Editor’s Note: Most research is done with small samples. Web sites provide extensive data on user behavior. GradSchools.com lists over 58,000 distance learning courses from more than 2,500 institutions of higher learning. Analysis of approximately twelve million hits in the last three months of 1992 provides a rich source of data. This article integrates government data, traffic from the GradSchools.com website, and a user survey posted on the website in December 2002, to determine enrollment trends and criteria for selecting online courses. The editors are grateful to the authors for sharing this valuable information.
 

Understanding Why Students Select Online Courses: Criteria they Use in Making that Selection

Mark Shay and Jennifer Rees
 

Introduction

Across the US, students are opting for distance learning courses and fully-online degree programs in ever-increasing numbers, specifically within the last two years. Why do students choose to learn at a distance and what selection criteria do they use in choosing their education provider? Last December GradSchools.com and the University of Texas TeleCampus (marketing partners since 1999) began a combined effort to compare data to determine how and why students choose to learn online. Combined with a brief historical look at the expansion of distance education in the US, here is an informal analysis of why students choose to learn online and what selection criteria they rank most important in making their selections.

As millions of students opt for distance learning, sites like GradSchools.com, offering extensive searchable databases of distance programs, have seen explosive growth. There were eight million visitors to GradSchools.com in 2002 with nearly 10% visiting directories of distance programs.

Of the 2,559 graduate degree programs listed in GradSchools.com distance directories, 1,593 have joined since January 2001. Forty percent of the 257 MBA programs have joined in the past year alone. These additions to the database are a direct reflection of the growing menu of choices available to students opting to learn from a distance.

International Data Corporation (IDC) confirms this growing interest in online learning. In its report, “Online Distance Learning in Higher Education, 1998 – 2002, IDC estimated that 2.2 million college students would be enrolled in distance education by the end of 2002, up from approximately 710,000 in 1998. While the numbers still need to be tallied, those in higher education are experiencing the surge of interest first-hand.

Why the growing interest in education? Several factors could play into this. Across the nation multiple trends are developing side-by-side. College students are getting older than the 18 – 21 average a decade or more ago, more students are enrolling in college, and the relative value of education in term of earnings potential is being realized and documented.

In 1998, 37 percent of all 18 – 24 year olds were enrolled in college, up from 26 percent in 1980. For people 25 years and older, the US Census Bureau shows 44,845,000 with four or more years of college, up from 33,291,000 a decade earlier in 1990. The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) projected a 10 percent increase in the college-age populations between 1999 and 2009. Universities across the country are filing reports with average undergraduate ages ranging from 23 – 25. As the average college student gets older, with it come life responsibilities including family and/or professional jobs. With this comes an interest in earnings.

The US Census Bureau reported “big payoffs” from educational degrees in July 2002. Their findings included the following:
 

All this leaves today’s older student in the conundrum of finding a way to continue to work to pay for their education, tend to their families, and continue their education. Many have found a solution in distance education.

The UT TeleCampus, (UTTC) the University of Texas System’s centralized website for fully-online degree programs and online courses, proves this trend of growing interest in online degrees. Traffic to the UT TeleCampus website has increased dramatically in just the last year.
 

Source: Webtrends® report

 

Definition of terms related to site traffic:

Hits: a single action on the Web server as it appears in the log file. If the page being viewed contains two graphics and text, one hit is logged for the .html page, and two more hits, one for each graphic. Hits are not an indicator of how many people visit a site. They are indicator in general site traffic, especially useful for comparisons over time.

Impressions: also called page views, these are the numbers of times a webpage is viewed, regardless of how many hits that webpage contains. Graphics and supporting files are not counted.

Visits: the number of times a visitor comes to a site. Not as accurate a measure as unique users because one person could be counted several times during the month long reporting period. Default counts the person as a new visit if they are idle longer than 30 minutes.

Unique Users: Individuals who visited a site during the report period. If someone visits more than once, they are only counted one time per reporting period.

In the most recent traffic period (Reporting on 112 days, from Sep 23, 2002 to Jan 13, 2003) there were 256,183 unique visits to GradSchools.com distance program pages.

