Higher education enrollment crisis: the importance of examining student's choice of modality.

As a result of the health pandemic, the United States (U.S.) has experienced a labor shortage and a decrease in higher education retention and enrollment which has many educational institutions in a crisis mode as they rapidly search for guaranteed sustainable long-term student enrollment. Numerous research studies have explored students' viewpoints through surveys or focus groups to investigate their preferences regarding online or in-person courses. However, there has not been a research study that has examined the post pandemic registration process of student enrollment data over a traditional scheduling period to determine their unbiased preference in modality offerings. More specifically, when students are given a choice to enroll in an online or face-to-face course, which modality do they independently choose? Student enrollment data collected from a publicly accessible website starting from the first day for priority students and continuing throughout the entire registration period for business and technology courses. Results revealed a significant difference between student enrollment for online versus face-to-face courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]