How many times have you found yourself taping a checklist to the door of the refrigerator so that you will not forget that all-important chore? A checklist is just a mnemonic that aids us when human fallacies like forgetfulness take over our normally efficient brain. Such a list will also come in handy when you decide to enroll for an online degree, the only difference being that this particular sheet of paper should be chockfull of questions that you should get satisfactory answers to before making your school and degree choice. I can almost read the question in your mind now, what questions should this list incorporate? The following suggestions are not exhaustive, but they should give you a good starting point, after which you can tailor your questions to the institutions and degrees you narrow down.

• Find out if the institution is accredited. If it is in the process of being reviewed for accreditation, ensure that the process will be complete before you enroll.
• Calculate your expenses for the entire study period taking into account your tuition fees, the scholarships and federal loans you may be eligible for, the cost of your books, and any other costs you may incur. Be sure to check for hidden and additional costs thoroughly before you commit yourself to signing up.
• Obtain details about the instructors who will be handling your online classes. If possible, get firsthand information on their teaching methods and skills from alumni of the course. Also enquire about the number of students that constitutes a class; you don’t want to be one in a crowd.
• Get adequate information about your hardware and software requisites before enrolling for a particular course.
• The size and history of the school do matter, because, all said and done, a school that’s been around a longer time has more experience to offer. So do some probing to find out the strength of the college and how many graduates it has produced.
• Make of list of phone numbers and email ids of people you can approach for academic or administrative aid. Most important, find out when they will be available for guidance; you don’t want to be interrupting their personal life just because your degree is flexible.
• Though most schools promise an expedited graduation process, go through your course requirements thoroughly, assess the pace at which you can complete the work, and estimate the time you will need to complete the course. Allow enough latitude for unexpected contingencies and unavoidable delays.

A growing number of traditional universities are offering a select set of academic degree programs online. This is testimony to the widespread acceptance of online learning. A computer and a broadband connection is all you need to learn at a good university. Accredited universities offer online student support services, such as online advising, student governments and student newspapers.

The crux in online education is to get the degree from accredited courses and good internships, workshops, and volunteer programs will make you more marketable. And you’ll find that you’ll be employed faster or enjoying a big rise in pay as soon as you finish the online course.
If you have a bit of work experience it’s just the cherry on the top.

Contrary to what people generally believe the degrees obtained through online learning is just as valid as a traditional one. One major plus for this form of education is that they adjust the pace according to your requirements. So if you have a busy job or you are busy parent you can ensure the kind of pace that is comfortable to you.

If you have the money for the course you can sign up with an accredited course right from your home immediately. But if you need aid you have to make sure that the college you choose is providing this before you enroll. However. As there are several online universities the prices for the courses vary but you will find it worth your time to do a bit of research on this and you will come up with a course that suits your pocket. Many online universities besides offering financial aid to their programs also offer placements once you complete their course and earn the degree.

There are numerous online degrees including masters degree programs. You can also join for teaching, legal, business, computers and a myriad of other programs. So if you are hard-pressed for cash or time you have everything to gain from an online program. Some courses may expect you to show up for orientation programs and a few campus classes but most are completely online.

There are many universities that offer distance and online courses nowadays, but each institution has a particular way of organizing and administering the courses on offer. Institutions providing distance education commonly use four approaches __ single mode, dual mode, mixed mode and consortiums.

Single mode institutions are those that provide only dedicated off-campus degrees and diplomas. They use all their resources towards education from a distance, and are usually characterized by study centers and contact classes at convenient locations, rather than a general campus.

A dual mode institution offers both on-campus and online courses. It has a separate administrative team responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the distance education unit. Staff members who handle online classes may either belong to the pool that teaches regular students, or be part of a set dedicated to online teaching only. An important distinction between the single and dual modes is that the distance education division in a dual mode institution is bound by the rules and regulations of a higher authority.

Mixed mode universities and colleges simply add online students to the regular stream by making use of advances in technology like two-way audio and video conferences through a network-based system. There are no teachers committed solely to handling classes for distant learners.

In a consortium, a group of distance education schools and universities are involved in a partnership in which resources and responsibilities are pooled and shared. Each member has its own management policies though, and usually handles courses in its own constituency.

The Lifetime Learning Tax Credit, the Hope Scholarship Tax Credit and the Higher Education Tuition and Fees Deduction, offer some form of financial relief for students overburdened with tuition fees and the high cost of books.

If you earn a single adjusted gross income of less than $52,000, or a joint gross income of less than $105,000, you are eligible for the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. All you need to do is be enrolled for at least one class in any accredited undergraduate or graduate institution. You can obtain a maximum credit of 20 % on the first $10,000 you spend toward educational expenses.

