Dive brief:

• Antioch University will significantly trim face-to-face classes at its Midwest campus in Yellow Springs, Ohio, while building its online program and adding blended classes that offer a combination of traditional instruction and online course work, a local newspaper in the western Ohio region reported. A college official said Antioch plans a “massive online division” at the Midwest location.
• Two programs at the campus, a degree completion program – innovative and much-discussed when it was introduced 30 years ago – and a place-based master’s program, will be phased out because of falling enrollment at the campus, now at about 120 from a high of 700 about 10 years ago, according to the Yellow Springs News.
• Antioch University, with five campuses in four states, reported that while its total enrollment of 4,000 was strong, the system is facing a $1 million deficit this year.

Dive Insight:

Enrollment in the Weekend College degree completion program at Antioch Midwest declined when it changed direction about a decade ago after significant success, and the master’s program lost enrollment when state law changed the requirements for a master's in education, one of its strengths. The college was moved, too, to a location some feel was less desirable.

Like Antioch, a variety of institutions are putting more resources into online programs, including Purdue University and the California State University system and small colleges such as Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. EdSurge reported that an increasing number of small private colleges are offering online courses to their students just to stay open.

A number of institutions have also announced that they are ending programs or merging with other colleges due to similar declining enrollment problems that Antioch Midwest has faced.

Meanwhile, a survey by Campus Technology last fall showed that 73% of faculty are now using a blended model, involving some online learning, and 12% had gone fully online in 2017, up from 10% in 2016. At a recent conference, several reports of improved student learning from the use of some digital course work was attributed more to professors revising and updating their courses and techniques as they moved some portion online rather than the technology itself.

Other innovative programs are taking shape to use online learning such FlexPace courses at Riverland Community College, which has three campuses in rural southeastern Minnesota. The program, aimed at adult learners, emphasizes students working online at their own speed but in condensed courses.