Online Learning in Community Colleges Update

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It has been over a year since we last examined the numbers on online learning in community colleges and other primarily two-year institutions in the U.S. With the recent release of the IPEDS Fall 2023 enrollment data (and Phil’s recent coverage of that), now is the perfect time to take another look. We focus on online learning in community colleges partly because this sector (Public 2-year) is often overlooked. Much of the attention in the online space is directed toward big players like Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), Western Governors University (WGU), Arizona State University (ASU), and revenue-rich online graduate programs. It’s easy to forget that community colleges make up a substantial portion of the higher education landscape in the U.S. In Fall 2023, nearly a third of all students in higher education were enrolled in community colleges. Additionally, many students at four-year institutions began their academic journey at a community college and later transferred. This makes the community college sector vital to understanding higher education—and online learning plays a crucial role in how these institutions provide access, flexibility, and choice for students.

That being said, covering this topic in aggregate is challenging. There is a lot happening, with specific stories driving many of the data changes. Some of these stories are tied to Covid-19. As we analyze changes in online learning from 2021 to 2023, we continually try to determine how much of the growth in online learning is a lingering effect of the pandemic versus how much represents a real and lasting shift toward fully online education. This distinction becomes even harder to pinpoint when focusing on a specific sector like community colleges.

Other stories are unrelated to Covid, such as the closure of Eastern Gateway Community College, a major two-year provider of fully online education (discussed further below). In short, online learning in community colleges is in a state of flux. But despite this status, there are some shifts that offer suggestions about how the sector is evolving.

A quick note about terminology: The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) categorizes "Distance Education" (DE) into two variants: Exclusive DE, where all classes are taken online, and Some DE, where students take at least one but not all online courses. At Least One (ALO) DE combines Exclusive and Some DE numbers. However, we’re not particularly fond of the term "distance education," as it implies students are remote, which isn’t always the case. For this reason, we prefer the term "online learning" to better reflect the modality.

Strength of fully online learning in community colleges

Back in November 2023, we examined online enrollment in community colleges. In those posts, I was struck by how firmly online learning had become established in community colleges. At that time, we identified 38 community colleges with over 10,000 fully online enrollments. Eastern Gateway Community College in Ohio topped the list with well over 40,000 fully online enrollments, joined by several institutions in Texas and California with strong online presences. But where do things stand now?

Latest update

The latest update on Fall enrollments from IPEDS shows that overall community college online enrollments are following the general trend of Phil’s “pincer graph” (see this post for combined US higher education). Looking just at community colleges, while they have decreased from their peak during the pandemic, the number of students taking at least one online course remains higher than expected compared to the pre-COVID trajectory of online growth. If we had projected the straight-line trend from 2014-2019 through 2023, we would have been at 44% of all students, when the new data has nearly 58%. Put another way, Covid appears to have accelerated online growth in community colleges by a 14% jump.

Ranking community colleges with the largest online enrollments

While the numbers reflect general trends, there have been some notable shifts. One area of change is in the overall rankings of two-year institutions with the largest fully online enrollments.

In the past, Eastern Gateway Community College in Ohio had the largest online enrollment of any two-year institution. As I previously noted, the college was investigated by the Department of Education (ED) over its relationship with an organization called the Student Resource Center, which essentially functioned as an Online Program Manager (OPM). Although Eastern Gateway settled with ED, it ultimately closed on July 28, 2024. Students were directed to a range of teach-out partners, both on-campus and online, including community colleges as far afield as Texas, California, and Virginia. The data reflected in the chart above represent the last remnants of its activity. The IPEDS numbers to be released early next year, reflecting Fall 2024 enrollments, should capture the full impact of Eastern Gateway’s closure.

Given the constantly shifting and unsettled nature of online enrollments in community colleges, this list is not definitive. Instead, it should be viewed as a snapshot to help identify emerging trends.

While the list remains dominated by institutions in California and Texas, colleges from other states are starting to appear, such as CUNY Kingsborough Community College in New York, Hillsborough Community College in Florida, and Central New Mexico Community College in New Mexico. On a personal note, I’m not at all surprised to see Wake Tech on the list. Having struggled to find a parking spot during a visit there a few years ago, I can certainly understand why its students are embracing online learning!

While California has a long and well-established history with online learning, it’s worth considering to what extent the prominence of California institutions on the list is an artifact of the state’s heavy reliance on online learning well into 2022 as a pandemic response, particularly in regions like Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Additionally, some of the institutions listed are districts or function like districts, with multiple campuses, such as Ivy Tech Community College and Austin Community College District. Comparing these with single-campus institutions makes it challenging to draw valid conclusions.

Differences between types of 2 year institutions in their embrace of online learning

But looking at two year institutions as a whole, there are some differences among the types of institutions. Public community colleges dominate the sector, accounting for 96.5% of all enrolled students in two-year institutions as of the Fall 2023 data. The other two groups—private two-year schools (0.5% of students) and for-profit two-year schools (3% of students)—are much smaller. However, there are interesting patterns in how these smaller groups have adopted online learning.

• In public two-year community colleges, the percentage of students taking some online courses (Some DE) has continued to rise, albeit slowly, even as the number of students enrolled exclusively in online courses (Exclusive DE) has declined. This trend may reflect the growing impact of Dual Enrollment, which has been one of the primary drivers of community college growth in recent years, though not as robust as recently suggested by the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center.

• Private two-year institutions experienced a significant drop in the number of fully online students from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020—a notable outlier, as most other institutions saw enrollment numbers increase due to COVID. These numbers dropped again in Fall 2021 but have since been climbing steadily, although they have yet to return to Fall 2019 levels.

• For-profit two-year institutions saw a sharp increase in fully online enrollments during COVID, followed by a substantial decline. From the peak in 2020, the number of fully online students has dropped by 36%, though it remains above pre-COVID levels. Like public institutions, the percentage of students taking some online courses has continued to grow since the onset of COVID. Together, these trends indicate that the for-profit two-year sector is becoming increasingly online overall. In 2023, 61.8% of students at for-profits had no online courses, compared to 81% in 2019.

What this means

We continue to explore how the ongoing relevance of online learning is impacting community colleges, focusing on several key issues.

• One area of interest is the extent to which the growing prominence of online learning is driving changes in how institutions support students who study online. For example, we see signs of this in the promotion of externally provided tutoring services for online students, such as those offered within the California Community Colleges system. Additionally, we’ve observed a growing number of community colleges adopting online strategic plans—a shift from previous practices. However, we are keen to identify other ways institutions are adapting to the rise of online education.

• Student success, particularly retention and persistence, remains a critical issue. Community colleges often face challenges in these areas due to their open-access policies and the life circumstances of their students, many of whom juggle heavy employment demands, family responsibilities, and first-generation college status.

Online learning at community colleges is an evolving space that we continue to monitor closely.

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