Institutions and Enrollments

There is some evidence to suggest that distance education is becoming an increasingly visible feature of postsecondary education in this country. This chapter provides descriptive information about all 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions that offered distance education in 1997–98, including overall enrollments in distance education courses at those institutions. Analyses of institutions and enrollments are presented by institutional type and size. Information is also included about enrollments by the level of course offerings (undergraduate or graduate/first-professional). As previously noted, the first NCES report on distance education was of higher education institutions and not of all postsecondary institutions. Consequently, trend analyses of distance education offerings and enrollments for higher education institutions can be found in chapter 7, Changes in Distance Education Since 1994–95. Since some readers may be unfamiliar with the distinction between higher education institutions and all postsecondary institutions, this chapter begins with a description of the types of institutions included in this study.

Institutions Included in This Study

This PEQIS study was designed to provide nationally representative data about distance education at 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions. There are approximately 5,000 postsecondary institutions at the 2-year and 4-year level in the nation, enrolling approximately 14.4 million students.⁵ Postsecondary education institutions include both institutions of higher education (traditional postsecondary institutions (e.g., allied health and vocational-technical schools). Thus, 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions are a diverse group, including universities, baccalaureate colleges, community colleges, graduate and professional schools (including law, medical, and clinical psychology schools), technical schools, nursing and allied health schools, Bible colleges and seminaries, and other postsecondary schools such as business and computer processing schools. At the 4-year level (i.e., at institutions that offer baccalaureate or higher degrees), about 9 out of 10 of the private institutions are nonprofit institutions, while at the 2-year level, about half of the private institutions are nonprofit (not shown in tables). Public and private institutions have somewhat different institutional missions and constituencies, partially because of the financial support and programmatic oversight the public institutions receive from state and local governments.

The distributions of 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions and the enrollments of students at those institutions vary widely (see table 1). While private 2-year institutions account for 22 percent of the institutions, they enroll 2 percent of the students. The largest proportions of students attend public 2-year (37 percent) and public 4-year institutions (40 percent), although these institutions account for 25 percent and 12 percent, respectively, of 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions. Similarly, while 76 percent of the institutions are small (i.e., have enrollments of less than 3,000 students), 49 percent of the students attend large institutions (i.e., institutions that enroll 10,000 or more students). Thus, while about three-quarters of the institutions are small, about half of the students attend large institutions.

Institutions Offering Distance Education Courses

Institutions were asked whether they offered any distance education courses in 1997–98 (12-month academic year), or planned to offer any such courses in the next 3 years. Institutions that offered any distance education courses were asked about their total distance education offerings (including offerings for all levels and audiences), and their college-level, creditgranting distance education offerings. A third of the postsecondary education institutions at the 2-year and 4-year level offered distance education courses in 1997–98 (table 2). This represents an estimated 1,680 institutions. Another 20 percent of the institutions planned to start offering distance education courses in the next 3 years, and 47 percent did not offer and did not plan to offer distance education courses in the next 3 years.

Distance education was more likely to be conducted by public institutions; 78 percent of public 4-year and 62 percent of public 2-year institutions offered distance education courses, compared with 19 percent of private 4-year and 5 percent of private 2-year institutions (table 2). Distance education was also strongly related to institutional size, with most large (87 percent) and medium-sized (75 percent) institutions offering distance education in 1997–98, compared with 19 percent of small institutions. Since most students are enrolled in public 2-year and 4-year institutions and in medium and large institutions (see table 1), most students attend institutions that offer distance education courses.

There are approximately 11 million students enrolled at the institutions that offered distance education courses in 1997–98 (not shown in tables). Table 3 shows the percentage distributions of institutions that offered distance education courses in 1997–98, and the percentage distributions of students at those institutions. Among the institutions offering distance education courses, public 2-year institutions account for 45 percent of the institutions and 41 percent of the students, private 2-year institutions account for 3 percent of the institutions and less than 0.5 percent of the students, public 4-year institutions account for 28 percent of the institutions and 47 percent of the students, and private 4-year institutions account for 23 percent of the institutions and 11 percent of the students.

About the same number of institutions offered college-level, credit-granting distance education courses in 1997–98 (1,650 institutions) as offered any distance education courses in that year (1,680; see the top row of table 4). This represents 33 percent and 34 percent, respectively, of all 5,010 postsecondary institutions at the 2-year and 4-year level. Undergraduate distance education courses were offered by 1,460 institutions, which represents 29 percent of all the institutions, and graduate/first-professional distance education courses were offered by 610 institutions, which represents 12 percent of all institutions.⁶ The 1,680 institutions that offered any distance education courses in 1997–98 are the group of institutions included in the analyses for institutions that offered distance education courses at either level.⁷

Institutions can also be characterized by whether they have any undergraduate programs or graduate/first-professional programs (either on campus or distance education), as identified by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) "Institutional Characteristics" file. These programs, as identified by IPEDS, should not be confused with the level of distance education course offerings, described in the paragraph above. Of the 5,010 postsecondary education institutions at the 2-year and 4-year level, 4,510 institutions have undergraduate programs (see row 2 of table 4), and 1,860 institutions have graduate/first-professional programs (see row 3 of table 4).⁸ Of the 4,510 institutions that have any undergraduate programs, 1,620 (36 percent) offered any distance education courses in 1997–98 (row 2 of table 4). These 1,620 institutions are the group of institutions included in the analyses for institutions that offered undergraduate distance education courses. Of the 1,860 institutions that have any graduate/firstprofessional programs (row 3 of table 4), 750 (40 percent) offered any distance education courses in 1997–98. These 750 institutions are the group of institutions included in the analyses for institutions that offered distance education courses at the graduate/first-professional level.⁹

