1. One in four (26 percent) students enrolled in at least one distance education course in the Fall of 2012.
“That’s 5.4 million student enrollments, an impressive level of adoption, but it hardly lives up to the hype that often suggests that technology is totally changing the way teaching and learning are conducted in higher education,” writes Straut.
State data:
2. The top 10 ranked states (for students enrolled in that state’s higher-ed institutions) represent nearly a third (31 percent) of all DE enrollments.
3. The level of student participation in at least one DE course varies significantly by state.
4. The states with the highest participation in DE courses are Arizona (66 percent), West Virginia (52 percent), and Iowa (49 percent) of total enrollments.
5. Reporting for enrollment exclusively in DE courses reveal the same three states leading Arizona (49 percent), West Virginia (41 percent) and Iowa (40 percent) of enrollments. Those states are the home to large distance education providers: Arizona (Arizona State University, Argosy University-Phoenix Campus, Grand Canyon University, Rio Salado College, and the University of Phoenix), West Virginia (American Public University System), and Iowa (Ashford University and Kaplan University).
6. The states with the lowest reported participation in DE courses are Rhode Island (12 percent), Massachusetts (14 percent), and Connecticut at (15 percent).
7. There is a much broader spread in the category of exclusive DE enrollment, with Rhode Island representing the lowest fully DE enrollment percentage at 2 percent, followed by Louisiana at 4 percent, and several states (California, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, South Carolina, and Tennessee) at 6 percent of total enrollment.
“While there has been a lot of focus on fully online programs, the data shows that only about 13 percent of degree-seeking students in the U.S. were engaged exclusively in DE programs,” says Straut. “It is also noteworthy that 74 percent of all U.S. students did not have a DE component, according to the IPEDS data. However, the data reveals large differences by state.”
Straut makes sure to note that the analysis represents a combination of graduate and undergraduate distance education courses, “which may obscure much stronger adoption of fully online graduate programs.”
(Next page: Institutional data)
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