Creating the 2013 Best Online Nursing Programs rankings required two steps. Step one was compiling a list of schools offering these master's degree programs online. Step two was collecting data from these schools.
To complete step one, U.S. News & World Report sent statistical questionnaires to 471 institutions that granted CCNE (Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education) or NLNAC (National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission) accredited graduate degree programs in nursing. Respondents were asked to identify whether in academic year 2012-2013 they would be offering a master's in nursing degree through Internet-based distance education courses.
U.S. News defines a distance education program as follows (along the same lines as the U.S. Department of Education'sdefinition):
A program for which all the required coursework for program completion is able to be completed via distance education courses that incorporate Internet-based learning technologies. Distance education courses are courses that deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor synchronously or asynchronously. Note: Requirements for coming to campus for orientation, testing or academic support services do not exclude a program from being classified as an online master's in nursing degree program."
U.S. News made repeated attempts to survey institutions and determine whether they meet this new definition. Between the start of data collection in late July 2012 and the fall 2012 closing date, 280 institutions (59 percent) replied. Among them, 101 (36 percent) said they would be offering an online master's in nursing degree program in accordance with the definition, while the rest said they would not.
To complete step two, U.S. News collected additional statistical information from the same questionnaire on the 101 schools with online programs, and this information was scored as outlined in the table below. (Note: All student and faculty statistical data are of July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012 cohorts, while the remaining data are of policies, services, and technologies in place at the time of the questionnaire completion in the summer and fall of 2012.)
| Student engagement (35% of ranking) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking indicator | Category weight (percent) | Scoring process | |
| Graduation rate | 33 | A school’s graduation rate relative to its program length, divided by the highest rate among all schools. | |
| Best practices | 30 | Up to 2 points each for 15 different factors: policies of instructors tracking, reviewing, and providing feedback on student participation; frequencies of instructors tracking, reviewing, and providing feedback on student participation; school tracks students after graduation; collaborative coursework; formal copyright policy; anti-plagiarism policy; American Disabilities Act policy; certified instructional designers; students sign ethics statement; instructor response timeframe; instructor office hours. | |
| Class size | 15 | A school’s mean class size and maximum class size, relative to the 20th percentile values among all schools. | |
| One year retention rates | 11 | A school’s mean one year re-enrollment rate of new entrants divided by the highest value among all schools. | |
| Time to degree deadline | 11 | A school that requires students to complete their degree within 1.5 times the program length receives the full score. Other schools score progressively lower the longer their time to degree deadlines. | |
| Faculty credentials and training (25% of ranking) | |||
| Ranking indicator | Category weight (percent) | Scoring process | |
| Ph.D. faculty | 40 | Schools employing at least 50 percent of faculty with terminal degrees receive full score; schools with below 50 percent receive a score based on their percents of faculty with terminal degrees multiplied by 2. | |
| Tenured faculty | 20 | The percentage of faculty with terminal degrees who are tenured or are tenure-track faculty. | |
| Financed training | 13 | School receives full score if it supplies or fully finances formal training for new instructors in distance education teaching practices. | |
| Hours of faculty training | 13 | The number of hours a school requires training for instructors to teach distance education courses, divided by the 80th percentile largest value among all schools. All schools with values above the 80th percentile receive the full score. | |
| Continuing faculty education | 7 | School receives full score if it requires continuing formal education on online teaching practices for instructors. | |
| Peer review | 7 | School receives full score if there is a formal system of peer review for instructors. | |
| Admissions selectivity (20% of ranking) | |||
| Ranking indicator | Category weight (percent) | Scoring process | |
| GPA scores | 50 | A school’s mean GPA score of new entrants is divided by the largest mean GPA score among all schools; this is then multiplied by its percent of new entrants who submitted GPA scores. | |
| Acceptance rate | 10 | A school’s admitted students divided by applicants, subtracted from 1 to determine a rejection rate; this is then divided by the highest rejection rate among all schools. | |
| Employee sponsorship | 10 | The percentage of new entrants whose tuition was at least partially financed by employers. | |
