Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the rapid digitization of higher education, online courses and course materials remain prevalent. A new survey from Bay View Analytics found that while face-to-face instruction remains the most popular teaching modality, more faculty are teaching online or in a hybrid format as well.

Among faculty, 72 percent of respondents indicated they were teaching a minimum of one course fully face-to-face, down 24 percentage points since 2018–19 (96 percent) and three percentage points since 2023–24 (75 percent).

The share of faculty teaching online has also grown; in 2018–19, 34 percent of faculty said they taught at least one course online. In 2024–25, 48 percent of respondents said they teach online, a re-leveling with modest growth since the pandemic high of 71 percent.

The pandemic is one motivating factor in this shift, said Julia Seaman, research director for Bay View Analytics, but other trends—including a growing number of nontraditional students enrolled in higher education and new tech tools—are also spurring the change. In one emerging trend, more faculty members are teaching courses in multiple modalities than in the past. In the 2024–25 survey, 35 percent of faculty said they taught in more than one modality.

“It used to be, especially pre-pandemic, you had your digital teacher, like, they’re the ones in charge of remote [teaching],” Seaman said. “Now it’s much more common for professors to have one class remote, one class in person. That’s especially true at the community college level.”

Course materials, similarly, are more likely to be online now than they were in 2018. Nearly 30 percent of faculty require digital-only textbooks, compared to 10 percent who require print-only materials—down from 19 percent in 2021–22. The remaining 61 percent use both digital and printed course materials, up 11 percentage points since 2021–22. One-quarter of respondents had no required textbooks for their largest-enrolled class.

A majority of faculty (77 percent) indicated they agree with the statement “Digital materials provide greater flexibility for students,” with many commenting that the high price of print textbooks compelled them to use digital materials. Faculty also noted that regardless of their quality, digital materials could be less impactful because students may be distracted and less likely to retain information than they would from print materials.

Affordability of textbooks and other course materials is a top priority for institutions and state lawmakers. Previous research from Bay View found that some students will avoid enrolling in or will drop a course to avoid paying the high cost of materials. But a 2023 survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse found that one-quarter of respondents do not believe their professors take affordability into account when choosing course materials.

Open educational resources can provide one solution to the high costs associated with traditional publishing. OERs are low-cost or free digital course materials available for faculty to adopt and apply to their courses without risk of violating copyright agreements.

In Bay View’s most recent study, 57 percent of faculty indicated they were aware of open educational resources, but closer to half said they were aware of OER use cases for their specific classes. Thirty percent of respondents had no awareness of OER and 51 percent said they do not use OERs in their classes. Only one-third of respondents required OERs as a course material in 2024–25.

One of the barriers to adoption is an instructor’s negative or misinformed perception of OERs. Faculty respondents indicated concerns about the quality of OER resources compared to published books, but they preferred the affordable nature of OERs. Seaman said the survey showed a need for ongoing conversations about OERs as new faculty members prepare for teaching or established ones consider course development.

“We see the opinion of OER is vastly different if you have used it or not,” Seaman said. “People who have not used it, people who are less aware of it, think lower of it, because they think it’s a free thing, it’s this random thing on the internet, there’s no standards.”

OERs can also provide additional accessibility features for students compared to other digital materials, but missing or incomplete tech support for digital resources can stall usage, Seaman said.

As Bay View’s data points toward a slow move away from solely print materials, Seaman and her team are considering how course materials will evolve going forward.

“We’re waiting for something new to come on that fully understands the technology of having things that can be fully customized and digital; there’s no print, static issue that needs to be overcome,” she said.