Online Kinesiology Masters?

[AceDeuce]

I may have the opportunity in the near future to have my master's degree payed for by my employer (private school), and I was wondering what the general opinion was of online masters programs in Kinesiology/Movement Science? I am a pretty diligent learner on my own, so I think it would be a good way of getting the education in the hardcore sciences without racking up the massive debt of grad school. I've even heard some programs are offering their courses for free! (although you wouldn't get the credentials that way...)

Thoughts?

[diamondpete]

Online degrees of all sorts are increasing in number and in areas of study. There are some very good school and very strong programs being offered on line in a wide variety of fields. However, you do need to beware of 1) Diploma Mills and of 2) unaccredited schools and 3) schools accredited by "fake" accreditation boards.

The safest/best accreditation in the US is by ONE of the SIX the regional accreditation agencies (for example: New England Association of Schools and Colleges), though there are some good programs that are distance learning only (online) and are not accreditted by the regional boards, and they should be accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) a member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Another indicator is if they are recognized by U.S. Department of Education for funding and student aid. If you are looking at the UK, AUS and Canada, they do not have accreditation systems since basically all unis fall under the control of the Ministries of education and are automatically "accredited". NOTE some regionally accredited Unis will not accept credits from nationally accredited unis... so there is a possibility that a nationally only accreditation may not be recognized in some fields.

http://www.topuniversities.com/world.../fullrankings/

Will give you an idea of the "acceptance level of universities. (basically any Uni on this list is fine- top 500 )

Hope this helps.