Spring 2022 enrollments in online programs showed an almost 8 percent increase over spring 2021, underscoring IU's success in attracting students eager to pursue online learning. IU Online now offers 213 degree and certificate programs across IU's seven campuses, up from 180 in spring 2021. One hundred and fifty-two of these are graduate programs and 61 are undergraduate programs.
Other highlights of the official spring census include the following:
- Enrollment in IU Online certificate, degree, and non-degree programs is now 7,877, a 7.6 percent increase over spring 2021. This represents 9 percent of IU's student population. Enrollment increased by 6 percent at IUB, 16 percent at IUPUI, and 2 percent at the regional campuses.
- Undergraduate online program enrollment grew 1.4 percent over spring 2021 to 2,916. Of these, 9 percent are new students, 23 percent represent students of color, and 35 percent are first-generation students.
- Graduate enrollment in online programs increased 11.6 percent over spring 2021 to 4,961. Of these, 26 percent represent students of color, 4 percent are veterans or active members of the military, and 11 percent are international students.
- Indiana residents account for 52.4 percent of all online program enrollments, an 8 percent increase over spring 2021.
- Fifty-one percent of all IU students are enrolled in at least one online course. While this represents a decline from the spring 2021 pandemic high of 91 percent, it is significantly higher than the 36 percent in spring 2020, the last semester that the pandemic did not influence registration.
- Credit hours from online courses represent 22% of all credit hours at IU and 46% of all regional campus credit hours. At the regional campuses, online hours total 82,520, an almost 15% increase over spring 2020.
- IU Online offers 213 online programs. Sixty-one are undergraduate programs and 152 are graduate programs. Thirty-eight of IU Online academic programs are collaborative.
Enrollments in collaborative programs
Graduate collaborative online program enrollment increased by 71 percent, to 304 students between spring 2021 and 2022. Programs at the graduate level include 9 stackable collaborative graduate certificates, as well as degrees in biology, chemistry, communication studies, criminal justice, English, history, languages, liberal studies, mathematics, political science, and teaching, learning and curriculum.
The first collaborative online program, the Bachelor of Applied Science, enrolled its first student in spring 2015. Over the past seven years, the university has developed 37 additional collaborative degrees and certificates. These programs are designed and delivered by faculty across multiple campuses and are coordinated by the Office of Collaborative Academic Programs. The programs are jointly owned and delivered by participating campuses.
The collaborative approach was established as a means to encourage broad participation in online education, increase access to online programs, avoid competition and duplication, and build upon current instructional expertise and capacity from multiple campuses. While collaboration can add some extra steps to the process of developing degrees, the development of collaborative programs seems to be achieving the initial purposes. These programs now encompass almost 400 faculty and deans across the university, and in spring 2022, 11 collaborative undergraduate online programs enrolled 1,108 students, a 24 percent increase over spring 2021. In some cases, the number of students enrolling in these programs is outpacing the number of students in on-campus programs, and it's clear that these students are supplementing enrollments in online courses already offered through the campuses.
This enrollment growth is also making it possible to support faculty program directors. Nine of the programs have matured enough to support these program directors who are active participants in maintaining and improving the certificates and degrees they support. If you would like to hear more from them, see their IU Online Conference session The Role of Program Directors: Faculty Governance and Administration of Collaborative Online Degrees.
Looking to the future, OOE and OCAP will be working with the campuses to review the student services available to students in collaborative programs. Given the multi-campus nature of collaborative programs, more coordination outside the classroom will benefit both faculty and students.
For more detail about online applicants, enrollments, demographics, trends, and programs, see Office of Online Education Reports (CAS log-in required for most reports) and watch the spring 2022 census video.