Online School of Education among best

In a US News and World Report ranking released Tuesday listing top online graduate
education degree programs, the IU School of Education placed within the top half of 160 institutions.

In the report, IU ranked in three out of the four categories. The University’s best category was admissions selectivity, in which it ranked 15th.  IU also ranked 43rd in faculty credentials and training and 50th in teaching practices and student engagement.

“We did well in the categories that were identified as contributing to high-quality online education programs,” School of Education Dean Gerado Gonazles said. “The ability to engage students and respond to their needs in an online environment contributed to our ranking.”

The same faculty that teaches on the IU campus also helps teach the online courses.

“We take quality education very seriously, and for decades, our faculty have been developing online instruction and doing research so that we learn from our experiences,” Gonzalez said. “That means that we are able not only to improve our own instruction but increase the field at large.”

Elizabeth Boling, associate dean for graduate studies, said the good rankings will help attract more students to the program.

“People are looking for a quality program, and this is a great way to extend our reach to contact the students that want access to our program,” Boling said.

Boling said the school hopes to continue to improve its standing next year.

“The rankings are kind of like a mirror where we can engage in continuous improvement,” Boling said. “I’m really confident that we’ll continue to increase in
the rankings.”

This is the first year the US News and World Report came out with the rankings for online schools, which shows how much online education is growing, Gonzalez said.

“This is a rapidly growing field, probably one of the areas that is most rapidly growing,” he said. “So it’s good to be recognized in that area, and we’re very proud of the quality of our program and the impact of those programs. And we’re very pleased to see that the US News and World Report recognized that in their rankings.”