OEDb (Online Education Database) released their second annual Online College Rankings earlier today. OEDb's Online College Rankings 2008 ranks 41 national undergraduate colleges and universities that offer most or all of their degree programs online. OEDb recognizes these colleges and universities as the leading degree-granting online colleges.
Upper Iowa University topped this year's rankings, followed by LeTourneau University and Liberty University. The remaining schools in the top ten include: Nova Southeastern University, California University of Pennsylvania, Grand Canyon University, Regent University, Champlain College, Westwood College, and Tiffin University, respectively. Other notable rankings include ITT Technical Institute at 16th, Kaplan University at 17th, and the University of Phoenix at 25th. In 2007 Grand Canyon University topped OEDb's list, which ranked 21 schools.
Each school's ranking is based on data derived from up to eight different metrics: acceptance rate, financial aid, graduation rate, peer Web citations, retention rate, scholarly citations, student-faculty ratio, and years accredited. The overall rankings list each college by its average ranking for each metric for which data was available.
Online education has grown exponentially over the last ten years due to its flexible, portable, and cost-effective nature. However, online colleges and universities still suffer from ambiguity in educational quality which limits the prestige and reputation of an online degree.
OEDb attempts to make online education more transparent with these objectives rankings that compare the most popular accredited online colleges. OEDb spokesperson Ashley Merusi said, "OEDb's second annual Online College Rankings saves students valuable time by ranking the top online colleges in an objective, un-biased manner. Those online colleges ranked in the top ten should be especially commended for their commitment to providing a quality education and experience for students."
OEDb's Online College Rankings 2008 is available at http://oedb.org/rankings on the World Wide Web. Last year's rankings were the first of its kind, and OEDb strives each year to improve upon its rankings by adding new colleges, increasing its data as more information becomes available, and evolving alongside online education.
Founded in 2006, OEDb: Online Education Database is dedicated to providing comprehensive reviews of accredited online colleges and universities and the degree programs they offer. OEDb is headquartered in Houston, Texas and is privately owned and operated.