For many of us, the unquestioned path that follows a high school diploma is a full time commitment to further education. While this educational endeavour is undoubtedly a noble one, we must not assume that the only way to achieve these goals is through the attendance every day for four years or more at a physical campus. These days, with the burgeoning of internet technology and availability, there are many other options to be considered. However, this very availability can sometimes call into question the validity of any given website – and rightly so. Education is an important commitment, and we should not register indiscriminately with the first online school we encounter, any more than we would attend any other school without first checking out its credentials. However, the existence of a school in cyber rather than geographical space does not necessarily undermine the quality of the education offered by it.

Attendance at a ‘good’ school does not necessarily result in a quality education. While any reputable school will screen the teachers it employs, even the best educational institution can harbour intelligent people who simply can’t successfully convey information – any college course can be compromised by inadequate teaching skills. Different students too will have different ways of learning and ingesting information – a large classroom environment is not best suited to everyone. Couple this with overwhelmingly large and often impersonal campuses, and a learning situation is created that is simply not suited to many students.

Many people return to education later in life, or need to begin or continue working as they learn. The linear path from high school graduation to university is not possible for many people, and so the availability of other options seems only fair.

Online schools would seem to fill this gap perfectly, but they receive bad press, which compromises their reputations. Such schools have been referred to as ‘diploma mills’, suggesting that hard earned online qualifications are of lesser value than those obtained in other institutions. And while, as mentioned previously, there are undoubtedly online schools available that do not provide the attention and support that is required in a good education, there are undoubtedly also physical schools in which the same situation arises. The accreditation process is simply not cohesive enough to allow us make assumptions as to the quality of accredited schools. Different organizations accredit different schools, and we cannot assume that their criteria are uniform. The accreditation list is not a definitive compilation of quality establishments.

An element of personal responsibility must be involved; we must examine all kinds of different educational options and decide which is most appropriate for us individually. It seems highly unfair that those without the appropriate financial means or life circumstances should be denied the opportunity of an education. Many online schools provide a high quality education at a fraction of the cost of most physical universities to people who are willing and able to work hard in their own time. The value of any education is proportionate to the amount of work invested – why should the value of the input of a person who is educated in front of their computer be assumed to be lesser than one obtained by a student who attends a physical campus? The argument of accreditation simply does not hold sway – high quality schools in other countries are not accredited in the States either, should this undermine the significance of an education obtained at, for example, Cambridge or Oxford in England? I’m sure graduates of these institutions would beg to differ.

As do the students of many online universities. These graduates are grateful that the opportunity to learn has not been entirely removed from them. If students work hard and gain new knowledge at a reputable online school with high quality teaching staff and excellent support – how can this be any less significant than a qualification that differs only in its requirement for physical attendance?