More and more people are turning to online learning as a way of balancing their family and work commitments with their desire to earn a recognized degree.

Staci Gullotta said studying her online course for a master's in business administration sometimes meant hunkering down for 3am PowerPoint presentations - but for someone already juggling her home life with a full-time job, it was crucial to have the option of working to her own schedule, app.com stated.

She said one of the main benefits of learning online was that it cut the amount of time she had to spend in the classroom, while still giving her a degree that met the same standards as other MBA qualifications.

This is true of properly accredited online courses, but the site noted that students should be wary of so-called "diploma mils" - online universities with impressive-sounding names that require the minimal amount of work to achieve a degree.

Nevertheless, the appetite for accredited online and distance learning has been rising in the past few years. According to the Sloan Consortium, enrolment in online classes more than doubled between 2002 and 2006 to 3.5 million students.

Online Degree Advantage noted that qualifications available via distance learning include associate, bachelors, masters, doctorate and MBA degrees.