CEHD Jumps to Top 10 in Latest Online Rankings

The College of Education and Human Development is now ranked among the top 10 best online graduate programs in the country.

The 2020 U.S. News & World Report Best Online Programs rankings, released today, list the college’s online graduate programs as 8th in the country, up from 16th last year.

Dr. Beverly Irby, professor and associate dean for academic affairs credits the top 10 ranking to the faculty’s consistent efforts and initiatives related to providing quality in the college’s online education offerings.

Three years ago, the college’s Office of Academic Affairs formed a Distance Education Committee charged with exploring best ways to offer online instruction. Along with gathering data from across the college, the committee also encourages initiatives at program levels to increase the quality of online education.

“We, in the Office of Academic Affairs, are pleased with all the progress the faculty has made in providing quality content and pedagogy in online education,” said Irby. “Our belief is that there should be no difference in the content provided between an online course and a face-to-face course.”

The college also received high ratings in best online master’s education programs for veterans, ranked 3rd in the country.

U.S. News focused on five general categories to establish this year’s rankings: engagement, services and technologies, expert opinion, student excellence, and faculty credentials and training.

This year, U.S. News also introduced four new rankings of education specialties offered online at the master’s level – educational administration and supervision, curriculum and instruction, educational/instructional media design and special education. The college is ranked 4th, 9th, 6th and 4th respectively.

The purpose of the new rankings is to help guide prospective students who are interested in pursuing a degree or coursework with one of these focuses.

View the full 2020 rankings here.