New study reveals who's studying online

The latest report on distance education enrollment from the National Center on Education Statistics confirms what other research has indicated: Online education is growing rapidly, and students who opt for online degree programs are more likely to have work or family obligations than students in traditional programs.

The report, Learning at a Distance: Undergraduate Enrollment in Distance Education Courses and Degree Programs, profiles undergraduate students enrolled in 2007-2008. The study found that distance education classes and degree programs were more popular among older students, students with families and students with dependents.

The study found that participation in distance education increased with age. While only 1 percent of undergraduates under the age of 23 were enrolled in a distance education degree program, that figure rose to 5 percent among those aged 24-29, and 8 percent for students over the age of 30--a cohort that made up more than half of all online students.

Likewise, students with dependents were four times as likely to be enrolled in a distance education degree program, and married students were more than twice as likely as unmarried students to opt for an online degree. Not surprisingly, students juggling work obligations also gravitated toward distance education programs. While part-time employment didn't seem to have a big impact on program type, full-time employment did: More than 60 percent of students in a distance education program were employed full time, the NCES reported.

In addition to demographic information about online students, the report also includes new data about participation in distance education by field of study. Compared to a national average of 20 percent, students in computer and information sciences were most likely to have taken at least one course online (27 percent). Business (24 percent), general studies (23 percent), education (22 percent) and health care (22 percent) also came in above the average. By contrast, humanities students and students in the natural sciences, mathematics and agriculture were the least likely to have taken an online course (14 percent for both major fields).

Although the study doesn't provide an explanation for the differing enrollment numbers, it does report that of the students enrolled in distance education degree programs, 34.7 were students at public two-year institutions and 35.2 percent attended for-profit schools. The relative emphasis given to career training at these kinds of institutions may be one reason career-focused fields of study such as health care and computer training saw higher distance learning enrollments than fields of study that make up the liberal arts.

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