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The Eduventures® Student Sentiment Research™ Report Reveals Five Critical Student Segments for Recruiters and Marketers

New Research Identifies Student Segments and Effective Strategies  Institutions Should Implement for Engaging Each Population to Stay Relevant in Today’s Competitive Higher Education Climate


Boston, MA – December 7, 2023 – Encoura, an industry-leading educational technology and research organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures 2023 Student Sentiment Research Report. The annual report provides firsthand insights on student perceptions about institutional marketing and communication, as well as students’ college search behaviors, to empower higher education enrollment and marketing officers with more effective engagement strategies.

With students coming out of high school in a pandemic, uncertainties of admissions post-affirmative action, ongoing public discussions questioning the value of a college education, and a drop in high school graduates, it’s clear that colleges and universities need to develop intentional and effective outreach strategies to stay relevant and attain enrollment goals. How should institutions needing to move away from a “one size fits all” approach to recruitment strategically use their time and resources? Which channels and content effectively engage students from critical populations that colleges and universities may be missing?

This year’s Eduventures Student Sentiment Research Report pinpoints five important high school student segments and provides insights on the college search activities and preferences of each group. Additionally, it details specific outreach strategies that institutions should leverage to most effectively engage each group and concludes with key practical steps enrollment and marketing teams with limited bandwidth can take to be most successful.

Key Research Findings Include:

  1. Prioritizing three digital strategies can help reach out-of-state students.
  2. Digital ads reach first-generation students from low-income households.
  3. Latine students can benefit from a grassroots recruitment approach.
  4. Social media helps black students assess fit.
  5. Sophomores are covering the basics of college search in stealth mode.

“As the competition for high school students’ attention increases, it’s a crucial time for colleges and universities to commit to outreach strategies that will have the biggest impact toward their missions and enrollment goals. This year’s Student Sentiment Research empowers institutions with specific methods they can leverage to most successfully grow and diversify the prospective student populations they engage,” said Johanna Trovato, Eduventures Principal Analyst and primary author of this study.

Today’s high school students are constantly receiving messages about what their futures should look like. It’s essential for institutions in a competitive market to prioritize their most important recruitment tool–their website–while taking strategic steps to diversify recruitment plans to meet students where and how they are best served. This report provides forward-thinking outreach strategies that will help institutions attract, engage, and enroll the best students for their schools.

 

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprising public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Todd Boullion at toddb@encoura.org.

Inaugural Eduventures® Life After High School Research™ Report Reveals Unique Plans of Today’s Non-College-Bound High School Students

New research identifies the very distinct mindsets of high school graduates who say no to college and discusses the implications for supporting these students as they emerge into adulthood.


Boston, MA – November 14, 2023 – Encoura, an industry-leading educational technology organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures 2023 Life After High School Report. With 38% of high school students choosing not to enroll in college upon graduation, this first annual report explores these students’ unique perspectives, motivations, and goals to help educators and employers engage and support this sizable population as they begin to pursue their goals as adults.

Rather than seeing these students as merely a reflection of their choice not to go to college, recognizing their intentional five-year plans can provide important insights for enrollment leaders, marketers, and employers alike. A deeper look into these postsecondary plans revealed five distinct persona segments, or Life After High School Mindsets™, that can serve as essential drivers of outreach and support strategies.

LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL MINDSETS:

  1. LIFE BALANCE (37%): My job is important, but I want to travel and have a social life while prioritizing my family.
  2. CAREER FIRST (31%): I want a career and college isn’t a priority; I will continue my education in other ways.
  3. SCHOOL’S OUT (18%): I want a job, but will not pursue any additional education or training in the next 5 years.
  4. COLLEGE LATER (10%): College is in the cards in the next 5 years, just not right now.
  5. DRIVEN TO SERVE (4%): I am going to enlist in military service and might consider college after.

Are certain Mindsets more open to postsecondary education, even if they aren’t pursuing a bachelor’s degree immediately upon graduation? What is the best way to set these students up for success in their post-graduation plans? The Eduventures 2023 Life After High School Research Report pinpoints the preferences and goals of students who choose to pursue alternative pathways post-graduation and delivers recommendations to individuals supporting these students, as well as to higher education institutions.

The report’s findings recommend that individuals and organizations seeking to support students entering adulthood should focus on the areas of career exploration, career planning, training/education, life balance, and financial planning. Colleges and universities can serve these future non-traditional students with strategies that include lower cost professional programs, employer partnerships, community-based student success initiatives, and inclusive campuses.

“Our Life After High School Report is the result of a long-term effort–and core belief–at Encoura to empower all students with the resources, guidance, and intentional engagement to achieve their individual goals. Students who desire to pursue career, family, military, or other goals after high school are equally as deserving of guided pathways to success. I’m proud that we now have the data for institutions and communities to develop effective strategies to support all students,” said Dennis Syracuse, Division President of Encoura.

It’s time to give attention to supporting the large proportion of students who choose not to attend college directly after high school. As Eduventures Principal Analyst and author of the report Kim Reid shared, “Whether or not these students will end up pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the future, important career, life, and financial training is crucial to setting them up for success. This report provides engagement and support strategy areas of focus that will help educational institutions and employers empower these students.”

 

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprising public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Todd Boullion at toddb@encoura.org.

New Report from Quality Matters™ and Eduventures® Research Details Increase in Learner Demand for Online and Hybrid Higher Education Courses

Hundreds of Chief Online Officers surveyed describe how institutions of higher learning are responding to changing student preferences by increasing focus on digital modalities.


Annapolis, Maryland – August 15, 2023: Quality Matters and Eduventures Research, a division of Encoura, announce the eighth edition of the annual Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Report, in which the authors compile important perspectives on the state of online and hybrid learning in higher education. CHLOE 8 focuses on a major shift in the industry — the increasing demand for courses in these newer modalities among learners and simultaneous decline in demand for in-person learning relative to pre-pandemic levels. The report also illuminates some of the ways institutions of higher learning are responding to this demand. The report aggregates the results of a winter 2023 survey of hundreds of chief online officers (COOs) at higher education institutions — individuals most centrally involved in digital learning efforts.


Learner Demand

CHLOE 8 reveals that learner demand for online education remains undoubtedly on the rise. Though this demand spiked during the surge of emergency distance learning in the initial months of COVID-19, CHLOE 8 shows that it continues to gain traction in the post-pandemic era and has likely not yet reached its peak. “The CHLOE 8 report captures the dynamic, uncertain moment after the ‘emergency remote learning’ of the pandemic,” says Richard Garrett, CHLOE Co-Director and Eduventures Chief Research Officer, Encoura. “The crisis has faded but experience and expectations have changed.”

This demand is perhaps most apparent when observing enrollment trends by modality. “While national reporting has indicated a modest decrease in total enrollment in US higher education, there continues to be robust growth in online enrollment,” says Dr. Eric Fredericksen, CHLOE Contributing Editor and Associate Vice President for Online Learning for the University of Rochester. This assessment is supported by the responses to CHLOE 8: while 81% of COOs surveyed report that enrollment in traditional, face-to-face courses has stagnated or declined at their institutions, 56% of respondents report growth or strong growth in enrollment in online and hybrid programs.


Institutional Response

CHLOE 8 also provides a window into the ways institutions are responding to the changing landscape, painting a picture of an industry scrambling to adapt to this demand in order to retain and recruit students who prefer online and hybrid courses. The dramatic shift in learner preference places institutions in a difficult scenario, with many facing pressure to quickly reprioritize but possessing less enrollment-generated funding on hand to allocate to such an undertaking. This compounds an already complex set of factors that impact the ability for schools to adapt, such as state and institutional policy, campus culture and leadership, competing priorities, and access to resources. “For many institutions struggling with enrollment and revenue levels, success in building online capacity may spell the difference between viability and crisis in the next decade,” says Dr. Ron Legon, CHLOE Senior Editor and Executive Director Emeritus of Quality Matters.

The survey provides a wealth of additional insights into how demand for digital modalities is impacting higher education:

  • Most institutions are taking steps to meet the rising demand for online learning. According to CHLOE 8 respondents, half of the institutions surveyed have begun to address demand for online learning in their strategic plans and resource allocations, and steps to do so are currently under discussion in another 36% of responding schools. This is remarkably rapid change in a normally slow-moving field like higher education.
  • Only a small minority are not considering changing their strategic plans. Of the 15% that are not, more than half (9% of the total) are still committed to finding ways to accommodate online/hybrid learning options.
  • The primary way institutions are adjusting to this shift is by increasing online options. 66% of COOs shared that their institutions are adding new online programs based on student demand, citing higher enrollment growth for online and hybrid programs across all student groups.
  • At many institutions, neither faculty nor students are adequately prepared for online learning. Only 22% of COOs reported that a high proportion of their full-time faculty (70+%) have experience designing online courses, and few schools require orientation prior to learners starting an online learning course, despite the fact that research shows that orientation boosts student success.
  • Online learning technology investment has slowed and become more selective, as institutions work to consolidate the fruits of a pandemic-driven spending surge. At the time of survey, no participating institution had yet implemented institution-wide adoption of any of the technologies and capabilities inquired about in CHLOE 8.
  • Institutions are not yet effectively leveraging the differentiating power of quality in online learning by emphasizing student success in online and hybrid modalities in their marketing materials. “At a time when we’re seeing consistent and rising demand for online learning, most chief online officers are still not communicating institutional efforts around quality online learning,” says Dr. Bethany Simunich, CHLOE Co-Director and QM Vice President of Innovation and Research. “This practice of ‘quiet quality assurance’ seems a lost opportunity for institutions pursuing new student audiences.”

The CHLOE 8 Report solidifies the unwavering strength of online enrollment in both undergraduate and graduate education,” says Dr. Mike Truong, PhD, Director of Faculty Development and Associate Professor at Azusa Pacific University. “Despite the ongoing challenges and decline faced by traditional face-to-face enrollment, demand for online programs remains robust. Those educational institutions that overlook this prevailing trend will bear the consequences themselves.”

The full report can be downloaded from either the Quality Matters or Eduventures websites.

Since 2016, QM and Eduventures Research have partnered to fill the knowledge gap about how online learning is being managed at post-secondary institutions in the United States. CHLOE surveys have produced in-depth yearly reports, including a special report on the pivot to remote teaching in 2020. The principal authors of the report are Richard Garrett, CHLOE Co-Director and Eduventures Chief Research Officer, Encoura; Dr. Bethany Simunich, CHLOE Co-Director and Vice President of Innovation and Research, QM; Dr. Ron Legon, CHLOE Senior Editor and Executive Director, Emeritus, QM; and Dr. Eric Fredericksen, CHLOE Contributing Editor and Associate Vice President for Online Learning, University of Rochester.

CHLOE 8 was made possible through the support of the CHLOE Advisory Panel; Platinum sponsor iDesign, Gold sponsors Archer Education and JoVE, and Affiliate the Online Learning Consortium.

Dr. Bethany Simunich and Richard Garrett are available for comment:


ABOUT QUALITY MATTERS


Grounded in research. Driven by best practices. A community that puts learners first. Quality Matters (QM) is the global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides a scalable quality assurance system for online and blended learning used within and across organizations. When you see QM Certification Marks on courses or programs, it means they have met QM Course Design Standards or QM Program Review Criteria in a rigorous review process.

