Distance learning is nothing new. In fact, more than a century ago, in 1892, the first correspondence program in the country was created by the University of Chicago. While the means have evolved, the initial concept has stayed the same, and that is to provide learning opportunities for people who may not have access to degree programs through normal classroom instruction. The impact is felt across the globe, with about 65 percent of all students existing in the world today having taken at least one class in an online environment, with Sloan Survey of Online Learning finding that more than 5.6 million people living in the U.S. had taken at least one online class in 2009 alone. These numbers continue to rise too with the increasing flexibility of institutions and their capacity for creating new and exciting programs every day. To bring it all into perspective, the electronic learning industry worldwide is valued at about $48 billion.

Increasingly, more students today are working toward earning a humanities degree online. Through earning a humanities degree online, students can take courses in an online environment to prepare them for various careers spanning from criminal justice to education. Earning a humanities degree online allows students to take courses in topics that interest them, letting them pick and choose the degree programs that will lead them down more successful career paths. And educators and businesses are warming more to this idea of earning online degrees in the humanities and other fields every day, with 65 percent of 2,500 college administrators saying that online learning is a valuable component of their strategies over the long haul.

While earning a humanities degree online has its rewards, it by no means is the only form of online degree program available or even popular today. Plenty of students today can earn an art degree online, an engineering degree online, a nursing degree online and a technology degree online in much the same way as they would earn a humanities degree online. In fact, more students than ever are even earning things like online business degrees and those for education, health and even criminal justice. With businesses liking the idea more each day and institutions making online learning more integral and active components of their long term strategies, the time has never been better for students to capitalize on these educational opportunities for their own futures and their own success.