Online College Courses Gaining A Firmer Foothold In Education

Nearly half of those who graduated from college in the last decade have taken a course online, says a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The report, The Digital Revolution and Higher Education, released August 28, 2011, also reveals that most institutions of higher education have invested in online courses.

More than three-quarters of the nation's colleges and universities now offer online classes, according to the survey of college presidents, and about one-in-four college graduates (23%) have taken a course online, according to the general public survey. Among those who have graduated in the past decade, the figure rises to 46%.

How those courses are evaluated, though, is subject to a broad range of opinion. In general, those who have taken online courses esteem them more than those who have simply heard about them. "39% say a course taken online provides the same educational value as one taken in person," said the report's authors, "a view shared by only 27% of those who have not taken an online course."

Despite the fact that online courses are easily accessible, some groups seem to benefit from them more than others.

Black and Hispanic college graduates are more likely than whites to have taken a class online (35% vs. 21%). In addition, graduates who attended college later in life are more likely than those who went to college right after high school to have some experience with online learning.

College presidents, though, have a decidedly mixed view of online learning.

(Those) who believe that the mission of higher education is to promote personal and intellectual growth are less enthusiastic about the value of online courses — 43% say they are equal in value to in-person classes, while a 56% majority says they are not.

Nevertheless, online courses have grown from a novelty a decade ago to an important component of education today. Speed Matters continues to promote effective and accessible broadband as a basic utility of education.

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education (Pew Research Center)