At the start of the 2008 to 2009 school year, more than 4.6 million college students were taking at least one online course according to U.S.News. That’s a 17 percent increase from 2007, or more than 1 in 4 college students!

Most of the growth for online education is coming from existing traditional schools that are offering more online courses. Community colleges and master’s programs are also increasing their number of online offerings. Between 2007 and 2009, the higher-education population grew 1.2 percent, as college-educated workers are in high demand. As our economy continues to struggle, people who have been laid-off are looking to better their careers and online education programs seem to be an easy, inexpensive solution.

With the recent H1N1 outbreak, most colleges and schools developed plans to deal with a possible outbreak on their own campuses. Of those plans, 67 percent included substituting classroom learning with online courses, which would protect the health of their students, faculty, and staff.

Online courses allow classes and learning to go on as usual, and do not depend on a static physical location like the classroom. If students have access to a computer, then they are able to participate in online education programs.

Many universities are making their presence known on websites like YouTubeEDU, which has categories for specific courses like business, education, law, mathematics, and journalism, among others. Lectures and other videos are posted, so students can use these as resources.

More and more professors are in favor of online education. A study published by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, found that one third of public university professors taught online courses, and that one half had told their students to take online courses.

If you are interested in taking online courses to further your education, check out our available online degree programs.

Source: http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/online-education/2010/01/26/study-online-education-continues-its-meteoric-growth.html