Online education is here to stay. It’s a great option whether you’re looking for something that lets you go back to school while juggling a family or work schedule, you just don’t want to deal with the hassle of transferring if you move, or you want to be able to learn at the pace that works best for you. Even long-established colleges and universities now have online programs—but with all the online training options, how do you choose? What are the signs that a program will be worth your time and money.

According to the Department of Defense 85% of military spouses want or need work, which isn’t that surprising when you consider the unique career challenges they face. Frequent moves make it hard to gain experience at a single company, and there’s never a guarantee that your new area will even have opportunities in your field—not to mention the challenges of suddenly being a single working parent if your spouse gets deployed.

I don’t know about you, but when I dreamt of going to college as a teenager I pictured a beautiful campus, lots of big textbooks, and a professor (usually in tweed) at the front of the classroom. I barely imagined the possibility of having a computer of my own let alone taking classes completely online, but that’s where we are today—and online education is here to stay!

Being a mom is hard work! Add the additional stress of being a military spouse and then pile school on top of it all and you’re in for an uphill hike. The good news is that online programs have made education much more flexible, allowing you to fit school in around everything else you already have going on. But even with that flexibility (and sometimes because of it) it can still be downright tricky to balance it all.