Online education continues to grow at a greater rate than the rest of the higher education sector, with some projecting that online college students will make up close to 25 percent of all higher education enrollments by 2020. Understanding how to build programs and courses aimed at online college students starts with having the right data.
In this presentation, David Clinefelter, chief academic officer of The Learning House, Inc., will join Andrew J. Magda, manager of market research at The Learning House, Inc., and Carol Aslanian, President and founder, Aslanian Market Research, to share results from the fifth annual Online College Students report. Learn what 1,500 prospective, current and recently graduated fully online students have to say about their online learning preferences and demands.
Highlights include:
- Diversification is key. Online students, like the rest of the higher education population, are not a monolith. Understanding different preferences and using a variety of strategies to reach them both in the classroom and through marketing is essential.
- The bar has been raised. As online education has become commonplace, students now expect processes and policies tailored toward their needs. Policies that once were considered nice to have, such as generous transfer policies and streamlined admissions policies, are now necessities.
- Students prefer local. Despite the touted benefits of learning anywhere, online learners tend to stay close to home, with 65 percent living within 100 miles of their online institution.
- Blended institutional formats are gaining traction. Typically, learning has been divided into fully on campus or fully online. A significant number of online students, however, expressed interest in learning online but having on-campus opportunities, such as internships. This new model may be a good way to expand the online student population.
- Online students are trending younger.. While online education has traditionally been marketed toward adult learners, more and more students under 25 years of age are choosing to study online for their undergraduate degrees.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Time: 7:00 AM Hawaii/ 9:00 AM Alaska/ 10:00 AM PDT and Arizona / 11:00 AM MDT/ Noon CDT/ 1:00 PM EDT
The webcast is provided free and open to all. WCET has moved to GoToWebinar for its webcasts which allows up to 1,000 participants. Follow the Twitter feed at #WCETwebcast.
Register today for the WCET webcast, “Understanding the Online College Student, Results from the Online College Students Report ” on September 15 at 11:00 AM MDT. The free webcast will run for 60 minutes.
Resources:
– Webcast Slides
– Questions & Answers
– Register to receive the full report
– YouTube Video of Recorded Webcast
