Background: For the past several years, online enrollments have been growing substantially faster than the overall higher education student body. However, last years study, while reporting the same numeric increase as the previous year, had a lower percentage growth rate. Could this be an early indicator that online enrollment growth has finally begun to plateau?
The evidence: There has been no leveling of the growth rate of online enrollments; institutions of higher education report record online enrollment growth on both a numeric and a percentage basis.
- Nearly 3.2 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2005 term, a substantial increase over the 2.3 million reported the previous year.
- The more than 800,000 additional online students is more than twice the number added in any previous year.
Online Education Survey Report by SLoan-C