I think we (and by ‘we’ I mean Americans) used to be a little prone to taking the commuting portion of our college education for granted. That is no longer the case. There’s an article in the NY Times about the rising cost of commuting coinciding with the rising number of college students enrolling in online courses.

Taking some or all classes online, or earning an online degree is looking better and better to impoverished college students. It saves money and the planet.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Medical billing and coding is quite the burgeoning career choice. According to my favorite information site ever (is it weird to be enamored of a statistics website?), it’s currently growing as a professions and shows no signs of stopping.

We are all aware that the Baby Boomers are starting to hit retirement age and will soon begin their collective physical decline. They are a fairly healthy generation, and I’m not trying to be negative, but everyone’s body starts to deteriorate at some point, there’s no way around it. And, to be career-oriented and blunt, a larger-than-average cohort of people who will soon be requiring medical attention is not a fact to ignore when considering career possibilities.

All Allied Health Schools has a pretty thorough section on their site explaining everything you need to know about a medical billing and coding career: education, certification, training, salary, the courses a student can expect to take, what the job entails, online program options, and why it’s a good career choice.

Almost as important as the above items is the debunked myths section of the site. If you Google ‘medical billing and coding,’ several sketchy ads will appear claiming how easy it is to set up your own business, as well as several equally cheesy ads for medical billing and coding software. Go here for the article explaining what’s actually required to set up your own business, and go here to read the billing and coding software article.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Online colleges have increased in popularity and ease of use over the past decade. A lot of that probably has to do with the convenience factor of online courses—no travel time, no sitting in class, no moving to another city, etc. In addition, the fact that the technology has improved on both ends—the school/instructor end and the student end—makes the whole concept more feasible for anyone who might be considering online education as an option. There are pros and cons to an online education, but for an increasing number of students, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

As far as online course options go, there are two: you can take online courses from a fully online college, which would enable you to earn an entire degree online; or you can take online courses from a traditional brick-and-mortar college that offers online courses in addition to their regular in-classroom courses.

Online college resources:

All Online Schools

Online MBA Programs
The Open University (in the UK, but a good resource nonetheless)

Taking online courses from a known brick-and-mortar college makes the question of accreditation a little less sketchy. Because anyone can pretty much do and say whatever they want online, if you’re looking into a fully online education at a fully online college, you owe it to yourself to check their accreditation status. Fake diplomas from diploma mills don’t tend to look stellar on the résumé.

Here are some good accreditation resources:

Council for Higher Education Accreditation
U.S. Dept. of Education

Posted by Alexa Harrington