 

ABOUT ENCOURA EDUVENTURES RESEARCH


Eduventures® Research for higher education leaders provides primary research, analysis, and advisory services to support decision-making throughout the student life cycle. Building on 30 years of success in working with education leaders, Eduventures provides forward-looking and actionable research based on proprietary market data and advisory services that support both strategic and operational decision-making. Our recommendations and personalized support enable clients to understand the top traits of leaders in critical disciplines and evaluate the opportunities presented by new technologies. Eduventures research is available in Encoura, a data science and analytics technology platform that provides colleges and universities the information and capabilities required to create the data-enabled enrollment office of the future, today. More information on Encoura and Eduventures can be found at encoura.org.

Encoura® Eduventures® Research Announces 2023 Innovation Award Winners

Award Winners Honored at Eduventures Summit Include Arizona State University, Augsburg University, and Western Governors University

Boston, MA – June 15, 2023 – Encoura, an educational data science and research organization,​ ​​today announced the winners of the annual Innovation Awards Program at Eduventures Summit 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. The Innovation Awards Program was created to recognize and showcase the achievements of individuals and organizations that share Encoura’s vision for innovating to improve outcomes in higher education. This year, Eduventures received a record number of submissions that showcased innovative and transformative projects. To enable the judges to recognize an even greater number of exceptional efforts, the program was expanded to include a special recognition category.

Selected by a jury of higher education leaders and advisors, Encoura and its Eduventures Research division celebrated the award winners at a ceremony and reception that took place during the annual Eduventures Summit. Award winners and Recognition of Achievement honorees were announced by Cara Quackenbush, Encoura’s Executive Vice President of Research.

The 2023 Innovation Award winners include:

  • Arizona State University
  • Augsburg University
  • Western Governors University

2023 Recognition of Achievement honorees include:

  • George Mason University
  • Louisiana State University in Shreveport
  • Purdue University
  • Spartanburg Methodist College

“More than ever, global society relies on innovation to help evolve humanity and make our lives more productive, healthy, and equitable” said Quackenbush. “We are thrilled to be honoring the institutions that have created new, actionable, and innovative programs that are changing the landscape for higher education and their shared commitment of serving their student bodies and the larger community.”

About the Innovation Awards Program

Now in its seventh year, the Eduventures Innovation Awards Program honors organizations and teams that are shaping the future of higher education. Entries are submitted in 3 categories and are designed to identify higher education institutions that have demonstrated significant innovations when developing and deploying programs that impact these areas:

  • Enrollment: A new enrollment management strategy in a fast-changing environment
  • Student Experience: A new approach to teaching and learning or student support
  • Outcomes: A new effort to define and report student outcomes

Judges select winners from written applications and, if needed, conduct follow-up interviews. Entries are scored on value to the institution, innovation, and relevance to the mission of the school and are announced in conjunction with the Eduventures Annual Summit.

Augsburg Applies to You aims to lower barriers, foster a culture of belonging, and ultimately change systems to address historically rooted inequities in higher education. I want to recognize the courage and commitment of our strategic enrollment management division staff, every one of whom took ownership of the project and contributed to its successful launch this year,” commented Augsburg University President Paul C. Pribbenow.

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT®, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX, and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their postsecondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

José Andrés, Acclaimed Chef, Restaurateur, and Humanitarian Joins Luminaries at Eduventures® Summit 2023

Higher Ed’s Premier Thought-Leadership Event Will Feature Andrés, DEI Expert Trabian Shorters, Gallup CEO Jon Clifton, SNHU President Paul LeBlanc, and ChatGPT Expert Nita Farahany

Boston, MA — May 23, 2023: Encoura®, an educational data science and research organization, ​ ​ announced today the lineup of industry luminaries slated to address Eduventures Summit 2023 in Boston. The annual event, hosted by Encoura’s Eduventures research division, will feature chef, restaurateur, and humanitarian José Andrés, who recently announced the launch of his Global Food Institute at George Washington University. Other confirmed keynote speakers include DEI expert Trabian Shorters, Gallup CEO Jon Clifton, Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc, and ChatGPT expert Nita Farahany. Eduventures Summit will take place at the InterContinental Boston Waterfront Hotel, June 14 – 16, 2023.

The mission of Eduventures Summit is to inform, educate, and inspire higher education leaders—from both public and private non-profit institutions—by equipping them with tangible ideas and best practices so they can improve in a wide array of areas spanning recruitment, program innovation, and student success. The evergreen program theme, Higher Ed Remastered, captures both the timeless qualities of higher education and the need for innovative models.

The annual event, which will sell out, is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for college and university leaders, and the partners who serve them, to come together to network with one another, share best practices, and engage in a discussion about the future of higher education.

Special Guest José Andrés

This year, José Andrés, chef, restauranteur and humanitarian, will headline Eduventures Summit. Andrés has received the James Beard Foundation’s “Outstanding Chef” and “Humanitarian of the Year” awards and is a committed advocate of food and hunger issues, known for championing the role of chefs in the national debate on food policy.  He recently announced a partnership with George Washington University to launch a premier Global Food Institute at GW, a transformative and unprecedented collaboration that will be the world leader in food system solution delivery.

Additional confirmed headliners include:

  • Jon Clifton – CEO of Gallup
  • Nita Farahany – ChatGPT expert and the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy and Founding Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
  • Paul LeBlanc – President of SNHU
  • Joy Moore – Vice President and executive director of Boston College’s Pine Manor Institute for Student Success
  • Trabian Shorters – DEI expert and CEO/Founder BMe Community

In addition to keynote sessions, Eduventures principal analysts will present new research and proprietary market data on key higher education trends.  The Eduventures research team will showcase Annual Innovation Award program winners, honoring higher education institutions, companies and other organizations that share Eduventures vision for a responsive, innovative higher education sector.

“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome José Andrés and hear about the life-changing work he has done around the world,” said Dennis Syracuse, Division President of Encoura. “He, along with our roster of higher education change makers, will set the tone for an inspiring, forward-looking conference that will leave attendees with new energy and inspiration to meet the challenges facing higher ed today. Our lineup will initiate meaningful conversations and inspire industry-wide action as attendees explore issues that include enrollment drivers, student access, affirmative action, new learning models, and the rise of AI.”

To view the preliminary conference program, visit: https://encoura.org/resources/eduventures-summit/

ABOUT ENCOURA, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit http://encoura.org.

 

 

Members of the press community who would like to request press credentials for Eduventures Summit 2023 can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

Eduventures® Research Announces New Report on the Realities of the Higher Education Non-Degree Market

In-Depth Report Helps Institutions Understand the Non-Degree Marketplace by Focusing on Three Leading Providers

Boston, MA — March 7th, 2023: Encoura, LLC, a leading educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of an in-depth report on the higher education non-degree market. Written by Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer for Encoura, the report helps colleges and universities understand the important, but often exaggerated and data-poor, non-degree marketplace. Amid the multitude of non-degree platforms, companies, models, and partnerships, the report focuses on three of the largest providers: Coursera, edX (owned by 2U), and Udemy.

Non-degree programs can offer learners a compelling combination of workplace relevance, fast completion, and affordability compared to degree programs. At a time of falling degree enrollment, many colleges and universities are looking to non-degree programs to grow revenue.

The report addresses the three big questions surrounding the non-degree market opportunity from the perspective of higher education leaders:

  • What does evidence from leading companies and institutions reveal about the current size of contemporary non-degree markets?
  • Does enrollment and other data suggest that these companies, and their university partners, are building game-changing businesses?
  • And do these non-degree offerings complement or compete with degrees?

Eduventures reviewed the quarterly, annual, and other reports from 2U, Coursera, and Udemy, sifting intelligence on revenue, profit, enrollment, marketing spend, learner demographics, and spend per student.

Coursera, edX, and Udemy, and similar initiatives are the latest attempt to harness the game-changing potential of online learning to redraw the postsecondary education landscape. Their non-degree portfolios represent a significant advance—in terms of technology, pedagogy, and range—over past efforts.

The non-degree market is sizable and growing, but higher education institutions need to be careful. It is true that the companies profiled in the report and their higher education partners enroll large numbers of paid non-degree learners, but these numbers are far fewer than headlines suggest. Firms profiled report large and sustained losses and very high marketing spend ratios highlighting significant growth and competition challenges, to which recent company layoffs attest. Non-degree enrollment still stands in the shadow of larger and more profitable degree programs. The non-degree segment is already very crowded, cautioning higher education leaders weighing program prospects and investments.

Richard Garrett commented, “Today’s non-degree market is bigger and more innovative than ever, and the three companies we profiled—Coursera, edX (owned by 2U), and Udemy—are leaders in this space. But the non-degree market is at an inflection point.”

Eduventures contends that companies (and institutions) must address an unresolved tension between the path to a more engaging non-degree student experience—which may require heightened spending on new technology and less efficient synchronous learning elements—and the path to corporate (and program) profitability. Such investments may pay for themselves in terms of lower learner acquisition costs, stronger retention, and superior margins, but alternatively they may test company business models.

Garrett said, “With this report, Eduventures provides much-needed clarity in a market that is heating up in scale and significance, but where higher education institutions and their corporate partners must tread carefully to find success.”

Members of the press who wish to obtain a full copy of the report can email Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

ABOUT ENCOURA EDUVENTURES RESEARCH

Eduventures: Eduventures® Research for higher education leaders provides primary research, analysis, and advisory services to support decision-making throughout the student life cycle. Building on 30 years of success in working with education leaders, Eduventures provides forward-looking and actionable research based on proprietary market data and advisory services that support both strategic and operational decision-making. Our recommendations and personalized support enable clients to understand the top traits of leaders in critical disciplines and evaluate the opportunities presented by new technologies. Eduventures research is available in Encoura, a data science and analytics technology platform that provides colleges and universities the information and capabilities required to create the data-enabled enrollment office of the future, today. More information on Encoura and Eduventures can be found at encoura.org

 

Eduventures® Student Sentiment Research Report™ Reveals Changing Views of College-Bound High School Students

Research Highlights the Most Effective Uses of Video and Social Media to Reach Gen Z Students and How to Engage Them Early in Their College Searches

Boston, MA – September 22, 2022 – Encoura, an industry-leading educational technology organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures 2022 Student Sentiment Research Report. The annual report explores the key areas of college search behavior and communication preferences to help higher education enrollment officers create more effective outreach strategies. The report is designed to accompany Eduventures Prospective Student Research™, the nation’s largest college market segmentation and institutional identity study, and Eduventures Admitted Student Research™, which examines how students make enrollment decisions and helps institutions improve yield.

With a generation of high school students who currently spend a daily average of more than 8 hours online, and 45% who say they are online constantly, it’s clear that college search has significantly  migrated to the digital space. How can institutions find key student segments where they gravitate for college information? And more importantly, which channels and content effectively engage these digital natives who decide if digital content is worth their time within eight seconds? 

The Eduventures 2022 Student Sentiment Research Report monitors the college search behaviors and communication preferences of these Gen Z students from initial discovery to the enrollment decision. It highlights key insights on college search activities of college-bound high school students and how the pandemic has shaped the current state of college search.

