Clarkson College Ranked 22nd Best Online College in U.S.

Best Colleges ranked Clarkson College 22nd in the nation and as the only higher education institution in Nebraska on its Best Accredited Online Bachelor’s Degree Colleges of 2016 list.

Best Colleges, a partner of HigherEducation.com that seeks to provide college-bound students with information needed to make informed higher education decisions, used qualitative measures and data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics and from individual schools themselves to conduct the rankings.  Best Colleges assessed key performance indicators, such as admissions, enrollment, retention and graduation rates to complete the rankings.

“We strive to stay ahead of the curve in Online Education by following best practices supported by research, said Dr. Ricardo Varguez, Director of the Clarkson College Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). As the College implements new technologies and enhances existing processes, Dr. Varguez and his staff provide regular training and support for faculty and staff to ensure proper and effective use of the online education tools. Recently, CTE established an Online Course Evaluation Rubric instructors can use to provide feedback to the department regarding course design and delivery.

According to a 2015 Babson Research Survey , 70.8 percent of academic leaders stated that online learning is now a fundamental part of their post-secondary institution’s long-term growth strategy. Furthermore, the growth rate among students enrolled in online college programs again exceeds that of traditional programs at all schools. Online learning enrollment has been highest at four-year nonprofit and public institutions in the last few years.

Aware of the increasingly fast-growing trend to take college courses online, Clarkson College is in the process of exploring a replacement learning management system. Dr. Varguez said the new system will allow students to access their content on any operating system and will make creating, accessing and completing course content more intuitive.