If you’re considering getting an online degree—associate, bachelor’s, or master’s—you probably have a lot of questions. You may be wondering if the experience will be as good as on-campus learning or whether it will be hard to motivate yourself. There are so many benefits to distance learning.

So here are five reasons why you should take the first step and apply for an online degree.

1 Progress Your Career

Studying for an online degree is a great way to take your career to the next step. If you’re already familiar with the world of work, it’s a chance to take it up a level; if you’re yet to get a job, this could be the boost your résumé needs.

The Excelsior College Associate Degree in Nursing, for example, allows for career progression in the field of nursing. One year after graduating, 98% of students who had taken the course were employed, and 93% had received a pay rise since finishing the course. It’s pretty obvious that one of the benefits of online learning is the possibility of improving your career.

2. Learn from Anywhere

An appealing aspect of online study is the possibility to study from wherever you are. With campus-based colleges, you may feel you have to uproot your life to move closer to lecture halls and libraries. With distance-learning institutions like Excelsior College, you’re free to study from home—or anywhere else, for that matter! Any coffee shop could become your library.

3. Pay Less

Another benefit of studying online is that the fees for digital learning institutions are usually cheaper than those of brick-and-mortar colleges. Universities’ outgoing costs are less if they don’t have to pay for the upkeep of a large campus, and these savings should pass down to you as the customer and student.

  1. Flexible Hours

If you’re an adult, you may find it difficult to fit a full-time in-person degree program into your schedule. You might have to balance it with your job, or you may have family members who rely on you.

If that sounds like you, the flexibility of online learning could be a huge bonus. Studying digitally means that you can set your own learning schedule. Some courses may have specific times for some seminars or tutorials, but these are usually recorded, and you’ll easily be able to catch up on anything you might have missed.

Extra benefit: an added bonus is that you can revisit any recorded materials and online content as many times as you like, so if you’re not quite sure about something, you can just watch it again!

  1. Develop Your Soft Skills

Whether you study in person or virtually, a degree is a great way to develop so-called ‘soft skills’. Nearly all degree programs will give you the following soft skills:

Organization
Communication
Teamwork
Research

The bonus of online learning is that you’ll also be developing your self-motivation skills, and this is something that employers love.

Taking a course on your own is hard work, and it can be difficult at times to find the inspiration to keep going. This means that when you graduate, employers will see that you are a focused and determined individual who isn’t afraid to motivate themselves to work hard.

There are so many benefits to online study and distance learning. You’ll push yourself to develop as an individual and feel an enormous sense of achievement when you graduate. Why not apply?