Online Education Poised for Significant Growth In Canada

Vancouver, BC - The Internet holds significant potential for furthering advanced education in Canada as the majority of Canadians express an interest in online education, and have used the Internet to explore both online and offline educational options. This, according to an Ipsos-Reid special feature report, Online Education: What the Future Holds.

Online education is clearly poised for significant growth as 59% of Canadian Internet users are likely to take an online course in the future, if they were looking to further their education. This high level of interest is apparent across all demographic and regional categories. Already, 26% have searched the Internet for online courses, and just over one-in-ten have either taken an online course (8%), or have taken an in-person course that includes a significant online component (7%).

Of this group of online educational users, the majority (90%) agree that they would recommend it to others mainly because it saved them a significant amount of time, it improved their employability, and it provided them with a means to take courses they likely wouldn't have taken otherwise.

"The level of interest in online education is significant when compared to more traditional online activities such as online banking, downloading music, e-commerce, and online travel," says Marcie Sayiner, Senior Research Manager at Ipsos-Reid. "Educational institutions need to take advantage of this opportunity by exploring this area more closely in order to determine the types of courses potential participants are interested in taking online."

Based on the study's findings, the initial growth and ongoing success of online education is also dependent on its pairing with traditional learning. Currently, nearly one-quarter of Canadian Internet users (24%) have searched the Internet to find in-person educational courses at traditional institutions, and the vast majority (82%) indicate they would be likely to use the Internet as a background information gathering resource for traditional offline educational opportunities.

"Canadian Internet users often consider the Internet a key first step in exploring their educational opportunities," says Sayiner. "Besides being an effective medium for the actual delivery of online educational content, the Internet is a significant marketing tool for institutions who are offering traditional, in-person educational courses."

The Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report is the largest, most comprehensive and authoritative source of its kind about quarterly Internet trends in Canada. The results in this release are based on 1,000 telephone interviews, and 1,000 online interviews with Canadian adults conducted between March 5 and 14, 2002. With a national sample of 1,000, one can say with 95% certainty that the overall results are within a maximum of 177 3.1 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire population of Canadian adults been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger for subgroupings of the survey population.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Marcie Sayiner
Senior Research Manager
Technology Group, Vancouver
Ipsos-Reid
604-257-3200