Southeast Missouri State University's online Bachelor of Science in Nursing program and online Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program have been ranked 15th and 25th best values in their degree fields by OnlineU.org. At the same time, the university's registered nurse to Bachelor of Science nurse program was ranked 15th in the nation by SuperScholar.org.

"I was never contacted regarding the decision," Dr. Allen Gathman, associate dean of online learning at Southeast said. "The first time I was contacted was when they announced the results."

For the rankings, OnlineU.org looks at several criteria. First, they look at the annual tuition costs, with the website being up to date for the 2014-2015 school year. Lower costs were weighed more favorably. For example, Southeast's online nursing program costs $10,304 a year, while the business administration program costs $12,270 a year.

Next, they looked at whether a school is for-profit or non-profit, with non-profit schools being weighed more heavily. This status was determined based upon data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Southeast is a non-profit university.

OnlineU.org also looks at the rate of student loan repayment. This information was obtained based upon the three-year official default rate for the school. This is the percentage of borrowers who do not default on their loans by three years after the student begins repayment. The most recent data is from 2011 and was obtained from the Federal Student Aid Office. According to OnlineU.org, Southeast has a repayment rate of 88 percent.

"Being able to repay student loans is a good indicator that students are getting the most out of their education," Kimberly Wetter of OnlineU's SR Education Group said. "It generally shows that students are getting into the careers they want and are able to afford to repay their loans."

In addition to financial statistics, OnlineU looks at what the universities offer to their students. Firstly, accredited programs are more favorably weighed than those that are not. For example, Southeast's online nursing program is accredited by the Commision on Collegiate Nursing Education, while to online business administration program is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Another factor in the rankings is whether online students have access to academic and career advising. Online students at Southeast have full access to Career Services and their academic advisers.

"In the nursing program, the students are free to contact their advisers and professors by phone or email," Dr. Gloria Green, chair of Southeast's Department of Nursing, said. "In addition, our faculty have 'electronic office hours.' These times are when each instructor is online and are able to provide almost immediate responses to emails."

Rankings are also influenced by feedback from graduates who have completed their coursework online and feel that earning their degree at that school improved their career. All feedback is obtained from a partner site called GradReports.com. The last factor is the highlights of the program based upon information from the university's website.

"After completing the coursework, our online students may do their clinical practices where they live," Green said. "Our online students have other commitments in their lives, such as caring for family, another job or other reasons that keep them from coming to Cape. So this is more convenient for them."

SuperScholar.org, on the other hand, was much less detailed with their rankings. After restricting their listing to nursing programs that were accredited by CCNE or the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, the areas in which the programs are judged are reputation, selection, quality, student satisfaction, affordability and National Council Licensure Examination pass rates. However, the site did not specify how the programs were judged in each category.

According to Gathman, the university currently has 819 students enrolled in online degree programs out of a student body of 11,601. In addition, there are about 200 students who are enrolled in face-to-face programs, but are also taking some classes online. As shown, students do not need to enroll in an online program to take online classes.

"When registering for face to face classes, schedule conflicts tend to come up," Gathman said. "Online classes help by allowing students to set their own schedules. The trade off is that students need to be self-motivated in order to do well in these classes."

With these commendations, Southeast will continue to grow its online degree programs.

"Southeast's faculty have put a lot of work into developing online programs and classes that are rigorous but accessible and affordable by a variety of students," Gathman said.