2024 Online Education Trends Report

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Report overview

Key Findings

BestColleges’ 10th annual Online Education Trends Report is part of a long-term initiative to track trends in online learning. This report represents our eighth year of original data collection through two online surveys. Participants include 1,001 online students and 184 college and university administrators. Findings are presented in five categories: the online learning experience, marketing online programs and recruiting online students, online student satisfaction, artificial intelligence in online education, and planning for the future.

The Online Learning Experience

Dealing with unexpected life events (25%) and paying for higher education (24%) are the top challenges to online program completion, as reported by online program graduates.
The biggest concern about the online learning experience is work-life-school balance, reported by 29% of student respondents overall and more than one-third (34%) of prospective students.
77% of students currently enrolled in fully online programs are enrolled full time. Of that group, 53% are also employed either full time (43%) or part time (10%).

Marketing Online Programs and Recruiting Online Students

Making a decision about online enrollment can be challenging. Prospective students’ top concerns are tuition costs and program fees (52%) and finding a program that meets [their] needs and interests (34%).
Online program graduates say that if they could go back, they would do more research about program costs and financial aid (27%), compare more programs before enrolling (26%), have better technology resources (20%), and better understand how long it would take to complete the program (19%).
Online students say that skills-based training and education are important to them (88%), and 58% of prospective students would consider microcredential and certificate programs in the future.

Online Student Satisfaction

Student perception of the potential return on investment (ROI) of online learning continues to be strong — 93% of all students say their online degree has or will have a positive ROI.
97% of prospective online students, currently enrolled online students, and online program graduates would recommend online education to others.
81% of student respondents say that online is better than or equal to on-campus learning.

Artificial Intelligence in Online Education

Most administrators (73%) see artificial intelligence as a beneficial innovation in online education, and 58% of currently enrolled online students say they are already using it to complete class assignments and exams.
Existing institutional policies for faculty use of AI are only reported by 17% of administrators, but 66% say there is training available for those interested in exploring the use of AI tools for online teaching.
Use of AI in online program admissions seems to be in the early stages, but 41% of students surveyed say they would trust schools to use it to sort applications, and 39% would trust schools to use AI to make admissions decisions.

Planning for the Future

40% of administrators say their institutions are planning to increase online program development budgets in the coming year; this is a decrease from 47% in 2023, but an increase from 35% in 2021, the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
College and university administrators predict the most online enrollment growth over the next five years will be in health professions (29%), computer sciences (26%), and business (15%) programs.
Most online program graduates (73%) say their programs prepared them for employment after graduation, and 31% say they were extremely well prepared.

Our Research Methodology

We help make sense of the latest trends through our propriety research, data analysis, and expert insights. Our Trends Reports, Survey Reports, and Data Reports explore pressing issues, such as online learning, student demographics, and the rising cost of college.

How We Collect Data

BestColleges collects data through online surveys. Some data is collected by our outreach team using platforms such as Qualtrics. We also partner with survey providers, like GLG Research and YouGov LLC, to reach broader audiences of college students, business leaders, and adults in the U.S. Partners use screening tools like RelevantID and manually review data for consistency and accuracy.

How We Find Survey Participants

Our outreach team uses BestColleges' contact mailing lists to encourage participation in relevant surveys. Our survey partners use a census-based quota sampling approach to provide a sample that represents the U.S. population through their expert and panel networks. Additional quotas are also implemented to ensure samples include gender and racial diversity.

Are Survey Participants Compensated?

Participants responding to our outreach team's survey requests are not compensated. However, some of our survey partners and their panel and expert networks do compensate participants in different ways.

Our Knowledge and Authority

Our surveys are designed by an in-house team with expertise in academic and market research, data analysis, and editing. Surveys conducted through our partners are additionally reviewed by their quantitative research experts. Since 2016, BestColleges Research has provided insights to higher education stakeholders through a variety of publications and conference presentations.

Meet the Author

Melissa A. Venable, Ph.D.

Melissa A. Venable, Ph.D., is an online education advisor for BestColleges. In this role, she leads this annual survey research project reporting online education trends found through student and school administrator feedback. Melissa is an adjunct faculty member and course designer at Saint Leo University and a certified career coach with a background in career development services. She earned her doctorate in instructional technology at the University of South Florida where her research interests focused on distance education and support services for online students.