Student enrollment in exclusively distance education saw a significant increase in 2020 due to institutions offering courses virtually that would have normally been offered on-campus, new data suggests. That's according to an annual report from the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, or NC-SARA, a distance education oversight organization that covers all states except California and also covers the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Around 5.8 million college students were enrolled in exclusively distance education in SARA-participating institutions in fall 2020, nearly double the number of students whose courses were entirely remote the previous year. NC-SARA collected data from 2,201 institutions.
