A bachelors degree is the degree normally awarded to somebody when they graduate from university. When somebody asks if you are university graduate they are asking if you have a bachelors degree. It normally takes four years to complete a bachelors and it is usually taken right after high school. However as more and more people are entering the workforce without attending university it is becoming increasingly common for these people to pursue an online bachelors degree. This gives them the opportunity to get the education that they missed without having to give up their jobs and return to being full time students.
There are a number of good reasons that you may want to get an online bachelors degree. The biggest is that you can study without having to quit your job. Many people enter the workforce without having attended university and after a few years come to the realization that they need a degree in order to move ahead with their careers. Unfortunately by the time they come to this realization they frequently have families that they need to support making it impossible to return to school and get a bachelors degree. For people in this situation online learning can be a life saver, they can get the degree that they need without having to quit their jobs.
Studying for an online bachelors degree is a little bit different than studying through a traditional college. Although you will study the same things the way you do it will be different. The biggest differences is that you will not have access to your professors. That means that you are going to need to solve any difficulties you encounter on your own. You will also need to keep yourself motivated, there will be nobody there breathing down your neck to keep you working, you will be responsible for ensuring that you get all of your work done. Some people thrive in this type of environment, others don't, you will need to honestly assess which group you belong to.
Another way that an online bachelors degree differs from a traditional one is that you may have a different course schedule. Although some schools still use the traditional semester system for their online programs a lot of them offer self paced courses. That means you can start a course any time during the year and work at your own pace. Normally you are given six months to complete a course, however if you complete it in two months that's fine. This has the advantage of allowing motivated students to finish their degree faster. It also means that you don't have to wait for the next semester to start in order to register for a course, you can start whenever it happens to be convenient for you.