UA sees online enrollment increase

Kris Katrosh (right), media production manager for the University of Arkansas Global Campus, leads a tour April 26 of the studio space inside the campus’ newly renovated building in Fayetteville. Improvements to the building, including a new black box theater, were made in support of the university’s online education, which serves a growing percentage of the student population.  a
Kris Katrosh (right), media production manager for the University of Arkansas Global Campus, leads a tour April 26 of the studio space inside the campus’ newly renovated building in Fayetteville. Improvements to the building, including a new black box theater, were made in support of the university’s online education, which serves a growing percentage of the student population. a

FAYETTEVILLE -- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville students have been taking more courses offered online, with the total rising to 11.42 percent of all student semester credit hours in the 2016-17 academic year, according to UA data.

Out of 682,984 total student semester credit hours, 77,982 were taken online through UA-offered coursework in 2016-17, the most recent year with data available.

The increase -- up from 40,285 online student semester credit hours taken in 2012-13, when online coursework made up about 6 percent of total credits at UA -- comes as both on-campus and exclusively online students seek out online courses.

"There's a lot of demand on campus for online courses," said Donald Judges, UA's vice provost for distance education.

As an on-campus student, Natalia Johnson, 22, earned her bachelor's degree last month in international studies.

She said that in the summer after her sophomore year, she needed to take a course to avoid falling behind after changing majors.

"I wanted to travel. I still needed to take a class," Johnson said.

She ended up finishing her UA online coursework while in England, calling the online class "perfect" for her circumstances.

Judges said the university has no target or plan to have more on-campus undergraduates fulfill degree requirements through online coursework.

"For those who are here in Fayetteville, the overwhelming majority of their courses are going to be face to face, not online," Judges said.

The university limits to 35 percent the portion of total credit hours that on-campus undergraduate students can take online and count toward their degree.

The 35 percent cap was approved by UA's faculty senate in May 2014.

"It's probably time that we take a look at it and see if the 35 percent is still appropriate," said Terry Martin, UA's senior vice provost for academic affairs.

Among schools contacted by the Democrat-Gazette, spokesmen for the University of Missouri, Louisiana State University and the University of Oklahoma said their schools have no similar policy limiting the percentage of online credits for on-campus students.

In fall 2016, UA had 4,648 students taking a mix of distance education and face-to-face classes, according to federal data that differ somewhat from university data. During the same time period, UA had 2,322 students enrolled exclusively in distance education courses, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The federal definition of distance education includes courses taught online.

Based on the federal data, in fall 2016 about 26 percent of UA's reported 27,194 total student body was enrolled in at least one online course.

UA data have the percentage even higher. An annual report published by UA stated that 12,467 UA students took at least one online class, or about 42.7 percent of the university's total enrollment of 29,224 in 2016-17.

The UA report analyzed enrollment for the full academic year, rather than for a single semester.

Looking at the federal data, Jeff Seaman, a director of the Babson Survey Research Group, said UA's online undergraduate enrollment falls "somewhere in the middle of the pack" compared with other large public universities.

A Babson Survey Research Group report published this year found that in fall 2016, 6,359,121 students were taking at least one distance education course, or about 32 percent of all higher education enrollments.

The report cited federal enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics.

Nationally, the number of students taking some online courses and those exclusively taking online courses "have been growing at just about the same rate," Seaman said.

At UA, recent years have seen large percentage increases in the numbers of exclusively-online students, based on university data. Online-only undergraduate enrollment increased to 1,045 students in 2016-17, up from 253 such students in 2012-13, according to a UA report.

Josh Johnston, 26, said he enrolled in UA's online-only undergraduate business degree program as a way to complete his degree while working full time.

"The online program at Arkansas really gave me the flexibility to pursue the degree that I wanted," said Johnston, who earned his bachelor's degree from UA in May 2017.

"Online programs aren't for everyone. You do have to be highly motivated," Johnston said, recalling "a lot of late evenings and early mornings."

For online-only students, regardless of where they live, the tuition is the same rate -- currently $246.12 per credit hour for most courses -- as what's charged to in-state students attending school on campus.

"That's a really important part of our value proposition," Judges said.

Various fees also are charged to students. In April, UA announced the new W. E. Manning Memorial Scholarship for students in online degree programs.

Up to four $2,000 awards will be given out this fall, according to UA.

Judges said online courses are taught by UA faculty with the help of UA's Global Campus, which he described as a "support unit" that works with faculty and leaders in academic colleges to develop online courses.

UA's Global Campus, which is led by Judges, employs what are known as instructional designers to help faculty "get it all set up" to teach online, he said.

"The U of A went ahead and invested in building infrastructure that became the Global Campus that we now have," Judges said. "I think that was really, really wise, because that lets the U of A set its own quality standards."

The university in recent years has boosted offerings to students only taking online courses, creating new degree programs.

A majority of exclusively online students are enrolled in graduate programs, based on UA data showing that in 2016-17, about 92 percent of the 1,987 online-only graduate students were 25 or older.

The report described online graduate students making up about 40 percent of the total graduate student population at UA. In 2012-13, UA enrolled 964 online-only graduate students.

"I think what you're seeing is an increased demand for professional graduate degrees, and online makes that possible," Judges said.

He said that, unlike with many on campus graduate programs, "the online graduate degrees, by and large, are not research oriented."

The university offers five online undergraduate bachelor's degree programs, which enrolled 632 students in spring 2018, according to information provided to the Democrat-Gazette.

The most popular by enrollment was a program launched in 2012 for registered nurses, with 205 students this spring, while the second-most popular by enrollment was a bachelor's degree program in general business with 179 students. The business program launched in 2014.

Judges said online education at UA is about helping "support the colleges to meet their goals," with "a concentration on those programs for which there is sufficient demand to have it be financially viable."

But if not a target, Judges said he can see a "natural outcome" for online enrollment growth given the limits of the physical campus. Chancellor Joe Steinmetz has said enrollment growth is constrained by factors such as the number of tenure-track faculty and available office, research and student housing sites.

"We may see online becoming a larger proportion of the total UA student population," Judges said.

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Percentage of university students taking an online class.

A Section on 06/05/2018

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