Fall 2019 IPEDS Data: Final Pre-Pandemic Profile of US Higher Ed Online Education

Phil Hill:

The headline appears to me that we are seeing the same trends – growth of online, decline of fully face-to-face (no online) enrollment – with the 2018 – 19 changes very similar to the 2017 – 18 changes. From 2016 – 2017, the percentage of all students taking at least one online course rose from 31.4% to 33.7% (2.3%), but from 2017 – 2018 it rose from 33.7% to 35.4% (1.7%) and from 2018 – 2019 it rose from 35.4% to 37.2% (1.8%). I plan to do a separate analysis of DE trends over time, but the initial data show a healthy but lower level of growth for online education enrollment. Grad DE enrollment (at least one online course) grew faster at 2.7% than did undergrad (1.8%).