Online Learning Trends and Highlights - Fall 2025

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

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.

Enrollment by College

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%

Enrollment by Department (Top 10)

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%

Student Preferences for Online Courses

Online Course Enrollment

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

Percentage of NIU Students Taking At Least One Online Course

Program Format Preferences

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.

Percentage of NIU Students Taking All Online Courses

Online Student Credit Hours

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.

Percentage of Student Credit Hours (SCH) by Term and Instruction Mode

Faculty Teaching Online 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 of Record by Course Mode of Instruction

Professional Development and Support for Online Teaching

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.

Percentage of Faculty Teaching Online in Fall 2025 Who Received Individualized Support During the Past 5 Years

61.3 percent

Percentage of Faculty Teaching Online in Fall 2025 Who Attended Online Teaching Workshop(s) During the Past 5 Years

41.1 percent

Percentage of Faculty Teaching Online in Spring 2025 Who Completed Online Course Design Academy During the Past 5 Years

24.1 percent

Contact Us

Center for Innovative
Teaching and Learning

Phone: 815-753-0595
Email: citl@niu.edu