Is a virtual education as good as a brick and mortar one? Higher education has made a major move onto the internet and people who are picking up their degrees say they loved the convenience and ability to work at their own pace.

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In the past ten years there have been a number of online colleges to surface. Some of these schools are branches of major universities while others are stand alone institutions. The programs are developed by qualified instructors who then oversee their implementation.

Online education programs combine independent study with virtual discussions. Instead of sitting in a classroom and talking about a topic, those discussions will occur in chat rooms or over message boards. Many students today prefer electronic communications and they like the fact that they can log into the discussion from anywhere that has internet access. Many professors at brick and mortar colleges are taking their classroom discussions online.

Many of the masters degree online programs combine internet work with the classroom experience. The syllabus requires that students gather in a central location for a weekend or two during the semester for group discussions and team building exercises to supplement the work that is done online.

Modern technology makes things possible today that were not even considered a few years ago. Web cams mean that teachers can deliver their lectures to students spread out around the country in real time by using Skype or some other service. There are a growing number of schools which plan to have virtual classes on days when bad weather shuts down the building.