Higher Education continues to see strong growth in the number of courses and programs offered online. In their 2010 Sloan-C report, Allen & Seaman confirm that more chief academic officers than ever (63.1%) agree that online education is critical to their long term strategies. In addition, they found that the percentage of students taking at least one online course has increased from 9.6% in 2002 to 29.3% in 2009. “Three quarters (74.5%) of all institutions say that they are seeing an increase in the demand for online courses and programs as a result of the current economic downturn” (Allen & Seaman, 2010, p.14). DE is growing much faster than the overall higher education growth rate with public institutions witnessing the highest impacts (Allen & Seaman, 2009). Cuts in state funding and the current economic downturn have exasperated this increase. “The economic impact has been greatest on demand for online courses, with 66 percent of institutions reporting increased demand for new courses and programs and 73 percent seeing increased demand for existing online courses and programs” (Allen & Seaman, 2009, p.1). Distance education is and will continue to be an increasingly important part of higher education.
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