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The Future of Education: 9 Stats that Prove Online Programs Can Help You Improve Enrollment

The Future of Education: 9 Stats that Prove Online Programs Can Help You Improve Enrollment

If you’re not offering courses and programs online, you’re missing out on an untapped source for enrollment.

It’s no secret…the past few years for high ed enrollment have been rough, and institutions have been searching for ways to increase student enrollment. The truth is, college enrollment has been declining since 2010, and has continued to fall since the start of the pandemic. After increasing for decades, traditional undergraduate college student enrollment peaked in 2010 at around 18.1 million students, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

From there, it has steadily declined. In general, from 2011 through 2019, college enrollment decreased at an average rate of 1% a year, and if you look at two-year public colleges, they lost nearly 35% of their enrollment between 2010 and 2020. By the fall 2020, only about 15.9 million students were enrolled in college.

Demand for Online Courses Support Enrollment Gains

Different factors have impacted this downward trend, like falling birth rates, rising college tuition, and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many students to change their plans. But higher education is now facing a moment of change. The stats below show that those institutions finding other or creative ways to increase college enrollment are reaping the benefits.

We’re talking online courses and programs, and here, we’re sharing some of the most eye-opening trends in online learning that prove schools taking heed have the opportunity to cast a wider net in order to boost enrollment; while those unable to adapt to the needs and modality preferences of learners won’t be able to keep pace.

An estimated 5.7 million students are enrolled in full online programming, which is projected to continue growing.

Source: Online College Students Report 2023. Education Dynamics

77% of learners say they decide on the online modality before any other factor, such as school or program.

Source: Voice of the online learner 2022: Shifting preferences in post-pandemic online learning. Wiley

Online is here to stay and a must-have.

Demand for online courses is clear. More than a third of today’s students learn online, and more and more prefer it — whether it be to save on costs, juggle competing priorities, or because a host of issues make campus inaccessible. If you’re not adapting your programs and courses to an online modality, you’re missing out on a large pool of learners to whom you won’t be able to market.

60% of students would choose programs at a different school if their preferred college/university didn’t offer their program online.

6% wouldn’t enroll at all. 🙁

Every student is also your next student.

If you offer online courses, you have a greater chance of attracting students in the first place, and then even greater chances for repeat customers. Nearly half of all online program graduates say they are “likely” or “very likely” to return to the institution for another program or course, serving to build your enrollment pipeline which is going to be key for how to increase student enrollment. So say so long to the days of graduating your students and tapping into the next generation. When you offer online, you can consider every current student a potential return student.

Source: Voice of the online learner 2022: Shifting preferences in post-pandemic online learning. Wiley

STEM occupations are projected to grow 10.8% between 2021-2031.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

There are less than 200 accredited online math & science degree programs.

Source: Online Science Degree Programs: The Complete Guide by GetEducated, lists 109 accredited programs

Online STEM is an overlooked opportunity.
When it comes to your strategies to increase college enrollment, don’t overlook your science disciplines. According to the National Science Board, nearly a quarter of the total U.S. workforce have STEM educational backgrounds, with occupational needs for science-based backgrounds only projected to grow over the next decade. With a small percentage of accredited online science programs available from the U.S.’s 5,900 post-secondary institutions, moving STEM disciplines online currently remains an untapped source for enrollment gains.

94% of students have a positive view on the effectiveness of online education.

Source: 2022 Online Education Trends Report. BestColleges.com

70% of students say that online education is better than or equal to on-campus education.

Source: 2022 Online Education Trends Report. BestColleges.com

96% of college officials responsible for online programs say they’ve adopted quality assurance standards.

Source: 2022’s Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report, produced by Quality Matters and Eduventures

Quality should no longer be a hang up.

The effectiveness of online learning is no longer debatable, especially as research shows little to no significant difference in performance between online and traditional classroom students or in learning outcomes in an online vs traditional course. When it comes to the quality of online programs, courses should be accessible, inclusive, and engaging for students. Instructors need to set expectations for how students should participate and offer timely, regular instructor feedback.

Tools to Enable Online Education

The trend is clear; many students are prioritizing the online modality more than ever, and it’s an opportunity for colleges and universities to increase student enrollment. That means having the right programs online is more likely to secure enrollments, and those programs need the right kind of technology to power effective learning experiences for students.

Harmonize offers a range of tools for online education, designed to increase student participation and engagement, including rich multimedia discussion and Q&A boards, polling, chat, and more — all of which allow students to participate in the ways that work best for them. Using online tools for student engagement increases the quality and quantity of student-to-student, student-to-content, and student-to-instructor interactions.

Rich Multimedia & Annotation
Built-in Chat, Polling & Q&A
Tagging, Notification & Reactions
Streamlined Grading to Save Instructors Time & Focus on Feedback

The tools you use for online courses also impact instructors. An effective platform provides tools for instructors to monitor student engagement and interactions to see who needs extra help. For example, with the student activity reports, instructors can view student participation and see who is the most or least engaged in course material. This is a great way to gauge the effectiveness of your engagement techniques and activities. Engagement tools like these can be used to create a more positive learning environment for students and instructors alike.

The bottom line is that having access to the right tools to power effective online learning is paramount. Making sure the student engagement software is inclusive of different learners’ styles, fosters social connection and community, and is designed to help instructors track student participation could spell the difference between student success or attrition. In the end, fully online and hybrid courses are proving to be some of the most powerful ways to increase college enrollment. And with the right tools in place, you can shift any of your courses online successfully, extending the reach of your program to a new pool of learners you otherwise would have missed out on.

Harmonize is a single suite of digital discussion and collaboration tools that integrate seamlessly with your LMS to facilitate a more engaging online learning experience. It’s everything an instructor needs to increase student engagement online and promote inclusive learning, while saving time and eliminating manual tasks. If you’re looking to shift courses online, we can help.