Educating yourself on the web!
Educating yourself on the web!
Everywhere you turn these days you see an add for an online degree. They are becoming more and more common, if you have a job you probably know a coworker who is pursuing one. This raises the question of whether an online degree is worth it? That is a difficult question to answer because online universities are changing the way that we learn. They are also changing the face of the workforce. The fact is that for most people they are necessity, whether or not they should be is another matter, but for most people they are worth pursuing because they will need an online degree.
The primary reason that most people get an online degree is for career advancement. This is really no different than the reasons that people have been attending universities since they were first created. It is fairly well established that a degree can lead to a more successful career. In most cases people who chose to pursue an online degree are already in the workforce and are looking for a degree to get ahead. This is why there are so many masters degrees and professional degrees available and a relative lack of liberal arts degrees. The value of an online degree is therefore going to be determined by how much it helps you to advance in your career.
Online degrees have created something of a problem for a lot of people in the workforce, they are usually necessary whether the job requires it or not. The MBA is a good example, traditionally this was a degree that people got after they were promoted to management. However as online degrees became more and more common ambitious employees started getting MBA's in the hope of getting promoted. Nowadays almost everybody at the level below that which normally requires an MBA has one. It is now pretty much a requirement to get promoted to even this level. This is happening in all kinds of industries more and more academic requirements are being pushed down the ladder to employees at lower levels. This has increased the number of students pursuing online degrees which will inevitably require a higher level of education for promotion in the future. When EduSpring.com asked the same question: "Are Online Business Degrees Worth it?", they made the same assessment.
This of course creates a situation where as an employee you need to get more education than ever before in order to compete. The day is coming when employees are going to have to be enrolled in an online university program pretty much throughout their working lives. This probably isn't a good thing but it is likely the reality. So as to the question of whether online degrees are worth it? The answer is probably yes, although often not because you need to know what is being taught. They are worth it because the process of credential inflation has made them a requirement.