(Photo/Huey Turlich)
Southern Miss’s online bachelor’s degree program stands above five universities in the state, including Mississippi State and William Carey.
In the national rankings including over 350 universities, Southern Miss ranked at No. 68, which is higher than the past two years.
Dean of Online Learning and Enrollment Dr. Tom Hutchinson was proud of the university and professors’ work with the online program and its recognition.
Hutchinson described that Southern Miss led the charge in online programs compared to other universities in the state.
“We’ve led the state in quality because we were early adopters to fully online programs to help students,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson claimed many aspects of the online program have not changed over the past two years though the university’s rank is on the rise. He explained why Southern Miss continues to improve although no changes are made year after year.
“We really try to serve students that can’t be here: military population, working class, and students with families,” Hutchinson said. “It’s really that kind of approach to serving as many students as possible. That’s allowed us to get where we were.”
Quality Matters professionally trains educators for the best quality of online learning. Each of the Southern Miss online program’s instructors underwent this training before the courses began, and Hutchinson looks at the training as an important factor of the ranking.
“We’re partners with Quality Matters, which is kind of the gold standard for online instruction, and all of our faculty are Quality Matters certified, so I was happy,” Hutchinson said. “And, it also makes sense.”
Students responded to the recognition with positive and negative reactions. Senior Andru Catchings felt conflicting emotions about the online program when he was enrolled in his online courses for the past couple of semesters.
“I have mixed feelings about the online courses. I got good grades, but I don’t know if I was learning everything properly,” Catchings said. “I just feel like the engagement in a classroom makes it easier to learn, but there isn’t really anything wrong with online classes.”
The online programs are graded on four criteria: engagement, services and technologies, expert opinion, then faculty credentials and training.
The qualifications cover many factors under these categories, like graduation rates, faculty with more than a bachelor’s degree and a rating from college administrators.
According to U.S. News and World Report, Southern Miss leads Mississippi because the university exceeds the standard in each of the categories.
Southern Miss ranks as No. 1 for online bachelor’s degree programs for veterans and business degrees in Mississippi. The programs stand at No. 44 and No. 51 on the national list.
Southern Miss offers over 15 online bachelor’s degree programs from marketing to elementary education.
To enroll in the programs or have any questions, contact the Office of Online Learning by email at [email protected] or by phone at 601-266-5518. Also, the office can be found at the International Center.
