I’m not trying to direct this at you because you made a good point about not having experience with the online programs but I do think it’s difficult for anyone to question online programs that are dually accredited without truly getting a chance to experience the programs first-hand. I have three degrees, two of which I obtained via traditional face-to-face classes, and the third of course was online. I think everyone has different ways of learning and managing time and for someone like me who’s very motivated and detail orientated, I much preferred online coursework to traditional.
I also felt like the only thing I missed difference wise from a traditional vs online was the ridiculous cost and fees of the former 😉
I agree that online is a great idea. My brick and mortar schools regionally accredited, both of them, also has an online option and the teachers and degree are one and the same. My non regionally accredited school I went to I truly loved and later went to work for, was very comprehensive helped me get Microsoft Certified and helped me land a lot of good gigs and more money than I had ever made and more money than many with a CS degree.
I don't regret having gone to a non regionally accredited school, but I am glad I have two on my resume which are regionally accredited. My non-regionally accredited school had four national accreditations, all highly respected, but in the end it was not a
real school in the eyes of more traditional schools nearby like Berkeley and Stanford.
I also have a great respect of many models of schooling, however, if your school has one, two, or five accreditations, one of them should be a
regional one from one of the six regional agencies (such as WASC) in my state for instance, so it's real and not a diploma mill or school not yet accredited but with good intentions in the accrediting process.
One school they built, Cal State University Monterey Bay, had the full faith of AACSB, the Department of Education, and the Fort Ord Reuse Authority in charge of the changeover from military base into a California State System school, but it took nearly a decade to get WASC.
The school had to first be deemed physically safe, then have ADA compliance, then have a curriculum which was acceptable.
After that, they got provisionally accredited by WASC.
After a probation time, the were given full status as a regionally accredited school and thus had the full status of a college equal to other California State University locations. Anyway,
www.csumb.edu.
Today, any new person at the school doesn't remember when they were a two person office, and a school in name only, right across from Burger King. This is how a school starts in their infancy, and the school system's regents allowed for the process to begin. But it wasn't until they got their WASC papers that educational books, such as Princeton Review, started listing them as actually existing.
At no time during the process before they got accredited, and were up and running, were they a bad school. What they were was a school in limbo. They had already acquired names such as film director Luis Valdez and CIA Director (then former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta), and that probably quickened the process of helping the original two person startup office off campus turn into a real school with a physical campus, parking, classes with professors, library, and finally online school.
If there is a second, third, or fourth accredited agency involved, the more the merrier as long as the school is legit with its regional accredited status, whether they got that first, or acquired it much later.
The good thing is that when a school finally gets regionally accredited, all graduates prior to the regional accreditation receive the full honor and benefits of having gone to a regionally accredited school. I hope your online school is, or in the process of getting a regional accreditation.
