Online Education

The Distance Education and Training Council is one of the many institutions that provide accreditation for online and correspondence schools in the United States.

It is a voluntary organization, meaning that a school’s leaders need not apply to be accredited through the organization. The number of online schools that have obtained legitimate accreditation through this organization is limited.

If you are concerned about the accreditation status of the online school that you are thinking of attending, your best resource is the US Department of Education.

Their database allows you to simply type in the name of the institution that you plan to attend, the city and state where the main facility is located and in moments, the website will tell you whether or not the school is accredited.

There are many fine online schools that are not accredited through the Distance Education and Training Council, but received their accreditation through other organizations.

For example, the University of Phoenix is a popular online educator. They are not present on the Distance Education & Training Council database, but according to the United States Dept of Education database, they have accreditation.

A school’s accreditation tells you whether or not the credentials that you earn will be accepted by other institutions. Employers may not look at these credentials, although they may ask you what school you attended.

If however you want to transfer to another school at some point, you need to be sure that the school you are thinking of attending is accredited. Most of the popular online schools do have accreditation, although there are exceptions.

If you do plan to transfer and you have a particular institution in mind, it is a good idea to check with them concerning the transfer credits that they accept. Some of the institutions of higher learning are very “picky”. It is not uncommon for them to reject credits from a community college, whether they are accredited or not.

Accreditation also insures that you are receiving the quality of education that you are paying for. It shows that your teachers are well-trained, that your written materials are up to date and that previous students have not responded negatively to questionnaires and surveys. Without an accreditation process, you would have to carry out your own quality assurance checks.

The Distance Education and Training Council has a good review process and the organization was established many years ago.

Correspondence High Schools like Keystone and James Madison are accredited through their organization. This is helpful information for home-study students and others that cannot attend a conventional high school. Penn Foster is one of the colleges that are accredited through the organization, but of course, there are many others.

Distance learning, particularly online, is become increasingly popular. Because of this, there are some “fly-by-night” schools out there. Before you pay tuition, regardless of how cheap it seems, check the school’s qualifications.

They may be accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council or another accrediting organization. Just be certain that they have the qualification to give you training in the field you wish to pursue.

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