Study: Enrollment in Online Learning Up, Except at For-Profits

​The number of students taking online courses continued to increase in 2014, rising at a slightly faster rate than the prior year, according to a report released today.

About 5.8 million students were enrolled in at least one distance learning course in fall 2014 – up 3.9 percent​ from the previous fall, according to "Online Report Card: Tracking Online Education in the United States," an annual report by the Babson Survey Research Group. Last year, that figure rose by 3.7 percent, which marked the slowest rate in more than a decade.

In 2014, distance education enrollment also fell in the for-profit sector but continued to grow at public and private institutions.

This is the 13th year​ Babson is releasing the report, which ​relied on responses from more than 1,000 officials at colleges and universities as well as data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

Among the greatest surprises in the report was the continued drop in distance learning enrollment in the for-profit sector​, says Jeff Seaman, co-author of the report and co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group. That number fell by 2.8 percent in 2014, but Seaman says he had expected enrollment​ to stabilize.

"I think that there's been a change in potential students' perceptions of the for-profit sector because there's been a whole series of negative things coming out about that – about marketing issues and the quality of education," he says.

When it comes to perceptions of online education, the data suggest that academic leaders in 2015 felt more hesitant about implementing online learning in the future compared with the previous year.

The proportion of chief academic leaders who said online learning is critical to their long-term strategy fell to 63.3 percent in 2015 after reaching a new high of 70.8 percent the year before. This marks the largest ever year-to-year decline for this question.

Seaman attributes this change to a decline in the percentage of academic leaders at schools with no distance offerings who say they aspire to implement them in the future. The percentage in 2015 who thought online learning was critical fell to 19.5 percent, from 33.8 percent in 2014.

These results are interesting, Seaman says, because for several years, many of those institutions with no distance learning offerings – which tend to have small student bodies – expressed some interest in incorporating them down the line, but couldn't immediately because they lacked the resources and staff.​ The question, Seaman says, comes down to why their aspirations changed so suddenly. 

"I almost feel that we have matured and come of age. People that are never going to do online, are never going to do online," says I. Elaine Allen, co-author of the report and co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group.

In terms of quality of instruction, the percentage of academic leaders who viewed learning outcomes – the skills and knowledge a student is expected to attain – from online classes as comparable or superior to face-to-face courses also fell slightly to 71.4 percent. Leaders viewed blended instruction more positively than fully online instruction, the study found, which Seaman says may be reflective of the fact ​that faculty are also more accepting of blended learning.

Though faculty view blended instruction positively, their perceptions of online education have not improved in the past decade, the report says. Only 29.1 percent of chief academic officers said in 2015 that they believe their faculty view online learning as legitimate and valuable, a smaller proportion than ​2004.

"I think that, by and large, most of the faculty now are people that are used to standing up in front of a class and lecturing and showing a PowerPoint," says Allen​. "I almost think we almost have to wait for the next generation of faculty to come along that are so at ease and familiar with using social channels."

The survey results suggest what Seaman says he expected about massive open online courses, or MOOCs:​ Relatively few higher education institutions, at 11.3 percent in 2015, have them, and this number is growing at a slow rate.

Many schools – or 27.8 percent – say they are undecided about MOOCs, and 58.7 percent say they have no plans for them.

"They don't think they're a sustainable way to essentially deliver courses for credit – the kind of things they do as their core business," Seaman says, "but that there still is a place for them for a particular niche."

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