Traditional college classes will probably always be with us, but new surveys show the shift to online classes in higher education is growing. This is especially true at community colleges.
According to results from Bay View Analytics, the number of college faculty who are teaching at least one in-person class in a semester has dropped from 96% to 72% since 2018-2019, while nearly half of all faculty are teaching at least one course online, an increase of 14% over the same period.
Even when classes are in-person, digital tools are increasingly used. “Nearly 30% of faculty require digital-only textbooks, compared to 10% who require print-only materials—down from 19% in 2021–22,” the survey said. “The remaining 61%use both digital and printed course materials, up 11% since 2021–22.”
The pandemic was one driving force behind the overall increase in the move towards online learning, Bay View Analytics told Inside Higher Ed, but it’s not the only one. The number of non-traditional students – adults who are working and going to school, parents and caregivers attending school, and career changers – enrolling in higher education is also a significant factor.
This is a great opportunity to the extent that it means higher education is becoming more accessible, since online classes are often easier for students to attend. But it also presents a responsibility for higher education to adapt and evolve – the more colleges migrate online, the more best practices for teaching and student support must be developed. Online learning isn’t just “in person classes taught on a computer” – online learning is its own modality, and it needs to be carefully researched, thought through, and developed.
That’s why Calbright is not just a provider of online classes for adults – it’s a research engine carefully studying what works in competency-based, online learning. That does mean improving technology, and Calbright is supporting the design of new and better tools for online learning. It also means developing systems and approaches to learning as a human behavior process that fit an online model.
That can mean developing Competency-Based Education playbooks that structure classes in a way that is flexibly paced and focused on student learning. It can mean creating targeted interventions that identify when a student is struggling and give them academic support when they need it. It can mean finding ways to help students meet their basic needs out of the classroom. Other higher education institutions can take note and follow Calbright in many ways.
It’s not just about getting more students to study online – it’s about finding ways to make online learning a better experience for students.
As online learning becomes more popular, that work to improve the education experience overall for students becomes more important.
