Online Bachelor's Degree in Education: Full Guide

By the Transforming Education editorial team. Reviewed for accuracy against the sources listed below.

An online bachelor's degree in education is a four-year undergraduate degree that prepares you to teach, usually in elementary or early childhood classrooms, or to work in education-related roles that do not require a license. The coursework is delivered online. The part that makes you a teacher, supervised time in a real classroom, is not.

That split is the single most important thing to understand before you enroll. This guide explains how licensure and non-licensure tracks differ, why CAEP and AAQEP accreditation matter, what to expect from student teaching, what the degree costs, and what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says about teacher pay. It ends with verified online programs from regionally accredited public and private non-profit universities.

What an online bachelor's in education is

Degree titles vary: Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.), Bachelor of Arts in Education (B.A.E.), Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.Ed.) or simply a B.A. or B.S. in elementary education. The content is similar across titles:

• Foundations: child development, learning theory, educational psychology, and the history and policy of American schooling.
• Methods: how to teach reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies at the grade levels you will be licensed for, plus classroom management and assessment.
• Diverse learners: special education basics, English learners, and differentiation.
• Clinical experience: structured observation hours, practicums or internships, and a capstone semester of full-time student teaching.
• General education: the arts, sciences and humanities courses every bachelor's degree requires, which is where most transfer credit lands.

Elementary education is by far the most common online bachelor's track, which is why most of this guide's examples are elementary programs. Online bachelor's degrees also exist in special education, early childhood education and some secondary subjects.

Who the degree is for

• Paraprofessionals and teacher aides already working in schools. Fort Hays State's BEST program is built for exactly this group: students complete online coursework while employed in a PreK-6 classroom.
• Working adults and parents who need to study at night and on weekends. Competency-based programs such as WGU's let you move faster through material you already know.
• Transfer students with an associate degree. ASU, Liberty, Mayville State and Missouri all describe transfer pathways, and WGU notes that students with an A.A. or A.S. usually qualify for upper-division standing.
• People who want to work in education without teaching. A non-licensure degree such as Missouri's Bachelor of Educational Studies suits roles in student development, training and nonprofit education.

Licensure track vs non-licensure track

This is the first question to ask about any program.

Licensure-track programs are approved by a state to recommend graduates for an initial teaching license. They include the observation hours, practicums and student teaching that states require, plus preparation for the state's required exams. WGU, ASU, Liberty, Mayville State and Fort Hays State all describe their elementary programs this way.

Non-licensure programs teach the content without the clinical sequence and do not lead to a license. They are faster and more flexible, and they are a poor choice if your goal is a public school classroom. The University of Missouri states on its page that the Bachelor of Educational Studies does not lead to state certification to teach in public schools. That is not a hidden flaw; it is the program's purpose.

If you hold a bachelor's degree in something else and want to teach, a post-baccalaureate or master's-level route is usually faster than a second bachelor's. See alternative teacher certification.

Accreditation and why it matters

Two layers of accreditation matter for a teaching degree.

Regional or institutional accreditation covers the whole university. The programs below are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (ASU, Missouri), SACSCOC (Liberty), the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (WGU) and, for Mayville State and Fort Hays State, by their respective institutional accreditors. Institutional accreditation is what makes you eligible for federal financial aid and makes your credits transferable.

Educator preparation accreditation covers the college or school of education specifically. Two national accreditors operate in this space:

• CAEP, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, which became the sole accreditor for educator preparation providers on July 1, 2013, after the NCATE and TEAC boards agreed to merge, and was recognized by CHEA in 2014.
• AAQEP, the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation, founded in 2017 and also recognized by CHEA, with more than 200 member educator preparation providers in 34 states and territories.

Neither is legally required everywhere, but both are strong signals that a program tracks its graduates' performance and meets external standards. WGU's Teachers College holds both: CAEP advanced-level accreditation effective fall 2025 through winter 2032 and AAQEP accreditation for its licensure programs. Fort Hays State's College of Education reports CAEP and Kansas State Department of Education accreditation through 2031. Liberty and Mayville State both state CAEP accreditation for their teacher education programs.

Also check that the program is approved by the state where you intend to teach. State approval, not national accreditation, is what lets a program recommend you for a license.

