BestColleges' 11th annual Online Education Trends Report provides the latest online learning experience data with insights from students and school administrators.
Media Mentions:
Report overview
Key Findings
This is the 11th annual BestColleges Online Education Trends Report. It is part of an initiative to track long-term trends in online learning. This is our ninth year of original data collection through two online surveys — this year’s respondents include 1,000 online college students and 74 college and university administrators. Findings are presented in six categories: student demographics, the online learning experience, marketing and recruiting, online student satisfaction, artificial intelligence, and planning for the future.
The Online Learning Experience
- 34% of responding students chose to enroll specifically online to allow more flexibility with their time and schedules.
- Paying for higher education while minimizing student debt and balancing education with work, family, and household obligations continue to be the biggest challenges and concerns among online students.
- 43% of online students report being able to integrate their current jobs and career exploration into their class assignments.
Marketing and Recruiting
- A majority (57%) of prospective students identified tuition cost and program fees as their biggest challenge when choosing an online program.
- Students primarily rely on college websites (43%), online reviews from students (29%), and websites or publications that rank schools (26%)to research and compare the online programs they are considering (or considered).
- While a majority of online program graduates (53%) applied to only one or two programs, 27% wish they had compared more schools.
Online Student Satisfaction
- 90% of online program graduates say their degree has or will have a positive return on investment.
- 98% of all students surveyed — current, prospective, and graduates — say they would recommend online education to others.
- 76% of all students surveyed say that online education is better than or equal to on-campus learning.
Artificial Intelligence
- A majority of responding school administrators agree that AI is a beneficial innovation (72%) and can personalize the learning experience for online students (64%).
- 60% of currently enrolled online students have used AI tools to complete assignments or exams, and an equal number say their schools provide guidance about AI use.
- Almost half (47%) of all students surveyed say they would trust colleges to use AI tools to process and sort through college admission applications, while 44% said they would trust colleges to use AI tools to help make college admission decisions.
Planning for the Future
- Most school administrators (68%) shared that their institutions are either decreasing or not changing their budget for online program development in the coming year.
- 79% of graduates feel that their online programs prepared them well for their first job after graduation.
- About half of all students surveyed, including currently enrolled students (54%) and prospective students (51%), feel that it will be very important for them to continue their education beyond their online programs.
How We Collect Data
How We Find Survey Participants
Are Survey Participants Compensated?
Our Knowledge and Authority
Meet the Author
Melissa A. Venable, Ph.D.
Melissa A. Venable, Ph.D., is a contributing writer for BestColleges. In this role, she leads this annual survey research project, reporting online education trends found through student and school administrator feedback. Melissa earned her doctorate in curriculum and instruction – instructional technology at the University of South Florida, where her research interests focused on online education and support services for online students.