These growing ranks of would-be online learners are finding no shortage of options. The number of online courses throughout the country has expanded in an equally dramatic arc. IDC predicted the number of four-year colleges and universities offering distance education courses would jump to 84 percent by the end of 2002 increasing the number of offerings 62 percent from 1998 course offerings.

GradSchools.com continues to see an increase in the numbers of programs and in the number of institutions hosting distance programs. The quality and variety of programs continues to advance with graduate programs being joined by professional programs including subjects as diverse and advanced as bioethics. GradSchools.com’s distance directory traffic during last reporting period found prospective distance learners searching for the following.

Unique Visitors to GradSchools.com

In December of 2002, GradSchools.com posted a Web-based survey on their site asking visitors to help identify criteria of importance in their search. The primary purpose of the Distance Graduate School survey was to determine the most influential factors affecting a prospective student’s consideration of distance versus campus-based programs.

The survey was conducted from December 10, 2002 – December 30, 2003 and generated 11,509 responses. These survey results mirrored findings of UT TeleCampus student surveys. What the potential students cited as important criteria in searching GradSchools.com were the same criteria cited by UT TeleCampus students in pre-course and post-course surveys.

Respondents to the GradSchools.com survey were recruited through a link in a small pop-up window that appeared when a user entered the GradSchools.com website through its home page. (http://www.GradSchools.com) visitors who clicked on the link to the survey were directed to a screen with the first survey question, “Are you planning to begin or continue a post-baccalaureate education during the next twelve months?” Those who answered “yes” were presented with a second screen asking the question, “Are you considering: A campus-based program only; either a campus-based or a distance program; or distance program only?” Those who answered either of the last two options, campus and/or distance or only distance program, were directed to the next screen with questions focused on ascertaining the reasons and selection criteria they would use in making their selection for education provider.

Answers were recorded in a database and calculations were used to determine the percentage of responses to each answer. Results were presented throughout the final report as the actual number of responses and percentage of applicable respondents for each question and its subsequent answers. Missing data, or skipped questions were factored into the percentage calculations.

Of the 11,509 respondents, 28% (2,355 respondents) said they would consider campus based or a distance program, or a distance program only. (6,055 respondents were seeking campus-based programs.) It should be noted that GradSchools.com advertises with a variety of keywords that route students into the site as close to their interest as possible. Visitors who indicate “distance” in the search engines would not be routed to the GradSchools.com home page, but to a portal page specific to distance programs. Visitors that come to the GradSchools.com home page; therefore, typically have a general interest in graduate education, not necessarily a predisposition to distance education.

The 2,355 respondents expressing interest in distance education were asked to rate the most important criteria from a pre-selected list.

What are the most important criteria
when choosing a distance program?

First among criteria was reputation. With the arrival of online courses came a group of reputable providers, but also the diploma mills that provide questionable or disreputable courses via the Internet.

Students looking for graduate degrees online understand the importance of reputation and seek programs that their employers and colleagues will recognize and respect. Studies of perceptions of employers to online learning confirm this need. Employers were more in favor of online degrees if they came from established recognized universities and colleges according to a recent Vault.com survey.

It’s important to note the respondents second most important criteria - high levels of interactivity between professors and students - in that this indicates increasingly discerning “buyers” wisely shopping for a program that will work for their educational needs. These prospective students understand it’s a “buyer beware” scenario and they have done their homework.

There is tremendous variance in the levels of interactions in online courses and students are wise to make that a key criterion in their selection process. Research continues to point to the correlation between learning effectiveness, student satisfaction and interaction with students and peers in the online course. The days of isolated distance learners is potentially gone, based on the providers’ desire to integrate effective instructional design into the course production process.

The Sloan Foundation’s extensive work in asynchronous learning networks proves this point in its “Linking Student/Faculty Satisfaction and Perceived Learning to Interaction.”

Sloan partner, the State University of New York spoke to this in “Measures of Learning Effectiveness in the SUNY Learning Network (Shea, Fredericksen, Pickett, Pelz and Swan) saying “When course instructors provided prompt feedback and high quality feedback significant correlations were found with high satisfaction and high levels of reported learning.”

