Online Education in the United States Evidence from the Annual Sloan Surveys

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Online Education in the United StatesEvidence
from the Annual Sloan Surveys

• Dr. Elaine Allen
• Associate Professor of Statistics
  Entrepreneurship,
• Babson College
• Co-Director, Babson Survey Research Group
• Dr. Jeff Seaman
• CIO and Survey Director, The Sloan Consortium
• Co-Director, Babson Survey Research Group
• Monterey, 2007

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Survey Methodology

• US higher education degree granting institutions
  open to the public.
• email to Chief Academic Officers, link to
  web-based survey.
• Responses merged with IPEDS and College Board
  data.
• Weighted by region, size, control, and Carnegie
  Classification

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Course Type Definitions
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2003 Sizing the Opportunity

• Schools expect 19.8 online enrollment growth.
• 72 of institutions of higher education offer at
  least one fully online course.
• Majority of academic leaders believe learning
  outcomes for online education are equal or
  superior to face-to-face instruction.
• 34 of institutions offer online degree programs.

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2004 Entering the Mainstream

• Schools expect online enrollment to grow by
  24.8.
• Only 3 of schools do not believe that students
  are at least as satisfied with online courses.
• A majority of schools (53.6) believe online
  education is critical to their long-term strategy.

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2005 Growing by Degrees

• Core faculty teach online courses at the same or
  greater rates than for face-to-face courses.
• 44 of institutions with face-to-face Masters
  programs offer an online Masters.
• 43 of institutions with Business degree program
  offer an online Business degree.

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Online Programs Show Wide Adoption

• 65.7 of Doctoral/Research institutions with
  Face-to-face Masters also offer online Masters.

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2006 Making the Grade

• Responses
• Total non-duplicated 2,472
• 55.0 overall response rate
• Critical Questions Addressed
• Has enrollment growth slowed?
• What is the mix of online students?
• What types of institutions are providing online
  courses and programs?
• Have perceptions of quality changed?

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How Many Online Students?
National Enrollments Taking at least one online
course
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Who Are the Online Students?
Online Students
All Students
Fall 2005
Online student distribution very similar to that
of all students
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Where Are the Online Students?
Fall 2005
Associates have 51.5 of online, but only 37.9
of total students
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Size Matters
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Are these new students?

• Agreement is pervasive
• Not clear if serve only those not served by
  face-to-face

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Mythbusters
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Urban Myths of Online

• Courses perceived as poorer quality
• Students are not as satisfied
• Faculty dont accept or value it
• Students dont want it
• Takes more time and effort
• Harder to evaluate an online course
• Students need more discipline
• Flash in the pan not around for the long term

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Students are not as satisfied

• Myth is busted
• Only 3 disagree Students at least as satisfied
• True for all types and sizes of institutions

X
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Flash in the pan

• Myth is busted
• Enrollments continue to grow
• Rate of growth has increased
• Chief Academic Officers believe in it

X
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Students dont want it
X

• Myth is busted
• Enrollments continue to grow
• 3.18 Million students, growing at over 35
  annually
• Lack of student demand cited by only 4.6 of
  institutions
• Eduventures study
• Expanding Demand for Online Higher Education
  (August, 2006)
• Seventy-six percent of consumers interested in
  postsecondary education stated a preference for a
  delivery mode with at least some online element

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Harder to evaluate
X

• Myth is busted
• 82 of institutions say it is no harder to
  evaluate online courses

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Perceived Course Quality Jury Still Out
61.9 say as good or better
38.1 still feel it is inferior
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No Decision on Faculty Effort Yet

• Does it take more time and effort to teach
  online
• Yes, it takes more effort (35)
• Neutral, online about the same as face-to-face
  (58)
• No, it takes less effort (7)
• 32 think that more time and effort is a
  significant barrier to wide adoption of online
  remainder dont see this as a barrier

Remains an issue for about 1/3 of schools
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Students need more discipline

• Myth holds true
• 64 of institutions believe that this represents
  a significant barrier to wide adoption of online
• The more experience you have with online, they
  stronger you believe this

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Faculty dont accept online

• Myth holds true
• Majority of institutions say their faculty do not
  accept online
• No improvement seen over time

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Final Report Card

• Busted Myths
• Students are not as satisfied
• Students dont want it
• Harder to evaluate
• Flash in the pan wont be around for the long
  term
• Jury Still Out
• Takes more time and effort
• Courses perceived as poorer quality
• Proven to be True
• Students need more discipline
• Faculty dont accept or value it

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Next Steps

• Additional reports in production
• Making the Grade Southern Edition
• Making the Grade Midwest Edition
• Blending In Blended Education
• Blending In Southern Edition
• www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/index.asp
• Data collection for 2007 study will begin next
  month.

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Contact Info

• www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/index.asp
• allenie_at_babson.edu
• jseaman_at_sloan-c.org