Just as the distance education world offers a variety of subjects and programs of study, so too does it offer a variety of online education degrees. Students are not limited to only the most common, four-year bachelor’s degree. There are a host of other options, each designed to meet specific educational needs.

Associate’s degrees are shorter, two-year online education degrees that are also awarded at community, junior, and technical colleges. An associate’s degree will prepare students to enter the workforce in certain technical and medical fields, but is more often considered the starting point of an education. Students will often transfer this degree over and roll it into part of their coursework toward a bachelor’s degree.

A bachelor’s degree might be the most common of the college degrees awarded each year. The bachelor’s degree is replacing the high school diploma as the “must have” educational requirement in most fields. Entry-level positions are listing a bachelor’s degree as a basic component in a potential employee’s application. A bachelor’s degree program is generally completed in four years when students are attending college full time.

Master’s and doctoral degrees are considered to be graduate degrees, and as such require considerably more effort and time to achieve than an undergraduate degree. The advantage of gaining these types of degrees is the likely increase in salary that comes with the diploma. Graduate students can expect to land better jobs and make a better hourly wage than students who only have a bachelor’s degree. The advanced degree also allows for a deeper study of the subject and more mastery and knowledge in a given field.

Finally, there are professional certificates that are available to undergraduate and graduate students alike. These are designed to enhance and supplement a student’s education. They can take as little as a number of weeks and as much as two years to complete. Earning certificates can help students gain promotions and land better jobs than they would with just a degree alone. Whatever the student’s needs, there are online education degrees program to meet them.

Certificate Programs

Students seeking online college degrees often have questions about certificate programs. A certificate program is a program of education that results in a certificate of completion rather than a degree. In general, certificate programs either prepare students to complete a specific task or educate them about one particular aspect of their field. A certificate is generally given by a professional society, professional organization, or educational institution rather than by the U.S. government. Similar to certifications are licensures, which are certificates that are mandatory for certain fields and required by law before someone can perform in a professional capacity. These professional licenses are issued typically by state agencies.

• Certificates are given as professional or trade certifications.
• They are designed to supplement or enhance students’ education and ability to perform in their careers. In some cases, certificates might even be used to bridge education and work experience, allowing people to change careers.
• Certificates generally need to be renewed periodically or may only be valid for a certain amount of time. Some recertification programs require that the student has been attending continuing education courses in the meantime.

Each certificate program has its own set of prerequisites. Some require little more than a basic understanding of the field. More commonly, though, certificate programs are meant to build on a student’s previous education. For example, a student who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting would then want to enroll in a certificate program to become a Certified Public Accountant. A student who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance might want to pursue a certificate program to become a Chartered Financial Analyst. In both cases, a college degree of at least the bachelor’s level is required.

Certificate programs vary widely in subject, scope, workload, cost, and completion time.

• A Baking Certificate, for example, from Southern New Hampshire University requires five undergraduate-level courses to complete. Some information technology certifications, such as a LAN certification program, can require two years of full-time study to complete.

The major advantage of earning a certificate is the boost it will give a student’s resume or career skill set. A person with a computer science degree working in the IT department at a company has the opportunity to move up in the ranks of computer scientists the company employs. If, in addition, the employee gained certificates in project management, human resource management, and risk management, she would have a much greater promotion potential, being in position to move into a management-level job in the IT department and potentially beyond that.

The downside of certificate programs is that not all certificates are worth the same. A certificate is only as good as its issuing board. For example, the Apple Certification, sponsored by Apple Inc., is worth considerably more in the eyes of a potential employer than a Certification in Apple Technology sponsored by Joe Smith’s Computer Shop. Distance learning students need to consider whether a certificate program will even benefit them at all. While certificates are a staple of the IT working world, some fields have little use for them.

Associate’s Degree

It used to be that a high school diploma was the standard education, and having a higher educational degree was considered a step beyond. That is no longer the case today. In today’s competitive job market, having a college or university degree is becoming something of a requirement. However, that doesn’t mean every student must have a four-year degree. For some, an associate’s degree is the perfect fit. This gnerally holds true for those seeking online education degrees, too.

The only prerequisite to apply for an associate’s program is a high school diploma or GED.

An associate’s degree is traditionally a two-year program, but the degree could take more time if the student is attending classes part time. To put it in more standardized terms, 60 semester credit hours are needed to be awarded an associate’s degree.
Distance learning students can get an associate’s degree at community colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges, and even at some universities.
An associate’s degree will teach the basic college-level general education courses, as well as the fundamentals of a given program. It is often considered to be the equivalent of the first two years of a bachelor’s degree program.
Some students use an associate’s degree program to gain the training they need to enter the workforce. Others use it as a starting place for getting their bachelor’s degree. For students interested in a bachelor’s degree but not quite ready for that level of study, schools offer an Associate of Arts or an Associate of Science, usually called transfer degrees. These degrees will prepare student for the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, respectively. Students gaining their associate’s degree as a career or professional degree have the option of an Associate in Applied Science.

