Distance education is growing quickly at community colleges, according to the results of a study published by the Instructional Technology Council. For the 2008-9 academic year, enrollment in distance learning at community colleges grew 22 percent over the 2007-8 academic year, up from a growth rate of 11 percent in the previous year.
The Instructional Technology Council, which is affiliated with the American Association of Community Colleges, conducted its annual survey by e-mail and received responses from 226 community colleges. The 22 percent growth from 2007-8 to 2008-9 is somewhat higher than the 17-percent growth that the Sloan Consortium noted for all distance education from fall 2007 to fall 2008 in a recent report. Overall enrollment in higher education grew less than 2 percent during that time.
Fred Lokken, associate dean for the Truckee Meadows Community College WebCollege and author of the technology-council report, said he thinks that one reason distance education has grown more quickly at community colleges than it has in general is because community colleges are more enthusiastic about it than universities are.
Most respondents cited the economic downturn as the main reason for growth in online enrollment, and other respondents said that the growth was typical or was a result of new enrollment efforts. Community-college enrollment has increased in general with the downturn, and Mr. Lokken said that online courses are particularly appealing to people who are job hunting.
“They now see the online classes giving them the greatest flexibility, given the crises they’re facing their lives,” Mr. Lokken said.
The survey also found that for administrators, the greatest challenge in distance learning was a lack of support staff needed for training and technical assistance. In regard to faculty, the administrators who responded to the survey said, workload issues were the biggest obstacle. For students, the institutions’ greatest challenge was preparing them to take classes online.
When distance education first became common about 10 years ago, completion rates for online courses were about 50 percent, but survey findings indicate that they are now up to 72 percent. For face-to-face learning, completion rates are only a little higher, at 76 percent.
Mr. Lokken will present the survey findings on April 18 at the American Association of Community Colleges’ annual convention in Seattle.
6 Responses to Distance Education’s Rate of Growth Doubles at Community College
eelalien - April 13, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Well… DUH!!!!
arrive2__net - April 13, 2010 at 8:18 pm
The fact that the completion rate is now nearly equal to face-to-face probably indicates improvement in the courses as the community colleges have gained in institutional experience, and it probably shows that students entering probably also have experience with distance education. It is good to see distance education pulling even on this important parameter. The Sloan report, under the “report” link in the article, attributes some of the increase to the economic decline as people seek new job qualifications. It also says at many institutions there has also been an increase in demand for face-to-face classes. Bernard SchusterArrive2.net
11209892 - April 13, 2010 at 10:48 pm
With course management systems becoming more sophisticated, and the fact that many students cannot spare the time to come to campus all the time, it seems natural that this modality is growing. It seems that many students have families and jobs which they must attend to and therefore cannot be on campus as much as in the past. My only hope is that the quality of the online modality does not slip so that those students who are online will not be short changed.
gfrasz - April 14, 2010 at 10:51 am
11209892 raises important concerns. An addition factor to consider is the difference in student population between community colleges and traditional universities. Many more cc students go part time and work full time and online courses fit their schedule. Many at home mothers find the flexibility of an online course to better fit their schedule than having to find a sitter, drive to a campus at a particular time and take the course. But in reply to 11209892′s concern for “slippage” we might add that such slippage is always a concern in ANY course no matter what the modality. There is in the online debate often a hidden assumption that online courses are in principle of lesser quallity due to such possibilities. Yet there is little effort to mention such slippage in quality in traditional courses, a dirty secret in academia that its foes gleefully bring up with tales of professors using lecture notes that are outdated and reliance on graduate students to teach and grade whole sections.\gbf
sdorley - April 14, 2010 at 11:16 am
Unfortunately, the other “dirty little secret” is that many CC online courses are labor intensive. Many studies have shown that the time spent managing online learning is often 2-3 times that of a face-to-face course. And the fact that many online courses are often taught by adjuncts who are paid only on a one-time course payment (or only an hourly rate based on the number of hours credit for the course) means that many people are working twice as hard for no more recompense. Institutions often load up the online course, giving teachers more students who generate more online discussions, requiring more time with your b*** planted in a seat in front of the computer, requiring . . . Well, you get the picture. We need to make sure that the amount of work in these courses, from trying to grade papers online to answering the myriad discussions generated by discussion boards is reflected in the pay back to teachers (part-time or adjunct) and in reduced hours for tenured faculty to allow them the necessary “face” time with their online students.
slothers - April 22, 2010 at 2:57 pm
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