Covering the business of education and training

The Sloan Consortium has issued its fourth annual publication on the state of e-learning in United States Higher Education.

The report addresses several key questions:

Third Question: What types of institutions have online offerings?

Answer: Public institutions and fopros have consistently been at the forefront while small private four year institutions have the most negative impact.

Evidence: More than 96% of large public insitutions (15,000 students or more) offer something online (such as an online associates degree), double that of the smallest schools.

About two-thirds of the very large public institutions offer full online programs (such as masters degrees online).

Only one-sixth of small private schools do the same.

Perhaps the reason kids go to small private schools is that they want the small feeling and personal interaction of that kind of college.

By contrast, impersonal classes on the Net with thousands of students would be totally unappealing.

It makes sense to me that small private schools would not offer such classes.

What do you think?

The complete report can be found here.