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The enrollment modality percentage story is real, but it can also be misleading if taken in isolation. Roughly 1.2 million more students took at least online course in 2024‑25 than just two years earlier. That’s a significant fact that can get buried if we only look at percentages.

As I noted, for the past three years, the modality percentages didn't move. The share taking at least one online course has held near 66% for three straight years, inside a band of less than half a point, and a flat line by itself implies that nothing is happening. But the shares held flat at the same time that enrollment was recovering underneath it: total headcount climbed about 1.6 million over that same stretch, and the number of students taking at least one online course also increased. The equilibrium is in the ratios, but the denominator is growing.