Literature Review
Growth in online and distance education has not been even across
colleges and universities. Almost half of distance education students
are concentrated in just 5% of the institutions, while the top 47
institutions (1% of the total) enroll 1,385,407 of all distance
learners (Allen & Seaman, 2017, p. 4). Recent reports have also shown
that online enrollment has remained geographically close to main
campuses: 52% of students who took at least one online course, have
also enrolled in at least one course on campus (Seaman, Allen, Seaman,
& Babson Survey Research Group, 2018). Furthermore, even though the
concept of online and distance education may imply global, 56.1 % of
those who enrolled in online courses resided in the same state as the
institution of attendance (Seaman et al., 2018, p. 17).