Rai, S. (2016) How Millennial Moms Are Parenting Differently Than Their Parents Z Living Network, 7 March
Unauthored (2016) Survey Finds Millennial Parents Supportive Of DIY Approach To Education, Diverse School Options Parental Herald, 12 August
Boomers had Dr Spock. Millennials have each other.
No institution can now afford to ignore demographics in its strategic planning, and in no area is this more true than in plans for online learning. Traditional distance education (print-based and until very recently, online distance education) has mainly attracted older students with already some experience of higher education. It has been seen as an ideal area for continuing professional education, and the growth of online professional masters degrees is evidence in support of this belief.
However, there is now a significant shift in the overall demographics, particularly in North America. Millennials (those born in the 1980s and 1990s) are now the largest living generation in the USA.
A recent survey by Connections Education (a Pearson company) found that 55% of millennials have taken an online course (higher than any previous generation) and a majority of millennial parents (51 percent) think that high school students should be required to take at least one online course.
This may be behind the continued growth in demand for online learning at a post-secondary level. Students coming into university or college, whether millennials or post-millennials, have grown up in a world where the Internet is part of life and to whom online learning is not an exotic or marginal activity but the natural order of things.
Institutions who want to attract the best and brightest students need to be aware of this and plan for it, not just for professional education programs but also for undergraduate and two year vocational programs. This is particularly important, as I have argued many times, at a program level, where every program needs to have a rational and evidence-based policy that determines the best balance between face-to-face, blended and fully online learning within the program. In particular, to what extent can courses and programs fully exploit the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of social media in support of the learning goals?
So, does your program or institution have a plan or policy for online learning? Is it a good one, and if so what makes it good?
Dr. Tony Bates is the author of eleven books in the field of online learning and distance education. He has provided consulting services specializing in training in the planning and management of online learning and distance education, working with over 40 organizations in 25 countries. Tony is a Research Associate with Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario’s Distance Education & Training Network.
