Update: I should have guessed this, but the visualizations don’t come through on RSS feeds, so you’ll need to click through to the article.
Reader Mike Himmelstein has rightly pointed out that our analysis of the new IPEDS data would benefit from using visualization tools instead of just tables. This comment led me to a multi-day investigation of which data visualization tool would best integrate into a WordPress blog while maintaining interactive data exploration. I tried MicroStrategy (great tool but cannot share without login), IBM Many Eyes (good public tool but limited in formatting), and several variations of Google Charts (not as rich in features as MicroStrategy, but close, and supports public sharing). In the end I’ve ended up using the Visualizer plugin to display Google Charts. All data below is for degree-granting institutions.
Let’s first look at the state-by-state data in a Geochart. This data tracks online ed in public higher ed institutions as of Fall 2012. I’m showing the data broken out by undergraduate and graduate students. The color scale is based on the percentage of students taking at least one online course, but if you hover over a state you can also see the percentage of students taking all of their courses online.
For the basic data combining undergraduate and graduate students in a table format, see this post.
Percentage of Public Higher Ed Undergrad Students Taking Online Courses, by State
State | % w/ at least one online course | % w/ all online courses |
---|---|---|
US-AZ | 42 | 14 |
US-NC | 38 | 12 |
US-ID | 34 | 8 |
US-AL | 30 | 6 |
US-OK | 35 | 11 |
US-NV | 34 | 11 |
US-FL | 31 | 8 |
US-WV | 27 | 5 |
US-TN | 28 | 6 |
US-MO | 27 | 6 |
US-AR | 29 | 8 |
US-PA | 26 | 6 |
US-VA | 29 | 8 |
US-RI | 21 | 1 |
US-NM | 32 | 13 |
US-WY | 31 | 11 |
US-MN | 27 | 8 |
US-IN | 27 | 8 |
US-UT | 28 | 9 |
US-NE | 31 | 11 |
US-ME | 28 | 9 |
US-SC | 24 | 5 |
US-GA | 25 | 6 |
US-TX | 26 | 8 |
US-AK | 33 | 15 |
US-MS | 26 | 9 |
US-OH | 26 | 9 |
US-KS | 31 | 14 |
US-ND | 39 | 22 |
US-OR | 26 | 9 |
US-WI | 23 | 6 |
US-IA | 24 | 8 |
US-HI | 27 | 11 |
US-MT | 21 | 5 |
US-SD | 31 | 16 |
US-LA | 18 | 4 |
US-MA | 19 | 5 |
US-NY | 17 | 4 |
US-WA | 21 | 8 |
US-MD | 24 | 12 |
US-IL | 16 | 4 |
US-NJ | 21 | 9 |
US-KY | 32 | 20 |
US-CA | 17 | 5 |
US-CO | 20 | 9 |
US-MI | 16 | 5 |
US-CT | 13 | 4 |
US-DE | 11 | 2 |
US-NH | 13 | 5 |
US-VT | 15 | 7 |
US-DC | 3 | 0 |
Percentage of Public Higher Ed Grad Students Taking Online Courses, by State
State | % w/ at least one online course | % w/ all online courses |
---|---|---|
US-AK | 56 | 38 |
US-AL | 47 | 32 |
US-SD | 45 | 35 |
US-PA | 43 | 19 |
US-AR | 41 | 27 |
US-ND | 41 | 32 |
US-MD | 40 | 34 |
US-KS | 40 | 26 |
US-ID | 38 | 24 |
US-FL | 36 | 16 |
US-NE | 35 | 27 |
US-KY | 33 | 23 |
US-NM | 31 | 19 |
US-TX | 31 | 19 |
US-AZ | 30 | 22 |
US-MO | 30 | 18 |
US-WV | 28 | 22 |
US-IN | 28 | 19 |
US-WY | 28 | 19 |
US-MT | 27 | 18 |
US-NC | 27 | 19 |
US-OK | 27 | 17 |
US-MA | 26 | 19 |
US-MS | 25 | 18 |
US-CO | 25 | 19 |
US-TN | 24 | 10 |
US-SC | 23 | 7 |
US-GA | 23 | 14 |
US-OH | 21 | 12 |
US-LA | 21 | 10 |
US-WI | 20 | 14 |
US-ME | 19 | 12 |
US-NH | 19 | 14 |
US-MI | 18 | 12 |
US-NJ | 18 | 10 |
US-NV | 18 | 8 |
US-IA | 16 | 11 |
US-UT | 16 | 9 |
US-NY | 16 | 6 |
US-IL | 15 | 8 |
US-MN | 15 | 7 |
US-VA | 15 | 9 |
US-OR | 12 | 9 |
US-HI | 12 | 7 |
US-CT | 9 | 5 |
US-WA | 7 | 4 |
US-DE | 7 | 3 |
US-DC | 6 | 0 |
US-CA | 6 | 2 |
US-RI | 6 | 3 |
US-VT | 3 | 1 |
Profile of All Degree-Seeking Higher Ed by Sector
In another post I showed the number and percentage of students taking online courses by sector – public, private and for-profit for both 4-year+ and 2-year. Hovering over the sector bars will show the data.
Sector | Exclusive online courses | At least one online | Total enrollment |
---|---|---|---|
Public 4 | 366999 | 1458417 | 6748087 |
Private 4 | 266037 | 474361 | 2830448 |
For-profit 4 | 676699 | 783145 | 1186055 |
Public 2 | 674491 | 1858057 | 6858541 |
Private 2 | 808 | 3048 | 48751 |
For-profit 2 | 21711 | 41498 | 447165 |
Totals | 2006745 | 4618526 | 18119047 |
Sector Exclusive online courses At least one online Public 4 0.054385636 0.216123029 Private 4 0.093991128 0.167592197 For-profit 4 0.570546054 0.660294 Public 2 0.098343219 0.270911408 Private 2 0.016574019 0.062521794 For-profit 2 0.048552548 0.092802433 Totals 0.110753341 0.254898947
Sector | Exclusive online courses | At least one online | Total enrollment |
---|---|---|---|
Public 4 | 209616 | 343562 | 1417032 |
Private 4 | 207096 | 287676 | 1239489 |
For-profit 4 | 229677 | 245314 | 299637 |
Totals | 646389 | 876552 | 2956158 |
Sector | Exclusive online courses | At least one online |
---|---|---|
Public 4 | 0.147926088 | 0.242451829 |
Private 4 | 0.167081757 | 0.232092419 |
For-profit 4 | 0.766517486 | 0.818703965 |
Totals | 0.218658475 | 0.296517304 |
johnakline says
how did you embed those nice interactive maps?
Phil Hill says
John, I tried out a couple of charting options but ended up using Google Charts as the basis. As I didn’t want to code a custom web page using the API, I found a WordPress plugin called “Visualizations”. It allows you to upload csv files, configure and display interactive charts within a WordPress blog.