About seven million people in the United States are currently enrolled in an online course at a university. It is clear that online education is here to stay and will only continue to grow in popularity. That number, found in a study by the Babson Survey Research Group, makes up roughly one-third of all students currently pursuing higher education.

Many colleges are offering online programs that have proven to be highly successful, including MIT and Northeastern University in addition to online-only colleges such as Trident University. In many cases, the number of students taking classes online far outpaces the number of students taking traditional, classroom-based courses.

There are a few online colleges analyze data about a student before they come in to ensure they will get the most out of online education. They may look at previous college transcripts and find out how much time the student has to devote to school.

Southern New Hampshire University encourages new students not to start with too challenging of a course, so they don’t get discouraged and drop out immediately. The school even tracks how much time students are spending on the course, and will contact the student if they are less engaged than they should be.

Enrolling in the right online college can be a bit of a challenge, but if you stick with it, earning a degree can help your career in many ways — even if you are busy raising a family, working two jobs or serving in the military.

Sources:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/

http://www.trident.edu/