Dear Commons Community,

The latest issue of the Allen & Seaman studies, Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States, was published yesterday and is available as a free download. Anyone who has followed the development of online learning knows that their work is the most extensive collection of survey research on the topic. Here are some of my reactions.

First, student enrollment in fully online courses has plateaued.

Second, there is new data on the perceptions of chief academic officers to the various modalities (fully online, blended, face to face).  Their preference for blended learning (see above chart) supports the results of a survey of college presidents published last year and commissioned by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Third, this study also supports an observation that the MOOC hype is clearly over. The Chronicle had a an article entitled, The MOOC Hype Fades,  stressing this point.

Tony