly online courses are ideal, but if you are looking at a degree that is more technical, such as Information and Communication Technology, you may want to consider an online college that has a local campus.

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Online schools such as University of Phoenix – UOP and ITT Technical Institute are some popular online schools. Both of these schools are on the cutting edge as far as technology, and both do have hundreds of campus locations around the country. Of course, if you are looking for a “Technical” degree you may want to lean toward ITT because that is more their area of expertise. However, when looking on ITT’s website there did not seem to be any Graduate, or Masters, degree programs. UOP does have some Graduate degree programs. So, if you are looking beyond just an Associate or Bachelors degree UOP may be the choice for you.

Your local colleges may be more technologically advanced than you think. For example, I attended on campus classes through Northeast Wisconsin Technical College of Green Bay for my Associates Degree in Architectural Technology, and at that time (2006) they had very few online course offerings, mostly general education courses. Today, a good portion of their courses are offered online. I am now working on my bachelor degree through the University of Wisconsin Stout as a distance education student. There campus is about 3.5 hours away from where I live and I take all my courses online. I am working toward my bachelor degree in Information and Communication Technology. UW Stout is one of only a few UW schools that offer full online degree programs, and is the only UW school that offers the use of a laptop while enrolled in these programs. I have found that taking general education courses online is very easy for me, mostly because there is a lot of reading and writing that is easily read and submitted online. However, now that I am getting into the technical portions of my degree it is harder to visualize the concepts that I need to grasp, such as the workings of computer? networks, servers, routing, and wires. This is where hands on courses would be beneficial. Check your State college’s to see if they offer an online degree that would interest you.

Another subject you should look at is financial aid. While you can receive Federal Financial Aid for both ITT and UOP, you may want to take advantage of State Aid that might be available to you; although, this aid may not be for online courses so do your research carefully in this area. For example, in the state of Wisconsin if you are a US Veteran who has resided in and entered the service in the State of Wisconsin, you have Tuition benefits through the state where they will cover your tuition costs in addition to your regular Federal VA benefits.? However, this is only for students who will be attending the University of Wisconsin school system and it covers very little, if any, tuition for online courses. So, while many people attend school online because they are able to work to support their family and attend school fulltime, it may be more beneficial, and less stressful, for some to stop working and use the financial aid available to them to attend an accredited college fulltime.

So which online school is the best online school, well they are all pretty good as far as delivery of the knowledge you need to obtain, but when it comes down to it you need to determine your needs to determine which school would be best for you.

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