2013 Babson Report: More Online Growth in U.S. Higher Ed

 

This week, Sloan-C shared the 11th Annual survey about online learning in higher education in the United States, a collaboration between the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board, Grade Change: Tracking Online Education in the Untied States, 2013. The report surveyed the opinions of academic leaders at more than 2,800 degree granting institutions of higher education across the United States. at I have prepared some highlights and shared some deeper reflections about the study. 

A bird's eye view.

The data demonstrates a continued and consistent shift from brick and mortar learning into a college learning experience that provides students with options to learn in a physical classroom or online.  In United States higher education in 2013:

• 7.1 million students or 33.5% took at least one online class
• there were more than 411,000 additional students learning online

What does this mean in context to overall higher ed growth rates?  

• In 2002, only 1.6 million students took at least one online class in higher education in the U.S.  The change from 2002-2012 represents a compound annual growth rate of 16.1 percent. Overall (all modalities of learning), overall U.S. higher education enrollment has grown at an annual rate of 2.5 percent during this same period. 

How have academic leaders' values changed about online learning? 

• The way college and university academic leaders value online learning has changed significantly in the past eleven years.  In 2002, less than half of all higher ed institutions surveyed agreed that online learning was strategic to their long-term success. In 2013, close to 70% of institutions agreed, an all time high.

What Does the Crystal Ball Say?  

• Academic leaders agree that online enrollments will continue to grow in the future. 
• Ninety percent believe it is likely or very likely that a majority or all of higher education students will take at least one online course by 2018.  Currently, this figure is at 33.5%.

What's up with MOOCS?

• Fifty three percent of institutions are undecided about MOOCs and 33% have no plans for a MOOC. These figures reflect little to no change from 2012, despite the deluge of press coverage MOOCs have experienced.
• Leaders at institutions offering MOOCs supported the following three objectives most for implementing them: 
• Increase Institution Visibility (27%)
• Drive Student Recruitment (20%)
• Innovative Pedagogy (18%)
• Flexible Learning Opportunities (17%)

Retention is an issue. 

• Forty one percent of academic leaders noted that retaining online students is more of a problem than it is in face-to-face classes.  This number increased from 27% in 2004.  The leaders were not asked to speculate why.

Which institutions offer the most online courses?

• Associate degree granting institutions offer far more online courses than any other type and have the most positive view of online learning.  Baccalaureate institutions have the most negative view about online education and represent the largest institutional type with no online offerings. Last year's 2012 study demonstrated that attitudes about online learning change when more online course are implemented into an organization and the realities of the online paradigm begin to be experienced (Changing Course, 2012).  For example, 18% of academic leaders at institutions without online offerings disagreed that it takes faculty more time and effort to teach an online course; whereas, only 9.7% of academic leaders at institutions with online courses disagreed with this statement.   

You may request to download the entire report from Babson here.
p.s. I missed the cool infographic that was developed and shared with last year's report.

Sloan-C Survey Says: US Online Enrollments Strong; Strategic Focus Weak

It's that time of the year for me geek out over the annual report released by the Sloan-Consortium, Learning On Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009. Sloan publishes one such report each year and here are a few startling revelations, highlights, and my own reflections in italics.

As of fall 2009:

• The US saw a 17% increase in online enrollments in higher ed over the previous year, outpacing the the 12% increase announced in the '09 Sloan-C survey (which stunned folks).

• The 17% increase in online enrollments becomes even more startling when we compare it to the measly 1.2% growth overall for higher ed (!).

• While the participating colleges and universities indicated that they had witnessed an increase in all their offerings (all methods of delivery) due to the economic downturn, all institution types agreed that the strongest demand is for more new AND existing online courses as well as online programs.

• Despite the enormous student demand and strong enrollment growths, college and university executives continue to demonstrate a flimsy, at best, correlation between the importance of online learning and the strategy of their institution. This is a point that I hope is rung clearly throughout our nation. I believe there is a strong, clear disconnect between college and universities leaders and the heart and soul of online learning. Online learning is not IT. Online learning is not a strategy to increase dwindling budgets. Online learning is a new, innovative educational landscape that enables institutions to reach more students and different students in new and exciting ways. But it also requires institutions to encourage, motivate, inspire, and support faculty to learn new and sometimes challenging but sometimes amazingly refreshing and rewarding ways of cultivating learning experiences for our students. If this earth-shattering shift in education that has already begun to revolutionize learning around the globe is dismissed as "not strategically important" at your institution, perhaps it's time to refresh the skills of those at the helm. In fact, it becomes concerning to see our country miss out on such opportunities for global learning when our workforce and overall national economy is thirsty for innovative ideas from 21st century-bred leaders with the ability to collaborate, present, lead, motivate and negotiate virtually and face-to-face with multi-generational and culturally diverse teams. This is our mission, this is our job as faculty, administrators, staff in higher education. And this is the texture of the online learning experience...if one approaches it strategically. Is that not critical to the success of our country, let alone your institution, your future? If this isn't a missed opportunity, I don't know what is. And nobody is screaming about it. SCREAM WITH ME.
  

• An exclusion from this year's survey, which is painful to me, is the helpful visual that illustrates which types of institutions are carrying the online enrollments. In past years, I recall learning (and I've cited this countless times, as I believe it's crucial yet completely marginalized) from the Sloan survey that more than 50% of the online enrollments occur at 2-year institutions. I don't see this information included anywhere in the report which I'm quite saddened by. It was the one helpful statistic that I could lean on to leverage the significant role that community colleges are playing in the online learning landscape. Now it's gone. Instead, this year's report simply notes that 82% of the enrollments occur at undergraduate institutions which, to me, dilutes the role of community colleges and inflates the role of 4-year universities. I realize this was not an intentional edit on the part of the Sloan-Consortium, but I do hope they understand how valuable the more specific data provided in earlier years is to community colleges.

• The report also delved into the intriguing question of retention. The respondents were asked, "Is Retention of Students Harder in Online Classes?" Now, keep in mind the respondents for the survey were executives who, according to the survey, aren't terribly strategic about online learning. So, I'm questioning how informed they are about retention issues in online classes. Nonetheless, I digress...what I found particularly interesting about the response was the breakdown of the respondents "by institution type" (AH HA...they DID collect this info!!) that specifies which institutions acknowledge retention in online classes to be an issue. Take a look at the institution type that has the highest percentage of agrees:
  

Is Retention of Students Harder in Online Classes?

• This retention graphic above shows that 36.7% of Associates respondents agreed that retention of students is harder is online classes, while just 19% of 4-year institutions agreed which is a staggering gap in the two types of undergraduate institutions. To me, this statistic alone justifies the importance of researching the trends of online learning at CCs and 4-year institutions uniquely, when possible. Community colleges and 4-year institutions serve two very unique student bodies and teaching online classes at these two different types of institutions raises different issues and requires different strategies for success. I believe understanding where the majority of the enrollments are occurring is a significant item to highlight in a Sloan-C report and now I'm left wondering ... has it shifted?

• Faculty development/distance learning programs within institutions will also be intrigued by the additional question woven into this year's survey that investigates whether or not faculty are provided training to teach online and if so, what are these methods? Unfortunately, the results of the survey reveal a less than shocking mish mash of internal and external training programs and informal/formal mentoring programs (which, to me, begin to get suspicious of like "faculty help each other and just don't get paid for it" types of "training"), they're still interesting. Here is the graphic that breaks down the results by institution type.

Type of Training for Faculty Teaching Online

Thanks Sloan-Consortium and Babson Survey Research Group for another installment of online data fun!