online-learners-demand

Here’s how to meet the needs of online learners


Online learners still stuck with traditional scheduling, funding models

online-learners-demandWhen Title IV funding for higher education began in 1965, colleges and universities never imagined a day when learners would take classes online or create their own academic schedules. Their systems were hardwired for traditional academic terms and students, which start in the fall and end the following spring, and typically assume a full-time schedule.

In this respect, not much has changed since then. Most school calendars and student information systems are still locked on this rigid academic schedule.

Generations later, almost all institutions have added online learning courses to their academic menus to help meet the demands of current and prospective learners. But when you look at most course catalogs, you still see online course offerings that adhere to the traditional academic semesters and financial aid models built into those early systems.

The model is the same. What’s worse, it fails to tap into the biggest growth sector of today’s students–the on-demand learner, and does not take advantage of the flexibility that online learning offers.

(Next page: How to better serve online learners)

Today’s generation of perspective learners has different life experiences and expects a world that operates in real-time, and they want the offerings to adapt to them. The on-demand learner can be the working parent who wants to complete a degree program online, one course at a time, or the high school student who wants to get a jump on college prerequisites before college even starts.

What neither of them wants is to be pigeonholed into the classic academic calendar. They want to pick the start date, have some flexibility in terms of completion timeframes, and still have access to financial aid.

In order to serve this growing constituency of on-demand students, that original model needs to be flipped: Instead of starting with fixed academic calendars and programs that students then adhere to, institutions should start with student demand and build systems and programs around that demand.

Many schools believe that they cannot meet student needs for more flexible, on-demand learning because they don’t feel that they can overcome the current limitations of their student information system, which was designed for a previous era.

To address this issue, some schools try to reconfigure or customize programs on top of the existing student information system (SIS). Others have tried to retrofit systems with varying degrees of success.

At a recent conference we attended, one Midwestern university chronicled its odyssey of trying to offer non-term courses for the first time using a traditional system. One of their slides called out: “any system that claims to be ‘date driven’ really means it can be date driven with customization!”

That ‘customization’ turned into a nightmare for the institution. They learned that true on-demand learning programs place new demands on the system in terms of financial aid, grading, reporting, and so much more.

(Next page: Solutions that work)

So, what’s the alternative? One option is just to “rip and replace” the old system with a next-generation system. For some institutions, that may be the best alternative when considering the cost of not serving this market.

If you figure there are a thousand students who would be willing to pay, for example, $10,000 a year to have a degree from your institution, then that’s $10 million of lost revenue if your terms and financial aid programs aren’t flexible enough to accommodate their schedules.

In the end, the scale and the scope of an institution and programs will factor into this option.

The other alternative is to create a school-within-a-school. In essence, institutions keep the SIS that is already in place, and add a next-generation, highly flexible system to run online programs.

These new on-demand systems can drive traditional terms as well as nontraditional, non-term, and clock-hour programs. They can also package financial aid based on the borrower’s goals and schedule.

Students don’t lose eligibility or have to be repackaged because they drop one class. The systems will auto-award them based on an expanded timeframe and schedule for degree completion.

Ashford University, an on-campus and online institution, is one example of an institution that has enjoyed tremendous growth in their online program driven by a system designed to meet the needs of the on-demand generation of learners. Starting with fewer than 300 students in 2005, the school today boasts more than 89,000, with 99 percent of those taking classes online.

The benefits to flexible terms and systems go far beyond increased revenues. Students who have greater resources for achieving their academic goals are not only more likely to choose an institution, but with more resources and options available to them for taking courses, are also more likely to stay enrolled and complete their degrees.

From recruitment to retention to revenues, your level of success will be increasingly tied to the demand of today’s “on-demand” world.

Connor Gray is the chief strategy officer at Campus Management http://www.campusmanagement.com/EN-US/Pages/default.aspx and is responsible for developing a robust strategic vision for the Company so it can help institutions successfully meet the demands of the changing landscape of higher education.

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