By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
In 2019, for a third year in a row, online bachelor\u2019s degree programs at Fort Hays State University have been ranked best in Kansas by U.S. News & World Report.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecognition by U.S. News & World Report is just the latest testament to the high quality of the online programs offered at Fort Hays State University,\u201d said Dr. Jeff Briggs, interim provost and vice president of academic affairs. By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS In 2019, for a third year in a row, online bachelor\u2019s degree programs at Fort Hays State University have been ranked best… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43186,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43185\/revisions\/43186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cOur bachelor\u2019s and graduate programs make the top tiers of the major rankings \u2013 like U.S. News and Washington Monthly \u2013 and the numerous other organizations that evaluate online education.\u201d
\nFort Hays State offers a total of 137 degree programs through the FHSU Virtual College \u2013 58 undergraduate, 58 master\u2019s, one doctorate, four education specialist and 16 associate degrees. Sixty-one certificate programs, graduate and undergraduate, are also available.
\nThe Virtual College has enjoyed 20 continuous years of record enrollments in both the fall and spring semesters.
\n\u201cRankings like these, and the fact that our Virtual College enrollment has grown constantly over the last 20 years, demonstrate the value we have for students in Kansas and around the world,\u201d said Mike Michaelis, director of the FHSU Virtual College.
\n\u201cThis is especially so for students who have to work full time, or as close to full time as they can, and who want and need to get an education at the same time,\u201d he said.
\nU.S. News bases its ratings for online bachelor\u2019s programs on four general categories of criteria:
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Engagement, which attempts to measure opportunities for student engagement in courses and interaction with instructors and classmates.
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Services and technologies, which considers diverse technologies available for coursework at a distance as well as the availability of support for learning assistance, career guidance and financial aid \u201ccommensurate with quality campus-based programs.\u201d
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Faculty credentials and training, which is an indication of how closely the academic credentials of online faculty match those of on-campus faculty.
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Expert opinion, which is based on a survey of academic officials and employers.
\nStudent engagement was given the most weight, at 35 percent. Student services and technology were weighted at 25 percent, and the remaining two were given 20 percent.
\nFor the complete U.S. News & World Report rankings, go to www.usnews.com\/online<\/a>.
\nAbout the FHSU Virtual College
\n<\/strong>Distance education at Fort Hays State began in 1911 when faculty voted to offer courses free by mail so that one-room school teachers across Western Kansas could afford to gain the continuing education required to teach. The distance education department created then evolved continuously with changing technology and culture until, in 1997, the Department of Continuing Education and Instructional Technology became the FHSU Virtual College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"