Changing times are exerting pressure on individuals pursuing undergraduate degrees through traditional means. Students face an existential housing crisis, rising cost-of-living, and the need to balance significant work commitments. Increasing the availability of online undergraduate options is about offering greater choice and access, not about competition between traditional and online education.

The news and announcements from the early part of this year highlight yet again, that despite turbulence in the online education company sector, there is still demand for partnerships with OPMs among universities. Universities are still seeking help to successfully navigate the online education landscape and in offering online degrees.

If we continue to see students' needs and demographics change, then the sector and the regulator will need to get to grips with an understanding of blended learning that results in a reduced place and time-based commitment.

While some continue the futile debate over whether online education is as effective as on-campus education, it's clear that on-campus education can learn much from its online counterpart in offering an accessible, appealing, and contemporary educational experience.

Evidently, trials are not expected to be flawless and are designed to reveal issues, but this trial seems to have been more about falling flat than failing forward.

Unless Blackboard and Moodle improve their competitiveness, it is likely that next year will see Canvas take second place in the overall market share, with Brightspace continuing to grow market share.

Ultimately, the path ahead for online education in the UK is one of more subtle shifts and ongoing developments, but year-on-year it’s playing an increasing role in reshaping UK higher education.

Rankings are a type of shortcut we use in decision-making, and a high-profile ranking like this is going to be used by people who are unlikely to scrutinise the methodology but take it on trust.

Coventry University’s foray into online education could serve as a cautionary tale for the increasing number of UK universities aiming to develop an online education portfolio and attract a substantial number of online students.

The challenge of designing effective learning experiences will remain and the changes I’ve outlined are things that institutions should mull over if they want to develop the work of learning design to meet present and future challenges.

The landscape of online education companies and OPMs continues to be turbulent and a topic of much discussion. There is, however, more to this sector than the financial headlines that often dominate.

Although I’ve painted a modest picture in terms of the growth and scope of potential opportunities in the online undergraduate market, some of these developments show this isn’t a static area. It’s a market to navigate carefully in terms of identifying and grasping opportunities.

What’s clear is that the growth in senior online education roles within UK universities is more than a trend, it's a significant indicator of the growing importance of online education.

These developments all add to the tapestry of online education and it’s in new and different approaches to subject areas, less associated with online learning, where illumination can be found for those of us working in this field and any stale orthodoxies challenged.

One of the challenges with digital technologies in education is how they are utilised and most importantly what informs their use. Education is replete with bad and ill-informed ideas - if AI is built upon these or implemented in sympathy with them - we’ll fail our learners.

Its impact and potential future impact on education continues to be hugely debated, but I don’t want to wade into that bigger debate here, but rather explore the impact it is having on synchronous online learning, through the primary vehicle for that, video conferencing technologies.

If universities want to succeed in running an online distance learning portfolio in an increasingly competitive landscape then they can’t afford to neglect the importance of effective use of the web for their online courses.

There are enough signals to suggest that growth in online PGT students will increase and that this is a growing market. However, universities shouldn’t assume the fields are ripe to harvest given increasing supply, competition and the volatile times we are living through.

It’s clear that OPMs face a more difficult and competitive operating environment which makes it harder for them to deliver for universities…But the big question is whether the current operating environment and the headwinds being experienced will ultimately compel some of these companies to change how they operate.

My research highlighted that there are now over 3,250 postgraduate taught courses offered by UK universities. These are courses at Level 7 so qualifications such as MSc, MA, MBA, PgDip, PgCert etc, that are offered as fully online, or with an option to choose to study in that way.