As president of Connecticut’s only public online college, Ed Klonoski thinks a lot of about numbers — enrollment figures, costs and demographics.
“The number of 18-year-olds in Connecticut — the traditional college student — is declining by 1.8 percent per year,” explained Klonoski, who heads Charter Oak State College. In contrast, he noted, nearly 40 percent of higher education students — roughly 20 million people nationwide — are over age 24 and going to school part time.
That demographic shift is helping institutions like Charter Oak, as online courses typically have greater appeal among older students who often balance work, family obligations and education. While many state colleges are confronting declining or stagnant enrollment, schools offering a broader array of online education are coping better. The trend is also forcing traditional colleges to increase their investment in online offerings.
A primary target for Charter Oak has been adults who have earned college credits, but not yet completed their degree.
“We offer great flexibility to transfer credits, which makes it easier for adults to earn a degree,” Klonoski said. He noted, for instance, that students can get credit for job-based training.
That has not only attracted the attention of Connecticut’s employers — who have a vested interest in continuing to develop the skills of their employees — but also policymakers, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who introduced a $6 million program last June — Go Back to Get Ahead — to incent adult learners with some college experience to complete their degree.
The program, which ran through the spring semester of this year, produced some strong results, Klonoski said. It helped Charter Oak enroll 400 new students.
Overall, online learning increased by 3.7 percent — about 5.3 million students — last year, according to 2014 research by Babson Survey Research Group, which has tracked online learning in the U.S. for the past 12 years. That’s the slowest year-over-year increase in a decade, but the report notes that over that time period online enrollment growth far exceeded that of overall higher education.
In fact, the study found that 70.8 percent of academic leaders reported e-learning as a critical component of their institution’s long-term strategy and nearly three in four said online learning was the same as, or superior to, face-to-face instruction.
Those numbers don’t surprise Veronica Montalvo, senior vice president of the Online Institute at Waterbury-based Post University, which has more than 7,000 students studying online during the year. The school, which offers 22 graduate, 43 undergraduate and 12 graduate certificate programs, provides 100 percent of its accelerated learning curriculum online, but has also seen roughly 20 percent of its main campus students enroll in an online course.
Montalvo dispels the misconception that online courses are easier. “In fact, they’re rigorous and demanding, requiring students to be self-disciplined,” she said. “There’s no such thing as sitting in the back row; grades are heavily weighted on personal participation and contribution in the virtual world.”
While she acknowledges one of the biggest challenges in online education is adapting to the different needs and learning styles of each student, Montalvo says a bigger issue has been the evolution of online learning among traditional private and public institutions, which have seen the sharpest increase in online education, creating more competition.
The University of Hartford, for example, has seen steady growth since online learning was introduced to its MBA students in 2008, said RJ McGivney, the private school’s assistant provost for online learning.
“We’ve seen about 25 percent annual growth since 2012 among that degree track,” he said. “Nearly 70 percent of our MBA students take courses online.”
UHart now offers more than 60 courses online and — like Charter Oak — offers a customizable degree in general studies designed for adult learners with some college credits. And the university continues to incorporate new online programs geared towards professional development, including master’s degrees in taxation and special education planned for the fall of 2015.
While the explosion of online learning opportunities presents challenges to a dedicated online school like Charter Oak, Klonoski’s institution has a sizeable advantage in one important area: cost. “I had one family that was able to educate all five children through Charter Oak for less than $60,000 total,” he said.
