There are four main forms of adult continuing education qualifications: adult college entrance examination, higher education self-study examination (self-study examination), radio and television university (modern distance open education of RTVU) and distance education (network education). They are different in entrance examination, admission, curriculum, graduation years, charging standards, degree awarding, class methods and so on. There are three ways of learning: full-time, part-time (including part-time and evening university) and correspondence. These four forms of education belong to the national education series.

Network education now refers to modern distance education (also known as network university), which is a new type of education with the development of modern information technology. Online education can earn credits by completing the prescribed course learning tasks and passing the exam. You can graduate if you reach the required total credits, and the academic certificate will be recognized by the state after electronic registration. Students who meet the conditions for degree granting will also receive a bachelor's degree certificate.

To sum up, online education is a kind of adult continuing education, and correspondence is a learning method of adult continuing education. The four adult education methods, including online education, belong to the national education series, and colleges and universities have not specifically consulted their units to understand.