Overall Enrollment in Distance Education Courses

Institutions that offered any distance education courses were asked about the total enrollment in all distance education courses in 1997–98 (including enrollments in courses designed for all types of students), and the enrollment in collegelevel, credit-granting distance education courses in 1997–98, both overall and by the level of the course. If a student was enrolled in multiple courses, institutions were instructed to count the student for each course in which he or she was enrolled. Thus, enrollments may include duplicated counts of students.¹⁰

The PEQIS survey indicates that there were an estimated 1,661,100 enrollments in all distance education courses offered by 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions in 1997–98 (table 5). There were an estimated 1,363,670 enrollments in college-level, credit-granting distance education courses in 1997–98, with most of these (1,082,380) at the undergraduate level. The remaining enrollments (281,300) were at the graduate/first-professional level. To put these numbers into context, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimates that there were 14.6 million students enrolled in 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions in fall 1996 (the most recent year for which information is available), with an estimated 12.5 million students enrolled at the undergraduate level, and an estimated 2.1 million students enrolled at the graduate/first-professional level (unpublished tabulations from the 1996 IPEDS "Fall Enrollment" file).¹¹ Consistent with the distributions of the percentage of institutions that offered distance education courses, most of the enrollments in distance education courses were at public 2-year and public 4-year institutions. In addition, the number of enrollments in collegelevel, credit-granting distance education courses was considerably higher at public 2-year institutions than at public 4-year institutions. Private 4-year institutions put relatively more emphasis on distance education at the graduate/first-professional level than did public 4- year institutions (table 5). That is, for public 4- year institutions, 36 percent of the enrollments in college-level distance education courses (163,080 out of 452,600) were at the graduate/firstprofessional level, compared with 57 percent at the graduate/first-professional level for private 4- year institutions (118,070 out of 208,590). This may be because public and private postsecondary institutions have different institutional missions and constituencies, or because private institutions are approaching distance education more selectively, focusing more on specialized programs and professional school offerings (Chronicle of Higher Education, June 20, 1997; Mulugetta and Mulugetta 1999).

About half of the institutions that offered distance education courses in 1997–98 had 300 or fewer enrollments in those courses; 26 percent had 80 or fewer enrollments (figure 1). The distributions are similar for enrollments in all distance education courses, and for enrollments in collegelevel, credit-granting distance education courses.

Summary

A third of 2-year and 4-year postsecondary education institutions offered any distance education courses in 1997–98, and another 20 percent planned to start offering distance education courses in the next 3 years. The likelihood of offering distance education was strongly related to institutional type and size, with distance education being much more common at public 2-year and 4-year institutions than at private 2-year and 4-year institutions, and at medium and large compared with small institutions. These 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions had an estimated 1,661,100 enrollments in all distance education courses in 1997–98, and an estimated 1,363,670 enrollments in college-level, credit-granting distance education courses, with most of these at the undergraduate level. Consistent with the distributions of institutions offering distance education, most of the enrollments in distance education courses were at public 2-year and public 4-year institutions. About half of the institutions that offered distance education courses in 1997–98 had 300 or fewer enrollments in those courses.

⁵ Information about the numbers of institutions and students is from the 1996 PEQIS panel, which provided the sample for the Survey on Distance Education at Postsecondary Education Institutions, 1998–1999. The 1996 PEQIS panel was constructed from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System 1995–96 "Institutional Characteristics" file and the 1994 "Fall Enrollment" file.

⁶ The numbers of institutions offering undergraduate or graduate/ first-professional distance education courses do not sum to the number of institutions offering college-level distance education courses at either level, since many institutions offer distance education courses at both levels.

⁷ The 1,680 institutions are the group included for analyses of institutions that offered any distance education courses at either level or that offered college-level, credit-granting distance education courses at either level. That is, the analyses for collegelevel, credit-granting courses, enrollments, and degrees and certificates were not further subset to only those institutions that offered college-level, credit-granting distance education courses, since only 2 percent of the institutions offering distance education courses did not offer college-level, credit-granting distance education courses. This analysis approach was used throughout the report.

⁸ IPEDS identifies 1,370 of the 5,010 institutions as having programs at both the undergraduate and graduate/first-professional levels.

⁹ Of the 1,680 institutions that offered any distance education courses in 1997–98, IPEDS identifies 690 institutions as having any programs (either on campus or distance education) at both the undergraduate and graduate/first-professional levels.

¹⁰ This approach was used because discussions with institutions during the survey development process indicated that institutions could not report unduplicated counts of students enrolled in distance education courses.

¹¹ It is important to remember that the distance education enrollments collected in the PEQIS survey may include duplicated counts of students, while the NCES estimate of 14.6 million students enrolled is an unduplicated count of students. Information about total course enrollments at postsecondary institutions is not available for comparison to the PEQIS distance education course enrollments.

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