The growing number of fully-online universities nationwide makes finding a good online university a challenge. Not to mention that traditional universities that have been in existence for years are increasingly offering new online versions of their successful campus-based degree programs. While it is helpful that there are more options to choose from, those options make it necessary for you to map out a strategy for sifting the good online universities from the bad. Here we will outline three useful means of narrowing down your list of online universities to the best possible options.

Accreditation

The best online universities are ones that have earned accreditation from an independent accrediting organization. You can check if a school is listed on the U.S. Department of Education’s database of accredited postsecondary institutions by typing in the name of a school into the search box provided. A search in this database will typically turn up a physical address for the school, and you can also search for accredited schools in your state. If an online university claims to be accredited by a certain accrediting agency, you can verify accreditation by using the "Search by Accrediting Body" tab. Another way to verify a school’s accreditation is to check the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) database.

Reviews

Finding a good online university also means finding one that meets your specific educational needs. You can search quickly for the most pertinent information you’re looking for by reading concise reviews prepared by reliable online education websites. This saves you time from going to each online school’s website and finding the individual bits of information you’re looking for. One site, collegedegrees.com, has tons of reviews of online universities that quickly break down the school’s history, degree levels offered, the software program used for online classes and other useful information. By looking at reviews, you can bypass the schools that don’t offer the degree program you’re after or that aren’t tailored for working professionals, for instance.

Rankings

Another way of determining whether an online university is good is by examining where the university sits in independent rankings. One trustworthy site for looking solely at the rankings of online universities is the Online Education Database (OEDb). The site clearly outlines the criteria used to determine how the schools get ranked. The better an online university is ranked, the better your overall experience will likely be at that university.