e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: Babson

  • Babson Study of Online Learning Released

    Babson Survey Research Group (BSRG) just released its annual survey of online learning in US higher education (press release here). This year they have moved from use of survey methodology for the online enrollment section to use of IPEDS distance education data. Russ Poulin from WCET and I provided commentary on the two data sources as an appendix to the study.

    The report highlights the significant drop in growth of online education in the US (which I covered previously in this e-Literate post). Some of the key findings:

    • Previous reports in this series noted the proportion of institutions that believe that online education is a critical component of their long-term strategy has shown small but steady increases for a decade, followed by a retreat in 2013.
    • After years of a consistently growing majority of chief academic officers rating the learning outcomes for online education “as good as or better” than those for face-to-face instruction, the pattern reversed itself last year.
    • This report series has used its own data to chronicle the continued increases in the number of students taking at least one online course. Online enrollments have increased at rates far in excess of those of overall higher education. The pattern, however, has been one of decreasing growth rates over time. This year marks the first use of IPEDS data to examine this trend.
    • While the number of students taking distance courses has grown by the millions over the past decade, it has not come without considerable concerns. Faculty acceptance has lagged, concerns about student retention linger, and leaders continue to worry that online courses require more faculty effort than face-to-face instruction.

    BSRG looked at the low growth (which I characterized as ‘no discernible’ growth’ due to noise in the data) and broke down trends by sector.

    Growth by sector

    (more…)

  • Babson Report on OER in US Higher Education

    The Babson Survey Research Group just released their report on OER usage in US higher education, “Growing the Curriculum: Open Education Resources in U.S. Higher Education”. The report is based on three different surveys among faculty and academic leaders, and it is heavy on attitudinal information – are you aware of OER, do you plan to use OER, what are the reasons to choose OER, what are the barriers to adoption, etc.

    Some of the key findings from the executive summary:

    • Most academic leaders are at least somewhat aware of open education resources (OER) and slightly over half list themselves as ‘Aware’ or ‘Very aware.’
    • Only one-half of all chief academic officers report that any of the courses at their institution currently use OER materials.
    • In 2011, most surveyed academic leaders report that open education resources will have value for their campus; 57 percent agree that they have value and less than five percent disagree.
    • Nearly two-thirds of all chief academic officers agree that open education resources have the potential to reduce costs for their institution.
    • There is wide agreement among academic leaders that open education resources will save time in the development of new courses.
    • Over one-half of academic leaders agree or strongly agree that open education resources would be more useful if there was a single clearinghouse.
    • Among faculty, cost (88% reporting as important or very important) and ease of use (86%) are most important for selecting online resources.
    • The time and effort to find and evaluate are consistently listed as the most important barriers by faculty to the adoption of open education resources.
    • Older faculty have a greater level of concern with all potential barriers to open education resource adoption than do younger faculty.