UF Online’s 2020-2021 Annual Report Released

Discover what UF Online accomplished in 2020-2021 and our plans for the future by checking out the latest UF Online Annual Report!

Since its inception in 2014, UF Online remains committed to cultivating the optimal online learning environment for modern learners. While expanding access for students to earn a UF degree via online pathways, we continue to improve the student experience and foster student success. UF Online further increased its class size within the academic year, allowing us to expand our efforts as we progress toward our core goals outlined in our 2019-2024 business plan. Through innovative and modern practices, UF Online continues to adapt and thrive no matter the changes we face in higher education. Below are UF Online’s highlights and achievements for the 2020-2021 academic year. You can view the full report to learn more about our progress and future goals.

Student success and degrees awarded on the rise

• UF Online’s enrollment reaches an all-time high, achieving a re-enrollment rate of 89% throughout the 2020-2021 academic year.
• UF Online’s number of Gator graduates leaped 28% over the previous year.
• UF Online welcomed its largest incoming fall cohort in 2020, welcoming 18% more new students (fully-online, non-PaCE students) and seeing a 13% rise in continuing students in fall 2020 vs fall 2019.

UF faculty continue to drive UF Online

• UF Faculty delivered even more online course options via UF Online, increasing the UF Online course offerings by 22% over the last academic year.
• Over 700 UF faculty across 76 departments and 12 colleges continued to drive the growth of UF Online academic offerings.
• UF Online funded the redesign or new development of 47 courses while working alongside UF faculty.
• Six courses, produced by UF Center for Online Innovation and Production (COIP), were recognized with a 2021 Exemplary Online Award.

Expansion of UF bachelor’s degrees and minors

Faculty across three UF academic colleges completed the transformation of their curriculum into a fully-online degree program via UF Online. The new bachelor’s degrees now offered include:

• UF College of Journalism and Communications
  • B.S., Advertising: Persuasive Messaging
  • B.S., Journalism: Sports and Media
• UF College of Health and Human Performance
  • B.S., Tourism Hospitality and Event Management
• UF College of the Arts
  • B.A., in Digital Arts and Sciences
• In addition to the robust existing selection of minors readily available to students via UF Online, we have proudly added a new minor:
  • Educational Technology, UF College of Education

Expansion of academic pathways to UF via UF Online

• UF Online more than doubled the enrollments of Gators via the Employer Pathways Program. This program bridges UF Online with top employers that wish to cover tuition and fee costs for admitted students. The UF Online Employer Pathways program was available to more than one million employees at Walmart, The Walt Disney Company, JP Morgan Chase, and the Rock Family of Companies.

Hiring more academic advisors

• UF Online continued to invest in our assigned advising model whereby each student has an assigned, personal UF academic advisor from their home UF college to guide them throughout their UF Online journey. UF Online lowered its student-to-advisor ratio by hiring additional, full-time expert academic advisors dedicated to UF Online students.
• UF Online investments increased the number of academic advisors across the 10 UF colleges offering bachelor’s degrees, bringing the ratio of students to advisors to under 200:1, which is an improvement from last year’s ratio of 250:1.

New features for students: learning environment and community

• UF Online launched its first-ever mobile app available for students. The UF Online app allows students to access courses, the UF Student Plaza, and a list of curated events and job fairs. UF Online aims to foster greater connectivity with students by lowering the hurdles for access to events, support services, and more.
• Reinventing student onboarding during a pandemic, UF Online organized our first-ever entirely virtual Fall Welcome Week in August 2020. To maximize opportunities for UF Online students to engage, students were able to attend drop-in virtual open houses with their academic advisors, participate in virtual game nights hosted by the UF Online Student Ambassadors, and even win prizes by providing advice in the UF Online Plaza.