Infographic of the Week: The Boom in Online Education

[THIS ARTICLE LINKED TO AN INFOGRAPHIC AT A WEBSITE THAT IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE. THE INFORMATION BELOW WAS UP TO DATE WHEN THE ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED.]

The Infographic of the Week this week comes from FindOnlineEducation.Com, and gives an interesting overview and some facts about the growth of online education.

Some key information featured in the infographic:

• Online education represented 5.6% of enrollment in the United States in 1995 and now represents 27.5%
• U.S. News and World Report ranked 196 online bachelor’s degree programs in January 2012 and recognized Westfield State University for having the best faculty credentials and training, Arizona State University for having the best student services and technology, and Bellevue University for having the most student engagement and assessment.
• The overseas market in online education is expected to grow by 50% by 2014.
• Online education is currently a $73.8 billion enterprise but is expected to grow to $220 billion by 2017.

Predictions

The growth of online education programs will have a great impact on career tracks in higher education. While it remains to be seen how this will actually play out, I think that the trend toward online education will mean the following for higher education professionals:

• Comfort with technology will continue to be a key differentiator between candidates. With so many baby boomers and early Gen X-ers re-entering the job market or finding themselves “re-careering,” they will increasingly need to adapt to new technology. If this does not happen, we will see even further growth of millennial representation in key support roles.
• There will be an increase in advising and admissions positions, and over time, a decrease in residence life and student activities staff on campus. This will require candidates to increasingly demonstrate their knowledge of curriculum development, information systems and databases.
• Advising from a distance will require comfort with virtual teams, online project management systems, webinar/webmeeting technology, and cloud-based data storage and file-sharing.

What Do You Think?

What trends do you see higher education professionals dealing with, as online education programs continue to grow? What key skills do you think will be required? And how can we train people for the challenges that come with this new educational environment?