Study: Students go online to complete bachelor's degrees

Why are students attending college online? To complete their bachelor's degrees, finds a new study of 163 institutions offering online education options.

Education consulting firm Eduventures conducted the Online Higher Education Market Update, which found that more students were pursuing bachelor's degrees than associate degrees, according to Campus Technology.

This is in contrast universities offering more master's degree programs(61 percent) followed by bachelor's degree programs, associate degrees, non-credit programs and doctoral programs.

For the most part, few online students are conducing their entire bachelor's education online. Most students are attempting to complete their baschelors.

The most frequently offered programs include:

• Master's degree programs in business, IT, teaching and public administration
• Bachelor's degree programs in business, liberal arts, IT and healthcare

  "As online providers, as a whole, increasingly resemble the full diversity of higher education institutions in the United States, greater disciplinary breadth online is consistent with schools' need to leverage institutional assets and secure distinctive programming," said Noah Carp, senior analyst for Eduventures and co-author of the report.