Seeking Input on Online Degree Rankings

By Robert Morse and Eric Brooks

Following the inaugural release of the Top Online Education Programs rankings, U.S. News reached out to the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) to answer questions from their members and to establish an ongoing dialogue with the organization. This was done to initiate a process that potentially will improve the degree program rankings and program-level data collection in future years.

WCET—an organization that works to advance and evaluate the most effective uses of technology in higher education—had authored a review of the new rankings in January. The review presented critiques that bear resemblance to many cited elsewhere in specialized media that cover online education. U.S. News believes these critiques often rest on faulty assumptions about the rankings methodologies.

Fortunately, WCET has expressed a mutual interest in establishing a relationship with U.S. News, so that in the future its members can more formally share their views on the rankings and the survey instruments used to collect the rankings and directory data.

In the meantime, members’ written questions were selected by a representative from WCET and submitted to U.S. News on January 25. The questions and their responses were published and made accessible today from WCET’s blog.

Continued at: http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2012/02/02/seeking-input-on-online-degree-rankings

Read the Results: http://wcet.wiche.edu/wcet/docs/listserv/QandAwithUSNWR.pdf

Visit the WCET Blog: http://wcetblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/usn-intheirownwords/

Related articles

• Seeking Input on Online Degree Rankings (usnews.com)
• Examining Reactions to the Online Degree Rankings (usnews.com)
• Listing Toward Order (hollymccracken.wordpress.com)