Survey: Nearly One in Four HBCUs Offer Full, Blended Online Degree Programs

Survey: Nearly One in Four HBCUs Offer Full, Blended Online Degree Programs: Historically Black colleges and universities continue their modest pace of increasingly embracing online learning programs as a vehicle for reaching more potential students, especially so-called non-traditional students, those who are usually older and working, according to the 2012 HBCU Online & Blended Degree Programs study from the Howard University Distance Learning Lab.

The study, the only one of its kind focusing on web-based education programs at HBCUs, is based on an analysis of the 105 HBCU Web sites. Among its key findings:

• In June 2012, there were 24 online or blended degree programs being offered by HBCUs, up from 19 such programs in November 2011.
• Public HBCUs offered three times more online or blended degree programs than private HBCUs—18 to six.
• Nearly half (11 of 24) of the HBCUs offered their programs with “strategic partners”—that is, private vendors that provide the bulk of the up-front money required to market, promote and operate the programs. In return, the vendor firms get a share of the student tuition revenue.