Don't misrepresent where you went to school.

[brodie]

While I accept this premise, I think it can easily get pretty tricky especially the further away you get from the rather well established "extension" or  "Global Campus" programs and branch campuses of various reputes. Those are cut and dry, Harvard Extension isn't really Harvard as most people imagine it, Purdue University-Calumet isn't really Purdue in an even more real sense, and UNC-Asheville is even less related to UNC-Chapel Hill than any of the rest. This is straightforward, but that isn't always the case. 

Take for example the University of Iowa. A name brand school that is mildly prestigious insofar as any school with a billion dollar endowment, lots of famous alumni, at least one top ranked grad program, and a 70,000 seat football stadium has prestige)... a degree from Iowa isn't Harvard, but it should open some doors. Iowa operates an online/off campus program for non-traditional students through it's University College, this program is only open to students who are over age 22 with some college credit and provides them with a general studies program to earn a degree. This is very similar to some of the programs you mention, and I cannot imagine it is competitive. However the University of Iowa lumps the University College in with it's other academic units (College of Liberal Arts, College of Education, etc.), someone earning a degree from the college gets to go to Iowa City and graduate with everyone else. What are those graduates? Are they Iowa alumni? A lower class of Iowa alumni? Does one general studies degree from Iowa mean more or less to grad schools and employers (especially outside of the state of Iowa) than another? Should these people put "University College" on their resume even though you wouldn't put "College of Liberal Arts and Sciences"?

And then, of course, there are those employers who don't believe in the value of any degree not earned in person. If I attend Arizona State online, should I mention that? Some employers may think it's misleading to claim I went to Arizona State if I've never set foot in Tempe. Should I ensure that they have the opportunity to weed me out on that basis? This isn't the same as being dishonest, but it gets to some of the same issues more broadly about the way that this can be kind of arbitrary in certain cases.

It's not tricky at all.  Just write on your resume what your diploma says.  There, simple.

And no, you don't have to put that you went online, if the diploma doesn't say it was online.  Just because someone might "think" that you have to go to the actual campus to get the degree, doesn't negate what the school itself says.  If a school determines that their online courses are as good as their in-person courses, and puts their name on them, then that's good enough.  It's not you who is portraying something a certain way, and you can't predict what someone might think.

Just write what it says on the diploma, and don't worry about the rest.

AND, I can't imagine that the majority of time (probably 90% in most industries), anyone will ever even ask about college.  Employers want to know that you can do the job, and most of the time, that's proven through your work history.  THAT is what employers care about.  HR might care about the degree, and they may check to make sure you have the degree you claim, but they're not going to question every course and see where you took them.

No, it very much IS tricky. What should this person write on their resume?



What about this guy?




And this gentleman? 



If your answer was "University of Michigan", "University of Washington" or "Indiana University", congratulations! You just let three people get away with claiming to have degrees from highly selective, top 75 USNWR ranked colleges even though they went to lowly regarded branch campuses (Dearborn, Tacoma, and South Bend respectively). 

We agree here, everyone should be upfront about their degree. But I am more taking issue with your contention about Harvard Extension. After all, the diploma one gets from it is exactly the same as the one given to students of various Harvard colleges and it is no different in concept of execution than the program I described at the University of Iowa... the only difference being that nobody is writing overwrought Atlantic articles about the Iowa program. I would encourage you to consider why this is the case, and what it says about the entire premise of online education catering to traditional students in the first place. The message to me seems clear: Harvard may give you a degree but it can't really be a Harvard degree unless it came from one of the other 11 colleges of the university because those aren't programs designed for working adults or delivered primarily online. If you can't see that, you're missing the forest for the trees.