Wondering if anyone has had any experiences or strong opinions on online college? Because mostly what I've heard are bad things i.e. it's more difficult to graduate/pass and that online degrees aren't as reputable.

Have a read of this sticky: Click Here

I attended an accredited University that has both campuses and online degrees for both my Undergrad and Graduate degrees. In fact I will be attending another University online in the near future. It is good if you want a degree that a local University does not have. For example I want a Forensic Accounting Degree, but most Colleges and Universities only have Accounting degrees and the University that actually has the degree I am interested in is at least an 8 hour drive away. I do not want to attend a campus that far away so I will take their classes online.

The 2 great things about learning online is that you attend class when you want to and you can attend wherever you are so there is no commuting to and from a campus. I can go online and post my coursework or my class discussion at 2 in the morning on a Saturday if I want to and I do not even have to get out of bed. Online classes offer the most flexibility for students that cannot attend school at a physical campus due to a variety of factors. For some classes I found online was a lot easier than a traditional class due to the live lectures that you can view as many times as needed and they showed you how to work problems step by step. Most of my Graduate level classes did not have live lectures so they were harder than a traditional class would have been.

The only negative that I found from taking classes online versus at a physical location is the lack of real-time interaction with fellow students and the Professor. If you have a question you have to email the Professor and then the Professor will have to email you back, which could take a day or two. Also it is harder to ask a question when you are trying to show a professor what you are stuck on, when doing an assignment.

You have to be a self motivated, a self learner, you have to make time for studying and make sure you follow the procedures for the school. At my school you have to post 3 times a week in the 2 threads for each subject you are taking and the first post in each thread has to be made by Wednesday. Also the posts have to be more than just a couple of sentences. If you followed that, then you would receive full points for classroom participation.

For me taking classes online was the best thing for me and the reason I got my degree online was the fact that the college I wanted to attend had a Graduate program, so I could finish my undergrad and continue on with my grad degree at the same college, but the college did not have a campus locally. When I graduated I was able to attend the graduation ceremony at any campus that I wanted.

One thing I forgot to mention is that with online classes you normally have Professors that work in the field that they teach. For an example in my tax accounting class my Professor had many decades of experience as a tax accountant and in my intro to fraud and forensic accounting classes my Professor was a Certified Fraud Examiner.

This is extremely beneficial because the Professor is current on the subject can use real-life cases or their experiences to help you understand the subject matter.