Key Research Findings Include:

  1. Sophomores search actively, but might not yet be ready to connect with colleges.
  2. Video and picture-focused social platforms dominate college search.
  3. Students primarily seek institutional content on social media, but are also curious about student content.
  4. Video is still the most common virtual activity, but use has declined since the start of the pandemic.
  5. TikTok is the fastest growing platform in college search with a significant 16% increase in student use for college search over the past two years.
  6. With the pandemic disrupting on-campus events, campus tours have yet to make a comeback in early search.

“This year’s Student Sentiment Research Report results show that while traditional outreach methods still help students in the admissions process, digital outreach can no longer be just an option for institutions. Colleges and universities should digitally engage high school students by creating content that entices short attention spans using institutional marketing as well as current student voices,” said Johanna Trovato, Senior Analyst and primary author of this study.

The pandemic has made a lasting change on college search for students. It’s essential for institutions in a crowded and competitive market to find and engage students early on the digital channels they prefer with perspectives they value. This report provides outreach strategy best practices that will help institutions attract, engage, and convert their best-fit students.

 

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Todd Boullion at toddb@encoura.org. .

Quality Matters™ and Eduventures® Research Survey Projects Online Learning as Permanent Feature in Higher Education

CHLOE 7 Survey Reveals Widespread Demand for Online Education, while Institutional Quality Assurance Strategies Lag

Annapolis, Maryland — August 9, 2022: The seventh Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report offers a detailed view of the online learning landscape in higher education at a pivotal point in the field’s development. The results — available in CHLOE 7: Tracking Online Learning from Mainstream Acceptance to Universal Adoption — show both ongoing growth in the adoption of online learning modalities and a gap between the application of quality assurance (QA) standards and institutional strategies to evaluate efficacy.

Nearly 99% of chief online officers (COOs) surveyed project that online elements will feature prominently in the typical student experience within the next three years. Survey co-author Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer at Encoura, observed that “online leaders anticipate significant acceleration in online adoption across students and institutions over the next few years” and added that “online leaders see a future defined by hybrid models” rather than solely online offerings.

Online modalities — which include online synchronous, hybrid and multi-modal (e.g. HyFlex) — models gained traction during the pandemic and are becoming important factors in the online learning landscape. Survey results indicate that meeting the needs of the vast majority of learners moving to these formats will require institutions to put forth a greater commitment to QA standards. This constitutes a considerable challenge to many institutions, as most have voluntary or optional policies for meeting institutionally-adopted quality standards. Currently, 50% of COOs report that their institutions require asynchronous online courses to meet quality standards. But only 27% of schools have this same requirement for online synchronous courses, and even fewer require quality standards for other modalities.

The survey provides a wealth of additional insights into the nuanced ways in which online learning is developing within higher education. Highlights from these findings include:

  • Institutional strategies must be re-aligned to meet student demand. “As an increasing number of students are opting into online courses, institution strategies, budgets and perspectives are evolving as noted in the survey reports,” said Connie Johnson, Chief Academic Officer and Provost, Colorado Technical University and CHLOE Advisory Panel Member. “Educators are well served to understand how institutions are responding to the growing demand for online and hybrid courses, credentials and programs.”
  • Learning delivery mode preferences vary by age. “It is just fascinating to see that chief online officers predict a near-term future shift in opposite directions for traditional undergraduates, adult undergraduates and graduate students, with respect to modality preference, such that traditional undergraduates will incorporate more online learning in predominantly on-ground courses and programs, while adult undergrads and graduate students will retain some component of on-ground study in predominantly online courses and programs,” said Lori Williams, CHLOE Advisory Panel Member.
  • Mental health is an essential component of online student services. “It is heartening to see that institutions are responding to the needs and well-being of their students impacted by the pandemic, with online mental health services having the highest growth rate as reported by COOs,” explained Eric Fredericksen, Associate Vice President for Online Learning and Professor, University of Rochester.

Since 2016 QM and Eduventures Research have partnered to fill the knowledge gap about how online learning is actually being managed at post-secondary institutions in the United States. To accomplish this, they survey the people who are most closely involved in this endeavor: those serving as chief online officers at their institutions. These CHLOE surveys have produced in-depth yearly reports — and two during 2020, including a special report on the pivot to remote teaching.

This year’s report comes at an exciting time for online learning. Cultural shifts over the last few years have opened up exciting new possibilities in this space, creating opportunities that would have seemed unlikely or impossible in the past. The report provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary online higher education. Sasha Thackaberry, Vice President of Student and Academic Services at Pearson, describes the report’s relevance: “The CHLOE Survey provides a critical insight into the strategic and operational direction of higher ed institutions, from two-year teaching colleges through research universities. As a resource, the CHLOE reports are useful in communicating trends and projected futures in higher education, which is increasingly digital.”

The report was made possible through the support of the CHLOE Advisory Panel; Platinum sponsors iDesign, Six Red Marbles and Everspring; and Gold sponsors NC-SARA and the Online Learning Consortium.

The principal authors of the report are Richard Garrett (Encoura Eduventures Research) and Dr. Bethany Simunich (Quality Matters) with Senior Editor Dr. Ron Legon (Quality Matters) and Contributing Editor Dr. Eric Fredericksen (University of Rochester).   

Dr. Bethany Simunich and Richard Garrett are available for comment:

Bethany Simunich, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation, Quality Matters (bsimunich@qualitymatters.org; 410.497.8068)

Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer, ACT | NRCCUA

(rgarrett@eduventures.com; 617.704.8481)

About Quality Matters

Grounded in research. Driven by best practices. A community that puts learners first. Quality Matters (QM) is the global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides a scalable quality assurance system for online and blended learning used within and across organizations. When you see QM Certification Marks on courses or programs, it means they have met QM Course Design Standards or QM Program Review Criteria in a rigorous review process.

About Encoura Eduventures Research

Eduventures: Eduventures® Research for higher education leaders provides primary research, analysis, and advisory services to support decision-making throughout the student life cycle. Building on 20 years of success in working with education leaders, Eduventures provides forward-looking and actionable research based on proprietary market data and advisory services that support both strategic and operational decision-making. Our recommendations and personalized support enable clients to understand the top traits of leaders in critical disciplines and evaluate the opportunities presented by new technologies. Eduventures research is available in Encoura, a data science and analytics technology platform that provides colleges and universities the information and capabilities required to create the data-enabled enrollment office of the future, today. More information on Encoura and Eduventures can be found at encoura.org.

Encoura® Eduventures® Research Announces 2022 Innovation Award Winners

AWARD WINNERS HONORED AT EDUVENTURES® SUMMIT INCLUDE COLORADO TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, AND WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON COLLEGE

Boston, MA – June 16, 2022 – Encoura LLC, an educational data science and research organization,​ ​​today announced the winners of the annual Innovation Award Program at their Eduventures Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. The Innovation Awards program was created to recognize and showcase the achievements of individuals and organizations that share Encoura’s vision for innovating to improve outcomes that support critical areas of an institution. Selected by a jury of higher education leaders and advisors, Encoura and its Eduventures Research division celebrated the award winners at a ceremony and reception that took place during Eduventures Summit. Award winners were announced by Cara Quackenbush, Eduventures Senior Vice President of Research, Encoura.

The 2022 winners include:

  • Colorado Technical University, Colorado Springs, Colorado
  • Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida
  • University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
  • Washington & Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania

“We believe thoughtful innovation can change the world and that is why we created this awards program, showcasing the best of higher education. For the sixth year, our winners have sought to address the unprecedented challenges facing our sector by creating new, actionable, and innovative initiatives that support a more equitable and inclusive opportunity for all students.  We congratulate all of our 2022 winners,” said Cara Quackenbush, Eduventures Senior Vice President of Research, Encoura.

“It is a great honor for Florida Atlantic to be nationally recognized for our innovative approach to delivering success for all students—regardless of background,” said Florida Atlantic Interim Provost Michele Hawkins, Ph.D. “We are proactive and use evidence to keep a record number of students on track for timely graduation, so that they can drive our regional and state workforce.”

About the Innovation Award Program

Now in its sixth year, the Eduventures Innovation Awards program honors organizations and teams that are shaping the future of Higher Education. Entries are submitted in 3 categories and are designed to identify higher education institutions that have demonstrated significant innovations when developing and deploying programs that impact these areas of an institution:

  • Enrollment: A new enrollment management strategy in a fast-changing environment
  • Student Experience: A new approach to teaching and learning or student support
  • Outcomes: A new effort to define and report student outcomes

Judges select winners from written applications and, if needed, follow-up interviews. Entries are scored on value to the institution, innovation, and relevance to the mission of the school and are announced in conjunction with Eduventures Annual Summit.

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

Encoura® Debuts Market Insights™ to Provide Higher Education Institutions with Actionable Insights on their Competitive Market Position

NEW RESEARCH AND PLANNING TECHNOLOGY PROMOTES EQUITY IN EDUCATION BY EMPOWERING COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES TO IDENTIFY NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE STUDENT MARKETS

Austin, TX – June 1, 2022 Encoura, an industry-leading educational technology organization, announced today the launch of their latest innovative solution, Market Insights. This advanced analytics offering inside the Encoura Platform grants higher education leaders with substantial new insights and visualizations into the nation’s prospective college-bound market and the competitive landscape, allowing them to confidently and strategically plan for future recruitment cycles and identify opportunities for new student markets.

Encoura’s CEO Doug Hughes described the solution that the new technology offers, “The current landscape necessitates significant advancements in the tools and intelligence used to recruit best-fit students. Many colleges and universities are bracing for enrollment challenges as market perspectives shift and the number of students graduating high school declines. Market Insights offers enrollment teams unprecedented intelligence and analytics, ushering in a new era of precision and insights for enrollment planning.”

Encoura’s mission is to empower students and institutions to create these meaningful connections so everyone can make the most informed decisions to achieve their goals. Market Insights is the latest evolution in the company’s products to strengthen that link between students and higher education institutions in order to create the highest probability of student success.

Market Insights provides college and university enrollment offices with comprehensive, actionable, and easy-to-use data analytics on recent high school graduates. Enrollment teams can now generate refined data science results to give their institutions uniquely extensive insights into where to invest their resources to find new students to engage and to best serve them during their college search journey.

Matt Ellis, Chief Product Officer at Encoura, shared about the product launch, “With Market Insights, institutions will be able to better understand student trends across the national enrollment landscape, and how they can better identify, connect with, and serve students they may otherwise not be reaching. Helping more students and institutions successfully find and make meaningful connections with each other can help students see and achieve the incredible opportunities out there for them.”

Because of these meaningful connections resulting from Market Insights, institutions will be equipped with the strategic insight needed for them to connect with and empower new student populations. These students can receive college information, resources, and opportunities that otherwise would not have reached them, increasing student engagement and building more equitable pathways for their success.

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

Encoura Grieves with the Uvalde Community

As an education organization committed to serving students, we are devastated and outraged to hear of the school tragedy in Uvalde, Texas. We condemn the murder of innocent children and educators and grieve with the families and community who have had loved ones taken from them.

We know that actions can support grieving individuals more than words, which is why our team is contributing to the “Texas Elementary School Shooting Victims Fund,” which will provide 100% of the donations directly to the victims’ families.

