Dive Brief:
- Pulling from research provided by the Education Commission of the States, University Business reports that colleges in at least 35 states nationwide are offering online courses to high school students through dual-enrollment programs.
- The trend is providing educational opportunities to students who live in areas with few local colleges and enough qualified dual-enrollment teachers. But for some institutions, these programs are more than just a community benefit; they're critical to institutions' abilities to meet their enrollment goals.
- Success in this approach requires that online course be tailored to students and highly interactive, as taking one's first college courses online can be a daunting task.
Dive Insight:
With colleges offering more dual enrollment courses online, more success strategies are coming to the forefront. Institutions can improve the effectiveness of online dual-enrollment programs by maintaining a classroom feel, continuously monitoring student activities online, and keeping hybrid options on the table. Plenty of higher education institutions are pushing for more hybrid learning options for the purpose of reaching more adult learners. But reaching out to younger students through online dual-enrollment programs is a newer trend. Dual-enrollment programs, when done right, are one of the most effective ways of helping students transition to college, increasing their likelihood to graduate and lessening education costs.
Above all, the news signals that institutions across levels of education are working together for student success. Increasingly, college leaders are looking beyond their walls and starting to see their futures tied to the performance of high schools, middle schools, elementary schools in their regions. Seeing the big picture is important. Dual-enrollment programs lead to more engagement between high schools and colleges. This increased contact can initiate a valuable feedback loop and lay the foundation for more joint partnerships.