Short answer: it depends on which online college you get a degree from.
Long answer follows:
I hope Caderbug is not really in HR at a large corp. but the comment underlines one of the problems we have these days in HR. "Nationally Accredited" is the lowest accreditation a school can have. In fact, Kaplan is not nationally accredited, they're regionally accredited by the North Central Association. Not only do most people in the general public not understand accreditation, too many HR folks don't either.
Therein rests a lot of confusion about schools - what you want above all other criteria is a regionally accredited degree. Without the regional accreditation you won't be able to transfer your credits or to qualify to enter most graduate schools. Any school can call themselves "accredited" by simply accrediting themselves - regional accreditation is the standard you need in the US.
There are indeed some jobs for which an online degree is considered "better" than is an in-the-seat but those are fairly few and it's usually the master's they want online. One example would be online course instructor. In all studies done over the past 10 years at all levels, the traditional degree will be accepted by employers before the online degree without exception if all other things are equal. All other things are rarely equal. (there is a recent US Dept of Education study that tells us that online students learn more than their classroom counterparts - but it doesn't say employers like online better)
So if you're weighing whether an online degree from UMass will be treated the same as a traditional degree from UMass (comparing apples-to-apples) then no, it won't. Neither will be considered equal to a traditional from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, et al either. But an online from UMass WILL usually be considered higher than a traditional from Strayer or East Podunk State (comparing apples-to-oranges). It's all about the reputation of the particular college.
Points to consider whether online or on-campus or hybrid:
1) the college needs to be regionally accredited. You can check that online here
http://www.chea.org/search/search.asp the regional accreditors are listed here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation#List_of_the_regional_accreditors 2) the reputation of the college itself is more important than whether it's online or traditional or a combination. An online degree from U Florida or UMass is generally considered more highly than a traditional (on campus) degree from U Phoenix or Strayer for example.
3) the specific program needs to have specialized accreditations or state approval if the profession requires it. Business should be AACSB accredited, nursing and teaching need state approval, etc...
4) The for-profit colleges such as UPhoenix, AIU, Kaplan, Virginia College, Strayer, etc... do not have a very good reputation with employers, other colleges, or the general public. Whether this is fair to them or not isn't important to your question. There is a general dislike of for-profit education in all sectors and we could discuss at length why without changing the impact on your question.
5) You have to be able to actually finish the degree and to learn something while you're doing it. Actually completing a degree from anywhere is better than being a drop-out from anywhere else.
6) In regulated and licensed professions (teaching, health care, counseling, etc...) the license from the state is far more important than the school you attended. The licensing exam pass rates for your school become very important. For example, a Harvard grad that can't pass the bar can't practice law but an East Podunk grad that does pass the bar can. Thing is, most Harvard grads do pass the bar at a higher rate than do East Podunk grads.
If HR has to spend too much time looking up your college then they'll just skip over you. That means that schools with high name recognition are preferable to "you went where?" and they're going to look in two places - US News Rankings and the CHEA database (link above). They don't even have to look up some colleges - those are the colleges you know the name and reputation of as well.
But, bad name recognition is worse than no name recognition at all. There are indeed colleges out there with a bad reputation and you just don't want to be associated with them if you can help it. Some employers really do refuse to hire from some schools. Some employers also go to the other extreme and only hire from a couple top schools.
Nearly everyone teaches online these days, it's now a normal form of course delivery. That everyone includes your state U and your local community college. Those "as seen on TV" colleges are rarely your best option.
You'll also find that if you're a 21 year old fresh college graduate with no work experience that your degree has a lot more impact on hiring than if you're an experienced 30-something.