For freshmen and sophomores in at least half time programs in undergraduate institutions, the Hope Scholarship Tax Credit offers a maximum 100 % on the first $1,000 and 50 % on the second $1,000 spent for educational purposes. The income cap prerequisites are the same as for the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. Those who apply for this credit should be free of any felony convictions involving the possession or distribution of controlled substances.

If you earn a single adjusted gross income between $65,000 and $80,000, or a family income between $130,000 and $160,000, you qualify for the Higher Education Tuition and Fees Deduction, through which you are eligible for a deduction of $2,000.

For all tax credits, you will have to obtain the 1098-T form from your institution at the beginning of each academic year. This document contains information about your educational expenses like tuition fees, payments made, student status, and scholarships won. A copy of the form will also be sent by your institution to the IRS.

When you make the decision to enroll for an online course, you have to arm yourself with the necessary accessories. The most important tool-of-the-trade is your computer. What are the hardware and software configurations you need to consider? About Education lists the optimum hardware and software requirements necessary for your online foray in the quest of education.

Hardware: You can choose between the Mac OS and Windows depending on your needs __ those who do a lot of video and graphic editing would be better off with a Mac, while the rest could settle for Windows XP or 2000. With two-way video and audio conferencing being the most popular means of interaction between the student and the instructor, it makes sense to have at least a 64 bit video card and a decent sound card. Add a hard disk capacity of 40 Gigabytes, a 512 Megabyte Random Access Memory (RAM) and you’re good to go.

Software: Key among your software necessities are word-processing software, a browser, anti-virus software, an email provider, media player and a document reader. Choose word-processing software that is standard like MS Word, and an email client which gives you room to store all your correspondence and lessons. Windows users can opt for Internet Explorer to browse the Internet in search of extra study material and notes, while Mac proponents usually prefer Netscape Navigator. Windows Media Player or Quicktime add to your videoconferencing capabilities and Norton Antivirus or McAfee will protect your computer from getting infected with any of the myriad viruses, Trojans and worms that crawl through the Internet. And since the Adobe Acrobat format is the one most used by colleges and schools, you will have to download the Adobe Acrobat reader (which is free) and install it on your system.

It’s not just the students; teachers are taking to the blended option too these days. With more and more emphasis on flexibility as the keyword, universities are offering a mixture of online and classroom lectures to extract the best of online learning and face-to-face sessions, because students who have to opt for online classes due to time constraints are also ruing the fact that they will miss the face contact with lecturers and friends in an actual classroom.

Bob Reese, a business administration instructor at the Illinois Valley Community College (IVCC), who has offered an online version of a few of his classes for the past five years, said that surprisingly, there is more communication online than in a classroom. "Every student has to answer questions and reply to everyone else, instead of the five or six students who answer (in the classroom) while the other 30 students just sit there."

IVCC is one of the institutions that have decided to offer blended courses, which mix the amount of time students spend on campus with online learning, to meet the growing demand from people who want to fit an education around their life.

"We looked at the good part of online learning and the good part of traditional learning in the classroom," Emily Vescogni, director of learning technologies at IVCC, said of the decision to implement blended courses. With this option, the time spent in the classroom is reduced to a bare minimum, with online work and interaction replacing traditional classroom discussions.

IVCC has also introduced "Friday College" this year, which offers full-time students of blended courses the chance to attend face-to-face interactions every Friday. This gives them the freedom to be present for lectures only once a week, while enjoying flexible study hours for the other six days.

Professors are also enjoying the mix of online and classroom lectures; Lora Vasiliauskas who teaches an online psychology course at IVCC, is also preparing to offer a blended class. "I find that it helps me organize my lectures so they are better in my traditional classes, as well as online," she said. "There is also that flexibility, to be able to address students’ needs more frequently from home."

It can be called a bridge of sorts between China and the UK; Project e-China, a collaborative effort between the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Chinese Ministry of Education, is designed to draw students in the UK into the portals of universities in China, virtually.

e-China was launched in March 2003, and since then, has grown into four pilot programs and three online joint ventures between UK and Chinese universities. The Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Nottingham University are offering a course in the English language for university teachers, and the Beijing Normal University is offering an online pedagogy course in collaboration with the universities of Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and Bristol. These courses are designed to impart training to teachers and lecturers from both UK and Chinese universities in handling a mixed international set of students.

Chinese universities are looking for extra avenues of revenue by turning to distance education programs. There are currently 68 Chinese universities that provide online courses, mostly within China. Two of them __ the Tsinghua University and the Beijing Foreign Studies University __ are involved in collaborative distance education projects with the UK.

Students with an aptitude for and a natural curiosity about international law, journalism and media studies are being targeted by the Tsinghua University, which plans to host postgraduate degree programs and short professional development courses over the Internet. The Beijing Foreign Studies University, already offers a few masters programs online.

