An increasing number of students are seeking colleges with online courses and online college degrees. College online courses have been around for a few years, but the increase in the use of the Internet has resulted in more and more colleges and universities offering their college courses online. Colleges online and universities online are plentiful, and it takes a little "homework" to make sure you are choosing the one that is right for you.

The information below, from www.program-online-degree.com, tells a little bit about the history of obtaining a college degree online.

A college degree has become an invaluable credential for a rapidly increasing number of professions. In fact, in most fields the absence of a degree can stunt an otherwise promising career. Unfortunately for many thousands of working adults, the commitments involved in maintaining a career, along with the pressures and demands of family life, form virtually insurmountable obstacles to returning to school to earn the degree they need.

Recognizing this dilemma, many fully accredited colleges and universities now offer a wide variety of nontraditional programs leading to bachelor's or master's degrees that do not place the usual time and residence demands on adult learners. These are external and nontraditional programs that culminate in the awarding of bachelor's and advanced degrees that allow you to do most or all of your work at home, at times that are convenient to you. Many degree programs offered by accredited universities now use correspondence courses, televised courses, online courses, proficiency examinations, independent study projects, and numerous other methods of learning outside the traditional classroom environment. The opportunity for adults to further their formal education has never been better then it is now.

In recent years, colleges and universities throughout the country have expanded their services in an effort to attract new students. As they did this, educators became aware of an entirely new type of prospective student. This is the person who, for any of a variety of reasons, is unable to attend formal scheduled classes-often an adult who is raising a family. Commitments to job, home, and family prevent these individuals from achieving the level of formal education they want and need.

During his inauguration that month as president of the University of the State of New York and as state commissioner of education, Ewald B. Nyquist suggested the establishment of the Regents External Degree Program under the sponsorship of the Board of Regents of the university. With the endorsement of that body, the first truly external degree program in the United States became available. In 1972, the Regents External Degree Program conferred degrees on seventy-seven graduates. That program, now known as Regents College, has since awarded over 55,000 degrees to graduates from every state in the union and dozens of countries around the world. And Regents College is only one among the distinguished group of colleges and universities offering external degree programs.

There are numerous ways in which you can earn college credits without attending classes. Among the nontraditional methods are proficiency examinations, which test your knowledge of a specific subject and compare it to the knowledge one would acquire attending a traditional college class on the same subject; experiential learning, which is learning acquired through the activities of your life, such as work, hobbies, reading, travel, and so on; correspondence courses, which permit you to bring a college class into your home so you can study at times and places convenient to you; and noncollegiate education, which might be company training programs, courses taken during military service, or courses offered by labor unions, a local museum or library, or dozens of other sources of knowledge you might not normally think could lead to earning college credits toward your degree.

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