Our hope is that we each can slow down today, tomorrow, and the coming days to remember the 4th grade teachers that lost their lives, the students that lost their lives, and all those touched by this senseless act, and the countless others who have lost their lives in similar tragedies, and their families who continue to suffer as a result.

Innocent children must not continue to be the victims of inaction. Children and educators have the right to a safe learning environment, a safe community, and a safe home. As a country, we must do better, and we all play a role in making that a reality.

Encoura® Announces Lineup of Higher Education and “Best in Class” Luminaries at Higher Ed’s Premier Thought Leadership Event, Eduventures® Summit 2022

PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIANS DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN AND JON MEACHAM ONSTAGE TOGETHER, DEI AUTHOR AND CEO OF HARVARD DIVERSITY PROJECT BRANDON FLEMING, MASSACHUSETTS SYSTEM PRESIDENT, MARTY MEEHAN, ALLAN C. GOLSTON, PRESIDENT, U.S. PROGRAM, BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION, AND WORLD-RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER PLATON CONFIRMED AS KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Boston, MA – May 24, 2022 Encoura, an educational data science and research organization, ​​​today announced the lineup of industry luminaries slated to address Eduventures Summit 2022 in Boston. The annual event, hosted by Encoura’s research division, Eduventures, will include Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham in a rare joint onstage engagement.  Other confirmed keynote speakers include the President of the Massachusetts college system, Marty Meehan, social justice leader and advocate, Brandon Fleming, President of the U.S. Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Allan C. Golston, and world-renowned photographer, PLATON. Eduventures Summit will take place at the InterContinental Boston Waterfront Hotel, June 15 – 17, 2022.

The mission of Eduventures Summit is to inform, educate and inspire higher education leaders—from both public and private non-profit institutions—by equipping them with tangible ideas and best practices so they can improve in a wide array of areas spanning recruitment, program innovation, and student success. The evergreen program theme, Higher Ed Remastered, captures both the timeless qualities of higher education and the need for innovative models.

The annual event, which will sell out, is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for college and university leaders and the partners who serve them to come together to network with one another, share best practices, and engage in discussions about the future of higher education.

Confirmed keynote speakers include:

Doris Kearns Goodwin, world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of seven critically acclaimed and The New York Times bestselling books, including The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (November, 2013) and Leadership in Turbulent Times (September, 2018). Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln served as the basis for Steven Spielberg’s hit film Lincoln and was awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize, the inaugural Book Prize for American History, and the Lincoln Leadership Prize. Doris will offer context for our current political climate showing how today leaders can learn from the past.

Jon Meacham, Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning Author. Jon is one of America’s most prominent public intellectuals. A contributor to TIME and The New York Times Book Review, Meacham is a highly sought-after commentator, regularly appearing on CNN and MSNBC. Known as a skilled orator with a depth of knowledge about politics, religion, and current affairs, Meacham brings historical context to the issues and events impacting our daily lives.

Brandon Fleming – Brandon P. Fleming is a nationally acclaimed Harvard educator and author of MISEDUCATED: A Memoir. His story of struggle, success, and service has inspired millions around the world. An at-risk youth and college dropout turned award-winning educator, Fleming is Assistant Debate Coach at Harvard University and Founder/CEO of the Harvard Diversity Project. Fleming was recruited to join the Harvard debate faculty at the age of 27. Harvard later approved Fleming’s proposal to establish a new department within the university system called the Harvard Diversity Project – an unprecedented pipeline program of the Harvard Debate Council. Fleming now leads an executive staff and board that has raised over a million dollars to enroll over 100 students of color into Harvard’s international summer debate residency on full scholarship.

Marty Meehan – the 27th president and the first undergraduate alumnus to lead the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he was elected to the presidency after eight successful years as chancellor of his alma mater, UMass Lowell, during which he led the university to top-tier national status, improving its performance in every sphere of activity, including enrollment, student success, fundraising and auxiliary revenue generation.

Platon – After working for British Vogue for several years, Platon was invited to NYC to work for the late John Kennedy Jr. and his political magazine, ‘George.’ Shooting portraits for a range of international publications including Rolling Stone, the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ and the Sunday Times Magazine, Platon developed a special relationship with Time magazine, producing over 20 covers for them. Platon is a communicator and storyteller. He has been invited to be a keynote speaker on leadership at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chanel, Nike, Yale University, Oxford University, Wharton University, the National Portrait Gallery in London and International Center of Photography in NY. He has also appeared on a range of television media including Charlie Rose (PBS), Morning Joe (MSNBC), Fareed Zakaria’s GPS (CNN) and the BBC World News.

Allan C. Golston leads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program efforts to help all students graduate from high school, get to and through college and get a good job. This work spans early learning, K-12, postsecondary, and education pathways into the workforce, as well as economic mobility and opportunity efforts. It includes a deep focus on equity in education and emphasizes the use of data to make better-informed decisions that lead to greater, more equitable outcomes for students of all backgrounds. Having served as president since 2006, Allan believes education provides a bridge to opportunity unlike any other in America, and he is committed to ensuring that all young people have the education and opportunity they deserve.

In addition to keynote speakers, Eduventures principal analysts will present the latest research and proprietary market data on key higher education trends.  The Eduventures research team will showcase Annual Innovation Award program winners, honoring higher education institutions, companies and other organizations that share Eduventures vision for a responsive, innovative higher education sector.

“2022 looks to be our most robust conference yet, with an impressive mix of mainstage headliners, featured speakers, research presentations and social events that make up our expanded agenda,” said Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer, Encoura. “Additionally, our esteemed keynotes and ‘Best in Class’ speakers will initiate meaningful conversations and inspire industry-wide action as they explore topics such Leadership, Social Justice, and the Current State of Higher Education.  As in the past, our agenda highlights the need to provide access, fit and career success for all students. Our keynote speakers will emphasize the opportunities afforded by a higher education system that is available to all.”

To view the conference program, visit https://encoura.org/resources/eduventures-summit/

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the press community who would like to request press credentials for Eduventures Summit 2022 can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

NRCCUA® Announces Company Name Change to Encoura®

WITH A RENEWED COMMITMENT TO HELPING STUDENTS FULFILL THEIR POTENTIAL, THE NEW NAME REPRESENTS THE COMPANY’S VISION FOR THE FUTURE

Austin, TX – September 23, 2021 The National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA), an industry leading educational data science and research organization, announced today that the company will begin operating under a new name and will be known as Encoura, effective immediately. The new company name reflects both the evolution of the company as well as its vision for the future. The company’s ownership and staff have not changed.

Encoura’s mission is to empower students and institutions to create meaningful connections so everyone can make the most informed decisions to achieve their goals. Since 1972, the company has evolved its products and services to better represent the link between students and higher education institutions and to create the highest probability of student success.

As part of that evolution, the company acquired Eduventures®—the leading research and advisory firm focused exclusively on higher education—to provide forward-looking and actionable research and insights. With the launch of the Encoura platform in 2017, the company now provides custom technology solutions that combine Eduventures research, data science, strategic enrollment services, and multichannel marketing to serve over 2,000 higher ed institutions. The company also offers myOptions® Encourage™—a free planning program that offers college and career planning assistance to high school students, parents, and educators nationwide so they can explore a wide range of post-secondary opportunities.

Doug Hughes, CEO of Encoura, commented on the name change and company evolution, “The crisis in higher education—accelerated by the pandemic—created an urgent need for better technology to reach and serve students where they are, new experiences that broaden access and deepen learning, and redoubled institutional commitment to student success. We are proud that this is part of our DNA and mission going forward and see the Encoura name as our commitment to serve students and deep belief that education is the catalyst for individual success and community transformation.”

About Encoura, LLC

Encoura, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, Encoura has been a leading provider of data science, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

CHLOE 6 Survey Highlights Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education, Plans to Further Integrate Online Learning to Meet Student Needs

The Sixth Edition of the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Survey — a survey of Chief Online Officers (COOs) — sheds new light on the future of online learning, while providing important insight into how colleges and universities responded to the COVID-19 pandemic as it evolved throughout 2020.

The results — available in CHLOE 6: Online Learning Leaders Adapt for a Post-Pandemic World — highlight how attitudes toward online learning have changed as a result of the pandemic. “Exposure of faculty and students across the entire spectrum of U.S. higher education to online tools and techniques during the pandemic is causing a positive reassessment of online learning,” noted Dr. Ron Legon, QM Executive Director Emeritus and Contributing Editor of CHLOE 6. “A more complete integration of in- person and online modes of college learning coupled with accelerated growth is likely to occur in the years immediately ahead.”

CHLOE 6 tracks how institutions are reassessing their priorities related to online learning and shifting focus to ed tech enhancements, faculty professional development and online quality. “Higher ed institutions, especially those that have been primarily in-person, are planning for a future inclusive of the online modality by prioritizing quality and supporting both faculty and students in that endeavor,” shared Dr. Bethany Simunich, QM Director of Research and Innovation and Co-Director of CHLOE 6.

 

The survey shows:

  • An elevated commitment to online learning quality assurance goals, including having courses meet quality standards, supported by a commitment to faculty professional development.
  • An average 10-15% increase across institutions in online professional development and student orientation to online study to serve previously in-person faculty and students.
  • The largest yearly increases ever in ed tech investment in 2020 and 2021 across all sectors of higher ed.

 

“We will look back on COVID-19 as the force that propelled online learning to new heights of adoption, relevance and value. CHLOE 6 captures the early stages of this trend,” said Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer and Co-Director of CHLOE 6. “College and university leaders have the opportunity to craft powerful new models combining the best of campus and the best of online.”

The CHLOE surveys are now in their fifth year. For CHLOE 6, 422 U.S. colleges and universities contributed to the survey. Ninety-five percent of respondents indicated the presence of an officer fitting the COO description. Dr. Eric E. Fredericksen, Associate Vice President of Online Learning at the University of Rochester and Contributing Editor of CHLOE 6, recognized the vital contributions of his colleagues. “Once again, the CHLOE team appreciates the Chief Online Officers at our colleges and universities for their participation in this research study. It is critical for higher education to reflect on what we have learned during this pandemic and how our institutions are positioned for the future.”

This report was made possible through the support of the CHLOE Advisory Panel as well as platinum sponsor iDesign and gold sponsors Archer Education and the Online Learning Consortium.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has advanced conversations across higher education institutions regarding the strategic importance of high quality online learning.” explained Whitney Kilgore, Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer at iDesign. “An intense focus on quality will address issues such as student engagement, access, equity, and accessibility. The CHLOE 6 Report provides an excellent snapshot of the digital transformation of higher education — a work in progress.”

The full report can be downloaded from either the Quality Matters or Eduventures websites.

The principal authors of the report are Richard Garrett (Eduventures Research) and Dr. Bethany Simunich (Quality Matters) with Senior Editor Dr. Ron Legon (Quality Matters) and Contributing Editor Dr. Eric Fredericksen (University of Rochester).

Dr. Bethany Simunich and Richard Garrett are available for comment:

Bethany Simunich, Ph.D., Director of Research and Innovation, Quality Matters (bsimunich@qualitymatters.org; 410.497.8068)

Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer, ACT | NRCCUA
(rgarrett@eduventures.com; 617.704.8481)

About Quality Matters

Quality Matters (QM) is the global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides a scalable quality assurance system for online and blended learning used within and across organizations. When you see QM Certification Marks on courses or programs, it means they have met QM Course Design Standards or QM Program Review Criteria in a rigorous review process.

