Accredited Online Health Education Degrees

Overview of Online Health Education Degrees

Prospective online health education students can find programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and certificate levels. At the bachelor's level, students will spend four years on their education and may be prepared upon graduation to enter a wide variety of entry-level positions in such places as wellness centers, advocacy groups, and community centers. A master's degree will allow a professional to move into management and leadership roles within the industry. Those who choose to earn a doctorate may pursue work teaching at the university level, researching, or in top management or consulting jobs.

Online Bachelor's Degrees in Health Education

Program Requirements

Bachelor's degree programs in health education are widely available at colleges and universities and usually take four years and around 120 credits to complete. Students in these programs will gain the skills and knowledge they need to be able to work in a variety of settings providing education to individuals and groups on the topic of health. While a bachelor's degree alone won't qualify someone to teach health classes in a public school setting—unless the program includes a teacher certification component, it can provide a foundation upon which aspiring teachers can build to pursue teaching certification later, or to move on to master's-level work in the field of education and teaching.

Curriculum

Coursework covers such topics as health communications, grant writing, healthcare ethics, creating health education programs, and more. Graduates may find work with health advocacy organizations, community centers, wellness programs, and medical facilities. Job responsibilities will include teaching people how to maintain good health and how to prevent illness and injuries. Depending on the program, an individual may also meet the qualifications to become a Certified Health Education Specialist.

Accreditation

When choosing a degree program it is important for prospective students to keep accreditation in mind. The first type of accreditation that they should look for in a school is regional accreditation. Regional accreditation is when a non-profit, regionally-based organization evaluates a school as a whole to make sure that it meets certain quality standards. Regional accreditation is given to two and four-year colleges and universities that grant degrees. When a student attends a regionally accredited school they know that they will receive a quality education, and they can also have confidence that their degree will be accepted as valid by future employers. Also, credits from a regionally accredited institution are much easier to transfer to other institutions than credits from non-accredited schools.

There are also organizations that accredit specific programs. For example, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) accredits teaching programs. While not all health education programs will be accredited by CAEP, individuals who are looking for a health education program that focuses on working as a teacher within the public school system will want to find a program that is. CAEP accreditation means that the program will fully prepare students to be successful teachers upon graduation. Also, teachers who graduate from CAEP-accredited programs will be more competitive in the job market, as employers can hire them with confidence, knowing that they have received a quality education.

Careers in Health Education

Those who work in the field of health education spend their days teaching others about the importance of good health. This can mean anything from working with a patient to better understand how to address a new diagnosis, to leading workshops on good health for a business's employees. When they are not actively teaching others they are working in communities and within organizations to evaluate health education needs and to come up with programs to help address these needs. Jobs for healthcare educators are available in a variety of locations, including hospitals and clinics, private businesses, schools, non-profit organizations, and the public health department. In order to work in entry-level positions an individual will need at least an associate, and probably a bachelor's, degree. Those seeking advanced leadership positions, teaching jobs at the university level, or research positions, will need to pursue a master's or doctorate. In order to work as a certified teacher within the public school system, the aspiring teacher will need to seek a degree that specifically addresses teaching health classes at this level, and will need to pursue teacher certification.