From 2002 to 2008 more than 1.5m people joined the online student population. It had reached nearly 2m students by last year, 2008 (Eduventures Inc). Studying online is becoming mainstream because every year it is more widely accepted as a legimate method of learning to earn a degree. Indeed some would much prefer to study online, and others say it offers some of the virtues of the education systems developed in the 16th century Oxford and Cambridge.
To illustrate that online learning is becoming mainstream, we have have compiled a list of facts, reports and commentry about its adoption. We hope it gives you, the potential online student, confidence that you’re not alone!
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Online students are making up an increasing proportion of the total U.S. based students.
According to Eduventures Inc. in 2008, the online education student market represented 10.6% of all students in the U.S. In 2013 it predict it will represent 18%.
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A significant number of U.S. college students are taking at least one web-based class.
According to the Sloan Consortium, in fall 2007, 22 percent of U.S. college students took at least one web-based class.
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Online students perform better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.
A recent study conducted for the United States’s Department of Education, examining research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008, found that “on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.
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The number of people studying online is increasing.
3.94 million people were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2007, up 12.9% from 2006 (Sloan Consortium). This increase is up from a 9.7% increase the previous year (Sloan Consortium). Therefore online learning enrolements grew faster in 2007 than 2006.
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Online student numbers are growing faster than overall higher education enrolements.
This 9.7% growth rate for online enrolments, during the fall 2006 term, far exceeded the 1.5 percent growth of the overall higher education student population (Sloan Consortium).
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Online learning offers more personalized learning.
Some argue that online learning more closely resembles the “tutorial system” pioneered at Oxford and Cambridge in the 16th Century, “nurturing young minds one to one, inquiring, prodding and encouraging.” (NY Times). Research shows that the tutorial system results in the best student performance.
As outlined in a recent article in the New York Times, the technology that delivers online learning enables a closer, ongoing interaction with tutors and teachers. This allows more one-on-one teaching, offering to some extent, the benefits of the tutorial system.
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More US colleges are offering distance education courses.
In the 2006–07 academic year, 66 percent of the 4,160 accredited US colleges offered college-level distance education courses (National Centre for Education Statistics).
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Employers are more accepting of online degrees.
In general, there is research and commentary indicating that employers are becoming more likely to hold an online degree in the same esteem as a campus-based one. As their understanding of elearning and the technologies that delivers it (e.g. video streaming on YouTube) grows, and as they appreciate the value it offers their business (by providing their staff with better access to education), then it is thought that they will become more accepting of it.
According to a survey conducted by Excelsior College/Zogby International in January 2008, among those who are familiar with online or distance learning programs, more than four in five (83%) strongly believe that a degree earned via an online program is as credible as one earned through a traditional campus-based program.
Further, a survey organised by the Society of Human Resource Management in 2007, that gained 425 responses from randomly selected human resource professionals, revealed that 71 percent of companies reimburse their employees for degrees earned online from regionally accredited and/or professionally accredited higher education institutions and programs. This indicates that nearly 3/4 of employers are willing to invest in online learning.
Richard Garrett, senior research analyst for Eduventures, explains that most employers today have no qualms about the quality of online education. “If you ask employers about their sense of the quality of online education — is it of equal quality to traditional — the response you typically get is a growing adherence to it being of equal quality.”
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The U.S. Department of Education sees the importance of online learning.
The Department of Education recently announced that it was developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a “vision of how information and communications technologies can help transform American education.” (NY Times)
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The U.S. and the world needs more educated people to increase productivity, and living standards.
Kaplan University’s new advertising campaign says “the world needs talent more than ever”. They say: “talent just isn’t in schools, it’s everywhere”. Online learning enables better access to education so more can realise the benefits of a more advanced education.
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This is great information – its encouraging to see online education is becoming more widely accepted and the benefits are backed up by a range of studies.
In Pune, India, many educationalists like Dr. Arun Nigvekar have come together to form Seamless Education Academy, that is the first and only Creativersity in India. they have very recently launched a blog (www.seamlesseducationacademy.blogspot.com) as well. it seems here that they want to give a focus to the creative genius in their students in RJ, Sound Engineering, Gemmology, Animation and Broadcast Media. i think that initiatives like these are a ray of hope and really need to be commended.
Continuing the Discussion