Interesting Facts about Online Learning

Here's just a few interesting facts concerning online learning provided by Dan Smith of the School Administrators of Iowa (SAI) from a conference session he attended by Dr. Allison Powell who is from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning:

• 32 State have state virtual schools
• 27 states allow over 220 full-time virtual charter schools with more than 225,000 students
• 2 states require an online course for high school graduation
• 30% of all employers use e-learning for training; expected to grow to 50% in 5 years.
• 1 in 4 undergraduate & graduate students enroll in an online course in college
• 75% of school districts had one or more students in a fully-online or blended course
• MIT has open courseware for K-12 students
• Stanford, Northwestern University of programs for gifted students online

Online learning research was summarized in four trends:

1. Online learning expands student options
2. Online learning is rapidly growing. Enrollments are growing at about 30% annually. Numbers grew from 50,000 in 2000 to over 2,000,000 in 2009.
3. In some reports, online learning was not only effective but actually "better than face-to-face instruction.
4. Online learning improves instruction. Teachers who teach online reported positive improvements in face-to-face instruction.

Dr. Powell is predicting continuing growth of online learning, causing a change in how educational content will be delivered in the future.