Online education?

just google for them -- you can even buy degrees without taking one course :)

^What :O? Is that not illegal? Are they even of any value?

Some might say they are worth just as much as most online degrees.

^What :O? Is that not illegal? Are they even of any value?

in many countries it is illegal. And in many others it is not itself illegal but using the "diplomas" handed out by them as proof of education is illegal.

Some might say they are worth just as much as most online degrees.

That is just a stupid thing to say. Certainly there are diploma mills out there, but I don't think there is anything wrong with an online degree as long is it comes from an accredited college.

most "online degrees" however come from no credible source.
And oh, just because something is "accredited" doesn't mean it's any good.
They could just be telling a little sweet lie about it, or have gotten it from some source that's less than strict about whom they grant their accredition to as long as the price is right.

In fact almost all diploma mills have some accredition or other.

That is just a stupid thing to say. Certainly there are diploma mills out there, but I don't think there is anything wrong with an online degree as long is it comes from an accredited college.

And you'll note that I did not state unequivocally all online degrees are useless. But the fact that you "don't think there is anything wrong" with an online degree is obviously grounded in well-researched reality and therefore proves it to be "stupid".

Though perceptions are slowly changing, are you really denying that many people, including employers, do not view an online degree in a lesser light than a brick-and-mortar institution degree? While my comment was made somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it's not exactly an uncommon perception that online degrees are somewhat suspect in their value.

I'm sure that will disappear overnight though, now that you have decided you think it's stupid.

Does online education show a higher rate of success then learning done in the classroom?

Online course = creative sob stories on online forums + google + copy/paste.

Sure, some of them may actually make a decent effort to produce a quality student who may actually know something for themselves at the end of it.

But others only care about counting the money, and giving high pass rates so it looks good in their advertising blurb. We "guarantee" a pass is a sure sign of the latter.

As I've said before, your "diploma" might help get you to the job interview, may even help get the job, but if you or the course provider are a sham, keeping said job will be a hell of a lot harder. After being booted out of a few jobs after a few months, your CV is going to be one sorry-assed disaster area and finding another job will be really hard.

>> but I don't think there is anything wrong with an online degree as long is it comes from an accredited college.

People are not crazy to spend four years of their lives getting a degree. It is more than "getting a degree" or "an accredited college" or "even passing", its more about the learning experience. Just because you have a 'diploma' to hang on your wall dosn't mean that you know everything that a diploma holder should know.

There has to be a difference in the quality of students who go to a regular college for 3-4 years and those who buy their degree.

Does online education show a higher rate of success then learning done in the classroom?

Define "success".
If you mean "more people get a diploma", probably.
But that's mainly because the requirements of many "online colleges" are far lower in order to atract as many suckers as they can to spend a lot of money on what's basically nothing at all.
Sign up, take some nonsense "personality test" that has nothing to do with the subject your degree will say you studied for, pay a lot of money, and get a diploma stating you now hold a PhD in nuclear physics, another one in pshychology, and a third in software engineering, complete with fake lists of exam grades and a bogus yearbook.

Far easier than going to university for a decade to get the same degrees, doing a lot of hard study and research, working night and day to prepare for exams, etc. etc.

If however you define success as gaining actual knowledge, they usually suck.

There are definitely some good online programs out there, the problem is there are way more bad ones so you really have to research to find the hidden jems. To give you a start. Here are a few good ones that carry the same regional accreditation as their B&M counterparts.

Strayer University
Ellis College of NYIT
Drexel University Online

American Sentinel University is also another good option http://www.americansentinel.edu/webdegree/cs/

University of MD has an online school

umuc.edu. You can down online courses all you want but for some people it's the only option (because of work and kids)...

As far as what the degree means, I know people without them worth their weight in gold, and total douchebags that have a master's degree. The paper alone doesn't make the man or his skill, hard work and intelligence does ; )

You can buy a piece of paper, but you can't buy skills, common sense, or cognitive ability...

Online degrees are still generally looked down upon, but if you can find a program associated with a real university, you'll be fine. There are many programs like that, depending on what you'd like to study.