With online universities’ gaining popularity every year (more than 6.3 million students took at least one course last year), it can be easy to get confused about what online education is all about. Price? Quality? There’s plenty to know before you decide to go back to school. That’s why WGU wanted to debunk the five biggest myths about online education.
The quality isn’t the same as a traditional university.
MYTH! The main difference is the flexibility that students get with an online education. Online universities like WGU Tennessee offer the same accreditations from institutions like the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), but allow students to study when and where they need to.
Students aren’t given attention and are on their own.
MYTH! At WGU, students are given program mentors to help guide them throughout the process, in addition to highly qualified course instructors. Mentors help students stay on deadline, track goals and prepare for life after WGU, and course instructors are subject-matter experts with advanced degrees in the courses they instruct.
Employers don’t like online degrees.
MYTH! Employers such as AT&T, HCA, FedEx and BlueCross BlueShield have formed partnerships with WGU Tennessee because they know the value of a degree. According to a recent survey, 96 percent of employers said that WGU graduates exceed their expectations. You can learn about how one WGU student turned her degrees into a promotion with her employer here.
You have to rack up loads of debt to graduate.
MYTH! While it’s no secret that higher education can be expensive, there are myriad financial aid and scholarship opportunities available for students attending online universities. Also, since WGU Tennessee’s undergraduate tuition of $3,190 per term is billed at a flat rate, financial planning is made much easier. To check out some of the financial aid that WGU Tennessee offers, take a look at our scholarship page.
Online learning is just a fad.
MYTH! Online education has grown steadily the last few years, and as technology advances, it will become even more common. According to U.S. News & World Report, online enrollment has grown by more than 5 percent each of the last five years. WGU Tennessee is about to reach its five-year anniversary, and enrollment has grown to more than 4,000 students in that time.
If you have any more questions about how online education works or how you can use it to advance your career, visit our site.
