UC Reports Significant Increase in Distance Learners

The University of Cincinnati is part of a national trend as more students make the university their living room, their den or their favorite Wi-Fi café. Melody Clark, academic director of distance education at UC, says there’s a significant increase in the number of students taking distance-learning programs, up 10 percent from last year. Over the past four years, the number of UC’s distance-learning programs has increased 100 percent, from eight degree-granting programs in 2003 to 16 this fall, with a new offering from the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services.

“The higher-education marketplace is rapidly evolving with universities facing increasing competition from for-profit providers,” says Anthony J. Perzigian, senior vice president and provost for baccalaureate and graduate education. “UC has successfully responded by strategically offering high-demand, online degree programs. As with any other consumers, students are seeking the quality, the affordability and the convenience that UC’s degree programs offer. We can predict that greater percentages of UC graduates will not have had the traditional on-campus residential experience,” says Perzigian.

Enrollment in distance-learning programs is growing in Ohio and the nation. In Ohio, UC has the second-largest distance-learning program for a four-year institution. George Steele, director of educational access for the Ohio Learning Network (OLN), says individual students taking distance-learning courses from two-year and four-year state-supported institutions in Ohio increased from 37,421 in 2004 to 42,245 in 2005. For 2006, preliminary estimates from the OLN have reached more than 48,600.
 
A report by the Sloan Consortium, an association of institutions committed to the quality of online education, found that on a national level, colleges and universities are reporting record enrollment in online learners. The report, Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, surveyed more than 2,200 colleges and universities and found that nearly 3.2 million students took at least one online course during autumn 2005 – up more than 800,000 from the previous year. That survey also found that 73 percent of the institutions surveyed felt that their online programs reached students not served by face-to-face programs.

Recent UC graduate Angie Butcher of Wellston, Ohio, is one of those students.

“I had a husband, two boys and a job, and the closest college was 40 miles away,” she explains, as federal mandates required her to earn her degree in early childhood education to keep her job. “I almost quit my job, but then, I learned about the Early Childhood Learning Community.” Butcher earned her associate’s degree from the UC distance-learning program in 2004 using the Internet, VHS, CD-Rom and CVD (CDs that can be played in newer CD players). Last spring, she was one of five students in the ECLC to earn her bachelor’s degree from the program.

Butcher graduated from UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH), which houses the majority of UC’s distance-learning degree programs. The college is now creating a new online master’s degree program in special education – a very high-demand field for educators. The program will provide for a master’s degree and licensure for currently licensed Ohio teachers to get an additional licensure as an intervention specialist.

“Distance-learning is the future for higher education and we need to be ready and poised for this 21st century learning environment,” says Lawrence J. Johnson, dean of the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services. “The future of higher-education will mandate a distance-learning component, and our college is on the leading edge of that trend,” Johnson says.

UC Students Enrolled in Distance Learning Degree Programs

• Autumn 2000 – 213 students
• Autumn 2001 – 245 students
• Autumn 2002 – 386 students
• Autumn 2003 – 642 students
• Autumn 2004 – 1,213 students
• Autumn 2005 – 1,937 students
• Autumn 2006 –  2, 290 students
• Autumn 2007 –  2,559 students

UC developed its first distance-learning program more than 20 years ago when the College of Applied Science pioneered the Open Learning Fire Science program through correspondence courses in 1984. UC now offers 16 distance-learning degree programs spanning six different colleges.

Student Profile of UC’s Distance Learners
 
The majority of UC’s students in distance learning degree programs are part-time. In autumn 2007 there are 291 (11.4 percent) UC distance-learning students taking full-time class loads and 2,268 (88.6 percent) taking classes part time. Their average age is 34. More than 77 percent are female; 69 percent are Caucasian and 14 percent are African-American. Students in UC’s distance-learning programs of study originate from all 50 states, as well as the armed forces in Europe and the Pacific. They also originate from more than 35 countries. The highest number of international students, 40, report they’re Canadian citizens.
(Source: Office of Institutional Research).

UC’s Growth in Distance Learning Degree Programs

• 2003 – 8 degree programs
• 2004 – 9 degree programs
• 2005 – 14 degree programs
• 2006 – 15 degree programs
• 2007 – 16 degree programs

UC Colleges that Offer Distance-Learning Options (programs, certificates or courses)

• College of Allied Health Sciences
• College of Applied Science
• McMicken College of Arts and Sciences
• College of Business
• College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services
• College of Engineering
• College of Nursing
• College of Pharmacy
• Clermont College
• Raymond Walters College

Find out more on UC’s distance-learning degrees, courses, certificates and registration