Many traditional colleges and universities are now offering online courses, which are the exact same as those taught on campus, to distance learners. Online education is generally taught in one of several ways, including satellite feeds via the internet, correspondence or online reading lessons. This approach allows students to obtain a degree without ever setting foot into the classroom. An online education, assuming that it is from a regionally accredited college or university, is widely accepted as suitable training for any job in the related field of study.
Online education is convenient in many ways, but some students overlook the fact that it is much more affordable than a campus degree program. Why? Because of student housing & meal costs, which can range from $6,000 and up every year. With online education, students only pay for the courses that they are taken and they can often do so on a per credit hour basis.
The type of online education program that everyone should avoid is what is known as a 'diploma mill.' In exchange for a fee, which is usually up to $900.00, they will issue a degree for assessed life experience. These facilities often have a very professional website and appear to be legitimate. In fact, they even assure potential customers that they are issuing legal degrees. Upon further inspection of these websites, potential students will see that they can order a transcript with any grade point average of their choice. But for what? No classes were attended and no valid grades were issued, so how is it that these supposed legal degrees are actually legal? If any website claims to issue life experience degrees without an extensive review of the student's background or some type of test being issued, consumers should be very cautious before handing over big bucks for a potentially phony degree.
The only valid way to obtain life experience credit is to take the CLEP, or similar, test for college admission. This test is designed to see how much the student knows about a particular subject and to determine whether or not he/she knows enough to skip over the relating course in exchange for college credit. In addition, some regional universities offer portfolio assessments, which allows educators to review a personally-written portfolio from the student explaining why he/she is knowledgeable about a particular subject and why he/she should receive life experience credit. These are legitimate ways to earn life experience, or knowledge-based, college credit.
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