Online master’s programs in the NIU College of Education are in good company, according to the annual rankings released Jan. 25 by U.S. News & World Report.
NIU, which has been ranked every year since the distinction debuted in 2013, is tied with Indiana University-Bloomington, Ohio State University, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the University of Delaware and fellow Mid-American Conference school Ball State University at No. 28.
In Illinois, meanwhile, only the flagship University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign appears higher on the roster.
This extends the NIU College of Education’s uninterrupted streak in the top 10% of ranked colleges and universities, which this year number 321.
Dean Laurie Elish-Piper said the sustained recognition from U.S. News confirms the college’s status as a national leader in online graduate education that meets and exceeds the needs of modern graduate students.
“We are proud of our continued high ranking that provides further evidence of the quality and rigor of our programs,” Elish-Piper said. “I am especially proud of the fact that we continue to rank very highly in the areas of faculty expertise, opportunities of student engagement and quality of curriculum.”
U.S. News bases its rankings on five categories: Engagement; Expert Opinion; Faculty Credentials and Training; Services and Technologies; and Student Excellence.
Earning an overall score of 87 out of 100, the college received its highest mark for Faculty Credentials and Training – 93 – and achieved an Expert Opinion score of 3 on a scale of 1 to 5.
The college also received good marks for:
- Student Engagement (81 out of 100), which measures student satisfaction and instructor responsiveness.
- Student Excellence (81 out of 100), which measures how selective a school is in admitted highly qualified applicants.
- Student Services and Technology (70 out of 100), which measures financial, technical and vocational support available to distance learners.
Scores in Engagement, which account for 30% of a school’s total points, reflect opportunities provided to students “to readily interact” not only with classmates but with instructors who are “accessible and responsive” and who “create an experience rewarding enough that students stay enrolled and complete their degrees in a reasonable amount of time.”
For the Faculty Credentials and Training score, meanwhile, reviewers look for “instructors with academic credentials that mirror those of instructors for campus-based programs” and for “the resources to train these instructors to teach distance learners.”
Wei-Chen Hung is chair of the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment, which offers two of the college’s four online graduate degrees: the M.S.Ed. in Instructional Technology and the M.S. in Educational Research, Evaluation and Assessment.
“Our accelerated programs in Technology Specialist and Educational Research, Evaluation and Assessment are designed for working adults looking to advance their career,” Hung said.
“Students in our programs benefit from the same committed faculty, research opportunities, field experiences, and general advantages an on-campus program has to offer,” he added. “This is largely due to our faculty and program advisors who have currency in their respective disciplines and ongoing training to ensure program quality.”
The college’s other online graduate degrees – the Ed.D. in Adult and Higher Education with an emphasis in Community College Leadership and the M.S.Ed. in School Business Management – are housed, respectively, in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education and the Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations.
Carolyn Pluim, chair of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations, is pleased that “the ranking once again highlights the high quality of the online programs in the College of Education.”
“Faculty in our Chief School Business Official program have worked so effectively to develop innovative and relevant coursework and experiences to meet the needs of our students,” Pluim said. “It is absolutely fabulous to be recognized with this great honor.”
Suzanne Degges-White, chair of Counseling and Higher Education, pointed to students who provide a “strong representation of professions” that include deans from a variety of academic and student affairs areas as well as directors of diversity and equity offices.
Degges-White also credits faculty and instructors who “bring rich expertise from their own professional experience in higher education.”
“Over the last six years, our Community College Leadership program has grown in its reputation and reach. We currently have students enrolled from across the country including Colorado, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Arizona, Indiana, and Tennessee,” Degges-White said.
“In addition to its geographical diversity, our students also represent a variety of functional areas and positions in their home institutions,” she added. “Class engagement and virtual interactions are especially vibrant and challenging due to the wide variety of professional positions that our students currently hold.”
Online certificates of graduate study also are available from the NIU College of Education in Postsecondary Developmental Literacy and Language Instruction and Trauma-Informed Counseling while online endorsements offered include Library Information Specialist, School Business Management and Technology Specialist.
