About the Online College Rankings

Update: OEDb has released the 2008 rankings. This is an archived page from the 2007 rankings.

Established in September 2006, OEDb: Online Education Database is an independent for-profit organization located in Chicago, Illinois. We are dedicated to building a comprehensive database of the top accredited online colleges and the degree programs that they offer.

The methodology used to rank the colleges was developed by Jimmy Atkinson, founder and president of OEDb. Mr. Atkinson has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame. The data compiled for the purpose of this study was collected by Mr. Atkinson from January 10, 2007 – January 16, 2007.

The entire culture of learning is changing, and with that, formal education is too. One of the many ways in which formal education is changing is that it is now possible to study and earn a degree entirely online. While the opportunities for online education are rapidly gaining in number, there still exists a lack of transparency. We thought there was a need to cut through some of this by offering our rankings. Our main purpose in conducting this study was to show, as objectively as possible, which are the top accredited online colleges. To our knowledge, no such task had yet been undertaken.

Our methodology certainly isn't perfect, but we strived to make consistent and logical at the very least. To that end, we feel that this first set of rankings is a good starting point. We plan to release new rankings annually. With time, our goal is to increase both the number of colleges we include and the amount of data we are able to collect.

To contact us regarding these rankings, please e-mail us at contact@oedb.org.