US Deptartment of Ed - Distance Ed. Report

The US Department of Education has released its fourth study on distance education. This is particularly significant because their last release was in 2002 ... and a lot has changed since then. To accommodate those changes they made two changes to their definition of distance education. First, they removed the restriction "off-site," noting that many students may go to campus to access their course. Second, they included courses indicated by the college or university as hybrid or blended. Below are two quotes from their summary of findings that are most interesting to me as indicators that eLearning is standing on its own.

"During the 2006–07 academic year, two-thirds (66 percent) of 2-year and 4-year Title IV degreegranting postsecondary institutions reported offering online, hybrid/blended online, or other distance education courses for any level or audience (table 1). Sixty-five percent of the institutions reported college-level credit-granting distance education courses, and 23 percent of the institutions reported noncredit distance education courses."

"The most common factors cited as affecting distance education decisions to a major extent were meeting student demand for flexible schedules (68 percent), providing access to college for students who would otherwise not have access (67 percent), making more courses available (46 percent), and seeking to increase student enrollment (45 percent) (table 12). These same factors were rated as affecting distance education decisions to a moderate or major extent in 82 percent to 92 percent of the 2-year and 4-year institutions that offered college-level credit-granting distance education courses (table 13). The proportion of institutions that rated various other factors as affecting distance education to a moderate or major extent ranged from 6 percent for “other factors” to 63 percent for maximizing the use of existing college facilities."

The full report is here.