HEFCE arranges academic exchanges and also helps staff members establish ground rules, besides evaluating their work. Distance learning materials designed to help students and lecturers in both countries work closer together, are jointly developed by sharing information through a link between the UK higher education grid, Janet (Joint Academic Network) and its Chinese equivalent, Cernet. Online courses developed jointly between UK and Chinese universities can be stored on a local server, where Chinese students can download them at no cost.

Hurricane Katrina has marked a turning point in distance education, bringing it into the focus of many people who might not have taken it seriously before. Most students displaced by the hurricane sought academic relief in distance education courses offered by the Sloan Semester, a consortium of 153 colleges which set up a catalog of courses in a remarkably short time. The effort was undertaken under the leadership of the Southern Regional Education Board, which has 16 member states, and the Sloan Consortium, which promotes standards for online learning.

More subjects were added to the initial catalog of 400 courses to satisfy student demand. Most students who enrolled, did not continue as the semester progressed.  Though 1,800 registered to participate, officials are unsure of the exact number who went on to complete the courses. Those who did trudge through the program cannot stop singing the praises of the online instructors and administrators who allowed them to pursue their academic interests even as the other aspects of their lives were falling apart.

In interviews to The Chronicle of Higher Education, several students said that it was difficult for them since many of them were learning how to find their way through online classrooms for the first time. It was indeed testing for many as mail was often delayed, and classes would start before they had received the books need for them. But instructors were often lenient in changing deadlines to accommodate such situations, they added.

Professors teaching in the Sloan program said they are impressed by the quality of the students’ work, especially considering the fact that some of them don’t have their homes and many have other problems to contend with. But most dropped out because they did not have enough access to the Internet and because they did not have enough time to dedicate to studying. Some just stopped responding to my messages and turning in assignments, said an online instructor.

But almost everyone associated with the program agreed that much was at stake for the students who were involved. When even the smallest break in education can sidetrack a promising career, distance education proved a lifesaver for these participants.

Gone are the days when a degree earned online was perceived to be less meritorious than that earned on-campus. More and more companies are recognizing the worth of an MBA acquired through a distance-learning program; some are even sponsoring their employees to take such courses from accredited institutions.

General Motors pays for its employees to earn an MBA through an online curriculum framed by the New York Institute of Technology and the Cardean University. Employees of Ingersoll-Rand are offered a customized online MBA program by the Indiana University while Capella University offers tuition discounts to employees of Fortune 500 companies like Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, and Wells Fargo for putting the school on "preferred provider" lists.

Enrollments at online MBA programs have soared to an all-time high, from almost nil 10 years ago to 125,000 today, while applications to traditional business schools have dropped considerably. This is because most people have reached a point in their career where they feel that an additional degree will come in handy, but cannot afford to take time off exclusively for study.

An online degree is manna from the heavens for such a crowd. They can spend a few hours a week "at school", and use free time between work and family commitments to access course readings, video clips and class discussion boards through websites. They can participate in online discussions and return tests within certain deadlines. More than 150 accredited business schools now offer online versions of their curricula, says the Get Educated website, which tracks online education.

While critics may harp that online programs do not grant access to powerful alumni networks or to the most prestigious consultancies and investment banks, respect for these degrees has increased. "Our perception is that an online education from a reputable college or university is as valuable as the degree offered on-ground," says Alan Fisher, manager of corporate extended education at Intel, which pays for employees to earn MBAs through various Web-based programs. "We don't differentiate between the two. Anybody who says online MBAs don't work is just fooling themselves."

With the advent of online universities and colleges, the pursuit of education is no longer limited to the confines of the four walls of a classroom. A virtual study center can be created right in your home, and you can earn a degree or diploma of your choice from the comfort of your favorite armchair. But how do you choose the best education institute that suits your needs? How do you avoid the numerous online scam operators that prowl the Internet in search of an unsuspecting victim? Here are a few tips to help you decide on the right option for you.

First and foremost, you have to know clearly what you desire from an online education. Is the degree or diploma you earn going to enhance your future job prospects, or are you enrolling in a course just to broaden your horizons? Evaluate the time and effort you can spend on studying and doing assignments, and decide on a schedule that is suited to your daily routine.

The next step is to locate the ideal institution that offers the course you want to take. Check out various options before making your final decision. Browse the information available on the university’s websites, procure information brochures and ask around regarding the credibility of the institution. You certainly don’t want to spend your time and money just to earn a fake degree! So check out the accreditation of the institute you choose very thoroughly before you enroll for any course it offers. A university with the proper recognition will go a long way in brightening your job scenario!

Finally, familiarize yourself with the various facilities offered by the institution. Most universities offer two-way audio/video conferencing facilities, study aids and tutoring options, reference links, library access, technical assistance, discussion threads and interaction with fellow students among a host of other features. Make an informed choice on what option suits your routine the best.

Read more about choosing the best online university.