An Associate in Applied Science is designed to help students go directly into the workforce, and as a result is more focused on the practical and technical, rather than the purely academic. Students with an Associate in Applied Science degree are ready to start jobs in many different fields. The most popular are registered nurse (RN), registered dental hygienist (RDH), physical therapist assistant, and medical assistant. While most jobs are in the medical fields, students can study other areas as well, such as computers, electronics, radio and television broadcasting, and engineering.

There are several benefits to pursuing an associate’s degree. People with associate’s degrees enjoy a higher average wage and a lower unemployment rate than people who only have a high school degree. An associate’s degree also takes less time to complete and costs less than a bachelor’s degree. An associate’s degree can provide the experience and degree necessary to get a job in a technical field, and can also serve as a starting point for going on to achieve a bachelor’s degree.

Although having an associate’s degree is better than having no college degree, having a bachelor’s degree is really becoming the standard in most industries. Students with only an associate’s degree will find themselves in fierce competition with graduates of bachelor’s degree programs. In fact, for many jobs today, a four-year degree is an absolute minimum requirement. Having only an associate’s degree will limit a student’s career options and ability to move upward in a chosen industry. With this in mind, an associate’s degree is still an excellent starting point for students looking to just get started on their educational path.

Bachelor’s Degree

Of all online education degrees, the bachelor’s is the most popular. A bachelor’s degree is a four-year, undergraduate academic degree achieved from a college or university, either the traditional brick and mortar type, or a distance learning college. It can vary from college to college, but the average number of credit hours required to earn a bachelor’s degree is 120. While some of those credits come from general education courses and electives, the bulk of students’ credits must come from taking courses within their major program of study. Most programs will have a list of required courses in the major, along with a choice of advanced electives also offered within the major.

As with the associate’s degree, the only prerequisite for pursuing a bachelor’s degree is a high school diploma or GED. Along with that, students will be required to submit the scores from standardized college entrance exams such as the SAT or ACT.

There are several different types of bachelor’s degrees. The two most common are the Bachelor of Arts and the Bachelor of Science.

• The Bachelor of Arts degree requires a majority of coursework in the arts, areas such as social science, the humanities, music, or fine arts. It usually involves learning qualitative research methods such as literary analysis and ethnography.
• The Bachelor of Science degree requires a majority of the coursework to be taken in the sciences, such as life sciences, physical sciences, or mathematics. It’s more focused on quantitative analysis, such as statistics and other forms of number crunching. There are almost as many different types of bachelor’s degrees as there are available majors. A few of the others are Bachelor of Architecture, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Fine Art, Bachelor of Engineering, and Bachelor of Business Administration.
  A bachelor’s degree is the gateway to the working world. The number of jobs available to students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree is almost endless. A bachelor’s degree will prepare students for jobs in the fields of communications, arts and entertainment, engineering, teaching, nursing, business, finance, information technology, criminal justice, and cooking, just to name a very few. More than likely, if a student is interested in a particular job, a bachelor’s degree is either required for it or is the first step in acquiring the rest of the education needed to land the job.

The major disadvantages associated with earning a bachelor’s degree are time and money. The degree takes four years to complete when students are taking a full-time course load. With distance learning students, who are more likely to be going to school part time, those four years can turn out to be more like six or even eight years; it’s a very long-term commitment to be pursuing a bachelor’s degree. The cost can also be prohibitive. Tuition costs have skyrocketed in the last decade, and the average student has no hope of paying for a full-time semester out of pocket. Even with assistance in the form of financial aid and scholarships, it is likely that students will still need to take out loans in order to pay the cost of tuition. While earning a bachelor’s degree gives students an excellent chance of landing a well-paying job, it typically also gives them a debt to repay.

The bachelor’s degree provides many advantages, not the least of which is a greater chance at finding a job than having only an associate’s degree provides. A bachelor’s degree will also translate into a larger salary and provide students with more opportunities for career growth. In addition, a bachelor’s degree is required for any student looking to enroll in a post-graduate degree program.

Master’s Degree

A master’s degree is a post-graduate or advanced degree that can take anywhere from one to three years to complete. It is awarded to students who have undergone study beyond that of an undergraduate degree and show a mastery of a given field of study or particular professional practice. It is considered to be a research degree, and as such, a thesis or master’s project of some sort is usually required to complete the program. There are many online education programs which offer master’s degrees.

