U.S. News recently released their annual Best Online Program Rankings recognizing several Creighton University online programs based upon their success in 2013.
U.S. News ranked Creighton 70th for their online Graduate Business Program, 87th for the Graduate Education Program, and 201st for the Bachelor Program
The U.S. News 2014 Best Online Program rankings reflect several aspects of online education including bachelor degree programs, faculty credentials, annual graduation rates, and also the accessibility and availability of the university’s student resources and support services.
Creighton University began offering online courses in the late 1990s for their pharmacy students. These courses in the pharmacy department still exist today along with an array of undergraduate CORE classes, certain major courses and also many graduate degree programs.
Online courses can offer many benefits to both students and professors.
“The main advantage to teaching or taking an online class is flexibility,” said English professor Matthew Low. “Every online class is going to have a course schedule, assignment deadlines, and the like; however, the absence of a formal, face-to-face meeting enables teachers and students more “free time” to spend on coursework and less time spent on things like commute, childcare, making photocopies, and so on.”
“I believe the number one advantage is no scheduled class time. This allows for a more flexible schedule for regular classes. It is especially helpful for student athletes who are traveling because we can generally work at our own pace,” said sophomore student Kim Jacobson.
Professor Isabelle Cherney believes there are countless skills that a student can acquire through taking an online college course. Student’s writing ability can improve tremendously through all the practice and repetition they will have throughout the course of an online class.
Professors are able to give constructive feedback to students in order to better their writing and also develop a strong written communication with them. She believes students are able to acquire critical thinking and problem solving skills, as well as learn how to work with others in a group even though students aren’t necessarily face-to-face.
“It is amazing to see how close the students are to us and how close we are to them,” Cherney said.
With the way education is evolving in today’s society, the traditional normal attendance classes are slowly being pushed aside in order to give students more opportunities to take their classes online.
“This is the future and one we should not fear,” said Cherney.
It’s great that Creighton is moving forward and excelling in this particular domain,” said Low. “I think what online teaching offers most of all, and I hope that Creighton makes this a primary focus as it develops more of these classes, is accessibility; the more people who have access to the excellent teaching, resources, and Jesuit values unique to the Creighton experience, the better.”