Distance / online education puts you at a disadvantage in the work world?

As I mentioned earlier, I took distance education courses and just loved it! I tried convincing a friend to take correspondence courses as well and I had him converted, except his dad kept suggesting to him that correspondence education (and by extension, I'd say it'd include online education) is second-class.

What hogwash!

If anything, being successful in distance / online education proves that you are a self-starter, disciplined and independent, things that not many employers would see as negatives.

Fearing that some old school department head might see my distance education as a negative, that's the spin I put on my university application and I (gratefully) sailed through. And my correspondence education didn't set me back in the work market either, as I landed my first job at a major newspaper after a year at university.

My views are backed up by the following:

The stereotypes of distance learning is changing. Before online education, distance learning meant mail order degrees. Now prestigious universities like Boston University and Cornell are getting into this newly emerging form of teaching. Employers are more concerned with what you learned, and what your grades were, than the name of an institution. It's rare that an employer will hire you if you got Cs in all your class, but you graduated from a top tier school. They would rather see someone have As from an accredited college, with classes that apply in the world environment.

If you have an online degree this is what an employer sees:

• You are independent, and can work with less instruction.
• You have technical skills, and you can communicate via other channels other then face to face interaction.
• You are dedicated to self-improvement, and you are motivated.

Source

So the next time someone tries to put you down for studying online or taking distance education courses, tell them to get real - wake up and smell the coffee!