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Issue Contents How Smaller Non-Profits Compete With For-Profits in the Marketing of Online Programs Keith
Bourne For-profit education institutions are lauded in the business community for the profitability of their new models of efficiencies and their marketing prowess. For-profit budgets can be magnitudes of scale larger than the typical non-profit institution budget. The Apollo Group spent over $240 million on advertising related expenses in 2006. This is a quote from the SEC filings of the Apollo Group concerning their University of Phoenix division: "The higher education market is highly fragmented and competitive with no private or public institution enjoying significant market share. We expect that competitive colleges and universities will continue to modify their existing programs to serve working students more effectively." This is how they see you. How do you see yourselves? If you are a non-profit education institution, there are some things that you can learn from the business community that can help you compete with much larger budgets. How does the local hardware store compete against the Home Depots of the world? It comes back to one of the most basic marketing principles, differentiation. The following suggestions provide some specific, practical techniques to consider when you are differentiating your programs: brand, local markets, and carving a niche. Brand - Your institution has been developing a brand since even before it opened the doors to the first students. This brand is by far the most valuable resource you have in attracting new students to your programs. What is your institution known for? What are the expectations of the students when they attend your institution? Find out what your brand is and support your brand in everything you do as an institution. Local markets - When you examine online programs across the country, there is a clear relationship between proximity to the physical campus and the number of students that attend the programs. Aiming at the local markets can be a successful strategy and there are several things that can be done to focus this activity. You may be able to develop and promote characteristics of your institution indicating that there is a physical presence nearby representing the education they are seeking. And of course, if they are nearby, holding a select number of face-to-face events, even if just to give the students a chance to network, are a good way to utilize this local advantage you have. Carve a niche - If I start a small computer services company and have to compete with Dell Computers, I am more likely to be successful finding a niche that I can be successful in, such as installing specialized systems for restaurants. Even though my company is much smaller than Dell in size and resources, I can still successfully compete if I offer a well developed expertise in my specific area. These same principles can be applied to online education. The Internet can pose opportunities as well as threats for your institution. But you have all of the tools that will help your institution survive and even prosper in this new age, it is just a matter of putting them to use. (Join Keith Bourne of the
Sloan Consortium, Karen Vignare of Michigan State University, Andy Gansler
of eLearners.com, and Richard Garrett of Eduventures in the Sloan-C online
workshop, Marketing Online Programs, June 13th - 22nd.) Click here to learn more about this workshop.
Web 2.0: Enhancing Engagement in Online Education Ray
Schroeder Empirical research, supported by many years of practical experience, has shown us that nothing is more important in successful online higher education than engagement of the student. Engagement through multi-faceted interaction holds the keys to achieving three of the Sloan-C pillars of success in online learning: student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction and learning effectiveness. Karen Swan, Research Professor at Kent State University reminds us that engagement comes in multiple forms: student interaction with the instructor; student interaction with peers and student interaction with course content (Swan, 2004). All of these modes of interaction take place through a medium - the computer, a 3G phone, an iPod, or some other digital instrument. And, all of these digital instruments are enhanced by Web 2.0 applications. Web 2.0 is a term that is tossed around without a very precise definition. The term has come to represent a wide array of online technologies. But those who coined the term in 2004 at O'Reilly Media described it as technologies with a common "gravitational core." That core includes characteristics such as services-oriented, interactive, scalable, and engaging the collective intelligence (O'Reilly, 2005). Certainly blogs, podcasting and wikis fit those characteristics. These Web 2.0 technologies have become mainstays in many of our online educational programs, engaging students with instructors, peers and the content of the curriculum. One of the most interesting aspects of using Web 2.0 technologies in online classes is that they can extend the interactions well beyond the end of the semester. Students can mingle with former students, graduates and professionals in blogs, wikis and shared podcasts in ways that we had not fully considered a decade ago. At the recent Telecoop conference, I had the opportunity to discuss the "semester without end" principles. I found that more and more faculty members are discovering the inclusive nature of Web 2.0 technologies in encouraging the continuing the presence of graduates in the learning community they originally joined as students. Most dramatically, Web 2.0 is leading us into powerful virtual worlds such as Second Life, Active Worlds, Cybertown, and the dozens of other 3-D virtual environments that are giving us a glimpse of what will take the place of the World Wide Web. These immersive environments enable rich simulations and are built on the very premises of online engagement and interaction. You may want to prepare yourself now for the avatar-populated worlds that will soon be arriving at a virtual campus near you. Hang onto your mouse, the brave new online virtual world may look far different than the rather pedestrian view we see from the browser window today! O'Reilly, T (2005, 9, 30). What is Web 2.0: design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. O'Reillynet, Retrieved 4,28,2007, from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html. Swan, K (2004). Relationships between interactions and learning in online environments. Retrieved April 28, 2007, from Sloan Consortium Web site: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/books/interactions.pdf. Click here to learn more about this workshop.
Learn From the Experts - The Sloan-C 2007 Workshop Series Dynamic Collaboration, Discussion and Facilitation Practices* - May 23 - June 1 In the online classroom, interaction prompts more interaction by stimulating more perspectives, points of view, ideas, questions, and disagreements. Through collaboration and discussion, both facilitators and students help each other in the learning process. This workshop examines how facilitators can increase and provide quality engagement in an online academic environment. Strategies for designing discussion threads as issues for consideration rather than topics for debate, sequencing discussion prompts, using Socratic dialog, modeling reflective exchange, and closing down an exchange are explored. Exemplary exchanges are illustrated. Issues such as threading, pace, and helping students communicate clearly without the aid of nonverbal communication cues are discussed. Workshop participants can tap into a vast wealth of experience and idea sharing to enhance the online learning experience. Click here for details and registration. Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Your Online Course - May 30 - June 15 Recognizing quality is much like recognizing art - you know it when you see it, but everybody sees something different. And when it comes to online courses, your students, faculty, administrators, peers, and accrediting bodies may certainly not see what you do. In fact, they might not even know what to look for in assessing quality. Sloan-C announces an interactive online workshop focused on learning how to improve your online course(s). Learn how to use the rubric tool developed by the nationally recognized, FIPSE-funded Quality Matters (QM) project. The QM rubric provides a research-supported framework with annotations and examples for applying quality practices to specific course design standards. Affirm the strong areas in your course(s) and generate specific ideas for improvements. The QM rubric is the centerpiece of the QM process. Additionally, this course serves as a stepping stone for faculty interested in becoming certified course peer reviewers. Click here for details and registration. Marketing Online Programs: If You Build It, Will They Come? - June 13 - 22 Sloan-C announces an online workshop focused on many of the challenges of marketing online programs to potential students. In this workshop, we will provide a wide range of perspectives about the rigors of higher education marketing from four organizations and institutions that are highly involved in this process. Click here for details and registration. Learning Online 2.0: 20 Engaging, Interacting and Syndicating Applications - June 20 - 29 Web 2.0 technologies are revolutionizing the way in which we engage and interact with students online. Through RSS syndication, we are automating the delivery of learning objects to the students. Through Web 2.0 applications a whole host of new ways to engage and interact with students has emerged. Wikis, blogs, podcasts, interactive whiteboards, VoIP, tagging, image sharing, discussion rooms, and many more learning tools are freely available to educators. This workshop introduces and explores 20 of the most engaging and promising Web 2.0 technologies that are freely available for use in online learning. Workshop facilitators will discuss and demonstrate both the technologies and the pedagogies associated with best applying those technologies. Participants will be assisted in developing mini-projects using their choice of the applications. An emphasis will be placed on practical application and implementing working models that can be expanded by participants for immediate use in their own online learning classes. The workshop facilitators will also look to the near horizon for ways in which these and soon-to-be-released technologies will be implemented in mobile learning applications, virtual environments, and the next generation of online learning. Click here for details and registration. |
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The Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C), sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is composed of institutions and organizations dedicated to continually improving the quality, scale, and breadth of their online programs, according to their own distinctive missions, so that education becomes a part of everyday life, accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide variety of disciplines. The Sloan-C View is published by Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C™). Responsibility for the contents rests with the authors and not with Sloan-C™. Copyright ©2006 by Sloan-C™. If you have a question or comment, would like to submit an article for publication, or would like to suggest an event to be listed on the Sloan-C View Calendar, please email sloan-cview@sloan-c.org. Materials in the Sloan-C View, unless otherwise noted, may be distributed freely for educational purposes. However, if any materials are redistributed they must retain the copyright notice and use the proper citation. Kindly send an email to sloan-cview@sloan-c.org indicating how you are using the material for distribution. Your privacy is important to us, you can view our privacy policy at www.sloan-c.org/aboutus/privacy.asp The Sloan Consortium, Olin Way, Needham, MA 02492-1200 | |||||||