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Online Education's Importance Confirmed by Release of Growth Data

Between 2000 and 2008, the percentage of undergraduate students who took at least one web-based class increased from 8% to 20%

By Catherine Groux
Posted October 10, 2011 08:12 AM

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The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released a report that highlights the increasingly large role online education plays in colleges and universities across the country. According to the report, between 2000 and 2008, the percentage of undergraduate students who took at least one web-based class increased from 8% to 20%. In this time, the number of students who were enrolled in 100% online degree programs rose from 2% to 4%.

Many students feel that the main benefit of online education is that it allows them to earn academic credits from their own homes without having to commute to a college campus. Additionally, web-based courses typically allow students to complete their assignments on their own time, which provides a greater level of flexibility than most campus-based classes offer. For these reasons, among others, groups of students who may find it more difficult to attend brick and mortar institutions typically take online classes in larger numbers. For example, older undergraduates who have family or job responsibilities, as well as disabled students, were more likely to enroll in web-based classes than their peers, according to the NCES report.

Additionally,Online learning has become an important part of higher education.
Online learning has become an important part of higher education. the survey shows that students in certain majors were more likely to enroll in distance learning classes. For example, about 27% of computer science degree seekers enrolled in web-based classes, which is seven percentage points higher than the general student population. Among business majors, about 24% took online courses, while 23% of general studies students did so.

The report also shows that students who attend public two-year colleges are more likely to take advantage of distance learning programs than their peers. While 22% of these individuals took an online class, about 19% of students at for-profit, 12% of degree seekers at private nonprofit four-year, and 16% of public four-year school students did the same.

While online education has seen rapid growth across the nation, individual schools have also reported increases in the number of students taking web-based courses. Rutgers University in New Jersey saw a 17% growth in the number of degree seekers who took online classes between 2010 and 2011, according to the Daily Targum, the school's student newspaper.

Although Rutgers has seen rapid increases in interest in online education, it has been able to maintain small class sizes for its students by adding additional sections of these web-based classes. In the fall 2010 semester, the average class size for online courses was 19 students. This fall, this number has dropped to 18, the Daily Targum reports.

Washington State University has also reported increases in student interest in web-based education, according to The Spokesman-Review. Currently, the school is in the process of trying to give more individuals access to online classes so students who do not live in the Washington area can still study at the university.

"The mission of the land grant institution is to provide access to education," David Cillay, executive director of the university's Center for Distance and Professional Education, told the Review. "Online education seems to be the 21st-century rethinking of the land grant mission."

While the current shift towards web-based classes is prevalent at individual schools and across the nation, many academic officials do not believe the growth of online education will stop any time soon. According to an August report by the Pew Research Center, about 15% of college presidents said a majority of their undergraduate students currently take web-based classes. However, in 10 years, half of these professionals believe that most of their students will take online classes.

The results of the NCES and Pew Research Center surveys, as well as many others, reaffirm the importance of web-based classes in the realm of higher education, which is an opinion many academic officials have had since online courses were first introduced. In 2009, following a report by the U.S. Department of Education that showed that online instruction produces similar results as face-to-face learning, Diana G. Oblinger, president of Educause, told Inside Higher Ed that online education is a crucial part of colleges and universities. 

"Online education provides additional opportunities," she said. "It gives people greater opportunity for flexibility, for experiential learning, for illustrating things in multiple ways, such as visualization."
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