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACT®, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With Encoura® Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

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Eduventures® Releases In-Depth Report on the Current Higher Education Journey for Black Students and Identifies Colleges that Buck the Trend

Going Beyond the Numbers, the Report Considers Institutional History, Initiative, Leadership, and Culture and Highlights Institutions that have Demonstrated Success in Serving Black Students

Boston, MA – April 1, 2021 – ​ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced the publication of a report focused on the education journey for Black students.  Eduventures® Research, Transcending the Current Higher Education Journey for Black Students: Colleges that Buck the Trend, authored by Eduventures Chief Research Officer, Richard Garrett was released today. Eduventures is the research division of NRCCUA.

When discussing higher education and Black students, two things are well-established: underrepresentation among traditional-aged undergraduates, and below-average six-year graduation rates. Drawing on data, websites, and interviews, the report considers the rare institutions—selective and otherwise—that not only transcend this unfortunate state-of-affairs, but also demonstrate a combination of a sizeable and growing traditional-aged Black undergraduate cohort, a superior overall graduation rate, and a Black graduation rate that surpasses the institutional average. The report attempts to go beyond the numbers to consider institutional history, initiative, leadership, and culture.

Key Research Findings Include:

  1. Black share of the undergraduate student population (those students who identify as “Black or African American”) stood at 11.9% in 1999, peaked at 14.7% in 2011, and then fell to 12.9% in 2019 (the most recent year available). Black enrollment surged during and immediately after the Great Recession, and then—more than average—fell off over the course of the long recovery.Between 2010 and 2019, total undergraduates dropped 9%, but Black undergraduates declined 20%. In 2019, the six-year graduation rate for all first-time, full-time undergraduates was 60%; for Black students it was 40%.
  2. A number of schools have bucked the trend: enrolling a sizeable and growing Black cohort and reporting higher graduation rates than the rate for the institution overall. Report findings show 37 institutions (3.9%) have the distinction of graduating Black students at a rate of three percentage points or higher than average. Another 154 schools (16%) report a Black graduation rate within +/- three percentages points of the average.
  3. Three schools, representing very different institutional types, are profiled, considering not only data but also illuminating something of the policies and practices behind these apparent success stories. These include, SUNY Albany (also known as the University of Albany), Towson University, and Amherst College.

“Very few U.S four-year colleges and universities (excluding HBCUs) exemplify a true commitment to Black students: enrolling them at or above population incidence, growing this cohort strongly over time, posting a Black first-time, full-time graduation rate above 70%, and a graduation rate that matches or exceeds the institutional average,” commented Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer at ACT | NRCCUA, and author of this report.

“Among the handful that get close to this ideal, most hit some of these metrics but not others: a stellar graduation rate but flat or down Black enrollment.” Garrett added, “all of these schools would acknowledge they have plenty of work still to do. But they are role models in that each has managed something very few other schools, of any type, have achieved: to graduate traditional-aged Black undergraduates at a rate far above the national average and close this population’s graduation gap that is the norm at most peers.”

DEI and Black Underrepresentation

Higher education leaders cannot be “neutral” on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and must address sustained Black underrepresentation. There are no simple answers, but those rare institutions that have made more progress than most deserve acknowledgment and emulation, and more needs to be done to unpack and propel their success. The ultimate test for higher education leaders is to create a multi-prong strategic plan that will continue to grow Black enrollment and sustain or improve graduation rate outperformance for this population.

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions® (NRCCUA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACT®, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With Encoura® Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

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Annual Eduventures® Transfer Student Research Report, Part 2, Examines Impact of Rule Changes When Pursuing College Students in the Transfer Process

Data Provides Retrospective View of Students Who Have Already Completed the Process of Transferring to Another Institution

Boston, MA – January 28, 2021 – ​ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of a second in a series of reports focused on the transfer student process. The Eduventures Transfer Student Research Report, Part 2 provides a better understanding of the different paths transfer students take and why, and uncovers how these students experience the transfer process. For this purpose, Eduventures examined data from both prospective transfer students, those actively thinking of transferring to a different school, and retrospective transfer students, those who already completed the transfer process. This report explores the transfer process from the perspective of the latter group: undergraduate students who already departed their original enrollment school and are currently enrolled at their transfer school.

Understanding Prospective Transfer Students Impact on Enrollment Planning

Transfer students are an increasingly important population for many postsecondary institutions. They help mitigate enrollment attrition in times when many institutions depend on steady enrollment sizes. Many institutions, however, have seen their transfer application and enrollment numbers decline over the past decade as enrollment at two-year institutions shrank and more four-year institutions competitively recruited them. This environment is about to become more uncertain as institutions grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in the NACAC Code of Ethics and Professional Practices. According to these new rules, schools are no longer discouraged to pursue their competitors’ students. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted student enrollment choices: in a recent Eduventures study we learned that one in five students was not sure about their return to school in the spring semester. Attrition and four-year to four-year transfer patterns are likely to increase as a result. Enrollment at two-year institutions, on the other hand, has sharply declined, diminishing traditional transfer student pipelines.

Key Research Findings Include:
  1. Retrospective Transfers: Vertical Transfer Students (Two-Year to Four-Year)
    Vertical transfers are highly pragmatic students who solidified their transfer plans early in their academic journeys. Practical considerations, including the credit transfer process and, especially, cost, are top-of-mind for these students.Motivations: 74% say they “always” planned on transferring to another school.Priorities: When considering transfer schools, these students cared most about whether the school offers their major (52%), whether credits would transfer (48%), and what the cost of tuition would be (42%).Concerns: Their top concerns before the transfer were not being able to transfer credits (41%) and graduating with more debt (40%). Most (70%), however, report in retrospect that their credits transferred as expected.

    Search Habits: They rely heavily on family and friends (48% retrospective) and campus visits (45%) to learn about potential transfer schools.

     

  2. Retrospective Transfers: Lateral Transfer Students (Four-Year to Four-Year)
    Lateral transfer students are driven by a dissatisfaction with their original enrollment school or a change in personal circumstances. Their primary concern is whether their credits will transfer.Motivations: Four-year to four-year transfers report a range of motivations: their original school was not a good fit (38%), or too expensive (23%), they wanted a better school (29%), their personal circumstances changed (24%), or they wanted to be closer to home (22%)Priorities: When considering transfer schools, they cared most about whether the school offers their major (39%), the cost of tuition (38%), whether credits would transfer (36%), and the location of the transfer school (35%). Compared to Prospective Lateral Students, they more often cited wanting to be closer to home (22% vs. 9%).Concerns: Before they transferred, four-year to four-year transfers were highly worried their credits might not transfer (48%); in hindsight, 37% wish that they had received more help with this process. 44% say they lost an average of nine credits they had expected to transfer.

    Search Habits: Family and friends are the starting point (52%) and most helpful source of information (45%) for these students, followed by campus visits (36% starting point, 39% helpful).

Areas for Concern and Opportunity

Research unveiled in this report indicates that many retrospective transfers wish they had received more advising from their transfer school. This indicates that while students are generally happy with their transfer schools, there could be a need for more transfer student advising. Retrospective transfer students also identified the credit transfer process as a key concern.

Schools that wish to recruit more transfer students should take note that providing stellar guidance throughout the transfer process to prospective transfer students may be as important as recruitment marketing efforts that tout the school’s value proposition to these students.

Areas in Which More Help was Desired – Retrospective Transfer Students

Source: Eduventures 2019 Transfer Student Research

“Transfer student motivations, concerns, and search behaviors differ depending on their school of origin. This calls for a more nuanced strategy than the homogenous approach currently practiced at many institutions. Certain themes remain the same for all transfer students, but they will require fine-tuning based on the target audience,” commented Johanna Trovato, Eduventures Senior Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA, and author of this report. “Institutions must be transparent about the credit transfer process, communicate paths to affordability, offer dedicated on-campus event (when possible) and virtual events and use their website as a starting point for connecting with prospective transfer students.

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

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Eduventures Releases the 2020 Higher Education Technology Landscape Report, COVID Edition

Report Identifies Changes in the Higher Education Technology Landscape Accelerated by the COVID-19 Pandemic That Have Both Strained and Made Technology Investments More Relevant 

Boston, MA – December 15, 2020 – ​ACT | NRCCUA, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures 2020 Higher Education Technology Landscape Report. Eduventures Research, ACT | NRCCUA’s research division, began publishing this annual report in 2014 to make the market more understandable and help higher education leaders evaluate the expanding array of standalone and bundled offerings.

This year’s Landscape Report reflects the challenges of our time: in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has both strained our technology systems and made them more relevant than ever before. The pandemic has required nearly all institutions to deliver courses and academic support remotely, and many institutions have struggled to meet this need. Available today, this report is part of an ongoing body of research that includes updated market data and trends and identifies segments poised for growth or under pressure.

2020 Technology Landscape Structure

Segments Added to Support the New Normal

In 2020, COVID-19 substantially increased pressure on schools to ensure they have adequate and adaptive teaching and learning ecosystems. As a result, Eduventures has added five new segments that enable the Landscape Report to reflect the range of products required to support such an ecosystem. These include:

  • Accessibility Solutions: Unlike any time before, institutions face the challenge of ensuring that students with disabilities can access digital content while learning remotely.
  • Faculty Lifecycle Management Solutions: All institutions track student-level data for insight into courses taken or assessments completed. Many, however, do not have similar insight into faculty activities like courses taught or assessments administered. This type of wisdom is critical when considering how a teaching and learning ecosystem should adapt to modality changes and increases in academic advising services.
  • Institutional Effectiveness Solutions: Higher education leaders have been reflecting on how effective their remote learning efforts have been to date and whether students performed as well as they would have in an on-campus setting. As institutions seek to learn from these efforts and explore improving online courses in the future, they will need data and metrics to establish their successes or failures.
  • Student Engagement Solutions: The term “engagement” in higher education rarely has a consistent definition. For some, the word simply means student outreach via text or chat functionality. For our Landscape, we consider engagement to be less about tactical steps and more about the end goal of creating a sense of belonging for students along their journeys, whether they are remote or in-person.
  • Student Mobility Solutions: Students transferring between institutions is not a recent phenomenon. This process requires students to find information about transfer articulation policies and agreements, research how courses and programs map to potential degrees and understand which comparable courses exist at other institutions.
Segments Poised for Success

The 2020 report highlights three segments poised for success in light of the impact of COVID-19 on the teaching and learning framework. These include Advising Solutions, Curriculum Management Solutions, and Identity and Access Management Solutions.

According to James Wiley, Eduventures Principal Technology Analyst, “The move to remote learning has highlighted gaps many institutions face. Even before the pandemic, we saw an increased focus on building teaching and learning ecosystems that were flexible enough to address potential educational delivery changes and support. COVID-19 has dramatically exacerbated this need and given these segments the opportunity for innovation and widespread adoption.”

Wiley added, “The world of higher education technology has changed dramatically over the past several years in terms of the number of new products launched since 2016 and vendors’ decision to pivot their products into the market. But the future impact on the world of education technology will be primarily driven by the learnings institutions gain from their responses to COVID-19.”

