US: Online enrolments - speeding towards a slowdown?

Online college enrolments in the US grew by 21% to 5.6 million last autumn, the biggest percentage increase in several years, according to a report released last week by the Sloan Consortium and the Babson Survey Research Group, writes Steve Kolowich for Inside Higher Ed.

At the same time, the authors say online growth might begin to slow down in the near future, as the biggest drivers of enrolment growth face budget challenges and stricter recruitment oversight from the federal government. Nearly one million more students took an online course in autumn 2009 than in the previous year, according to the new survey, which drew responses from 2,583 academic leaders at both nonprofit and for-profit institutions across the country. That is the biggest numerical increase in the eight-year history of the report, and the largest proportional increase (21.1%) since 2005.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site