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Distance Education Programs and Accreditation

By: Julia Russo


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No doubt you've found that it is necessary to be certain the distance education program of your choosing is accredited. However are you aware why? In addition, do you actually understand what accreditation involves? If you do not then that is certainly okay. Please read on to learn all you want to learn concerning learning online and accreditation.
What does accreditation mean?
Accreditation often means the difference between obtaining a diploma that's valuable or one that is useless. Accreditation works as a official review of the online education program to ensure that it complies with all the criteria which have been specified by organizations which offer accreditation. Now there are six accrediting organizations which are identified by the National Board of Education. These six organizations include:
New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC)
North Central Association of Schools and Colleges (NCASC)
Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges (MSASC)
Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS)
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WACS)
Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (NWCCU)
accreditation significant?
Accreditation is a way to guarantee that all individuals study the identical categories of information regardless of the individual school the individual attends. Accreditation is also a way of telling possible employers the student has acquired an excellent education and has learned competencies which are useful in the current market place.
Other forms of accreditation
As well as institutional accreditation, there is a different sort of accreditation known as 'specialized accreditation'. Specialized accreditation is generally granted to an individual department or educational program contained within bigger school or institution. This may be, for instance, a College of Medicine which is a part of a bigger university, or simply just a specific particular course of study within the university like a teacher accreditation program that's taught by a university.
Generally, a university that carries a specialized accreditation also has an institutional accreditation by one of the aforementioned 6 accreditation agencies.
Should you be thinking about going after a career in one of the career fields that normally have specialized accreditation programs offered, which involve many health and medicine programs, commercial art and design, theology, engineering, culinary arts, accounting and law, check to see that the distance learning education program you're considering participates in this type of accreditation. This way you'll have a better possibility of landing a high-paying career when you graduate.
Ways to check a distance learning education program's accreditation
You might be surprised to find out there is an accreditation organization whose function it is to accreditate other accreditation organizations. That is the education industry's way of making certain no counterfeit accreditation organizations shoot up to aid diploma mills and low-quality schools.
This organization is named the Council on Higher Education Accreditation and they manage a online site at www.chea.org. Only established accreditors and accredited schools are authorized to be on this internet site.
If the distance education university in which you are thinking about enrolling claims to be accredited and either that school or the agency that accreditates it is not listed on the CHEA.org internet site, make sure you investigate further as something is certainly not right.

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For more information on what to look for in a distance learning education program visit www.distancedegreesinfo.com today!

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