During the 2006-2007 school year, there were approximately 11,200 college-level programs that were designed to be completed totally through distance education.  One of the reasons why many students turned to these online education programs was because they met their demands for flexible schedules.

Would you like to earn a college degree but are afraid to do so online? Have you heard so many things about an online degree program that you’re not quite sure what to believe? Don’t let other people’s negativity stop you from reaching your educational goals. Do some research of your own and then make your decision.

Here are common myths about online education that you’ve probably heard before:

Online degree programs are of low quality-Shopping for an online degree program is like shopping for a car or any big ticket item.  You’ll find that the quality and selection of program offerings can vary from school to school.  Don’t let the school’s name alone influence your decision.  Make sure that you try to find an online university that meets your needs.  You won’t have anyone to help you-Today’s virtual campuses offer a great deal of academic and technical support.  Many online degree programs offer learning resources like mentoring or web based tutorials.  You will also have the opportunity to interact with other students. If you experience any difficulty accessing your course materials, many online schools offer 24/7 technical support.

Learning online will be a breeze-True, you don’t have to attend classes on campus but that doesn’t mean that your online degree program will be a breeze.  Online degree programs can be just as intense as the ones offered at a traditional college.  In order to successfully complete your online degree program, you’ll need to stay focused and committed.

At reputable online universities you’ll get the support that you need every step of the way.

Learn more about online universities and colleges for a better way of life.

As school begins for many and many of you consider starting school, below are some free web tools that every students should use.

Tools for taking notes:

1. NoteMesh: This site allows students who are in the same classes to share notes and collaborate easily with one another.
2. Notely: Notely can help you get all your school stuff together, with schedules, calendars, note-taking tools and even a homework planner.
3. Notesake: Organize all of your notes with this online application.
4. Evernote: With this app you can take your notes with you anywhere, even sync them up with your cell phone for notes on the go.
5. MyStickies: If you’re browsing the web you can leave little notes for yourself with this helpful sticky app.
6. NoteCentric: This social networking site lets users put up and share their notes from classes at school.
7. University Notes: Check out this social site to share and read notes from courses at your school and those around the nation.
8. UberNote: Not only can you take notes with this tool but add tasks into them as well.
9. Webnote: This online tool is a pretty basic way to take notes online.
10. ShareNotes: Use this site to find notes and share your own for study purposes.

These tools can help you study better:

1. Cramster: This site is a great place to seek out answers to homework questions you need help with, find practice exams and a whole lot more.
2. CollegeRuled: Here you can keep up with your courses, create class schedules and maintain to-do lists so you can remember your important assignments.
3. Quizlet: Use this tool to make your own quizzes to study or find those that others have made.
4. Mathway: Want to check your math skills to make sure you’re on the right track? This tool can help.
5. CollegeCram: This site is all about social learning and is a great place to find other students to study with.
6. Graphing Calculator: You don’t need to invest in an expensive graphing calculator– just use this free online version instead.

Learn more about the education opportunities, tools and programs available.

These days online tools are important in order to navigate your life both in school and out.  Here are our tip 5 online tools to help you:

1) Book Finder: Over a year you can end up spending thousands of dollars on books.  Book Finder is a tool that allows you to compare prices on more than 125 million books for online colleges and universities, as well as traditional universities.

2) MynoteIT: If you’re a real organization fan this application is for you.   Like the Google suite, you can have everything at your fingertips.  Unlike many organizational tools online the big plus here is it’s just for college students. Form online class groups,  you can share, edit and search your class notes, plan your assignments with your calendar, and get things done with your task list.

3) Ottobib: Don’t you just hate making those bibliography pages? Although they look really simple, they can drain a lot of time out of you when you have more than 20 sources. Ottobib is a simple bibliography tool that allows you to enter multiple ISBN numbers at a time and retrieve the bibliographies in APA, MLA, or Chicago format.

4) Google Docs: Google Docs is another great organization tool.  Many students use Google Docs heavily for collaboration work.   Google Docs gives student the ability to collaborate with editing ability on a particular document(s).

5) Tada List: Are you Scatterbrained or disorganized?   Tada List will help you. It will help you keep track of whatever it is that you need to do and easily is accessible from any computer, wherever you are. You can create as many “to do” lists as you like, such as “homework,” “projects,” or whatnot, and then track your items via RSS.

Learn more about educational programs and tools also available through college and universities.