Time as a Dimension of the Digital Divide: Profiles over Time of Students Taking Online, Face-to-Face, or Mixed Delivery Classes at a Large Virtual University. AIR 2001 Annual Forum Paper.

A large virtual university, a participant in a major distance study, is tracking students' enrollment in online or both online and face-to-face classes (i.e., mixed). Although an online students' profile provides data for examining the digital divide, one-time snapshots are inadequate. Time must be included as a dimension of any analysis of demographic groups' participation in online education. Two aspects of time were analyzed: calendar time (3 years of trend data) and time in relationship to degree. The paper provides data on the ethnic, gender, age, and demographic distribution of online and "mixed" students. In all, data were available for 16,092 students in 1999, 18,311 in 2000, and 20,920 in 2001. Trend data on how ethnic groups and other demographic groups are self-selecting classes with different delivery formats speak more directly to understanding the digital divide. The paper provides 3 fiscal years of percentages (FY 1999 to FY 2001) of different demographic groups (ethnic, gender, age, and geographic) enrollment in online, mixed, and face-to-face education at a large, substantially virtual university during a period of rapid expansion in online education. The paper discusses the implications for the digital divide of this enrollment trend data. (Contains 3 figures, 9 tables, and 14 references.) (SLD)