eLearning solutions

blog

Enrollment Marketing & Admissions

what others say

"They have small college prices with accessible services."
Dr. Rebecca Jones, Chancellor, West Suburban College of Nursing

"EdTek has met all of our expectations."
Dr. Sue O'Donnell, Program Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management

"EdTek gave us the top technology and support we needed."
Ken Westray, President, NP Learning

Enrollment Marketing & Admissions

With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them

Survive and Thrive During Fall Start Season

Seven Circumstances that are Shaping the Private Higher Education Marketplace

Enrollment Marketing Interview: Ronald S. Kennedy, Liberty University

Ron Kennedy’s work at Liberty University is a perfect example of how online learning can benefit both an institution and the students who sign up. Mr. Kennedy has expanded the enrollment of Liberty’s online learning program an astonishing 141% over the course of two years.

As a company that helps colleges, universities and learning institutions of all sizes facilitate their own online learning programs, EdTek is always interested in discussing ways of making distance learning successful. To that end, we interviewed Ron Kennedy and asked for his thoughts on marketing, enrollment, and how to successfully handle an enormous increase in online students.

EdTek: Did it fall to you to build the program, or was the program already in place when you became Director of Distance Learning?

RK: The program was already in place. Liberty has been offering distance learning for over 23 years, although for most of those years we were offering correspondence courses. But when I was asked to become part of the program, we underwent a major overhaul. There were new programs, courses, and operations implemented to make it more competitive and up to date. We did this so we could meet the expanding needs of the online learner. Some of our programs were already online, but a large portion of our courses were still in video format.

EdTek: Before becoming Director of Distance Learning at Liberty, did you have any experience in online programs?

RK: I did not have any previous experience in online programs, other than being a student in Liberty’s online MBA program. My previous work experience was in traditional enrollment management for resident students.

EdTek: Given the enormous increase in enrollment in Liberty’s program, was there a specific method that you used to market the program? Were there certain demographics or areas in which you thought recruitment would be the most effective?

RK: There were some specific things we did to market the program. I and my data management team underwent a sizeable analysis of demographic information by program, and we did this in order to find out exactly who the students were and where they were coming from. Some of this was done through purchasing programs and appending data to our files, while more information was filled in by surveys to prospective and current students. We also did a dot density analysis to find out which geographic areas we were having the most success with in terms of enrollment. We overlaid that with a dot density of past inquires to find any discrepancies in lead flow.

EdTek: There is, unfortunately, a misconception that online learning is somehow “second rate” or inferior to the regular college experience. Did you find that mindset to be a problem in your enrollment efforts?

RK: We have done some internal surveys, and we looked at external data on this subject and we found that most students think it is the equivalent of (or in some cases better than) the face-to-face teaching model. We haven’t had huge problems overcoming this misconception. Most students that inquire about the program have already wrestled with that question prior to asking for information about the school. I believe most students who ask about online schools already have concluded that it is the best option for their individual lifestyles.

EdTek: Are there any specific benefits to online learning? Are there ways in which online learning is better than the regular college experience?

RK: There are plenty of “non-educational” advantages to online education. So much so that even if a student did feel it was a bit “second rate” he or she might still consider an online learning program. If you consider the problems of finding child care, a commute to a campus, time inflexibility, having to pay for dorm rooms, and all the other expenses and factors involved in a “traditional” college education, online learning is becoming a better option for many people.

EdTek: Have you had particular success with the “hybrid” approach? (That is, some classes taken in person and some classes taken online).

RK: We have had success with hybrid programs, but at Liberty we call them blended programs. At first we were trying to eliminate all residency requirements (non-licensure) because we thought this was a hindrance for students who wanted to enroll in our program versus a school who had the same program 100% online. However, because we offer licensure track programs, and there must be face- to- face class time in these programs, we learned that students wanted to have that campus experience. Liberty is in a unique situation with a traditional campus setting that has an abundance of student life activities. Our distance learners want to come experience that student life, even for just a short time. It really gives them a sense that they belong to the university and the tangible experience they have has proved to be very valuable. Because of that we now offer more blended programs that are not required but are an option for those students that want to come to campus and have the Liberty experience.

EdTek: How was Liberty able to maintain academic standards in online learning? Did the teaching staff have prior online learning experience or were they new to it?

RK: Liberty maintains its online academic standards in that we have a portion of the online sections taught by resident faculty, and the remaining portion taught by pure adjuncts in the field. All have prior experience. There has not been a shortage of qualified, experience adjuncts to draw from. In addition, all course content is controlled by the resident faculty and deans. Each adjunct is also monitored and evaluated by a resident faculty member.

EdTek: How were you able to effectively handle the dramatic increase in enrollment at Liberty?

RK: As we went through the overhaul process 2 ½ years ago, we purposely went into it to make sure any process that we built or changed were scalable for growth. We did not try to fit our growth goals within current structure or processes. We knew our growth goals and then we built the operations around those projected goals. I could spend hours talking about all the things we did to make sure we could accommodate the growth, but the bottom-line is that this is a business and it needs to be viewed at the very top as a business. There has to be flexibility and willingness for change. Operations have to play an equally important role as the academics to make the growth happen. The rate of our internal change has to exceed the rate of the external changes in the industry.

EdTek: Thank you very much for your time.

RK: Thank you!

Ron Kennedy is the Executive Director of Online Learning at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. His blog, ronaldkennedy.com, contains many valuable tips on establishing and marketing online education programs.

EdTek is a company dedicated to helping school districts, universities, colleges and vocational schools set up online educational programs.