METHODOLOGY

We joined hands with Yahoo! India to mount the largest-ever survey of current and past distance learning students. The survey which ran for 15 days elicited over 7000+ responses. We cleaned up the data by removing spam, duplicate entries and incomplete data. A total of 5002 entries which ranked over 81 universities were taken up for analysis. After eliminating those with less than 50 responses and unique IP addresses we finally zeroed in on 30 institutes which were subjected to detailed analysis. The data was then validated for contradictory responses since we had put in ‘check questions’ within the survey. And those with invalid responses were also removed from consideration.

Since we had asked the respondents to rate on a 10-point scale the final output is a weighted average of individual responses normalised for the number of responses. We also arrived at a median score for each of the parameters for all the 25 institutes and looked at their correlation such that the impact of the number of responses did not adversely affect the final outcome. Only in five instances did we see huge divergence. Since the time of creation and originating IP addresses were too close, we ped these institutions. For the rest of the 25, the mean and median were in close agreement, thereby by giving us sufficient confidence to present the results to you.

Careers360 has also ranked the distance learning institutions based on objective data parameters under three broad domains namely: Reach & Resources, Learning and Experience, and Results & Efficiency. Click on the link below to read more.

• India's Best Distance Learning Institutes 2011 
   

Click the following links to read more about the survey reactions & perceptions:

• Careers360 - Yahoo! Perception survey of distance learning!
• DL Institutes with best course material, study centres..more
• Best Distance Learning institutes for the Top 10 Programmes