01-03-2009, 08:35 AM
Quote:Two-thirds of all colleges and universities — two-year and four-year — reported offering online or partly online “hybrid” courses during the 2006-7 academic year, according to a new report by the National Center for Education Statistics. Other key findings: Distance education courses accounted for an estimated 12.2 million enrollments (or registrations). And asynchronous technologies were the most widely used technology for the instructional delivery of distance courses.http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/02/qt
Quote:This report presents findings from "Distance Education at Postsecondary Institutions: 2006-07", a survey that was designed to provide national estimates on distance education at 2-year and 4-year Title IV eligible, degree-granting institutions. Distance education was defined as a formal education process in which the student and instructor are not in the same place. Thus, instruction may be synchronous or asynchronous, and it may involve communication through the use of video, audio, or computer technologies, or by correspondence (which may include both written correspondence and the use of technology such as CD-ROM). The questionnaire instructed institutions to include distance education courses and programs that were formally designated as online, hybrid/blended online, and other distance education courses and programs. Hybrid/blended online courses were defined as a combination of online and in-class instruction with reduced in-class seat time for students.http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009044
The 2006-07 study on distance education collected information on the prevalence, types, delivery, policies, and acquisition or development of distance education courses and programs. Findings indicate that during the 2006-07 academic year, two-thirds (66 percent) of 2-year and 4-year Title IV degree-granting postsecondary institutions reported offering online, hybrid/blended online, or other distance education courses for any level or audience. Sixty-five percent of the institutions reported college-level credit-granting distance education courses, and 23 percent of the institutions reported noncredit distance education courses. Sixty-one percent of 2-year and 4-year institutions reported offering online courses, 35 percent reported hybrid/blended courses, and 26 percent reported other types of college-level credit-granting distance education courses. Together, distance education courses accounted for an estimated 12.2 million enrollments (or registrations). Asynchronous (not simultaneous or real-time) Internet-based technologies were cited as the most widely used technology for the instructional delivery of distance education courses; they were used to a large extent in 75 percent and to a moderate extent in 17 percent of the institutions that offered college-level credit-granting distance education courses. The most common factors cited as affecting distance education decisions to a major extent were meeting student demand for flexible schedules, providing access to college for students who would otherwise not have access, making more courses available, and seeking to increase student enrollment.
Link to full report as PDF file: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009044.pdf
The report includes "Title IV eligible" degree-granting institutions, which means it covers both RA and NA schools. DETC currently lists 60 degree granting schools, so the "two-thirds" of schools offering DL obviously means less than 2/3 of RA schools. Still, it looks like DL is continuing to make major inroads at the traditional schools.
Is there a "tipping point" in sight, where demand for DL courses will force the B&M schools to offer more DL than butt-in-seat courses?
Do current economic conditions make the factors cited (meeting student demand for flexible schedules, providing access to college for students who would otherwise not have access, making more courses available, and seeking to increase student enrollment) more or less likely to increase demand for DL courses at traditional schools?
