Online college enrollment soars to all-time high

Enrollment in online college programs continued to skyrocket in 2010, with more than 6 million students enrolled in at least one fully Web-based course, a 10 percent increase over the previous year, according to a new study from the Babson Survey Research Group.

With that spike, the online college population now accounts for nearly a third of all higher-education enrollments. The increase to 6.1 million students taking online courses represented an addition of 560,000 students last year.

"The rate of growth in online enrollments is 10 times that of the rate in all higher education," study co-author I. Elaine Allen, co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group and professor of statistics and entrepreneurship at Babson College, said in a statement.

Across the board, higher education enrollments increased by 2 percent from 2009 to 2010.

The surge of online coursework stands as a fundamental shift in the way that students are obtaining education, driven both by the convenience and flexibility that appeals to non-traditional learners and a growing embrace of Internet-enabled courses at traditional institutions.

To be sure, while the rise in online enrollments rapidly the outpaced the increases in traditional instruction, the uptick in 2010 was well down from the previous year. At the same time, the secular shift that has been driving students and institutions online is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, according to Babson.

"While growth rates have declined somewhat from previous years, we see no evidence that a dramatic slowdown in online enrollments is on the horizon," Allen said.

Online vs. classroom learning

The academic officials that Babson surveyed reported that student satisfaction with online instruction is roughly on par with their views on in-person coursework. However, the authors of the report noted that there remains a "consistent minority of academic leaders concerned that the quality of online instruction is not equal to courses delivered face-to-face."

But they are indeed the minority. Sixty-five percent of surveyed institutions said that online instruction is an integral part of their long-term strategy.

Behind the enrollment increases, the study also revealed disparities among differing types of schools as well as the programs they offer.

"There is a wide variety in rate of growth of online enrollments among different colleges and universities, and also among different programs within the same institution," Allen said. "For example, fully online health sciences programs show higher growth than online programs in other disciplines."

Public universities place importance on online learning

As a category, public schools lead the way in their embrace of distance learning, with nearly 80 percent of chief academic officers at those institutions saying that online education is a key part of their long-term strategy. That view likely owes at least in part to the funding squeezes that many of those institutions are facing as statehouses across the country grapple with severe budget deficits.

The rate of enthusiasm among private, non-profit colleges and universities was lower, but has been climbing at a steeper rate in recent years than in public schools. Interest in online instruction among leaders at for-profit, private institutions has been on a more modest upward trajectory.

The most recent survey is the ninth annual installment in a series of reports examining higher education that the Babson Survey Research Group conducts in partnership with the College Board.