In a report published this week, U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks Armstrong State and Georgia Southern universities as among having two of the best online programs in the nation.
Armstrong
Armstrong was ranked one of the top universities in Georgia and No. 53 in the nation on the 2016 list of the Best Online Graduate Education Programs.
“We are honored to be recognized by the U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s leaders in online graduate education,” said Dr. Janet Buckenmeyer, Armstrong’s dean of the College of Education. “Our faculty is doing a great job creating and delivering online graduate courses that engage and challenge our students. We feel very good about the ranking and that we are recognized by peers across the country for the quality of our graduate education programs.”
Armstrong offers Master of Education degree programs in early childhood education, curriculum and instruction, reading specialist education, adult education and special education.
Armstrong also offers Master of Arts in teaching degree programs with initial certification in early childhood education, special education and secondary education.
Georgia Southern
Four online Georgia Southern programs were ranked in the top 50 of their respective lists, including online graduate information technology program, online Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, online graduate business programs (non-MBA) and online nursing program.
The online MBA at Georgia Southern tied with James Madison University and Kennesaw State University for 28th out of nearly 200 ranked programs on the list of 2016 Best Online MBA Programs.
Additionally, Georgia Southern online graduate business programs (non-MBA) tied for 33rd with Georgia College and State University out of more than 100 schools included in the ranked list.
The 2016 Best Online Graduate Business Programs rankings assesses master’s-level business-degree programs that are not MBA programs.
Examples of non-MBA graduate business programs include degrees in accounting, finance, insurance, marketing and management.
Georgia Southern’s grad-uate information technology program tied with Florida State University for the 21st spot on the list of
2016 Best Online Graduate Information Technology Programs.
Georgia Southern’s online graduate education program placed 73rd with four other schools out of more than 200 schools nationwide.
For online nursing programs, GSU was ranked 49th of more than 100 ranked schools, sharing the rank with Loyola University New Orleans, Nova Southeastern University, University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Georgia Southern and five other schools tied for the 114th spot out of more than 200 schools across the country for the
2016 Best Online Bachelor’s Programs.
Because U.S. News considers students enrolled in these ranked programs likely to be working professionals in their 20s to 40s looking to advance in or change their careers and not first-time college students, the factors used to make comparisons between programs were not measures like high school class rank or standardized test scores.
Instead, U.S. News chose factors that weigh how these programs are being delivered and their effectiveness at awarding affordable degrees in a reasonable amount of time.
The rankings
U.S. News ranked universities based on five general categories, including student engagement, student services and technology, admissions selectivity, faculty credentials and training and peer reputation.
Following the publication of the Best Online Programs on usnews.com in January, highlights of the rankings will later be included in the “Best Graduate Schools 2017” and “Best Colleges 2017” guidebooks.