An online special education degree provides a convenient path to teacher certification and career in special education. Online programs feature flexible scheduling and asynchronous coursework that allow students to balance education with other responsibilities like work or family responsibilities. Some colleges even provide scholarships that cover some or all of the costs of an online bachelor’s degree program.
Bachelor’s degrees in special education typically require 120 credit hours; however, some programs only need 80. These degree completion opportunities may also provide learners with associate degrees the chance to complete their baccalaureate through flexible schedules. Some online special education degrees even include extensive field work experiences as part of teaching practicum or internship experiences.
Students pursuing online bachelor’s degrees in special education typically take courses covering basic educational theory, foundations of teaching and learning, child development and assessment as well as special education curriculum basics. Some programs even include embedded classroom experience to give students an opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge directly in real classroom environments.
An online master’s in special education is a graduate degree designed to equip graduates to teach and support students with various types of disabilities, such as high-incidence disorders, communication disorders, emotional disorders, learning disabilities, intellectual disability, low-incidence disabilities or visual impairment or blindness. Some online master’s degrees for special education target current teachers seeking an endorsement in special education for their license while others specifically target newcomers without license yet.