Not only is there no longer a stigma attached to someone earning a degree online, but many employers now see it as a net positive. Graduating from an online bachelor’s program or an online masters program from an accredited and recognized school shows you’ve mastered the curriculum and demonstrated many of the skills needed in today’s workplace.

Any concerns about online degrees have disappeared in the past two years since COVID-19 changed the way people live, learn, and work. Remote learning has gone mainstream.

Online learning has become the default for many schools dealing with social distancing and COVID concerns in 2020. Many students learned they enjoyed the experience. Today, educators at top universities are embracing the online movement and offering more degree programs online than ever before.

Even before COVID hit, more students were gravitating towards online degree programs. More than 6.9 million students were enrolled in distance learning, accounting for more than 35% of all postsecondary students in the U.S.

In 2021, three-quarters of all schools are planning to offer online options for some or all students. At the university level, 98% of postsecondary schools have online programs.

All of this creates a scenario where any stigma attached to earning an online degree no longer exists for most employers.

You may find that employers don’t notice – or care – how you earned your degree. However, an online program may offer benefits for employers that go above and beyond what you’ve learned. These soft skills you have mastered have been increasingly important for employers today. A study published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that 97% of employers value soft skills as important or more important than hard skills.

• Hard Skills: Hard skills are skills needed to complete a task and have been learned through repetition, practice, and education. Hard skills focus on practical abilities, such as the ability to use a particular software program or understand processes and procedures.
• Soft Skills: Soft skills are more about communication, teamwork, and how you manage yourself. These include things like time management, self-motivation, and adaptability.

The study also showed that lack of soft skills often leads to poor job performance even for employees that know their stuff. 89% of new employees that failed at their jobs did not have the requisite soft skills needed to navigate the workplace.

Completing an online degree program will provide the hard skills you need to do the job, but also demonstrate an awareness and mastery of many of the soft skills that will determine success in the workplace.

What Employers See in Applicants with Online Degrees

When you’re discussing employment with a company, your online degree demonstrates you have mastered several important skills.

Time Management

Completing an online degree shows you know how to manage your time well, especially if you are doing it while working at a job or taking care of family responsibilities. In the workplace, you will often be asked to juggle multiple assignments and manage your time independently.

Self-Motivation

If you aren’t self-motivated, you will have a difficult time completing an online degree program. By completing classes without a set schedule, you are demonstrating that you can manage your workload without constant reminders.

Adaptability

In business, change is constant even without the challenges presented in the past year. Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and forcing employers and employees to adapt to new ways to communicate and work. Online learning fosters an agile approach. Students have to juggle multiple tasks and navigate different approaches to complete their education.

Digital Proficiency

Companies today want employees that are comfortable with technology and working in the digital environment. An online degree requires a high level of digital literacy and the ability to troubleshoot and solve technical problems. During your classes, you will be asked to work independently, in groups using collaboration tools, and use various forms of communications tools. These are digital tools that you will likely need in the workplace.

Remote Work

The number of employees working from home is expected to double in 2021. Not everybody working in an office environment is a good fit for working from home. However, completing an online degree program is the perfect preparation for working remotely. You’ve already proven that you can meet deadlines and work without supervision.

Rapid Adoption of Online Learning

The stigma about online degree programs had already started to wane by 2020. The rapid adoption of online learning during COVID wiped out any remaining stigma for most employers. Many employers now see no difference between someone with an online degree versus someone that earned their degree in a classroom setting.

You’ll also find many employers that will see the added value students get while learning online as a positive in the workplace.