Within two months of graduating I had two new job offers. I was even on a phone interview in less than an hour of commencement, I was still in my regalia even.

Remember, too, that many campus colleges and universities are coming online for higher education beyond the more standard Masters programs. And, these, you would be familiar with. However, you must ask them about their philosophy of online education, and dig deep into those attitudes. If their representatives want to be brief, then you know this is not a good one. They should have developed an understandable, concrete set of concepts that found their thinking about the nature of both classroom learning and online learning, and they should be able to distinguish between the two. I have both taught and taken both types of classes in English (no small feat either way), and I have found there are definite advantages to online teaching that can produce deep learning, life learning where that might not have happened to the same person in a classroom because of the particular type of learner that student is. (did that make sense?)

And, let me add here, that I would never recommend University of Phoenix even though they have the right pieces of paper. They definitely do not have the right educational philosophies that produce substantive learning. For them, it boils down to their belief that students don't want to learn anything beyond what is required for a piece of paper that gets them a raise and/or a promotion. There is nothing wrong with a student's focusing on that while getting a degree in whatever subject, but it is definitely wrong for a professional educator to have this attitude because it will put limits on the nature of the curriculum in such a way that a key goes missing in the educational process that opens the door to having passion for your subject matter which, in turn, is the dynamic that compels deep learning, life learning. And, we all know that life learning is what makes a good employee because it makes a good human being. Textbook learning will not do this for and with a student. I tell my students at the start of each semester that I can teach them nothing, but they can learn from me. And, when I am saying this, I am pointing to my passion about teaching what I am teaching them. At the end of each semester one and even two come to me on the last day of class and refer to my statement, saying they did not understand what I meant when I said that, but after a few weeks, when they had connected with the broader principles that my daily teaching was pointing at, they suddenly had "gotten it". Of course, I already have usually been aware of those two students because I have already seen the light bulbs going off in their heads during classroom. Just the other day, a really young student suddenly laughed out loud, saying "That's really cool!" That was a light bulb exploding in front of his intellectual and spiritual eyes about what I had just spent an hour and a half building to conclusion. And, that is what I mean when I say that leaving out of the educational formula the passion for what I teach will ruin teaching through standardization. With your question I am pointing to what is referred to as the diploma mills, and there are too many of them out there. So, be careful.

In terms of extra money, I'd like to say that the value of an online degree is zero — but the fact is it may actually be negative.

Employers will not take an online degree seriously. Most online universities are For Profit corporations that will accept nearly anyone. The lack of selectivity alone makes the degree worthless. However, recent problems at the University of Phoenix reflect on the whole Online University industry. They were recently fined $9.8MM for sleazy recruiting practices. They are now being investigated for padding their placement numbers. In addition, a recent NY Times article points out how many large companies (like Intel, for example) are refusing to pay for their employees to take classes there — because it lacks rigor.

Many of these "universities" advertise the fact that they are accredited. However, they usually have regional accreditation and not the more prestigious national accreditation.

All of that being said — there are some respectable MBA programs that combine distance learning with on-site learning. Duke University, for example, has two such programs.

If you are just starting your college education or have less than 60 semester credit hours, try your local community college first. They may have an online AA degree program. If they don't, try other community colleges in your state.

Once you have an AA degree, you can enroll in an online bachelor's degree completion program at one of the state universities. Many state universities now have online degrees. The following are some websites to get you started.

http://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege/
http://www.peru.edu/offuttafb/degreeprograms/onlinelearning.htm
http://outreach.uwyo.edu/ocp/
http://www.distance.msstate.edu/
http://www.distancelearning.ufl.edu/degrees.aspx
http://www.apu.apus.edu/index.htm
http://www.online.uillinois.edu/
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/ode/CollegeOverview.asp

When comparing tuition costs, you have to check if the school is on semester or quarter credit hours. To convert from quarter hours to semester hours, divide the tuition by 0.67. For example, if tuition is $180 per quarter credit hour, that is equal to $268.66 per semester credit hour.

To give you an idea as to how much University of Phoenix, Capella, Strayer and Kaplan overcharges, UoP tuition is $494 per semester credit hour for undergraduate courses. Capella, Strayer and Kaplan are in the $450 to $500 range. Fort Hays State University charges $137.50 per semester credit hour. University of Wyoming is $134 per semester credit hour. University of Florida is $172 per semester credit hour. Peru State is $130 per semester credit hour.

Finally, when you choose a school, make sure it is at least regionally accredited. You can check accreditation at http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/search.asp You can learn more about accreditation at http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html

Finally, there are a couple of forums online with members who have obtained their degrees online. Some have gone pretty far with their online degrees. The forums are free to join but you can read the forum without joining. You just won't be able to post. http://forums.degreeinfo.com and http://www.instantcertonline.com/forums

Finally, just because a few people don't think of online education as valid, doesn't mean it isn't. Here are a few articles about online education for you.

http://owli.org/home/node/793
http://owli.org/home/node/509
http://owli.org/home/node/10
http://owli.org/home/node/783
http://owli.org/home/node/647
http://owli.org/home/node/1498
http://owli.org/home/node/1230
http://owli.org/home/node/249

Good luck

This site has some good information on regionally accredited online degrees:
http://www.ecollegefinder.org
I think you can fill out your contact information on there for any schools you are interested in and they will send you more information for free.