Independent school-ranking website College Choice has named IU-Bloomington in its list of the 50 Best Online Colleges and Universities.
The ranking, released Monday in a press release, placed Western Kentucky University as the top school on the list and included listings for both IU-Bloomington and IU-Purdue University Fort Wayne.
IU-Bloomington placed ten spots behind IPFW, which ranked at #37.
“The need for accredited online universities has grown exponentially,” said College Choice Managing Editor Christian Amondson, according to the press release provided by the organization. “Even when institutional enrollment numbers decline, accredited online university programs steadily increase, which makes selecting from the best online colleges an important task.”
College Choice, whose office was not immediately available for comment, displays an infographic on their website explaining how college rankings are calculated. US News & World Report’s School Academic Reputation score, the National Center for Education Statistics’ financial aid offering and overall cost of attendance data and payscale.com’s Success in the Job Market score are each given one-quarter weight in the organization’s calculation.
Indiana, as a state, makes up the largest proportion of students receiving distance-based education last spring, accounting for 62.9 percent of U.S. students who receive these degrees, according to data provided by the Office of Online Education. More than one-tenth of the credits granted were through distance education.
The office also reported the MBA, nursing and the bachelor’s in business administration programs as the top programs for online enrollment. Almost 24 percent of students in the MBA program were enrolled online.
The school also operates an accredited distance education secondary school, IU High School, though this was not taken into account for the rankings.
The IU Online office was not immediately available for comment on IU-Bloomington’s ranking. According to its website 13 undergraduate degrees and 26 graduate degrees are offered online compared to IPFW’s four undergraduate and two graduate degree offerings.
IPFW has recently experienced an administrative realignment. Purdue University has taken control of all IPFW’s degree programs aside from those in their health sciences departments.
US News & World Report, an online organization the statistics from which were used in College Choice’s ranking, placed IU in a five-way tie for fifty-fourth place in its ranking of top undergraduate degree programs. Conversely, the Kelley School of Business’ MBA program placed at third on the same site, with the school’s other graduate business degrees placing first among online programs.
College Choice’s website said the online school ranking took factors such as number of online degrees available and faculty expertise in online education into account. The organization compiled its list to be of service to the growing number of students considering distance-based education who may be anxious about the prospect, according to the press release.
“Because digital learning is becoming so important, this ranking was created for working professionals and busy students to continue their education while maintaining their lives,” Amondson said.