A master’s degree program typically contains some coursework, and the topics are very specific. The program is designed to draw students into a tighter focus on a particular subject, helping them to become experts in their field. For example, a student who received a bachelor’s degree in geology might then further specialize by enrolling in a master’s degree program in mineralogy, geophysics, hydrogeology, or igneous petrology. Along with coursework, students will complete a thesis, a major project, or even a significant body of work, such as an art exhibit for an MFA student.

Much of a master’s degree program requires independent study, which distance learning students are already familiar with. Students will work closely with a thesis or project advisor throughout their terms as master’s degree candidates while completing their thesis or master’s degree project. The two most common master’s degrees are the Master of Arts and the Master of Science, but the best-known degree might be the MBA or Master of Business Administration.

In most cases, a master’s degree allows students to enter the working world at a higher or more advanced level than they would by just having a bachelor’s degree. Having a master’s degree, along with the portfolio of work acquired while studying for that degree, might allow them to skip the “entry-level” phase of the hiring process and receive a position requiring more experience. This would result in a job with a higher starting salary. Moreover, master’s degrees are often required for management positions, be it an advanced engineering degree for someone working in a technology field or an MBA for someone working in the finance industry.

Another advantage of pursuing a master’s degree is having the opportunity to become fully immersed in subject matter that a student is passionate about. This can be an invaluable experience and provide students with a body of work they can use to market themselves when they complete their graduate program. In addition, enrolling in a graduate program gives them access to a school’s alumni database. These alumni connections can provide opportunities for internships, fellowships, and jobs.
As with any degree, obtaining a graduate degree has the disadvantage of cost, measured in time, effort, and money. In some cases, students will receive grants to continue their studies as master’s students, especially if they will be assisting professors in their research. More likely, however, is that the student will have to take on additional debt for this level of education. In addition, because it is an advanced degree, the amount of time and effort expended is much greater than that required for a bachelor’s degree. Students can expect to do a heavy amount of research along with an enormous amount of writing or creation, depending on their focus. Overall, the extra effort is often considered worth it for the chance to gain a better job, one that suits the student’s passion perfectly and pays a higher salary.

Doctoral Degree

A doctoral degree, or doctorate, is the highest level of academic degree, and in some cases is called a terminal degree. Depending on the program, a Ph.D. could take four to eight years to complete. Typically, a Ph.D. in North American programs entails two to three years of coursework and a dissertation – an independent research project designed to uncover new knowledge in the student’s particular field. Dissertations need to be of publishable quality, and are usually published in trade or academic journals when completed. Some Ph.D.s are considered to be practitioner degrees and require one or more years of internship or in-the-field training, possibly in lieu of a dissertation. These days, many online universities offer a doctoral degree.

A bachelor’s degree is the base requirement for any advanced degree. For most doctoral degree programs, a master’s degree is also required, but some programs allow students to enroll with only a bachelor’s degree. These doctoral degree programs will be longer in duration, and the students simply earn their master’s degrees on the way to gaining the doctorate. The advantage of this particular course of study is the uninterrupted nature of the degree. Students don’t need to apply for a master’s degree program, write a separate thesis, graduate, and then apply for doctoral programs and potentially start anew at a different college that will provide a completely different learning environment. Students in a continuous master’s-doctoral degree program will be able to immerse themselves completely in their research and develop a potentially more meaningful dissertation or capstone project.

A doctorate is typically required to be able to teach at most colleges and universities. Some community colleges will allow people with master’s degrees to teach some of the basic courses, but for the most part, the doctorate is considered to be the teaching degree. In the working world, however, very few careers actually require a doctoral degree. Distance learning students looking to go into deep research fields will require a doctorate in areas such as biochemistry, nuclear physics, anthropology, and archeology. A doctorate also allows students to go into high-level medical fields. They might work as surgeons, psychiatrists, veterinarians, or prosthodontists.

One advantage of a doctorate is the chance to work on the cutting edge of a student’s chosen field. Students with doctorates are often working on the newest forms of technology, research, and medical science. They get to see products in their earliest phases, be it a new computer operating system that will revolutionize the tablet computer industry or a medication that can cure cancer. They might even be the one to discover a new sign of life in the solar system.

While a doctoral degree can open the door to the highest-paying jobs and most exciting work, it can also limit a student’s career choices. Competition for post-doctoral work can be fierce, and students graduating with a doctorate might find themselves considered overqualified for certain positions. They might get passed over by employers in favor of a candidate who will not require such a high salary. Once graduates gain employment, however, and start producing their own research or working on new product development, the sky’s the limit. They can practically name their own salaries and work in some of the best locations.