How Were the 2010 Online Education Data Collected?

Here's the methodology used in this year's online education guide

March 25, 2010 RSS Feed Print
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The number of institutions offering courses and degrees taught via E-learning technologies grows rapidly every month. To help you navigate this expanding universe, we've created two searchable directories of an institution's overall E-learning offerings—courses, certificates, and degrees via Internet, video, CD-ROM, and other distance-education technologies—and also a directory that focuses on online graduate-level degree programs in six disciplines: business, engineering, education, public health, nursing, and library science.

Method of data collection

During the winter of 2009 and this spring, U.S. News surveyed over 2,800 colleges, including several online entities or "virtual universities." For the fifth year in a row, U.S. News also surveyed two-year colleges that grant associate's degrees or certificates. Institutions reported their credit-granting E-learning and distance-education offerings for the 2009-2010 academic year. All institutions that were surveyed have at least two characteristics in common: They are all regionally accredited and offer E-learning or distance-education courses for credit. Some of the institutions, particularly those that offer online graduate degrees, are also professionally accredited by an appropriate association (depending on the discipline).

Each institution that responded to our survey has a page in the directory. Schools that did not offer any E-learning courses during the 2009-2010 academic year can be found here.

To learn about how we use such terms as "distance education," "online education," and "E-learning," please consult our glossary.

Tags:
colleges,
education,
online education,
rankings

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this thing sucks

pancho of HI 9:59AM February 02, 2011

Free Education Guide is a specially written guide by college professor’s on step by step instructions to obtaining free grants and free financial aid. This guide has the ability Answer hundreds of questions you have on financial aid and where to apply yourself. At 70 pages and growing each year this guide shows you where the government web sites are.

http://www.freeeducationguideinfo.com

Russell Card of MA 2:38PM July 02, 2010

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