Webinar: Online Learning in US Higher Education

March 24, 2010
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EDT

Presented by the Babson Survey Research Group, the presentation will highlight the most important results from seven years of the Sloan Survey of Online education, plus other research.
 

1. Introduction and overview – a basic look at the huge growth in online enrollments over the past 7 years in the US.  How many students are learning online?  Who are these students and where are they coming from?  Is growth expected to continue?
2. Institutions – what types of higher education institutions are in the lead when it comes to online learning?  What disciplines are offered online?  What types of institutions are most likely to have online offerings?
3. Faculty – Do all faculty participate in online learning?  What motivates them?  Are the same faculty doing online development as are teaching online?
4. Examining the “myths” of online – there are a number of assumptions that people have made about online education that have not previously been tested.  We go over a number of these and determine if the assumptions are correct or not using our survey data.  Is online mostly taught by part-time faculty?  Are students as satisfied  with online as with face-to-face instruction?  Are online courses harder to evaluate?
5. Concerns – what about faculty acceptance of online?  Does it take more effort to teach online?  And, what about the perceived quality of online courses – is it as good as face-to-face instruction?
6. Next steps – new areas of study and opportunities for custom analysis.  Moving from foundation support to a new business model.

Facilitator:

Dr. Jeff Seaman
Co-Director, Babson Survey Research Group
Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship
Babson College, Babson Park, MA 02457