Editors note: corrections were made to the dating of the Animal Science and Creative Writing programs, from “both of which were added three years ago,” to “both of which were added one year ago.”
Over the past few years, Oregon State University’s Ecampus has seen dramatic growth, with more planned, according to Jessica DuPont, associate vice provost of market development and the student experience.
Ecampus’ goal is to reach 30,000 online students by 2030, and they’re not far off from their intended trajectory.
DuPont noted that the Ecampus team is handling this growth in three main ways: first, starting new programs with high potential growth. These programs include those that play to OSU’s strengths, such as engineering.
Their second strategy is to grow existing programs. The programs that the team is currently seeing the most growth in are those that are engineering-focused: mechanical engineering, which has 364 students after only three years of being offered, civil engineering and electrical and computer engineering.
The team have also seen substantial growth in the animal science and creative writing majors, both of which were added one year ago.
The third approach is working to retain online students and improve their learning experiences. This includes things like making sure online students have comparably similar experiences to in-person students when it comes to accessing their instructors and peers.
Additionally, the strategy includes the Ecampus team offering further training to the professors who teach Ecampus courses to ensure that they are properly engaging with their students.
While DuPont thinks that with these focuses, they should be able to meet their goal of 30,000 Ecampus students within a few years of 2030, the team experienced a slight setback. That being when they saw a large drop in enrollment in computer science majors online.
“(The drop in enrollment) really impacted OSU because our largest online programs are both computer science programs,” DuPont said. “That was largely a result of AI changing the labor market with entry-level positions.”
According to DuPont, about one-in-three OSU students is a fully virtual learner, but the goal of 30,000 Ecampus students would make that closer to a fifty-fifty split. DuPont added that OSU’s Ecampus serves students in all 50 states and more than 50 countries.
Additionally, the Ecampus team noted in an email that 36% of all OSU credits delivered in the 2026 Academic year were taken online.
“I think sometimes folks don’t know that there’s OSU students everywhere, in all different time zones, which is pretty exciting and they’re choosing us for a variety of reasons,” DuPont said. “A lot of it is the large portfolio and our rankings and providing online quality programs as well. OSU has a national reputation for delivering high-quality online education.”
This growth in Ecampus should not cause an impact on the education received by on-campus students, according to Shannon Riggs, the associate vice provost of educational programs and learning innovation.
For programs that are anticipating larger enrollments, new professors will be hired, and current ones will be trained more in-depth.
“Many faculty who go through our training, for designing and delivering online courses, say that they learn a lot of valuable takeaways that they then use in their on-campus courses,” Riggs said. “So there’s some benefits that faculty see (for in-person learning).”
DuPont believes that OSU’s emphasis on Ecampus programs shows a commitment to providing a high-quality education for a large number of students.
“We are grateful that we have a university-wide culture and willingness to extend programs online to provide access to more learners,” DuPont said. “I think that is really at the heart of our access mission.”
