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Jeff Seaman, Ph.D.
The history of academic programs delivered
fully online is a recent one. The Sloan Foundation has been supporting
the development of these programs for a bit over a decade, and the
Sloan Consortium has been acting as a resource for those providing
such programs for only a few years. Recently there has been increased
interest in so-called blended or hybrid courses—those that
combine online components with face-to-face instruction. Is this
option changing the complexion of online offerings? Will we see the
same growth for blended courses as for those that are fully online?
To address these questions,
the Sloan Consortium surveyed directors of distance
education programs at Sloan-C member schools. These
represent Sloan Consortium institutions that, on average,
were among the first to offer fully online programs.
The directors were asked, among other things, to report
on their current and projected enrollments.
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Current Enrollments
Sloan-C Program Directors report
that, on average, one in five of their students take a distance
education course and about one in ten is enrolled in a program
that is delivered entirely at a distance. In addition, they
report an average of 7.6% of their students is enrolled in
a blended course.
Enrollment Growth
When asked to project their
enrollment growth over the coming three-year period, the Program
Directors predicted growth for all three areas, online courses,
online programs, and blended courses. However, the growth is
expected to be highest for blended courses. The expectation
is that in three years the percentage of students enrolled
in a blended course will be greater than current percentage
enrolled in distance courses.
The expectation for these pioneering
schools is that in three years over one-third of all students
will be enrolled in a distance education course and over
twenty percent will be in programs delivered entirely at
a distance. The rapid growth in "blended" enrollments will
result in over twenty percent of all students at these
institutions enrolled in at least one blended course. Clearly,
the expectation is that blended instruction will move from
a minority activity to where it rivals the fully distance
courses and programs for numbers of students.
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The data for the analysis
come from a Sloan Consortium survey of Sloan-C
Program Directors conducted in October 2002.
The sample represents over 50 institutions with
fully online programs. |
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