More than 2.35 million students enrolled in online courses in 2004, up 18 percent over the previous year, with three out of four schools saying they expect enrollment to continue to increase. This is a finding in Growing by Degrees: Online Education in the United States, 2005, a report by the Sloan Consortium, a group dedicated to pursuing the benefits of online education.
The report is based on the group's third annual survey, which questioned 1,025 colleges and universities to determine the state of online instruction at the nation's higher education institutions.

The questions asked and some of the most notable conclusions include:

Have the course and program offerings in online education entered the mainstream?

• 63 percent of schools that offer face-to-face undergraduate courses also offer online undergraduate courses.
• 65 percent of schools that offer face-to-face graduate courses also offer online graduate courses.

Who is teaching online?

• Contrary to the fears of core faculty, staffing for online courses is not being covered by adjunct faculty.
• 65 percent of higher education institutions report that they use mainly core faculty to teach online courses, compared to 62 percent that report they use core faculty to teach face-to-face courses.

Is online education becoming part of long-term strategy for most schools?

• The overall percentage of schools identifying online education as a critical long-term strategy grew from 49 percent in 2003 to 56 percent in 2004.
• Smaller schools, private non-profits and baccalaureate colleges remain the least likely to agree that online education is part of their long-term strategy.

Have online enrollments continued their rapid growth?

• Overall online enrollment increased from 1.98 million in 2003 to 2.35 million in 2004.
• Enrollment in online courses is growing by 18.2 percent annually, greatly exceeding the overall growth rate in the higher education student body.

What else do chief academic officers and faculty believe about online education?

• 82 percent of respondents believe it is no more difficult to evaluate an online course than one delivered face-to-face.
• 64 percent of chief academic officers believe it takes more discipline for a student to succeed in an online course.
• Most respondents think it takes more effort to teach online.

To view the entire report, visit the Sloan Consortium’s Web site, www.sloan-c.org/index.asp, click on “Resources” and again on “Surveys.”

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