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California students now have more options to take courses offered by institutions that are geographically distant from them, expanding the course-taking landscape for students statewide. This brief examines how the growth of online course enrollment over the past decade has impacted the geography of enrollment, specifically the choices students make about where they take courses within California’s community college system.
- The rate of first-time student enrollment in a ome campus outside a 30-mile radius from their esidence slightly increased between 2014 and 023, from 10% to 11%.
- Enrollment in multiple colleges increased modestly, with 18% of students who entered the CC system in 2022 enrolling in more than one institution within their first 2 years, up from 4% of students entering in 2018.
- The rate of online course taking increased ubstantially: 82% of students who began college n 2022 took at least one online course during heir first 2 years, compared to 48% of students who began in 2018.
- The number of online course enrollments outside student’s home campus grew significantly after the pandemic: from 290,000 in 2019–20 to 60,000 in 2023–24—a 59% increase. However, the share of courses across all modalities taken outside a student’s home campus remained steady at 21% over the full decade.