As mentioned in our Leadership Courses guide, Online Leadership Courses are a new method of gaining accredited knowledge of leadership, without requiring the participant to physically attend a campus. This allows online leadership degrees to be flexible around the needs of the participant, such as a full time job or family life. Being able to take a leadership course online can in many cases, allow an employee to aquire the skill set needed to grab a promotion, when their company fails to deliver on leadership development needs.

This guide to online courses will contain the following topics:

1. When are online leadership courses the best option?

2. How to tell which online courses are real, and which are scams

3. What is the difference between a leadership course from University vs a College?

4. How much does an online leadership course cost?

5. Do online leadership courses require practical hands-on experience?

6. Which leadership courses online does Leadership Expert Recommend?

Before I begin this article, let me highlight that I have no connections (affiliate or other) with any of the online leadership course providers referenced in this article, and I am providing impartial advice. This applies in reverse too, as I cannot be held accountable for information held on external websites linked to in this article for which I have no control or responsibility over whatsoever.

1. When are online leadership courses the best option?

Online leadership courses are often taken because other leadership training options, such as leadership classes, leadership coaching, or leadership development programmes are too expensive or not flexible enough for the users needs. You should probably look online if you wish to spend under £1,000 for a leadership course, or if you are working full time and are not able to attend night classes in the local area.

2. How to tell which online courses are real, and which are scams

Being able to tell which online leadership courses are legitimate and reputable qualifications, as apposed to false websites created by fraudsters is becoming increasingly difficult. However as a seasoned web veteran, I’m able to pass on a few tips that will help you discover whether the dream course is in fact a worthless piece of paper.

Tip 1: Check the Google PageRank of the website. Google pagerank is Google’s measure of how important a page is on the web. A score of 0-2 suggests a page is not linked to by very many other important websites, however a score of 6-10 ensures that the site is extremely reputable. Navigate to the home page of the online course provider you seek to purchase a course from. Then enter the web address of that homepage into the field in this pagerank checker site. If the pagerank of their homepage is 2 or less, there is a very high chance that the college has little real presence on the internet. If the pagerank is 3-10, then this test is less conclusive.

Tip 2: Check the Alexa ranking of the website. Alexa ranking (A service run ultimately by Amazon.com) is an estimator of the number of visits a website has. So again, copy the homepage address of the course provider, and paste now into the sitesearch function of Alexa. This should display the worldwide Alexa traffic rank of the website. If this figure is more than #300,000 then the website probably receives no more than 2,000 visitors per day. If the website is ranked in the top 100,000 then this suggests the site receives a high volume of traffic (5,000+ per day) which suggests authenticity.

Tip 3: Verifiy accreditation with the accreditation authority. If a course provider claims to be accredited by an state-run national body, then be sure to give them a call and check. If the accreditation organisation is not government-linked, then evaluate the authenticity of that website using the same tips here, as often criminals create entire accreditation networks just to lend the aura of authenticity to their empty words.

Tip 4: Take a close look at the price. Does it appear to be suspiciously low? Keep in mind that even £500 for a course that contains several hours of one-to-one phonecalls with a tutor is a bargain. If the site promises hundreds of hours of learning, with a price tag of less than £200, you should be wary. ‘Colleges’ that price themselves like this aren’t necessarily misleading or scamming people, but their leadership degrees will often carry no real recognition.

Tip 5: Look out for warning bells in the wording. Does the course seem obsessed about the idea of certificates and being able to provide proof to anyone who calls? Does the wording highlight that “The certificate will not contain the words ‘Online’”.  These are both warning flags that suggest the product itself is simply a decent-looking fake certificate rather than a real qualification that will develop your leadership skills. People who obtain these are merely looking to artificially pad their CV in order to land a job, and are harming the community of leaders who devote time to developing their leadership qualities.

Tip 6: Scan for spelling mistakes, this is an instant hint that the website has not had much time spent on it.

Tip 7: Look for contact details, addresses and phone numbers. If the site only contains a form to fill in, be worried. If the website only contains one phone number, this is also a warning flag – and suggests that the course provider is only built to make sales and not to handle participant queries.

These 7 tips should enable even a web newbie to come to a reasonable assessment of a course provider’s validity. If you are still completely unsure, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me (via my contact page)  and I may be able to give a second opinion by either vouching for the site, or warning you to stay away. There may still be websites I cannot confidently conclude upon however.

3. What is the difference between a leadership course from University vs a College?

The key difference is recognition and employability. If you are interested in gaining a leadership qualification to aid you in performing your job correctly, there is no reason for you to discriminate between the two. However if you’re looking for a reputable course that will show a solid career development mark on your CV, then sticking with a large or medium sized university will ensure your qualification has some bite behind it, and won’t be met with cynisism.

4. How much does an online leadership course cost?

Leadership course prices range widely, from £39.99 for a 3 hours introduction to leadership theory from LearnDirect (here), to £2,000 a year for part time leadership-related bachelors or masters. It heavily depends on what level of knowledge you wish to gain from a course, and over what period of time you are prepared to study.

5. Do online leadership courses require practical hands-on experience?

Generally speaking, online courses such as diplomas make no such requirements. All work is graded based on knowledge-based learning such as essays and exams. Only courses with a physical grounding at a campus or local college will likely ask you to engage in real case studies and feedback the results. The benefit of this type of learning out-weighs knowledge alone, and this demonstrates the trade off between the conevience of online courses, and educational merits of fulltime courses.

6. Which leadership courses online does Leadership Expert Recommend?

We are currently researching the different online leadership courses available to UK and International participants, and will update this article is due course.