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We were very excited to read Ruffalo Noel Levitz’s new report on generational differences among online learners and what this means for the development and expansion of new online programs. Scott Jeffe, vice president, graduate and online research at RNL, sat down with us to discuss what he’s learned in writing the report and what institutions should consider as they develop new online programs. This Q&A builds on our earlier conversations in 2021, 2022 and 2024 with Scott.
Q: So, what would you say is the most interesting finding in this new report?
A: Well, I think that the biggest headline of this new report, now that it is finished, is that online learners across the three generations (Gen X, millennial and Gen Z) are more alike than they are different. I shouldn’t have been surprised, most of the research that I have conducted has made similar conclusions. Whether you are a graduate student in an online or classroom program, an online student at the undergraduate or graduate level, or an adult undergrad seeking retraining, what drives them and how they search and evaluate programs is more similar than different. This is good news for institutional marketers and recruitment leaders because it essentially says that they do not have to rebuild the wheel for every program.
Q: How do the generations differ/diverge in terms of what they expect and need from an online program?
A: When we started scanning the data for the differences among the generations that really matter for marketing, recruitment and even program development, some things were more obvious than others, but our list includes:
- Gen Z and millennials use AI in their daily lives—and in their college search—much more frequently than does Gen X. However, those Gen X who used it in their search are just as satisfied with the experience as their younger counterparts.
- Gen Z and millennials are considerably more likely to be concerned about having the self-discipline required while Gen X is more concerned with being able to get the classes they need. All the generations, though, are most concerned about how they will interact with their instructors.
- The three generations differ considerably on the advertising that made the biggest impact on their awareness of online programs, albeit with all three generations leading with search engines and the generations differing on the digital platforms that work best.
Q: Where are those needs and expectations similar across all the generations?
A: All of the generations are most often looking for online programs that are close to home. The era of defaulting to far-off institutions that they have never heard of is a thing of the past. They expect that the institutions they know and love in their backyard will offer online options. The interesting outlier is that about one-third of we Gen Xers are still looking beyond our communities and regions.
Whether you are Gen X or Gen Z or somewhere in the middle, everyone now expects a timely response to their inquiry. This was interesting to me because, again with my Gen X bias, I assumed that we old-timers would be more willing to wait than our succeeding generations that have grown up in a tech-enabled world.
In a corollary finding, the report also documents that regardless of age, when a response takes longer than expected, online students take it personally (with nearly half saying that it is a sign that they are not important to the program). I fully expected this to be another point on which Gen X would diverge from succeeding generations, since we all grew up waiting in every kind of line imaginable. This tech-enabled world has changed this dramatically.
These are just a few of the things we learned. There is so much more to discover in the full report, which you can download here.
Q: How do institutions apply these learnings to their positioning (and programming) strategies?
A: When we started this project, our goal was to showcase the data in a way that maximizes its usefulness. To that end, each of our 15 points presents the data alongside three critical components: finding, implication and action. This format provides a specific—and succinct—recommendation for each finding that (I hope) will help readers enhance their online programs—from first contact through to enrollment.
We present an important set of universals that online program leaders can use to help set their top-line strategy and start evaluating the extent to which their operations are aligned with online student expectations and preferences across the generations. It does not, however, take the place of building specific-student personas for each of your online programs. Without understanding how your online business administration student differs from your online social work student, you will not know the specific messaging, marketing channels, communications platforms and methods (and more) that should be used.
So, I would recommend that online stakeholders use this report to evaluate where they are today and begin to make decisions on how their operations can better align with student needs. When these student expectations do not align across the generations, always default to what millennials need—they represent nearly half of all online students today and will do so for some time to come. Their expectations also more commonly align with Gen Z than with Gen X, so this strategy will, more often than not, be your best option.
