Remember that National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) report stating that we’ll be lacking at least 16 million degrees in the U.S. to keep up with our workforce demands and to stay competitive internationally by 2025? The Sloan Consortium’s recent report, “Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning,” reveals that online enrollments increased by 9.7% compared to traditional universities’ growth rate of 1.5%. Plus, the report says that about 3.5 million students were enrolled in an online class during the fall 2006-2007 semester. So, if we’re looking for a sign that we might have the means to facilitate the needed education expansion, this might be it.

The biggest impediments to online education’s growth concern faculty acceptance. Many faculty members still aren’t convinced of the quality of education. One of the concerns revolves around student discipline. Online courses require much more self-motivation and discipline to stay on top of assignments. This is an important point about online education; if you’re a self-starter, it is a great learning format. Subsequently, you’ll enjoy more schedule flexibility. If you can’t keep to task, a campus program can give you more structure to assist you on that level.

The report also found that most academic leaders expected continued online education enrollment growth; 83% of institutions offering online programs expect increases. Interestingly, online education is strongest in the two-year degree category. The Sloan report says that over the last five years, two-year associate’s degree-granting institutions have had the highest growth rates. On another note, online education isn’t expected to have its growth through new institutions. The report sees growth coming from within the schools that already supply this educational format.

So, online education may help us keep pace internationally in the educated workplace, but only time will tell just how big of an impact it will make in educating the workforce of tomorrow.