Ron Brown, Northeastern Univ.

Catherine Manly, Univ. of MA, Amherst

Lutheria N. Peters, George Mason Univ.

Raja Tayeh, Doane College

July 14, 2012

National Data Institute, Alexandria, VA

Introduction

Hypothesis

Methodology, including datasets

Findings

Conclusions

Limitations

Implications

Problem: ◦ Online education is a fairly new higher ed pathway.

◦ We have limited information about online students.

Purpose: ◦ To describe characteristics of students who self-

report distance postsecondary participation.

◦ To explore the national spatial association of online enrollment across the US by state for an institution that self-reported primarily online delivery.

There is a high spatial association of online enrollment across the United States.

Nationally Descriptive Data Source: NPSAS08 ◦ All students (undergraduates and graduates) who

are enrolled in a completely distance program

Spatial Association Data Source: IPEDS Enrollment ◦ Problem: Most institutions combine online and on-

campus enrollments even if they identify the institution as “primarily online” in IPEDS.

◦ Our data: Look at the only institution reporting completely separate online enrollments in the currently available data: University of Phoenix Online (UOP)

Descriptive percentages (NPSAS 2008)

LISA (Local Indicators of Spatial Association)* ◦ We conducted a test for spatial association using

the Local Moran’s I test statistic. We used:

ArcGIS to prepare our data files, and

Geoda to conduct the analysis and produce cluster and significance maps, and the Moran’s I statistic.

* Anselin, L. (1995). Local Indicators of Spatial Association – LISA.

Geographical Analysis, 27(2), pp. 93-115.

** Anselin, L. (1996). GeoDa: An introducation to spatial data analysis. Geographical Analysis, 38. pp. 5-22.

3.70%

97.30%

N = 21 million undergraduate

students

distance

ed

8.70%

91.30%

N= 3,456,000 Graduate students

distance ed

Undergraduate enrollment in distance

education by GENDER

  Male = 45%

  Female = 55%

Graduate Student Enrollment in Distance

Education by GENDER

  Male 44%

  Female 56%

Undergraduate enrollment in distance

education by Race/ethnicity

  White = 22%

  Black or African American

=29%

  Hispanic or Latino = 14%

  Asian = 17%

  American Indian or Alaska

Native

  Native Hawaiian / other

Pacific Islander

  Other

Graduate student enrollment in distance

education by Race/ethnicity

  White = 20%

  Black or African American

= 22%

  Hispanic or Latino = 16%

  Asian = 9%

  American Indian or

Alaska Native

  Native Hawaiian / other

Pacific Islander

  Other

Graduate Student Enrollment in

Distance Education by INCOME

  Less than $13,200

  $13,200-37,399

  $37,400-71,599

  $71,600 or more

Undergraduate enrollment in distance

education by Institution sector

  Public 4-year = 9%

  Private not-for-profit

4-year = 11%

  Public 2-year = 13%

  Private for-profit =

51%

  Others or attended

more than one school

Graduate Student Enrollment in Distance

Education by INSTITUTION TYPE

  Public 4-year

nondoctorate-granting

  Public 4-year doctorate-

granting

  Private not-for-profit 4-

yr nondoctorate-granting

  Private not-for-profit 4-

year doctorate-granting

  Private for profit 4-year

  Attended more than one

institution

36.8%

19.1%

15.9%

1.6%

0.9%

25.7%

2008 Undergraduate Enrollment by Race

  White

  Black or African

American

  Hispanic or Latino

  Asian

  American Indian or

Alaska Native

  Other

Descriptive Results-UOPhoenix

35.0%

20.7%

14.5% 2.9%

0.7%

26.2%

2008 Graduate Enrollment by Race

  White

  Black or African American

  Hispanic or Latino

  Asian

  American Indian or Alaska

Native

  Other

For all online students at UOP, there appears to be a positive low to low spatial association of enrollment between adjacent states in the upper west and in the far northeast of the country. ◦ Moran’s I = .161, α = .05, p < .05, two-tailed

For first-time, first-year online students at UOP, relative to the previous results, there appears to be less of a positive low to low spatial association of enrollment between adjacent states in the upper west and in the far northeast. ◦ Moran’s I = .114, α = .05, p < .05, two-tailed

Students (both undergraduate and graduate) enrolled in distance education in 2008 were predominately female, of mixed racial/ethnic backgrounds, and are more likely enrolled in private, for-profit institutions.

Undergraduate students attending UOP in 2008 are predominately female (~20% greater than the national average) and White.

By race and ethnicity, the predominant graduate students at UOP in 2008 were African American males.

By gender, at the graduate level UOP, the predominant group was White females.

Across the nation for UOP students, there appears to be spatial association for enrollment (for both all UOP student and for first time, first year students).

Policy-related questions are difficult to address due to data limitations.

NPSAS: Small sample sizes for online students prevent analysis of subsamples within online program enrollments or online completions.

IPEDS: ◦ Not able to identify distance education enrollment (this

data will be collected in next year’s IPEDS). ◦ Institutional reporting practices differ for online

offerings, limiting institutional comparisons.

For the spatial association analysis, we did not have time to normalize for any other variable (e.g. US population, poverty, income, etc.)

Policy ◦ Future datasets with more information on online

enrollments/courses/programs/CIPs/completions will allow policy-related investigation.

Future Research ◦ NCES: Oversampling online students would allow

more research about this growing student group. ◦ Researchers: Continue investigation of location

through a variety of spatial analyses. For example: Spatial density to reveal online program “hot spots”

(online student location ÷ traditional program density)

Role of transportation & accessibility in college choice