Americans Have Mixed Feelings About Online Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many changes in higher education including a shift to more online learning. Online learning is now becoming more formally integrated into the curriculum of colleges and universities in the country. And students enjoy it too. In a survey about community college enrollment conducted by New America in December 2022, a majority of both current and prospective students said they would like to have at least some of their coursework available online. It’s clear that even after the pandemic, the demand and the adoption of online learning are still going strong.

But how do Americans feel about the adoption of online learning in the U.S.? This blog presents data from Varying Degrees 2023, New America's annual survey about Americans’ perspectives of higher education. As online learning becomes a more crucial part of higher education, it’s important for policymakers and college administrators to understand where the public stands on the quality and the benefits of online learning, as compared to in-person learning.

Our findings show that a majority of Americans believe that fully online programs make learning more geographically convenient (58 percent) and accessible for students (56 percent). (see Figure 1).

Half of Americans think there is greater flexibility of academic offerings with fully online programs and 44 percent believe fully-online programs provide greater school-life balance. This finding is notable because flexibility tends to be the top reason why students prefer fully-learning mode.

Americans also don’t necessarily consider fully-online programs cheaper. About 43 percent of Americans considered fully-online programs to be more affordable than fully in-person instruction, while more than half think fully-online programs either cost the same or are more expensive than fully in-person programs. Even though Americans don’t think fully-online programs are cheaper, 75 percent of Americans think that online programs should be less expensive than in-person programs. (See Figure 2).

The survey also shows that Americans have doubts about whether fully online programs would improve higher education quality and students’ employment outcomes. Only 14 percent of Americans believe fully online programs provide better instruction than fully in-person programs, and only 19 percent think that students learn better in fully online programs. Having said that, half of Americans think the learning and instructional quality of fully online programs are on par with fully in-person programs.

Only 23 percent of Americans believe that online programs have improved employment opportunities for those who complete them: a majority (57 percent) believe that employment opportunities are the same when compared to in-person programs

These findings show that three years after the pandemic and the shift to increased online learning, many Americans think fully online learning is similar to fully in-person learning. As online learning continues to be integrated into higher education programs, college administrators and policymakers should not lose sight of ensuring these programs’ quality, so that they can help students accomplish their desired outcomes.