Online Learning Continues to Grow

Since we're in the middle of National Distance Learning Week, it is fitting that a new report by the Sloan Consortium says that online enrollment rose by more than twelve percent from a year earlier. More than 2,500 colleges and universities nationwide participated in the 2008 Sloan Survey of Online Learning. The report finds approximately 3.94 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2007, the most recent term for which figures are available.
Increased fuel costs, unemployment, and the downturn in the economy are expected to increase online student enrollment further over the next year, says study co-author Elaine Allen, Research Director of the Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship at Babson College.
The complete survey report, "Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008" is available as a PDF download here.