Affordability ranked as the third most important criteria in selection, not surprising given a large number of distance learners rely on some kind of financial assistance to fund their education. While many business programs provide tuition assistance, many education degrees are self-funded.

Frequently an advantage to seeking online courses through an established state university system is distance learners frequently can apply the same criteria as they would as on campus students seeking financial aid. The UT TeleCampus worked with the University of Texas System’s nine academic campuses to create a financial aid consortial agreement. Many of the UT System’s online degree programs are collaborative with students taking courses from several UT campuses toward a common degree plan, and the ability for student financial aid to travel with them as they take online courses from a consortium of university partners was critical.

Lifestyle choices and finding a way to integrate their studies into their typically very busy lives as older working professionals and parents also play heavily into the decision to learn online.

Why do students choose online education over campus-based programs? As mentioned, it simply fits their lives better. The GradSchools.com survey asked this question and found convenience the number one answer.

What is your primary deciding factor between
a campus-based and distance program?

What was the primary reason you chose to pursue
a degree through distance education?

Convenience was sited as the lead reason to choose a distance program over a campus program. At the UT TeleCampus students are asked a similar question in pre-course surveys with the overwhelming response to “why did you decide to learn online” consistently remaining over three years, convenience and/or flexibility.

Of interest, those in educational programs usually cite a desire to self-select where they will study while business programs students cite when they will study as a key factor in the flexibility determination.

Additionally, mirroring the GradSchools.com survey, a smaller but significant portion say they chose to learn online because the program they wanted was not offered within a reasonable distance, and the commute took valuable time away from work, family or study.

The GradSchools.com survey aligns with UT TeleCampus surveys in many findings. Students use reputation, accreditation, interactivity and affordability as selection criteria but begin their searches because they need flexible hours and the ability to direct their own schedules to complete a degree plan.
 

About the authors:

Mark Shay is Founder and CEO of GradSchools.com. Mark has been involved with advertising and marketing in the collegiate marketplace since 1982 while a student at Syracuse University. In 1989, after five years working for a Fortune 100 firm he founded the company that has evolved into Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc., the leader in the field of online recruiting of students. Through innovative services such as Distance.GradSchools.com and StudentProspector.com, EDU provides comprehensive and information-rich resources for students and effective recruiting advertising for schools. http://Distance.GradSchools.com

Jennifer Rees is Manager, Communication Services, UT TeleCampus. Jennifer has been involved with communications and organizational marketing including media placement, marketing research and analysis, copywriting, advertising design and production in higher education for more than 10 years. She acts as in-house agency for the UT TeleCampus providing communications tools to build awareness of and interest in the online degree programs offered via the UT TeleCampus. With the overwhelming response to “why did you decide to learn online” consistently remaining over three years, convenience and/or flexibility.

Of interest, those in educational programs usually cite a desire to self-select where they will study while business programs students cite when they will study as a key factor in the flexibility determination.

Additionally, mirroring the GradSchools.com survey, a smaller but significant portion say they chose to learn online because the program they wanted was not offered within a reasonable distance, and the commute took valuable time away from work, family or study.

The GradSchools.com survey aligns with UT TeleCampus surveys in many findings. Students use reputation, accreditation, interactivity and affordability as selection criteria but begin their searches because they need flexible hours and the ability to direct their own schedules to complete a degree plan.
 

About the authors:

Mark Shay is Founder and CEO of GradSchools.com. Mark has been involved with advertising and marketing in the collegiate marketplace since 1982 while a student at Syracuse University. In 1989, after five years working for a Fortune 100 firm he founded the company that has evolved into Educational Directories Unlimited, Inc., the leader in the field of online recruiting of students. Through innovative services such as Distance.GradSchools.com and StudentProspector.com, EDU provides comprehensive and information-rich resources for students and effective recruiting advertising for schools. http://Distance.GradSchools.com

Jennifer Rees is Manager, Communication Services, UT TeleCampus. Jennifer has been involved with communications and organizational marketing including media placement, marketing research and analysis, copywriting, advertising design and production in higher education for more than 10 years. She acts as in-house agency for the UT TeleCampus providing communications tools to build awareness of and interest in the online degree programs offered via the UT TeleCampus. http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu