Students Opting for AP Courses Online

Enrollment takes off as high school students burnish college résumés and e-learning opportunities boom.

Poised at the intersection of two converging trends—the boom in virtual education and a dramatic rise in enrollment in Advanced Placement courses—online AP courses are experiencing a surge in popularity.

While no firm national statistics exist, school-by-school information suggests strong growth in online AP enrollment in recent years, as high school students’ quest to get into top colleges has grown increasingly competitive.

Providers have also proliferated, at a time when schools seek to offer more AP courses and serve all the students who are interested in them. Now, many state virtual schools and some school districts offer online AP courses, along with universities,...