Enrollment Builders' Blog

In Enrollment Builders’ experience with organizations of all sizes, we often notice similar challenges each face as they plan for and implement online educational services for their students. Reframed, these obstacles form a set of must-haves for success in online program creation or strategic online growth. Though every institution is unique, here are the 7 essentials for online growth that our consultants have distilled from their work with a broad range of national and international clients:

We live a world that loves specialization. Henry Ford became a captain of industry by turning the craft of auto-making into an assembly line of distinct duties. And though specialization has its advantages in certain industries, in the field of online marketing and other digital services, a vertical structure may actually do more harm than good.

Competency-based assessments, or CBAs, are growing in popularity as employers and institutions alike begin to shift from a strict time-based approach to education to a more flexible, responsive, and knowledge-based model. CBAs are a tool to gauge subject mastery and, through those measurements, move a student on to more challenging or useful learning experiences — building efficiency and value in the process. And for graduates of CBA-centered programs, the model offers some very real professional advantages:

We often hear recruitment and enrollment efforts in higher education compared to running toward a constantly-moving target. Especially in the Digital Age, the processes and tools that students use to search, explore, and ultimately choose colleges are changing rapidly.

We all know that for many students, college is just one part of a busy life that’s spent balancing work, family, and friendships. And ironically, the same flexibility that allows students to shape their course schedules around other obligations can put them at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing support services. Often, students who take night classes, weekend courses, or use remote learning tools have a difficult time plugging into those services that are campus-based and follow a more traditional 9-5 schedule.

A recent NPR story highlights how libraries are changing from institutions for book storage to spheres for public gathering. Rather than simply being a space where people consume information,modern libraries are now a space where people create. From businesses to novels, a lot of this creative activity has forced libraries to shift toward technology.

With 2014 just around the corner, now is the perfect time for institutions to review their enrollment and retention goals for the new year and make those key operational refinements that can often mean the difference between success and failure. Enrollment Builders’ continued work with clients of all sizes has allowed us to distill the most essential components of building and maintaining a winning enrollment and retention program. As you look toward 2014 with the optimism that comes from clear strategy and concerted effort, keep these five factors of enrollment and retention success top-of-mind:

A Prior Learning Assessment (or PLA), is an evaluation that reviews an individual’s educational experiences that take place outside traditional classroom environments. From military service to open-source coursework and from professional experience to volunteering, a PLA factors in ‘the learning of life’ with the goal of applying it toward college credit, certification, or as a basis for further education.

Enrollment Builders will be exhibiting at the 19th Annual Sloan Consortium International Conference on Online Learning this week at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort - Lake Buena Vista, Florida November 20, 2013 - November 22, 2013. The theme is - Online Learning: A Universe of Opportunities.