A working mom from Virginia who is earning her doctorate degree online in education is the winner of a $1,000 GetEducated.com and Core 4 Women online college scholarship.

Danielle E. Williams, 32, is a community college liaison at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, VA; an adjunct professor at Tidewater Community College's Norfolk campus; and a mother of two children under age two.

She also is studying to obtain her online PhD degree in education, specializing in organizational leadership and community college leadership, through a distance learning education program offered by Nova Southeastern University, based in Florida.

Computers are now woven into almost every aspect of modern life—including crime. {{ad91}}

In the past decade, computers—including smartphones and GPS devices—have become "either a tool or an instrument of crime, the target of a crime, or the record-keeper of a crime," says Gary Kessler, director of the computer forensics and digital investigations online degree programs at Champlain College in Burlington, VT.

One result? Jobs are expanding rapidly for cybersecurity specialists—people who use today's tech tools to combat and prevent crime. Such computer forensics experts work both for public agencies, such as police departments, and for private companies.

Online universities, unlike traditional colleges, don't need to pay for buildings, so they should represent a fairly cheap online degree alternative, right?

Not necessarily.

Some online degree programs are, in fact, more expensive than traditional schools—but in this age of rising college costs some distance universities are deliberately misleading students into believing they offer the cheapest online degree.

Here are six online university cost tricks and scams you may encounter in comparing online degree programs. Don't be fooled by them!