Admissions basics

Online bachelor's programs in education tend to have accessible admissions:

• High school diploma or GED, with transcripts. ASU adds competency requirements (four years of math and English, three of lab science) and a class rank, GPA or test-score threshold, with an earned-admission path for those who miss it.
• GPA minimums that are modest at the point of entry. Liberty admits in good standing at a 2.0 cumulative GPA.
• No SAT or ACT at WGU and Liberty; ASU lists test scores as one of several ways to qualify.
• Age and background checks. WGU requires students to be at least 18 before clinical work and to pass a criminal background check before entering classrooms. Expect fingerprinting everywhere before field placements.
• Basic skills testing before student teaching. WGU requires a state-specific basic skills test before student teaching, paid by the student. Many states require a similar test.

Admission to the university is not the same as admission to the teacher education program. Most programs have a second gate after your foundations courses, with GPA and test requirements.

Curriculum, credits and duration

• Credits: 120 semester credits is standard. ASU lists 120 credits across 33 classes; Fort Hays State lists 120; Missouri lists 120 for freshmen and 59 for transfers. WGU counts courses rather than credits, 36 to 37 for its elementary program, and charges by term.
• Duration: four years full-time from scratch. WGU reports that 68 percent of its elementary education students finish within 36 months, helped by transfer credit and the competency-based model.
• Clinical hours: ASU's sequence is 20 observation hours, then internships of 45, 45 and 60 hours, then a full-time student teaching semester. WGU requires at least 75 observation hours plus 12 to 20 weeks of student teaching. Liberty requires three practicums and one semester of student teaching.

Note: Student teaching is full-time and unpaid at most programs, and it happens during the school day. Budget for a semester with little or no outside income. Fort Hays State's BEST model, which lets you keep your paraprofessional job while completing an apprenticeship course, is one answer to that problem.

What it costs

All figures are approximate and come from the cited program pages and NCES.

• National context: NCES Fast Facts reports average 2022-23 undergraduate tuition and required fees of $9,800 at public four-year institutions (in-state) and $40,700 at private non-profit four-year institutions.
• Per-credit rates on the programs below: Fort Hays State about $275.65 per credit for online students (about $4,135 per 15-credit semester); Liberty $410 per credit full-time for 2026-27; Mayville State $358.72 to $432.58 per credit including fees for 2026-27, depending on residency, capped at 12 credits.
• Flat-rate model: WGU charges $3,825 per six-month term plus a $200 resources fee, regardless of how many courses you complete.
• Whole-degree estimates: Missouri publishes illustrative totals of $74,580 for a freshman and $36,668.50 for a transfer student for its online B.E.S.; ASU directs you to a tuition calculator.

Online rates at public universities are often the same for residents and non-residents, which can make an out-of-state public program cheaper than a private one. Add books, background checks, testing fees and the cost of a semester away from work.

Online format realities

Three things to expect:

1. Coursework is online, clinicals are not. Every licensure program listed here places you in a local school for observation, practicum and student teaching.
2. Some programs are blended, not fully online. Mayville State's distance elementary program combines synchronous Zoom sessions and evening classes with online work, in a cohort that takes courses in a set order.
3. Placement support varies. Ask how the program finds and approves placements in your district, who supervises you, and what happens if no site is available.

State reciprocity caveat

An online program is built to the licensure rules of its home state. Liberty's page says its B.Ed. leads to Virginia licensure and that graduates can then apply for reciprocity elsewhere; Mayville State's program is designed for North Dakota and asks students outside North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming to meet an advisor before starting; ASU warns that completing its program may not fulfill licensure requirements in other states. Before you enroll, confirm with your own state's department of education that the program is approved and find out which additional exams or coursework the state will require.

Career outlook and pay

From the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, using May 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections:

All three occupations list a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education, and BLS notes that all states require public school teachers to be licensed or certified, with requirements that generally include a bachelor's degree with a minimum GPA, a student teaching program, a background check and passing tests. Employment is projected to be flat, but the openings figures show the real picture: roughly 200,000 K-12 teaching openings a year, nearly all from replacing teachers who leave. For comparison, the median wage for all occupations was $50,980.

Programs to consider

The programs below are online or distance bachelor's degrees in education at regionally accredited public and private non-profit universities, verified on each program's own page. Five lead to a teaching license; one is a non-licensure degree included for readers who want education-adjacent careers. The list is in no particular order and is not a ranking. Confirm current tuition, placement policies and your state's approval with each program.