More College
Students Taking Web Courses
Roughly
one in six students enrolled in higher education - about 3.2 million people -
took at least one online course last fall, a sharp increase defying predictions
that online learning growth is leveling off.
A new report scheduled for released Thursday by The Sloan
Consortium, a group of colleges pursuing online programs, estimates that
850,000 more students took online courses in the fall of 2005 than the year
before, an increase of nearly 40 percent. Last year, the group had reported
slowing growth, prompting speculation the trend had hit a ceiling.
"The growth was phenomenal," said Jeff Seaman,
Sloan's CIO and survey director, who also serves as co-director of the
Some online programs have flopped, and several for-profit
universities have seen their share prices slump in the last two years amid
concern over online's growth prospects. Shares of
Apollo Group, which owns the giant for-profit
Still,
many universities are investing heavily in online learning, hoping the model
will prove more economical than traditional classes, thus expanding their
reach. A recent survey by Eduventures, a consulting
and research firm, found 50 percent of consumers who expected to enroll in a
higher education program said they would prefer to get at least some of their
instruction online.
About 80 percent of online students are undergraduates, and
they are generally older and more likely to be working and have families. But
only about half are pursuing online degrees, according to Eduventures.
The rest are taking individual online courses or -
increasingly - mixing online courses with more traditional campus-based
classes. One reason online enrollment may be growing is that the difference
between traditional and online classes is blurring. It's not unusual now for
traditional classes to post syllibi and homework
assignments online or to have class discussions in group forums. Some classes
take place more than 80 percent online, which makes them count as online
courses for the Sloan survey.
"That's bumping up enrollment," said Eduventures senior analyst Richard Garrett.
The
Sloan survey results also suggest academic officials are becoming more
comfortable with online learning. About 62 percent of chief academic officers
said they felt students learned as well or better from online courses as they
did in face-to-face ones.
However, that left about 38 percent who found online
courses degraded the educational experience. And almost all said they aren't
certain online learning will be more widely adopted. Among the obstacles:
online courses take more time and effort to prepare, students
need more self-discipline, and faculty often aren't convinced online learning
is worthwhile.
Officials at the schools surveyed "all acknowledge
that there are significant barriers," Seaman said. "The question is
going to be when do those barriers kick in and how do they cope with
them."
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On the Net: http://www.sloan-c.org/