When you decide to get a degree from a college or university through online courses, you have to search through the various programs to find the ones that offer Bachelors degrees online. You will not be able to have the same selection open to you as you would if attended the college to get your degree through the conventional route. This because the degree programs that are offered are purely academic, which means that they involve study, assignments and exams. You would not be able to study for a bachelors degree online that requires any lab or fieldwork.
Typical programs for Bachelors degrees online include design, technology, business and criminal justice. The most widely recognized university for its online degree program, the University of Phoenix, does have a much wider selection that includes education, nursing and health care. This university does allow you to transfer credits from one program to another and from a regular degree to an online degree program.
When studying for a bachelors degree online, you will be attending school in what has been called the ‘virtual classroom’. Although you never get to see or meet your fellow students in person, you can chat with them and discuss all aspects of the course. You also have access to the instructor if you have any questions or problems regarding the course.
When you search for a bachelors degree program, you will find a list of all the courses you need to take to fulfill the requirements of the degree. There will be some courses that you have to start off with because these are prerequisites for the courses that follow. After that you can pick and choose the courses that interest you. There will be a list of required courses that are essential to the degree program and a list of electives that you can choose from according to your own interests. Each course has a brief description of what will be studied to help make your selection much easier. There is also a cost listed for each course and the cost associated with completing the full degree program. Many of the colleges and universities that offer bachelors degrees online also have a payment schedule that you can choose if your budget does not permit you to pay for the course in full at the time you register.
When you register for a course leading to a bachelors degree, you will be assigned a user name and password to allow you to login into the web page for that course along with recommendations as to how often you should login. The instructor sets up a web page for his/her course that gives details about assignments and due dates. You can download the assignment and print it off. When you have completed the work, you submit it to the instructor through the web page. There is no schedule for logging in so you do not have to set a time. This is the benefit of taking an online course because you can login to see your messages, leave a question in the discussion forum or check your assignments at any time of the day or night.
Your school day begins whenever you want. You don’t have to set your alarm so that you can be to class by 9 a.m. nor do you have to make plans to meet with any of your fellow students to go over group work or assignments. You don’t have to wait until certain office hours to talk with your instructor because all you have to do is send an email. Take advantage of the online calendar to keep you on track with completing your assignments. As you can see, there are many advantages to getting a degree online.