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

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Eduventures® New Insight Report Examines Fall 2020 Graduate Student Enrollment Trends

After Four Years of Decline, Followed by Modest Recovery, Report Shows Higher Education’s Graduate Portfolio Will Offer a Diverse Array of Programs in Terms of Length, Delivery Mode, and Price

Boston, MA – August 26, 2020 – ​ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the 2020 Eduventures Insights Report, Fall 2020 Graduate Student Enrollment Trends. Eduventures is the research division of NRCCUA. This report looks at domestic graduate enrollment patterns during the prior two recessions, the years in between, and over the long economic expansion that crested in early 2020 to provide an answer to the questions of whether the pandemic will boost graduate enrollment in line with prior recessions, or favor alternative programs.

Changes in Graduate School Enrollment Due to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is upending assumptions about the college experience and student demand. A down economy, something the virus has induced, normally drives enrollment up: individuals turn to higher education as a source of skill development in the face of unemployment and market uncertainty. This was the case during the prior two recessions at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Graduate school enrollment is often driven by projected near-term return-on-investment: a better job and higher salary balanced against tuition and opportunity costs. If a bachelor’s degree is an immersive rite-of-passage, a master’s is an economic calculation. Pragmatism, openness to online, and strong self-motivation have been a boon for graduate schools but also threaten the status quo. The same logic that propelled master’s enrollment over the past two decades also spurred refinements to the formula. Shorter, cheaper online degree alternatives, many offered by leading universities, have flourished in recent years affording prospective graduate students greater choice.

Key Findings in this Report include the Following:

Domestic graduate enrollment spiked when the economy slipped. More precisely, enrollment tracks unemployment, which peaked just after the official end of the 2001 recession and late in the Great Recession of 2007-09. Negative enrollment growth between 2011 and 2015 was partly a function of a stronger economy but also an international graduate enrollment boom.

The number of people with a bachelor’s degree as their highest credential jumped 29% between 2010 and 2019, to more than 53 million. There have never been more prospective master’s degree students. The number of people with a master’s as their highest credential leapt even further—up 46%. This points to master’s demand rather than age cohort size as the most important enrollment driver. Educational attainment encourages further educational attainment. Someone with a bachelor’s degree is more likely to pursue a master’s than someone without a bachelor’s is to pursue a bachelor’s.

Graduate degrees have always competed against shorter, cheaper non-degree programs and learning on the job. Over the past decade, there has been a surge in non-degree offerings aimed at working professionals, notably various MOOC courses and programs, and similar offerings from individual higher education institutions and other organizations. Platforms such as Coursera and edX, and smaller providers such as Emeritus and Get Smarter, offer hundreds of online non-degree programs, typically from leading universities in high-demand fields. Programs take a month or two to complete and cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

“Eduventures predicts that both the degree and non-degree market will receive a boost in the coming academic year, driven by the pandemic-induced recession,” said Richard Garrett, Chief Research Officer and author of this report.  “Online learning as a pandemic management tool is in tune with a master’s market that was already perhaps 40% online pre-crisis, allaying consumer concern and supporting enrollment. Compared to bachelor’s degrees, one-to-two year master’s programs are comparatively brief and affordable. Federal loans and institutional grants will cushion the blow.”

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA), a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

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Eduventures® Report Examines the Effects of COVID-19 on College and University Enrollment Patterns

Using Comparative Research from Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students™, Report Unveils Student Enrollment Decisions that Effect Melt, Retention Risk, and the Next Recruiting Cycle  

Boston, MA – August 19, 2020 – ​ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the 2020 Eduventures Insights Report, What Student Enrollment Decisions Say About Melt, Retention Risk, and the Next Recruiting Cycle.  Eduventures is the research division of NRCCUA. This report looks at comparative data from Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students in 2019 and in 2020 in order to examine the real effects of COVID-19 on enrollment patterns. Understanding these complex issues is important for finalizing fall 2020 class enrollment, anticipating student retention issues for this same class, and for considering alterations to the fall recruiting cycle.

Changes in Enrollment Due to COVID-19

This year’s undergraduate recruiting cycle is coming to a grinding and excruciating end with a never-ending season of uncertainty for both students and institutions alike. Even though students have placed their deposits to signal an enrollment decision, the year and the path ahead is still uncertain as they approach their freshman experience. It is equally uncertain for institutions as they begin recruiting the class of 2021. Data from this report give institutions insights into how they can keep the class of 2020 engaged and enrolled while initiatives to enroll the class of 2021 move into full swing.

Key Findings in this Report include the Following:

Changes in enrollment patterns: In times of economic turmoil, public institutions are seeing a surge of in-state students arriving at their doors. Research in this report shows a 6% increase in students choosing to attend an in-state public institution. This movement toward lower-cost education comes at the expense of higher-cost options, especially the out-of-state public choice, which dropped by 5%. The choice to attend a private institution has also dropped by 3%.

Distance from home: The COVID-19 crisis has had a strong effect on the distance some students are willing to travel for their education. The sudden angst of shutting down the 2019-2020 academic year is not long forgotten. The travails of students making quick (and expensive) arrangements to return home from campus may have left an indelible mark.

A change in value proposition: Getting students to make the decision to choose an institution means making a sharply convincing argument about the value of a particular college education in a time of heightened concern about price and safety. The comparative data in this report indicates a shift in the focus on value. This year, students place more importance on two key components of the college decision: academic strength and affordability.

Confidence in enrollment choice: Research in this report shows 30% to 40% of students indicate some uncertainty about their enrollment choice leaving many institutions with a mammoth wave of continuing melt and retention risk.

“Every institution is still working to reduce melt and waiting to see which students will make it to enrollment whether on campus, hybrid, or remote,” commented Kim Reid, Principal Analyst and author of this report. She added, “Even if a student makes it to the first day of class, the environment is sufficiently uncertain, and students will continue to melt away after enrollment. The collaborative work that enrollment offices have with their academic and student affairs colleagues will be more important than ever to ensure that student transitions are as seamless as possible.”

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA), a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

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Eduventures® Releases New Insight Report Providing a Framework for Evaluating Academic Portfolios in Uncertain Times

Report Looks Back at Previous National Crises to Anticipate Pandemic-Related Changes in Academic Program Demand

Boston, MA – August 12, 2020

ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the 2020 Eduventures Insights Report, Program Innovation in Uncertain Times. Eduventures is the research division of NRCCUA. This report explores a framework for considering new academic programs, changing existing programs, or retiring programs during the current disruptive environment.

Decoupling Program Performance from Enrollment Trends

With higher education in crisis, institutions must consider how this new environment will affect their current students and incoming classes. With program portfolios a key driver of enrollment success, those in charge of academic program innovation must gauge how demand for individual programs might shift in the short-term. In which areas is enrollment expected to decline? Which programs could potentially help balance out the loss? While most program enrollment may not be impacted by the new circumstances, institutions with specialized portfolios, signature programs, or large adult learner populations may experience notable changes in enrollment. This report examines impacted program categories and provides questions to ask when assessing the viability of programs as institutions prepare for the new normal.

Key Findings in this Report include the Following:

  1. Categories of Crisis-Impacted Programs
    • Vulnerable programs: Regardless of previous performance, vulnerable programs will be negatively affected because related occupations show the highest negative economic impact during the crisis.
    • Crisis-proof programs: These programs are in the “Goldilocks zone” (i.e., characterized by a combination of ideal circumstances) of impact. Crisis-proof programs have historically performed well, and related occupations are stable or would see increased demand during a crisis, therefore driving continued demand.
    • Crisis-dependent programs: During a disruptive event, certain programs may temporarily become more attractive than they were in the past, but then decline to previous demand levels once society recovers from the event. Eduventures identifies these crisis-dependent programs because student demand is driven by the crisis but is only temporary. Fortunately, there are very few of these programs since many programs that gain popularity in a crisis tend to remain stable for a longer period of time.
  1. Questions to Ask About Your Program Portfolio
    • How will the COVID-19 pandemic change the way business is conducted in certain industries? Are programs ready to prepare graduates for these changes? In the current environment, this might mean predicting how risk assessment and delivery of services might change.
    • What are the fears, hopes, and attitudes that will be shaped in the current environment? How will this influence student behaviors and preferences? The COVID-19 crisis might bring with it changed attitudes toward the attractiveness of frontline healthcare programs and other first responder pathways.
    • How has the learning environment changed amid the pandemic? Do institutions anticipate these changes to last? Has the institution handled them well or do they need to improve? In the current COVID-19 crisis, this includes rethinking the student experience during social distancing as well as optimizing the online delivery and pedagogy for different student populations.

“A crisis of this magnitude will provide an opportunity for much needed introspection and evaluation of current academic portfolios,” commented Johanna Trovato, Eduventures Senior Analyst and author of this report. She added, “Change is inevitable, even in normal times, but the expedited pace of change during this crisis makes it necessary to act. This does not mean a complete overhaul of programs is in order, but rather a strategic, careful evaluation of existing programmatic strengths and weaknesses based on history and data.”

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA), a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura® Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

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Quality Matters™ And Eduventures® Research Survey On Covid-19 Response Finds Chief Online Officers Planning For Improved Remote Learning This Fall

Amidst Announced Plans for Return to In-Person Instruction, CHLOE 5 Identifies Remote Instruction Successes, Key Challenges and Priorities for Quality Improvement in Higher Education

July 21, 2020 ​

In response to this year’s unprecedented shift to remote learning, Quality Matters and Eduventures® Research issued a special edition of the annual Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Survey. CHLOE 5: A Special Pandemic Survey was administered to 308 chief online officers (COO) representing 2- and 4-year public, private and for-profit institutions.

The results — available in CHLOE 5: The Pivot to Remote Teaching in Spring 2020 and Its Impact — send a strong message. While many colleges and universities are announcing a return to campus for the fall, COOs know that forms of remote learning will play a major role in a socially distanced student experience. Over 80% of COOs are working on specific improvement to remote learning plans, including conversion to true online learning:

  • Thirteen percent improving remote instruction courses that need it
  • Thirty-five percent planning incremental improvement for all remote instruction courses
  • Eighteen percent gradually converting remote instruction courses to fully online learning
  • Seventeen percent converting all remote instruction courses to fully online learning

Only four percent of respondents indicated that their priority is returning to conventional in-person instruction as soon as feasible.

How Manageable was the Pivot to Remote Teaching at Your Institution?

The report also provides insight into the successes, challenges and priorities for quality improvement related to remote learning, including the tools and technologies deployed.

Despite widely observed deficiencies in remote courses as compared to fully online courses, schools with greater online learning experience were more likely to be positive about the logistics and perceived success of spring remote learning.

According to Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer and co-lead of the project, “The biggest challenge institutions faced was a lack of preparation — with many institutions reporting that neither faculty nor students were prepared for the sudden, unexpected pivot. Time was another issue. The need for academic continuity allowed for only a cursory conversion of courses.”

“While chief online officers acknowledge specific challenges, the majority portray a largely positive view of online learning in the wake of the pandemic crisis. Many also expressed optimism about the future of online learning, which should reassure the online community that some benefit will come from their hard work in these perilous times,” said Ron Legon, QM Executive Director Emeritus and co-lead of the CHLOE project.

