August 7, 2008
Online Enrollments Rise With High Gas Prices and Low Economy
Kaplan University has added to the growing pile of data and anecdotes that suggest that soaring gas prices and a sinking economy are fueling a boom in distance education. Many institutions, as the Chronicle reported last month, say their online summer enrollments have jumped significantly, compared with last summer’s, and that fuel prices are a key factor in the increase.
The university, part of Kaplan Higher Education Corporation, which serves tens of thousands of students both on campuses and online, just released the results of a survey of about 3,500 online students. Sixty-six percent of them reported that the economy played a role in their decision to go back to school. Thirty-nine percent of them said the main reason they choose an online university was to save money on gas. Nearly a quarter of the survey respondents estimated that they were saving between $500 and $999 by not driving to class. —Josh Fischman
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Connecticut’s CBS affiliate WSFB did a story on Charter Oak State College (CT’s Online Public College) and gas prices.
Check it out here:
http://www.wfsb.com/education/16857227/detail.html
— Dan Russell Aug 7, 04:23 PM #
Ray Schroeder is keeping a blog on this phenomenon at
http://fuelingonline.blogspot.com/
— Cathy Aug 7, 08:44 PM #
The Philadelphia Inquirer also recently did a story on Drexel University Online and its recent rise in online enrollments due to rising gas prices. Check out the article at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/25644034.html
— Drexel Univ Online Aug 8, 08:44 AM #
Growth in virtual worlds for education is growing rapidly too. The non-profit Immersive Education Initiative has doubled membership in the past few months (http://ImmersiveEducation.org ) which may be in some part due to fuel prices and the economy. At the moment the Initiative appears to be growing at the rate of 2-3 new members ever day, and already has more than 400 faculty members.
— Barbara Mikolajczak, Boston College Aug 8, 01:49 PM #
Sure, and much like driving across town to save three cents on the gallon, people will pay higher tuition to save ten dollars worth of gas per week.
— Christopher Kox, City College of SF Aug 8, 03:27 PM #