Arkansas State University online enrollment numbers surge during 2016-17 school year

Online student enrollment at Arkansas State University has grown substantially in the last three years, and in one area is tops in the state, according to the school. At least 4,241 students are enrolled, full-time, in online class offerings, the most in Arkansas, according ASU officials. It’s a 61% increase from online enrollment in 2014.

“We offer high quality programs and we’re really pleased with our growth,” Executive Director of Global Initiatives and Online Programs Dr. Thilla Sivakumaran told Talk Business & Politics. “We’ve got the largest online full-time enrollment in the state.”

The Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) doesn’t publish online student totals from around the state. Attempts to reach ADHE officials were unsuccessful. ADHE officials were at a conference Friday, a Talk Business & Politics reporter was told.

ASU offers 27 separate degree programs and seven certificates online. A total of about 7,000 students take at least one course online. Students from Arkansas, California, Florida, Alaska, and other states are in the program.

When Sivakumaran arrived in 2014, the university began an ambitious program to target the best programs to add to their online offerings. A host of education classes, business, nursing, and other classes were added. Many are graduate level programs, and it’s an easier path for many employed students seeking a master’s degree. Education programs are among the most popular, he said.

Semesters for online students differ from students who attend traditional college classes. A typical semester in a brick and mortar college runs 16 weeks. Online semester are divided into eight week semesters, ASU Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Dr. Bill Smith told Talk Business & Politics. Online students can take up to three classes during each semester.

Schools sometimes have a problem quantifying how online students are added to the overall enrollment numbers. Arkansas colleges and universities calculate their enrollments on the 11th day after classes begin. In the fall of 2016, ASU had about 3,200 full-time, online students during the first online fall semester meaning that number was added to the total enrollment count. But, when the second eight week semester began, at least 1,000 more students enrolled in online classes, pushing the number to 4,241 students.

ASU had an all-time record 14,085 students in the fall 2016, but the total doesn’t include those second semester, online students, Smith said. Calculating universal enrollment numbers will be a challenge for Arkansas colleges and universities in the near future, Smith said.

ASU has the second largest university system in the state with branches in Newport, Beebe, Mountain Home, and others. It was founded in 1909 as an agriculture training school. The primary campus in Jonesboro sits on 1,376 acres. The school had a $54.168 million endowment, according to figures released in 2015. The college has a 74% freshman retention rate. In-state tuition costs are about $11,499 and out-of-state tuition rates are $15,500 annually. The main campus employs 2,435 workers, the second largest employer in the Jonesboro metro, according to the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce. It has 160 different degree programs.

Advancing the online program in the coming years is a challenge Sivakumaran said he embraces. Efforts are underway to market the online programs in other states. The university hopes to add programs online that will attract more students. For instance, it recently added a master’s degree in social media communications. Several industries approached the school about adding such a program, he said.

“We really are trying to look at the market and where the demand exists,” he said.