Data on general use of technology in education is hard to come by and typically outdated by the time it is distributed. My writing activities require that I constantly search for such data so that I can provide a sense of what is typical. Andy Carvin’s site alerted me to a new study concerning K-12 students enrolled in online courses conducted by the Sloan Foundation. While the rapid increase in online instruction in higher ed was obvious from my vantage point, I must admit that the level of online instruction in K-12 surprised me.
Based on these numbers, the researchers estimate that approximately 700,000 K-12 students are enrolled in online courses, up from less than 50,000 students in 2001.
One group taking heavy advantage of online opportunities is the smaller school in rural areas. I was interested in data from my state, North Dakota, but information on individual states is not provided.
The pdf is available for download at the Sloan site.
