Survey Finds Career Aspirations Motivating Fully Online Degree Seeking Students - Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed

Questions about furthering their careers resonated with the students who participated in the survey. Asked to pick the strongest marketing message out of a lineup of 18, one-quarter of the students picked “90 percent job placement,” easily beating out “Earn your degree in one year” and “Study at your own pace,” which attracted 10 percent each. Almost three-quarters of the surveyed undergraduates, or 72 percent, said their primary motivations for studying online were related to their careers -- reasons such as un- or underemployment, seeking a position in a new field, or keeping up to date with skills. Graduate students were most likely to return to school to make themselves more marketable for a promotion or a new position in their field, according to the survey. Learning House and Aslanian Market Research surveyed 1,500 recent, current and prospective online undergraduate and graduate students pursuing either degrees or certificates at institutions across the country for the report. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/19/survey-finds-career-aspirations-motivating-students-fully-online-programs#sthash.Ea8ubNmQ.dpbs