| Experience | 10 | The extent to which the following are required of new entrants: work experience in nursing, undergraduate nursing coursework, and/or undergraduate nursing degree. A school does not need to require all three to receive the full score. | |
| Professional experience requirement | 10 | School receives full score if applicants need professional nursing experience after receipt of their licenses. | |
| Letters of recommendation (general) | 5 | Schools with three or more required letters receive the full value; schools that require 2 receive 0.7 value, and those that require 1 receive 0.4 value. | |
| Letters of recommendation (professional) | 5 | Schools with one or more required letters receive full value. | |
| Student services and technology (20% of ranking) | |||
| Ranking indicator | Category weight (percent) | Scoring process | |
| Student indebtedness | 50 | Half of the weight is a school’s mean student debt at graduation compared with the median such value among other schools; the other half is the percentage of a school’s graduates with debt compared with the median such value among other schools. Only schools with below median debt levels for either were awarded scores. | |
| Technologies accessible to students | 28 | Two points each for the following: PC compliant; Apple compliant; application for tablet computer; application for smartphone; remote access to the following: live streaming audio, live streaming video, recorded audio, recorded video, software-based readers, bulletin boards, simulations, online chat rooms, visual software. | |
| Services available to students | 22 | Two points each for remote access to the following: academic advising, bookstore, 24-7 tech support, financial aid services, digitized library, live librarian, local area network, mentoring, live tutoring, writing workshops, career placement assistance. | |
Data reporting
Respondents were instructed to provide information at the online master's degree program level rather than the entire school level; therefore, questions asking for descriptive statistics on students and faculty—such as enrollment or graduation rates—requested aggregations of data only across schools' online education programs. For profile data that should not be aggregated—such as tuition or application deadlines—schools were given separate instructions.
Data on doctorate of nursing practice degree programs or other graduate level programs were not used to compute the rankings.
Schools without rigid barriers between distance and non-distance education students and faculty were asked to make explainable estimates of their distance education populations and report on these cohorts consistently throughout the questionnaire.
How the rankings were calculated
To compute the Best Online Nursing Programs rankings, responses to the statistical questionnaire were linked to different possible achievable point values, which were then summed into overall scores for each eligible school. The highest overall score a school could possibly achieve if it performed strongest in every single ranking indicator was 100.
Numerical rankings were determined by sorting the programs' weighted overall scores in descending order, with the highest scoring school ranked No. 1. No two schools share a rank because although U.S. News rounds overall scores to one decimal place for display purposes on the website, the rankings themselves are based on longer unrounded scores that are all unique.
Schools performing in the bottom 25 percent of overall scores are categorized as Rank Not Published. This means that U.S. News calculated a numerical ranking and score for that school, but decided for editorial reasons not to publish it.
In contrast, five schools that either offered an online program for the first time in academic year 2012-2013 or reported fewer than 10 students enrolled were designated as Unranked. This means U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for these schools. All Unranked and Rank Not Published programs, however, are still listed in U.S. News's searchable directory.
Ranking criteria and weights
Here is how different factors were weighted in the rankings.
• Student engagement (weighting: 35 percent): In a quality program, aspiring advanced practice nurses can readily collaborate with classmates in their classes and clinical settings. In turn, instructors not only are accessible and responsive, but they also are tasked with helping to create an experience rewarding enough for students to stay enrolled and complete their degrees in normal time.
• Faculty credentials and training (weighting: 25 percent):Strong online nursing programs employ instructors with academic credentials one would expect from a campus-based program, and have the resources to train these instructors on how to teach distance learners.
• Admissions selectivity (weighting: 20 percent): Student bodies entering with proven aptitudes, ambitions, and accomplishments can handle the demands of rigorous coursework. Furthermore, online degrees that schools award discriminatively will have greater legitimacy in the job market.
• Student services and technology (weighting: 20 percent): A program that incorporates diverse online learning technologies allows greater flexibility for students to complete coursework from a distance. Outside of classes, a strong support structure provides career guidance, academic assistance, and financial aid resources commensurate with quality campus-based programs.
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