Two graduate programs at East Carolina University are ranked among the best nationally in online education.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the ECU College of Nursing ranked 10th out of 72 masters or doctorate of nursing practice programs in the country. The online master of business administrations program in the College of Business ranked 40 out of 148 graduate business programs. Doctor Sylvia Brown credits some of their success to letting technology foster a closer connection for instructors and students, even while online.

"It gives them the opportunity to experience a lot of different things and we have video teleconferencing and all types of discussion sessions. So, students and faculty actually get to know one other a lot better often times in an online environment then they do in a classroom setting," said Brown.

ECU says the College of Nursing has been consistently ranked since 2004 by U.S. News.