Like meeting your spouse on the Internet, earning a degree online went from unthinkable to mainstream in a few short decades.
Despite their well-documented scandals, we have for-profit universities to thank for popularizing online learning. They pioneered online degree options, and while enrollment in online degree programs at for-profit universities has dipped, overall online enrollments are up thanks to their growth at public and nonprofit universities.
We wanted to understand the emergence of online options at universities with long histories of on-campus instruction. So, using data from the U.S. government’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), we looked at recent changes in the availability of online degrees at nonprofit 4-year colleges and universities.
We found that the number of four-year schools with online degree programs rose significantly. Among top-ranked schools, nearly 75% offer online degrees, and about half are increasing their online degree offerings. The fastest adopters of online learning include both public and private colleges and universities, including some academic heavyweights like Harvard and Johns Hopkins.
Scooped by
Kim Flintoff
onto Digital Learning - beyond eLearning and Blended Learning |