As institutions look ahead and plan for the possibility that remote instruction or expanded online learning will continue into fall 2020 and beyond, COOs are outlining their priorities, which include:

  • Providing enhanced faculty development and training
  • Employing common tools and technologies
  • Setting minimum expectations for faculty-student interaction

“The CHLOE Report is the only publicly available resource that provides an unfiltered view of the online learning landscape through the lens of today’s higher education decision makers,” said Brad Gibbs, Chief Growth Officer at Archer Education, a CHLOE 5 platinum sponsor. “In our charter to accelerate growth for our partner institutions, Archer relies on the report for guidance in developing innovative marketing and enrollment services and strategies that align with the top opportunities and trends impacting today’s colleges and universities.”

This report was made possible through the support of platinum sponsors iDesign and Archer Education.

The principal authors of the report are Richard Garrett (Eduventures Research) and Ron Legon (Quality Matters) with contributing editors Eric Fredericksen (University of Rochester) and Bethany Simunich (Quality Matters).

Ron Legon and Richard Garrett are available for comment:

Ron Legon, Ph.D., Executive Director Emeritus, Quality Matters (rlegon@qualitymatters.org; 312.545.2325)

Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer, ACT | NRCCUA (rgarrett@eduventures.com; 617.704.8481)

 

About Quality Matters

Quality Matters (QM) is the global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides a scalable quality assurance system for online and blended learning used within and across organizations. When you see QM Certification Marks on courses or programs, it means they have met QM Course Design Standards or QM Program Review Criteria in a rigorous review process.

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

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Eduventures Research Report Highlights Solutions that Address the Critical Challenge of Student Retention in Higher Education

Study Finds that Institutions Most in Need of Retention Support are the Least Likely to Be Using Retention Technology

Boston, MA – July 17, 2020 ​ ​ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced the release of Eduventures Market Analysis: Student Retention Solutions. This report is designed for public and private four-year institutions and vendors who wish to have a deeper understanding about the Student Retention Solutions (retention solutions) segment and how this technology has been adopted by U.S. higher education. Retention solutions covered in this report include those offered by vendors such as Civitas, Campus Labs, Blackboard, Hobsons, EAB, Jenzabar, Oracle, and Salesforce.

The retention solutions analyzed in this report are designed to enable colleges to collect, monitor, and act on student data to improve retention. Functionality within these solutions includes an “early warning system” for at-risk students, a forum for communication between advisors, faculty, and students, and methods to manage student academic interventions.  The segment is characterized by both point solutions and by enterprise solutions that have specific retention functionality built into them.

Troubling Trends in Student Retention

Over 35 million students have attended college but never earned a credential. Retention rates, with too few exceptions, remain stubbornly low—especially for the most vulnerable populations. While community colleges collectively improved retention at an average rate of 2% between 2014 and 2018, public four-year institutions—where the majority of students enroll—saw less than a 1% improvement, and four-year privates saw their average retention rate decline (Figure 1).

Full-Time, Undergraduate Retention Overview by Sector

Key trends featured in Eduventures Market Analysis: Student Retention Solutions include:

1. The Rise of the Retention Market

While many retention solution providers have served higher education for well over a decade, the current market leaders did not achieve a significant market presence across higher education until the 2010s. From 2010 to 2015, institutions rushed to acquire retention solutions. Large publics were the most prominent buyers. During this time, the segment as a whole saw multiple years of 30% growth or higher.

In recent years this has slowed, with only 7% growth reported in 2018 and 4% growth in 2019.  The combination of market maturation, the development of retention functionality within enterprise solutions, and an overall slowdown in the rate of new technology acquisitions across U.S. higher education is contributing to the limited adoption of retention solutions as of late.

2. The Current Landscape

60% of four year publics are currently using a retention solution. Private four-year institutions are far less likely to use a retention solution, with an estimated 20% saturation in this sector recording use of at least one solution. Nearly one third of institutions that have a retention solution are using more than one.

Institutions should rest assured that no single solution has proven itself to be the “solution of choice.” This is true even when segmenting the market by sector, or by enrollment size or based on the percentage of Pell-eligible students.

3. Impact on Retention

The percentage of institutions that have improved their retention scores is greater among schools with retention solutions than among institutions generally: 4% greater among public institutions, and 8% greater among privates. Correlation is, of course, not causation; many factors, including the inherent demographics of an institution’s study body or their overall retention strategy likely contribute to this outcome.

4. Disproportionate Technology Access

The institutions that need the most support in retention are the least likely to use a retention solution: 45% of institutions with a retention score of 80% or more use a retention solution, while just 5% of institutions reporting a retention score below 50% have one. This finding raises questions about whether these products are being deployed in a way that impacts the most vulnerable student populations.

According to Michael Miller, Eduventures Senior Analyst, ACT | NRCCUA, “Many vendors offer products with similar functionality and they will need to compete on product differentiation, ease of integration, and their overall fit into an institution’s technology ecosystem. Enterprise solutions like the SIS and CRM are also making strides in providing retention functionality. Institutions often make expensive technology decisions without knowing what the landscape for this market really looks like, and without the benefit of unbiased evidence that these solutions will deliver on their promises—the goal with this report is to help fill that gap.”

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA), a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

 

 

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Eduventures Releases New Research on the Effect of COVID-19 on High School Experience & College Choice

Report and Webinar Detail Findings from a National Sample of High School Seniors and Provides Recommendations for Enrollment Teams

Boston, MA – April 15, 2020

ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures Report on the Effects of COVID-19 on High School Students & College Choice. College-bound high school seniors across the country are experiencing an unprecedented disruption in their lives. They feel disconnected from friends, family, and educators. They’ve lost the important rituals of senior year. One of these central rites of passage, their choice of and transition to college, has been thrown into turmoil.

This study explores perspectives of high school seniors on how the pandemic will influence college choice and enrollment plans, and how institutions can help them make the best decision in lieu of in-person efforts. The research also reveals that reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic involve a complex interplay of regional infection severity and socio-political affiliations. This report provides both a geographic and demographic mapping of how reactions are shaping college plans across key segments of the U.S. college-bound student population. Some key findings include:

  • 1 in 4 students believe that the pandemic may cause them to change their college choice.
  • About half of students are worried that the pandemic may delay their enrollment.
  • About a third of students have already experienced a loss of family income.
  • Students are three times more concerned about losing out on key high school experiences than they are about having to change college plans.
  • Student whose enrollment decisions may be most impacted are more likely to be first generation, non-white, and/or reside in a county that leaned democratic in the 2016 presidential election.

The research is based on an Eduventures survey of over 7,100 high school seniors nationally conducted in March and April. It is designed as a complement to the Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students™, which examines how students make enrollment decisions and helps institutions improve yield.

The Eduventures research team will offer enrollment teams recommendations on how they can move forward with these findings in a webinar on Wednesday, April 15 at 2pm ET entitled “Effects of COVID-19 on High School Students and College Choice”.  The webinar will explore the following seven data-driven recommendations for institutions:

  1. Concern is Evident, Be a Calming Voice for Families. Students are worried, but not necessarily panicking. The communication style that institutions adopt is critical; offer a steady and calming source of support and information for students.
  2. Put Students First. Acknowledge the loss that students are feeling, but do so within context. Colleges should make a concerted effort not to place their needs above those of students.
  3. Stay the Course on Message. Students worry about paying for college, or delaying enrollment, but changing their choice is not in the cards for many.
  4. Be Virtual Far Beyond the Visit. The virtual campus visit is not top-of-mind content for many students. Institutions should prioritize the virtual opportunities students care about most.
  5. Strike the Right Tone – Communicate with Your Communities in Appropriate Ways. Communications strategies should consider how the students, families, and communities they serve might be reacting to COVID-19 based on regional infection severity and socio-political affiliations.
  6. Supercharge Your Melt Strategies – Students Who Wouldn’t Normally Melt Will. The risk of melt is from delayed enrollment more so than currently changing choice; will choice change in the future, though?
  7. Develop Financial Aid Strategies for Students who have Experienced Economic Loss. Students who have already experienced job loss have a high expectation of delaying their college enrollment.

According to Kim Reid, Principal Analyst for Eduventures Research and primary author of this study,

“The greatest certainty in these uncertain times is that families are experiencing and will continue to experience financial instability. We may see some families rebound from initial losses, but we will see other families endure financial loss as layoffs move deeper into the economy.” Reid added, “We feel that institutions must be prepared for scenarios with increased financial pressure on families. This means moving beyond the immediate communication and yield efforts into discussions of sustainable financial aid and pricing strategies that will assist families in the difficult time ahead.”

Eduventures will next launch its annual Admitted Student Research in June. This research will gather further insight into the impact of COVID-19 on student enrollment decisions. Comparisons to prior year data will reveal changes in student behavior. Additional special topic questions will explore how students have reacted to the pressure on their decision.

The Eduventures Report on the Effects of COVID-19 on High School Students & College Choice will be available for download following the webinar at www.encoura.org.

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA), a wholly owned subsidiary of ACT, is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

 

 

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Fourth Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Report from Quality Matters and Eduventures® Research Shows How Online Modality Is Reshaping Higher Education

CHLOE 4 Finds More Institutions with Chief Online Officers, but Online Orientation for Students Still Uncommon

Boston, MA – March 24, 2020

In its fourth year, the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Survey — a survey of Chief Online Officers (COOs) — continued to expand, with 367 U.S. colleges and universities responding, including public, private and for-profit institutions. That represents a 31% increase from CHLOE 3.

As this research is being released, continuity of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic is at the forefront. Many are turning to remote instruction without adequate planning and infrastructure. While online learning teams are rising to the occasion with rapid response — clear evidence that the modality is mainstream in higher education — expectations of what the modality can achieve under these emergency circumstances should be tempered. Facilitating communication regarding end-of-term course requirements should be the goal. The CHLOE 5 survey will include questions regarding continuity of instruction during the COVID-19 crisis.

The latest results — available in the report CHLOE 4: Navigating the Mainstream — reflect how institutions have embraced online learning as well as the range of approaches they take to move online learning from the periphery to the mainstream, institution by institution.

“The CHLOE partnership between Quality Matters and Eduventures Research was founded in 2016 on the belief that online learning was transitioning from an experimental phase to a mainstream component of postsecondary education in the U.S.,” said Ron Legon, QM Executive Director Emeritus and co-lead of the CHLOE project. “The CHLOE reports, drawing on the knowledge and observations of the online officers who manage online activity at their institutions, are making a major contribution to understanding this phenomenon in detail and how it is changing higher education.”

According to Richard Garrett, Chief Research Officer for Eduventures® Research, a division of ACT | NRCCUA, and co-lead of the project, “CHLOE helps illuminate how the modality, in diverse forms, is reshaping higher education, and how institutions, and their online leaders, are creatively adapting online education to better serve students, old and new.”

