The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a psychometric tool used to measure a person’s preferences within a personality type. With more than 500 questions, the test is so robust and well researched that it is used across disciplines, including human resources and sales. It has even become part of popular culture with Buzzfeed offering such tests as Harry Potter Myers-Briggs types. If you have a smartphone with lots of free data from a company like T-Mobile, you can even download a Myers-Briggs app to help you discover more about yourself. It only makes sense to use the domains of the test to decide if online education matches your personality type.

Source of Energy

There are four domains in the assessment, with the first identifying the things that drive you. When deciding on an educational model, the Myers-Briggs Test would separate out the introverts from the extroverts. Extroverts need to talk it out. They look for social interaction. Ask yourself whether or not a virtual environment will be enough communication. Extroverts do not need to have face-to-face participation but they do need a social community of some type. If you can maintain a friendship on Facebook, the virtual format of most online colleges may likely work for you. By comparison, introverts tend to love the ability to choose how much personal information to share, so online colleges may work for them as well.

Receiving Information

How you take in information is one of the domains of the Myers-Briggs Test as well as a prime decision factor in the debate between traditional university and online education. The Myers-Briggs Test differentiates between intuitive, which are big picture people, and sensing, which are facts and data people. This classification has less to do with online vs. traditional education and more to do with the individual school’s method of delivering information. No matter what environment, some schools follow a multiple choice format that would appeal to the sensing folks while others are more free-thinking and eclectic.

Making Decisions

Online education is here to stay. Some of the best online schools are also in the top 100 traditional schools. Penn State ranks No. 3 for online schools and 37th in the nation, according to U.S. News And World Report. University of Florida ranks No. 5 online and 49th in the nation. Sometimes the choice of school boils down to how you feel about it, which is consistent with Myers-Briggs. Decision making is either feeling or thinking. If they are all relatively good then check in with yourself and your feelings about each university.

Personal Life

Going to school takes discipline. Whether you are a perceiving person or a judging person according to Myers-Briggs, you still need to attend class. For the perceiving person who enjoys being less scheduled, online education can allow flexibility to do your work. Most online schools can be accessed 24 hours a day. Judging people like routine and all of the scheduling bells and whistles computer technology has to offer. Take a look at what the school offers on this front and test them out before making a decision.

Author Bio: Richard Johnson, Retired teacher, antique collector, word nerd