Online learning program providers predominantly offer Master’s Degrees. It makes sense. The students who need to keep up their skills in the workplace or need online graduate degrees to move ahead in their professions are most likely to have jobs and families. Online learning is a great fit for their busy lifestyle. Graduate programs offered online today are some of the most rigorous and prestigious available.
What is a Master's Degree?
The master’s degree is the first academic or professional degree earned after the bachelor’s degree. A traditional, full-time master’s degree student may take a year or two to earn the required 30 credits. In some master's degree programs, students are simply expected to take advanced-level courses and perhaps pass a culminating exam. In others, original research and a thesis are required. Some online graduate degrees have a brief residency requirement. Students usually earn a Master of Arts (M.A.), a Master of Science (M.S.), or a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) degree. Many of the online master’s degree programs are professional in nature.
“You can get a master’s degree in almost anything you want to study. The professional master’s degrees are relatively easy to set up, as are associate degrees, which also have lots of offerings. Where you don’t see as many offerings is in the bachelor’s completion area. The reason for that is that the tools aren’t as developed for lab classes.”
Janet Poley, Ph.D.
President
American Distance Education Consortium
Multiple Disciplines
Another type of master’s degree that is available as a graduate program online is the interdisciplinary degree, which offers students the option of designing their own course of study based on their particular interests. Some are offered in liberal studies or humanities and are granted for advanced study and a culminating project or thesis. Others combine academic and professional areas of study. For instance, students with interests in psychology and sociology can combine the two programs for their online degree.
