Directory Lists Accredited Online Universities
Website Provides Online University Programs, Degrees and Indicators
Aug 10, 2009
Called College Choices for Adults, the new website lists information in a standard format and to date includes 12 universities and other institutions that offer accredited, online university degrees.
The website provides information in a standardized, web-friendly format such as alumni survey and National Survey of Student Engagement results, more commonly known as NSSE.
A third party, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, provides quality assurance of the data reported. The idea behind the website is for potential students, particularly adults seeking university distance education, to find out how online degrees and programs line up with career and educational goals.
Accredited Online University Degrees Listed on One Website
Information included about the 12 listed online accredited university programs includes:
- Employment status of enrolled students
- Student satisfaction rankings
- A list of 21 questions to ask before enrolling such as the types of financial aid, academic and student support services and available technical support
For example, website visitors can click on Capella University to find out the online university degrees offered, total enrollment, the average age of Capella’s students, how many students study full or part-time and the race/ethnicity of students.
Potential students can also find out how current students and alumni rate the overall experience at the university. For example, the site includes percentage responses to questions such as asking if the university experience contributed to the graduate's ability to write clearly and effectively, think critically and analytically and solve complex, real-world problems.
Universities, Colleges Offering More Information About Degree Programs
This new site is unique because it lists online university programs however, more higher education institutions are facing increased levels of transparency about rankings and performance. For example, about 300 public universities and colleges joined to produce a website of comparable college information that offers information about students’ performance on standardized pre-graduate tests.
At the same time, several private, nonprofit schools are reporting performance by students on standardized tests and growing numbers of U.S. states and Canadian provinces publicly list summaries of how graduates perform on postgraduate licensing examinations in fields such as nursing and physical therapy.
Traditional, Online Universities Offer Rankings, Data Publicly
Future university students also have the U.S. News & World Report's America’s Best Colleges ranking that provides comparisons of students’ performance on tests taken in high school before entering the higher education institution. However, the rankings do not include any information about students’ performance on standardized tests taken just before receiving an undergraduate or graduate degree.
Prospective students seeking information about U.S. online university programs and degree options can add a new web tool as an information resource during the difficult decision of where to start or continue a university education. This new resource’s strongest feature is its compilation of online university program options under one user-friendly website.
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