Some consortiums have spent considerable time and expense to make this tedious and laborious process appear seamless to you as a student. For those that have not, you should be prepared to take a very proactive stance in helping to see that your records are moved from one department, college, or university to another successfully. Consortia are addressing the challenge of credit transfer logistics. Some have succeeded already in solving this problem for you. This is vital to the processing of information and interaction that are required for the successful on-line course.
Students interact with each other and with faculty members.
Faculty members often find that a class of 25 students is quite manageable but more may become problematic. In general, a degree is considered more valuable and prestigious if the recognized onsite faculty members teach the on-line course as part of their standard course load. But again, the economies of scale in the consortium often allow for an even greater sampling of faculty experts for the student than any single university could offer in a given semester. Just as you would research a single university to check for the 'right fit', you need to research consortia, as well. In addition to assessing the consortium's strengths, you should also spend a little time assessing your learning patterns as a distance learner.