Scott Jaschik reported in the
September 18, 2014, issue of Inside Higher Education that higher education admissions directors are having a
tough time meeting their recruiting targets. Is online learning—now entering its third decade as a force
for change in higher education—part of the solution? Some thoughts:
The
2014 survey reported in Inside Higher
Education noted that admissions directors are focusing on finding more
full-time undergraduates (81% of publics and 84% of privates) and minority
students (733% or publics, 63% of privates), after which the publics and
privates begin to diverge in their goals. Interestingly, neither public nor privates seem to be
particularly interested in attracting part-time undergraduates (40% of publics,
15% of privates), although they are interested in attracting veterans and
military personnel (70% and 42%) and first-generation students (71% and
50%). They are also interested in
international students (53% and
63%) and out-of-state students (60% and 64%), but apparently only if they are
full-time. In short, college
admissions officers seem to want to attract the same kinds of students who came
to higher education over the past generation and whose full-time presence on
campus helped to pay for the dorms, classroom buildings, the grounds, the
sports teams, etc. The question
is: Is this population growing at
a rate that will continue to keep the dorms, classrooms, etc., full?
Meanwhile,
online learning has been attracting to our institutions an increasingly large
number of students who, for various reasons, cannot drop everything to attend
college full-time. In Grade Change, their 2013 survey of Chief
Academic Officers, I. Elaine Allen and Jeff Seaman reported that 7.1 million
college students have taken at least one online course. This is an increase of 411,000 over the
2012 findings. Note that this
figure includes all students—full-time, part-time, on-campus, off-campus. Clearly, online learning continues to
have an impact. Online learning
should be part of the strategy in attracting new students in several of the
categories that admissions officers identified as being strategic:
Full-Time Undergraduates The U.S. Department of Education
has noted that most high school graduates who are prepared to go on to college
already do so. Thus, if we want to
increase the number of full-time undergraduate students, we need to increase
the number of high school students who graduate ready to enter college. Online
developmental courses—high school courses offered by higher education
institutions—can help high schools ensure that their students develop the
skills they need to enter college.
Colleges and universities can also use online courses as dual enrollment
courses that give high school students an early opportunity to earn college
credit as they earn high school graduation credit.
Veterans
and Military Personnel
Online learning is one of the few ways that service members can maintain
progress toward their educational goals as they move from assignment to
assignment. Penn State World Campus is one of many online providers who have been recognized as military-friendly institutions.
First
Generation Students In
today’s economy, many first-generation students will come to a decision about
higher education once they are already in the workforce. Moreover, they often lack family
support and personal examples that make it easy for them to make the decision
to leave home and move to a university campus. Online learning allows these students to remain at home and
to work and be part of their local community while they develop the confidence
they need to become successful as full-time students. A first year of online courses also greatly reduces the
total cost of a degree for most students, helping to minimize dropouts due to
cost.
International
Students Online learning
is a global phenomenon. Higher
education institutions increasingly are developing partnerships with peer
institutions in other countries to offer joint degrees, especially at the
graduate level. U.S. institutions
wishing to attract undergraduate international students to their campuses might
consider collaborative programs that mix on-line courses with residencies at
both institutions or some other mix of experiences to attract international
students and to give their own students an international experience.
As
we enter the third decade of online learning innovation, one thing seems to be
clear: the next generation of
innovations should be focused on fully mainstreaming online learning,
integrating it into institution-wide strategies to attract and hold students
and an institution-wide vision for how the institution can best serve its
communities.
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