Also, though “institutions with distance offerings remain as positive as ever,” explains co-author Jeff Seaman,” there has been a retreat among leaders at institutions that do not have any distance offerings.
For example, the proportion of chief academic leaders that say online learning is critical to their long-term strategy fell from 70.8 percent in 2014 to 63.3 percent this year.
Yet, institutions with distance offerings remain steadfast in their belief that it is critical for their long-term strategy (77.2 percent agreeing in 2014 and 77.1 percent in 2015). Meaning, all of the year-to-year change is coming from institutions with no distance offerings, who no longer have aspirations for these programs (33.8 percent thought it was critical in 2014, and only 19.5 percent thought it was critical in 2015).
Another finding revealed that for the past 12 years, no more than one-third of chief academic officers reported that their faculty accepted the value and legitimacy of online education: only 29.1 percent of officers believe their faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education—a rate lower than the rate recorded in 2004.
Chief academic officers at institutions with large distance enrollments have the most positive view of their faculty’s acceptance (60.1 percent of those at institutions with 10,000 or more online enrollments report faculty acceptance); in contrast, only 11.6 percent of the leaders of institutions with no distance offerings believe their faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education.
For more information, including whether or not academic leaders believe online learning outcomes are comparable to face-to-face, and the state of MOOC implementation, read the report here.
For an infographic of the report’s findings, click here.
Interactive data site containing all the enrollment data used in the report is available here.
WCET’s companion report with additional IPEDS distance enrollment summaries is available here.
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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