The following overview of online learning trends at NIU offers a glimpse into the current state of online learning and highlights a few of the current online learning trends as of Fall 2025.
Online program enrollment remains strong, with 1,342 students enrolled in NIU online programs in Fall 2025, up nearly 8% from the enrollment of 1,245 in Fall 2024. Online program enrollment trends over the past seven years are provided below, along with online program enrollment by college and department in the Fall 2025 semester.
College | Number | Percent |
---|---|---|
Education | 454 | 33.83% |
Health and Human Sciences | 313 | 23.32% |
Business | 271 | 20.19% |
Liberal Arts and Sciences | 229 | 17.06% |
Engineering and Engineering Technology | 55 | 4.10% |
NIU | 16 | 1.20% |
Visual and Performing Arts | 4 | 0.30% |
School / Department | Number | Percent |
---|---|---|
Leadership, Educatioal Psychology and Foundations | 222 | 16.54% |
Nursing | 219 | 16.31% |
Liberal Arts and Sciences | 107 | 7.97% |
Educational Technology, Research and Assessment | 91 | 6.78% |
Business | 80 | 5.96% |
Operations Management and Information Systems | 79 | 5.89% |
Curriculum and Instruction | 72 | 5.37% |
Accountancy | 64 | 4.77% |
Public and Global Affairs | 63 | 4.69% |
Interdisciplinary Health Professions | 55 | 4.10% |
Considering student preferences for taking online courses, it’s clear that student demand for online courses remains strong. Looking at student enrollment in online courses, in Fall 2025, 63% of NIU undergraduate students (7,608) and 18% of NIU graduate students (665) took at least one online course.
6 in 10 undergraduate students and 1 in 5 graduate students took at least one online course in Fall 2025
NIU students still predominantly prefer in-person and hybrid programs to fully-online programs. In Fall 2025, 6% of undergraduate students (756) and 35% of graduate students (1,257) graduate students took only online courses. This is down from 7% of undergraduate students (817) but up from 30% of graduate students (1,113) in Fall 2024.
Similarly when looking at student credit hours (SCH) by mode of instruction, we continue to see a steady trend for students completing credit hours through online courses. In Fall 2025, 26.55% of SCH were from online courses and 4.01% were from hybrid courses.
As expected when looking at faculty teaching online courses, we continue to see a significant number of NIU faculty who are teaching online and hybrid courses. In Fall 2025 105 faculty taught hybrid courses and 405 faculty taught online courses.
Of all 1,160 faculty (including all categories of faculty and teaching staff) who taught during Fall 2025, 34.9% (405) taught at least one online course and 9.1% (105) taught at least one hybrid course.
1 in 3 faculty taught at least one online course and 1 in 11 faculty taught at least one hybrid course in Fall 2025
Faculty who teach online courses continue to utilize available online teaching support at NIU. In reviewing faculty participation in professional development and support for online teaching, of the 405 faculty who are teaching at least one online course and the 105 faculty teaching at least one hybrid course during Fall 2025, 61.3% have received some type of individualized support for their online teaching, 41.1% have attended faculty online teaching workshop(s), and 24.1% have completed the Online Course Design Academy during the past five years.
Phone: 815-753-0595
Email: citl@niu.edu
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