By Nicole Adamski for The Daily Collegian
Penn State's World Campus has been recognized in U.S. News and World Report's online education ranking for having some of the top programs in online bachelor's and online graduate programs.
The Penn State online programs that received recognition include: the online bachelor's program, the graduate education program, the graduate business program, the graduate engineering program and the graduate information technology program.
Each university's online graduate programs were judged in four different categories: admissions selectivity, faculty credentials and training, student engagement and accreditation, and student services and technology. The online bachelor's programs were not judged to admissions selectivity.
The World Campus also earned an honor roll mention in online graduate education programs. This recognition was only awarded to programs that ranked in the top one third of three out of four criteria listed above.
Gregory Kelly, associate dean of research, outreach and technology for the College of Education, said the college is always trying to increase the online opportunities for students and news of the rankings will not change that.
"We don't worry about rankings in the analysis of our program," Kelly said. "Improvement is an ongoing process and we put the best education programs online."
There were not a lot of reactions at the ranking in the College of Education, Kelly said, but he assured there would be continual improvements in the educational products of the college of education.
This is the first online education rankings that U.S. News has produced, Dave Aneckstein, director of outreach news and communications, said. But this isn't the first time the World Campus has won an award. In 2011, the World Campus also received the Sloan Consortium Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Education award for their online educational programs, Aneckstein said.
David Morand, a professor of management and business administration at Penn State Harrisburg, teaches an online graduate business course for the World Campus and said that while the ranking is an honor, improvements are always ongoing since there are so many variants associated with an online course.
"The virtual world is a little strange in that it is more difficult to get feedback from students than in a regular classroom setting where you can see [students'] faces and hear their voices," Morand said. "What makes Penn State a good university is the quality of students that apply and leave the university [at graduation]. A really good ranking will draw in more good students."
Morand also said though many Internet-based graduate programs for business are mostly online, requirements do exist that require students to meet in person. In these meetings, students will get together for a week to participate in corporate visits and meet each other, Morand said.
The World Campus also saw a 21 percent increase in enrollment this year as compared to last year, but Aneckstein said that this does not relate to the rankings.
"We are really pleased to be recognized in the ranking and we hope to take what we see here, learn from it and build on our already strong programs," Aneckstein said.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2012/01/30/PSU_recognized_for_world_campus_.aspx
