Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 24

Positioning for Success in the Higher Education Online Learning Environment
Online Education in the United States (Allen
& Seaman, 2014) reveals that online enrollments
continue to comprise a larger share of
currently stagnating higher education enrollments
(see Table 1).
The height of both recent higher education
growth and online growth came in
the Fall 2009 as the impacts of the recession
drove students, many of whom were adult
students, into colleges and universities. Since
then, declining growth has occurred due to
the end of the baby boom echo generation
and a very slow growth economy that has
stretched family finances and made adult
students, who have historically been primary
participants in online programs, defer their
educational pursuits.
According to the Western Interstate
Commission for Higher Education
(WICHE) in its 2012 report Knocking at
the College Door: Projections of High School
Graduates (Prescott & Bransberger, 2012),
the funnel for higher education enrollments
are projected to moderate before the next period
of sustained growth begins in 2020. This
is also the date that President Barack Obama
has set as the goal for America to reclaim its
position as the nation with the highest proportion
of college graduates in the world. At
the time that goal was set in 2011, the college
attainment rate would have had to increase
by approximately 50% nationwide (8 million
students) by the end of the decade according
to projections made by the U.S. Department
of Education (U.S. Department of Education,
2011).
Increasingly, online education is being
used to assist in reaching toward that
goal. Despite a slowing growth rate, online
learning continues to gain traction, reflecting
a shift in perception about the quality of
online education as well as a realization by
many institutions, large and small, public
and private, that online learning represents
an opportunity to enhance the quality of education,
meet the expectations of digital natives,
lower the cost of education and stem
the rising tide of student debt, while providing
an avenue to expand access and increase
revenues in a time of lowered government fiscal
support. According to the Babson Survey
Research Group, not only have more schools
provided online offerings in the past decade,
more have also started online degrees (Allen
& Seaman, 2013) (see Table 2 below).
Moreover, despite perceptions that
online education is primarily a for-profit institution
endeavor, in reality non-profit colleges
and universities offering online education
far outnumber the for-profit providers
(Table 3) (Allen & Seaman, 2014).
Online learning has been a natural fit
for many non-profit institutions, especially
those with a mission to expand educational
access. Increasingly, as government financial
support has waned, more non-profits are
finding it necessary to expand their online
initiatives as a revenue supplement and to
address various pressures related to the following.
• Their States – Feeling the financial
pinch, state legislatures are urging their
higher education institutions to seek out
more cost efficient ways of delivering education
and to find ways to deal with capacity
constraints especially for students
seeking to transfer from community college
to four-year institutions.
• Their Boards – College and university
boards are increasing their interest
in online learning as a path to address
state legislatures demands, enhance academic
quality and operational efficiency,
demonstrate institutional innovation,
and grow enrollments and market awareness/institutional
prestige. The pace at
which boards are pressuring college administrators
to move forward with online
initiatives can be a source of friction
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