“It’s a heaven-sent second chance, and I know it will really change my life,” says 26-year-old mom Ann Marie Casey-Ulery. Nope, it’s not a winning lottery ticket or a rekindled romance—it’s the chance to earn a college degree so she can make a better life for herself and her 3-year-old daughter. And she’s doing it online. Further education is one way working moms in just about any field can battle the recession and win higherpaying or more flexible employment. But most of us just don’t have the time (not to mention the money) to go back to school. Well, once again technology has come to our rescue, in the form of online education programs that enable us to add a new degree or certification to our resumé without giving up too much family time or our current career. “Online education works for moms because it’s flexible, and they can move the schedule around to fit their lives,” says Dianne Pusch, chief operating officer at the online and campus-based University of Phoenix. “Working-mom students tell us that after dinner, they sit around the table and do their homework with their kids. It becomes a rolemodel opportunity.”

Moms are taking the plunge in droves: At Kaplan University, for example, the average online student is 34 and female, and nearly half of the school’s roughly 48,000 students are moms. Note that there’s a broad range in cost for online degrees, from $3,000 to more than $100,000, according to the watchdog and advocacy website GetEducated.com (where you can compare schools’ prices and quality). Here’s how four working mothers make online ed work.

This single mom earned an MBA online last year from the University of Phoenix (phoenix.edu). “For years I’d wanted to do this but kept putting it off,” says Connie Threet. When she felt she’d gone as far as she could go professionally,

Connie decided an MBA was her ticket to the next level. The fruit of her labor: a job as senior financial analyst at a government-contracting IT firm, doing work for the Department of the Navy. “Phoenix’s homework assignments, projects and instructional feedback were instrumental in helping me develop new problem-solving skills for both my work and my personal life,” she says. Fitting it in Connie printed her course materials and took them with her, reading and organizing her notes during lunch and between her sons’ karate classes and soccer games. Most nights after dinner, the kids’ homework, baths and bedtime, she’d study and complete assignments from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. “It was hard at first,” Connie admits, “but now I function quite well without much sleep.”

Greatest Challenge Maintaining her family’s normal activity level. “My boys were used to having me at birthday parties and playdates and to the three of us having free time, but those things started to wane,” says Connie. “Sometimes I was tired and wanted to lie down and watch a movie with them, but I needed to do my course work.”

Greatest Rewards Earning an MBA made Connie “a better person,” she says, helping her rebuild after a divorce that left her with self-doubt. “I didn’t want to be a parent who told my kids ‘Go after what you want’ but then didn’t go after my own goals,” she explains. “Having my kids at my commencement was amazing. The stadium was crowded, but when they called my name I could hear my children scream. They were so proud of me.”

After separating from her husband last year, Jasmine Muller, a secretary at a generator manufacturing company, decided to go back to school. “I want to give my boys a better future, and I want to go to a job that I enjoy,” she asserts. Jasmine stumbled onto the website for Project Working Mom (elearners.com/projectworkingmom), which offers education resources, including scholarships, to working mothers. She applied for and won a scholarship, and last November began taking classes online to earn an associate’s degree in graphic design from Penn Foster College Online (penn-foster.com). “I hope to be a freelance designer,” says Jasmine. “Maybe I’ll even design my own clothing line!”

Fitting It In She takes her schoolbooks to work and studies during lunch, and she studies at night after her children are asleep.

Greatest Challenge Staying committed to a strict schedule. “It’s hard to divide myself between motherhood, work, school, my church and everything else going on in my life,” Jasmine says. “I used to love watching my television shows, but I haven’t even turned on the tube since I started school.”

How to tackle online tuition when your budget is tight? Check out these aid options.

Federal loans The U.S. government offers aid such as PLUS Loans and Perkins Loans for degree-seeking adults. Visit studentaid.ed.gov. Private loans Banks, other financial institutions and nonprofits offer loans, often depending on your credit score.