Online MBA

Over six million students are taking online courses, according to the 2011 Sloan Consortium study unveiled Wednesday. The number of students in online learning grew by over a half million students, or 10 percent, over 2010. In addition, nearly two thirds of higher education institutions reported that online learning is important to their future.

“The rate of growth in online enrollments is ten times that of the rate in all higher education,” said study co-author Elaine Allen, Co-Director of the Babson Survey Research Group and Professor of Statistics & Entrepreneurship at Babson College. “While growth rates have declined somewhat from previous years, we see no evidence that a dramatic slowdown in online enrollments is on the horizon.”

While the study did not break out online students by under- versus post-graduate studies, Allen said the business field of study, showed steady numbers from 2010 to 2011.

“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,” said Allen. “For example, fully online health sciences programs show higher growth than online programs in other disciplines.”

The Sloan Consortium, a widely recognized benchmark in online education studies and research, reported that online enrollment grew at 10 times the rate of traditional brick and mortar institutions. Online learning is defined in the study as courses are those in which at least 80 percent of the course content is delivered online.

The study also highlighted the role of technological advancement has had in fueling growth. High-speed networks, abundant computing availability, and software to support teaching and learning have combined to provide the foundation on which online learning has grown. This changing landscape also has opened to door for other changes in higher education.

For-profit institutions, like the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University, are driving this change.

The study found a small increase in both private and public nonprofit colleges indicating that online offerings “are critical to their long-term strategy”. The percentage change for the private for-profit institutions (50.7% in 2009, 60.5% in 2010, and 69.1% in 2011) represents a far greater increase than seen in all other types of institutions.

What’s the next step for nonprofits?

To keep pace with their for-profit counterparts, many nonprofits are making long term plans to increase online offerings.

Highly-ranked nonprofits business schools like the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, the University of Florida, and Penn State’s Smeal College of Business already offer online options to MBA students, successfully earning top marks by reputable sources such as U.S. News, Business Week and Financial Times.

For the 2012 study, the Sloan Consortium plans to track the implementation of online learning programs and the model nonprofits use to make these plans reality.

Key report findings include:

• The 10% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth in the overall higher education student population.
• Thirty-one percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.
• Reported year-to-year enrollment changes for fully online programs by discipline show most are growing.
• Academic leaders believe that the level of student satisfaction is equivalent for online and face-to-face courses.
• 65% of higher education institutions now say that online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy, the highest level in the nine years the study has been conducted.