OATdb Archive - Sam Houston State University

OATdb Archive

2012 - 2013

Correspondence

Goal

Increase Enrollment In Online Correspondence Courses

With the change from print-based instruction to on-line instruction, an increase in enrollment for online courses is sought.

Objective

Marketing Of Online Correspondence Classes

To increase the number of students enrolled in correspondence classes, there will need to be expanded marketing.

KPI

Increased Marketing

There will be an increase in marketing levels with the goal of increasing enrollment in correspondence courses by 10%.

Result

Enrollment Was Flat

Enrollment was flat (down 18%) this year because the marketing that was planned wasn’t carried through for various reasons: marketing in the mall area did not take place and we were not aware that we could get list of juniors and seniors for mass mail purposes. Also, with the phase out of the paper based students and the development of new CRN numbers, our primary focus was placed elsewhere.

Action

Sandwhich Boards

Correspondence Office will strategically place of sandwich boards across campus; these boards will provide students with information about online correspondence courses.

Goal

Phase Print Only Option

In the move from print only to online classes, there is a need to phase out the print only option.

Objective

Print-Only Option Phase-Out

While moving correspondence classes to online course, the print-only option will be unavailable. The long-term objective is to totally remove all students from the print-based options; however, we are grandfathering in some students.

KPI

Phase-Out

The goal is to reduce the number of students enrolled in print-only correspondence courses by 75% during FY12.

Result

Enrollment Numbers

As of 07/29/2013 there were 409 students enrolled in a correspondence course; however, there have been students from Fall '12 and Spring '13 that successfully completed their courses. The 409 are current actively enrolled students. With the conversion from Nell to Banner, information from 2012 is not reported.

Students were notified that their course(s) in E-college and paper based courses were expiring and being converted over to Blackboard; they were notified and given a final opportunity to test and complete their course before the conversion.

With the move to the move from E-College and print-only to Blackboard, we were able to move the majority of all students; however, there are only a dozen left in the print-based option. We have notified these students and are working with them to ensure the get completed before their time is up by the end of October 2013. Additionally, we have less than 18 students who were not eligible for the move and they are working to complete their assignments and test; therefore, this move and our expectation has been a success.

Action

Updating Content Management System (CMS)

The Correspondece Office turned off the paper based option so that students could not register for a paperbase option. Students were not loger allowed to register for these courses.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

With the transition from print-only to online, we did see that the issues of cost could not be addressed. The cost of courses are driven by what has been disseminated to the coordinating board and the only way to change that tuition is to put forth a new motion. With this increase from $270 to $573 students could have taken roughly two course to the one course now. The marketing that took place was not the full scale that we had initially wanted to do because of budgetary issues; however, we were able to purchase sandwich boards which did help in getting the information out to students. We were able to place these on campus so that students could read the information and make a determination about correspondence. In previous years, students were able to opt in for an extension to their course, meaning that if they did not finish in the year time frame that could apply for an additional 6 month. In regards to this, we saw that students were utilizing this benefit to not complete their course in a timely fashion and in most cases they would finish during the 6 month extension period. We came to the conclusion, based on reports, if they can finish within the 6 month extension they could finish in the regular time period, they year time frame they were initially given. Because of this, we have now done away with extension period, no student will be allowed to request one.

Plan for continuous improvement Through the continuous efforts of the Correspondence Office we will definitely be able to address the needs of our Correspondence Students. The setbacks that we have had this year caused our numbers to dwindle a bit; however, we are optimistic about FY’14. The setbacks included obtaining new CRN number for each course; this was something we were not aware of. Also, we had to deal with transition to a new LMS systems. We were working in E-College and had a print-based option available to students; with the move to Blackboard, we had to ensure that students were transferred to the new LMS; however, that did not happen for all students. We had to make a strategic decision to leave some as print-based and others to finish out on E-College depending on where the students were in there course. With the aforementioned setbacks, we saw a decline in our enrollment numbers (approximately 18%), because our focus had to change to deal with the issues that came up with the different LMS’s and having to work through them with departments across campus. Understanding that marketing is a necessity and will help increase our enrollment number, we have chosen to utilize different strategies: using sandwich boards to get information to students; yard signs that can be placed all over campus for students to obtain the information; becoming more prevalent in the mall area, by setting up an information table, as students are going from class to class; marketing on Channel 7, targeted mass emails; and placing information packets across campus. With these efforts we should definitely see an increase in awareness and enrollment.