If you’re thinking of taking online college classes to qualify for a better job, get a degree or boost your paycheck, you’re not alone.

“When economic trends get tough, college enrollment has a tendency to go up,” said Michael Ball, associate director of Washington’s Higher Education Coordinating Board. “More and more schools are moving toward online course work. Just about all the major colleges have online classes.”

These days, services that offer classes from several online schools advertise heavily. One such, EarnMyDegree.com, has run an ad at the top of The New York Times Web site, nytimes.com.

Online classes are a tempting idea and can be a good one.

You can study on your home computer or, with a laptop, anywhere else, and make your schedule as flexible as you like.

Just do some homework before you pick an online school, officials say.

“Some are legitimate and some are not,” Ball said.

You can really mess up if you spend your money and time with an online school that — although it offers a curriculum and is not a considered a diploma mill — isn’t accredited or authorized by state education officials in Washington and Oregon.

If that happens, your effort and cash can be wasted — and it’s a gross misdemeanor in Washington to knowingly use a false academic credential.

Fortunately, it’s not hard to separate the schools that will advance your career from the ones that are worthless and even harmful.

In Washington, the coordinating board where Ball works in Olympia keeps track of such matters.

Online schools that operate here and seek authorization to grant degrees or certificates undergo intense scrutiny.

– For starters, they must be accredited by an agency approved by the U.S. Department of Education.

– And there’s a 15-page initial application form from the state board for degree authorization, based on state laws and rules. The form wants to know everything: tuition, fees, academic standards and responsibilities for students, financial condition, faculty names, degrees and where they were educated, on and on.

It’s a blizzard of details and technicalities.

But if a school makes the cut, the degrees and certificates its students earn are deemed valid and legal to get a job, obtain a license to practice a trade, or qualify for a promotion and increased pay.

“Basically, our job is consumer protection,” Ball said. “We’re here to help ensure that we don’t let someone operate in the state who can’t provide a quality education.”

Whether a school operates here or in another state, Ball can tell students whether it is properly accredited.

Among online schools that are authorized to operate in Washington are University of Phoenix, Capella University, Grand Canyon University and Argosy University, Ball said.

Kaplan College is authorized here but Kaplan University is not, Ball said.

An example of an online school whose degrees are not valid in Washington and Oregon is Canyon College, said Ball and his counterpart in Oregon, Alan Contreras, administrator of the Office of Degree Authorization in Eugene.

They said Canyon College is not accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and has no legal authority to issue degrees.

Indeed, Canyon College “degrees” would be considered a “false academic credential,” unlawful to use, Ball said.

A telephone call and e-mail from The Columbian to Canyon College officials were not returned.

When in doubt, students should contact officials with both states’ offices and find out whether a school is authorized and/or accredited. If you take a class in Southwest Washington but get a job across the river, you’ll need it to be valid in Oregon as well.

Students also should make sure they know a prospective school’s location and spell its name exactly right, to avoid mistaking it with another.

Public schools in Washington don’t need to be authorized by the board, nor do some Bible and seminary schools or schools that don’t operate in Washington.

“The definition of ‘operating’ includes a physical presence, a mailing address and/or phone number, or (they) are specifically recruiting Washington residents,” Ball said.