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The Popularity Of Online Colleges Is Increasing!

June 7th, 2010

The populace is getting the message. In order to make a real living these days you really do need at least a Bachelor’s degree. At the same time, many people can’t go to a brick-and-mortar institute of higher learning. So what are people doing? According to a report just published by the Sloan Consortium they are moving to online schools.

According to their study, enrollment in virtual schooling was up 17% compared to 1.2% for their brick-and-mortar counterparts. Of the 18.2 million college students in the U.S. today, 4.6 million were now taking their courses online. Also, approximately 82% of the online students were undergraduates. If that isn’t enough, online colleges themselves reported nearly a 75% increase in their course offerings. Not only have that, but 66% of these schools reported student interest in creating new classes to fulfill their client’s needs. If you need more information about online schools, look on the internet.

The report noted a key reason for e-learning’s growth is the economy. The students realize one of the few ways they can improve their income is to upgrade their degree. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes a worker with a Bachelor’s earns $52,000 annually while the average secondary grad only gets $30,000. The four-year grad is also more likely to get benefits like health care and 401(k) plans. So earning a four year degree makes financial sense.

If that isn’t enough, getting a virtual education is considerably less expensive. When the national average of a year’s tuition is over $7,000, saving 40% on that amount adds up to literally tens of thousands of dollars. With many students looking at college loans to finance their future, that’s a significant difference and one that more and more students are choosing.

Then there’s managing one’s time. A considerable number of college students these days are also holding jobs and have families. They don’t have the time to commute to a school and back home. Going online allows them to put the kids to bed, slip into a bathrobe and get comfortable before taking their class. Believe it or not, there was another study, not by Sloane, that said learning this way increases student retention.

The third reason the report cited may also be a sign of the times, and that is many of the students interviewed cited their fear of getting the flu from others as a key reason. They are afraid of getting the H1N1 from their fellow classmates. With online education, they are able to stay “safe” from possible contagion. To some, this might sound a bit paranoid, but one could also call this a product of the current environment. There is an abundance of information about online college course on the web.

Universities aren’t the only things that were examined. College professors contributed their own insights. In their opinion, they found the students approved informal mentoring programs and training courses. Another thing is 30% more of these teachers approved of online schooling than the last time the study was done.

Tags: Online Degrees

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Entry Filed under: Online Degrees