Additional key findings include:

  • Growth of COO Position — Prior to 2000, only 15% of CHLOE 4 participating institutions had a COO role. Today, 100% of responding institutions do, with five out of eight positions developed in the past decade. Additionally, 60% of COOs report that their roles are expanding.
  • Faculty Preparation — Required preparation of faculty members to teach online was reported by 60% of respondents.
  • OPM Partnerships — OPM partnerships have doubled since 2017 – from 12% to 24%.
  • Support Services — Support services for online learners are largely handled by units that also serve the on-campus population. Some services such as student recruitment, orientation and advising are more likely to be separately administered for online students.
  • Online Orientation — Online student orientation is surprisingly uncommon with only 30% of respondents reporting that it is required at their institution.

“We believe that the CHLOE Report is important to everyone who is striving for quality in their online offerings,” shared Whitney Kilgore, Chief Academic Officer at iDesign, CHLOE 4’s platinum sponsor. “This year’s report provides critical insights into key elements of online learning, including course design, engagement strategies and accessibility.”

CHLOE 4 also expanded the institutional models of online learning, adding a sixth model — Flagship — comprised of the leading 4-year public universities, with research and public service roles, as designed by their home states and recognized by the Association of American Universities, with fewer than 7,500 fully and partly online students. Twenty out of the 60 flagship schools in the U.S. are represented in the CHLOE Report.

Eric E. Fredericksen, Contributing Editor of CHLOE, and Associate Vice President of Online Learning at the University of Rochester, acknowledged the important role of his colleagues. “The CHLOE team is grateful to the Chief Online Officers at our colleges and universities for their contribution to this research effort. This study is essential to our understanding of an area that is vital to most higher education institutions in the United States.”

This report was made possible through the partnership of QM and Eduventures Research — the research division of ACT® | NRCCUA® — and the support of sponsors iDesign, ExtensionEngine and Instructional Connections. To download the report, visit the Quality Matters website or the Eduventures Research website.

The co-authors of the report, Ron Legon for Quality Matters and Richard Garrett for Eduventures Research, are available for comment:

Ron Legon, Ph.D., Executive Director Emeritus, Quality Matters (rlegon@qualitymatters.org; 312.545.2325)

Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer, ACT | NRCCUA (rgarrett@eduventures.com; 617.704.8481)

Eric Fredericksen, Ed.D., Associate Vice President for Online Learning and Associate Professor, University of Rochester (eric.fredericksen@rochester.edu; 585.273.1714)

About Quality Matters
Quality Matters (QM) is the global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides a scalable quality assurance system for online and blended learning used within and across organizations. When you see QM Certification Marks on courses or programs, it means they have met QM Course Design Standards or QM Program Review Criteria in a rigorous review process.

About ACT | NRCCUA
Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 2,000 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org.

 

 

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Annual Eduventures® Transfer Student Research Report Examines Preferences, Motivations, and Barriers to Success for College Students in the Transfer Process

Data Highlights Search Behaviors of Prospective Transfer Students

Boston, MA – December 6, 2019

ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the 2019 Eduventures Transfer Student Research Report. The annual report explores the transfer process from the perspective of students who are currently enrolled at post-secondary institutions and are considering transferring to a different institution. In particular, it explores two distinct segments of the transfer market, those transferring from two-year institutions and those currently enrolled at four-year schools.

Increasing Competition for Transfer Students

Prospective transfer students are a little-understood population that is often treated as a homogeneous group by institutions—many of whom have come to rely on them to make enrollment targets. As community college enrollment has dropped by 20% and the transfer-in enrollment at private schools has risen 23% over the past decade, an increasing number of colleges are faced with more competition amid dwindling numbers of transfer applicants. This report outlines the primary motivations, priorities, and concerns among key transfer segments that could impact how they are best identified and cultivated, with implications for a successful transition to their new institutions and, ultimately, academic success.

Key Research Findings Include:

  1. 62% of students at two-year schools solidify their transfer plans before enrolling at their original institution. About half of these students are highly sensitive to cost and are greatly concerned about receiving less financial aid (51%) and having to take on more debt as a result of their transfer (53%). These students also appear to have a greater need for support by others in the transfer process.
  2. 74% of students at four-year schools start thinking about potential transfer schools while enrolled at their original enrollment institution, indicating less certainty about their transfer plans. Transfer motivations are driven by dissatisfaction with their current institution. While financial considerations are a top priority in the search process, four-year transfers worry much more about the credit transfer process (55%) and a delayed graduation timeline (35%). These students tend to be more self-sufficient in their search process.
  3. Students at four-year institutions approach the transfer school search with a do-it-yourself mindset. 45% start their search on online search engines and 40% start on institutional websites, while those at two-year institutions seek help from trusted advisors (33%) and family and friends (39%).

Prospective Transfer Students’ Top Concerns about Transferring by Current School Type

“Students often enter a community college or other two-year school with the strong intention of eventually transferring to a four-year school,” commented Johanna Trovato, Eduventures Senior Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA, and author of this report. “If these schools sit back and let students find them, they are missing key opportunities to engage them early.” Trovato added, “National Student Clearinghouse data on non-enrolling student choices provides a comprehensive list of potential future transfers who may already be open to outreach from prospective transfer schools. This is the time to continue fostering relationships that institutions have already started to build when these students were still in high school.”

 

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org  

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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Annual Eduventures® Student Sentiment Research Report Examines the Communication Preferences of College-Bound High School Students

Data Highlights the Most Effective Communication Channels to Engage Students at Each Stage of College Search

Boston, MA – October 29, 2019

ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures 2019 Student Sentiment Research Report. The annual report explores the key areas of college search behavior and communication preferences to help higher education enrollment officers create more effective outreach strategies. The report is designed as a complement to the Eduventures Prospective Student Survey™, the nation’s largest college market segmentation and institutional identity study, and the Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students™, which examines how students make enrollment decisions and helps institutions improve yield.

With an estimated 3.7 million high school seniors and nearly 4,000 institutions that offer degree-granting, post-secondary programs, the college search process resembles a maze rather than a straight-forward path. How do students and schools find each other through all the marketing noise? How do they stay engaged? And perhaps most importantly, where do students look for guidance to make their enrollment decisions?

The Eduventures 2019 Student Sentiment Research Report monitors the college search behaviors and communication preferences of these Gen Z students from initial discovery to the enrollment decision. It identifies the most effective communication channels based on student preferences for each stage of the process.

Key Research Findings Include:

  1. Based on students’ ratings for generating awareness, the three highest impact information sources are:
    1. Emails from the school (62%)
    2. Word of mouth from family and friends (57%)
    3. School websites (46%)
  2. After students have identified schools of interest and get closer to decisions about where to apply, high-touch engagement, such as campus visits and one-on-one communication with admissions counselors, becomes much more important. The top information sources at this phase include:
    1. Campus tours, open houses (63%)
    2. College websites (52%)
    3. Emails from the college (41%)
  3. With a focus on getting students on campus, the top three information sources in the enrollment decision are:
    1. Campus tours, open houses (65%)
    2. College websites (44%)
    3. Emails from the college (38%)
  4. Students have different approaches to the college search process. Eduventures has identified four distinct ways students gather information about colleges, called “Search Strategies.” The four Search Strategies are:
    • The Phone is My Friend (13%): Students who use this search strategy seek interactions with institutional stakeholders. These students put a great deal of trust in the information they can glean from faculty, current students and alumni, and administrators at schools they are considering.
    • Friends and Family (30%): Students who use this search strategy trust word-of-mouth perspectives from family and friends more than any other information source.
    • Stealth, All Channels (20%): Students who use this search strategy trust information sources that do not require reciprocation (i.e., emails from schools, postcards, brochures, or print guides to colleges.)
    • Websites and Emails (37%): Students who use this search strategy primarily trust the information they gather through institutional websites and from institutional emails. They also rely more often on search engines than their peers.

“As the Student Sentiment Research Report results show, it takes hard, long-term work and collaboration between the admissions and marketing teams to move a prospective student from initial awareness about a school to enrollment. Each stage in the college search process requires a different outreach strategy that fits within the students’ search behaviors at the particular stage,” said Johanna Trovato, Senior Analyst and primary author of this study.

As generations change and traditional undergraduate student recruiting becomes more complex, a “one-size-fits-all” marketing strategy is not sufficient. This report highlights an outreach strategy that will help institutions attract, engage, and convert their best-fit students.

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900-member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org  

 

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this report or obtain a copy of the report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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Higher Education Technology Landscape - Released by Eduventures®

2019 Report Aims to Address Evolving Market Dynamics through Updated Classification and Segmentation

Boston, MA – October 15, 2019 ​

ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures® 2019 Higher Education Technology Landscape. Created to help higher education leaders prioritize their technology investments and understand the expanding array of standalone and bundled offerings, Eduventures has been publishing an up-to-date report on this ever-changing technology landscape for the past five years. 

The technology environment has changed dramatically since the report’s inception in 2014. As a result, Eduventures has updated the methodology and increased the rigor in defining and classifying these segments. The four segments included in this report include Admissions and Enrollment Management, Advancement, Student Success and Instruction, and College-Wide IT/Enterprise Backbone.

Additions, Deletions, Revisions and Category Definitions

With a sharpened methodology and inclusion criteria, the 2019 report unveiled a number of additions, deletions, revisions, and changes in category definitions:

  • Additions: Seven new segments have been added to reflect the range of products required to support a teaching and learning ecosystem.
  • Deletions: Based on a thorough review of all segments, it has been concluded that online program management providers (OPMs) should not be included. The report provides a separate map for these companies.
  • Revisions: Online Proctoring Solutions has been renamed Assessment Integrity Solutions.
  • Category and Segment Definitions: The College-Wide IT/Enterprise Backbone category was added and represents systems that comprise the core of an institutions technology ecosystem.

Market Pressures that Impact Growth

Research from this Landscape has revealed four key market pressures impacting the market, resulting in downward pressure on some segments while positioning other segments for growth. These include the following:

  • Challenges in Defining “Student Success”: There is a lack of clarity around what higher education means by the ubiquitous term, “student success.” Is it career attainment? Persistence to graduation? Student achievement? Or something else? Likewise, a growing number of technology solutions claims to support different types of student success.
  • Increasing Focus on the Learning Ecosystem: Eduventures has observed a change in how institutions consider technology selection, from a sole focus on a solution’s functionality to balancing these considerations with a solution’s fit within an ecosystem. This ecosystem view plays out in terms of the arrangement of products and guiding principles underlying teaching and learning ecosystems.
  • Aiming for Transformation: College and university leaders care less about the role technology should play in supporting essential operations, such as maintaining student records, and more about the role it should play in helping an institution transform itself to deliver value to its stakeholders.
  • The Rise of the Engagement Layer: Student engagement often refers to how institutions exchange information with students through texts, emails, or social media posts. Increasingly, Eduventures sees institutions look to supplement this type of communication with a deeper form of engagement, one that aims to deliver a better student experience, an increased student sense of belonging, and better student achievement.

According to James Wiley, Principal Analyst at Eduventures and author of the study, “The landscape of higher education, with a growing diversity of institutions, cultural environments and competitive ecosystems, is changing rapidly and disruptively. As we move beyond 2019, we will continue to monitor the market of education technology to determine new segments that are emerging and gaining traction in the marketplace. Likewise, we will closely track how certain technologies, such as student information systems and constituent relationship management solutions extend beyond their origins into other technology categories.” 

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900-member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org.  

 

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ACT® | NRCCUA® Highlights Trends Impacting the Student Information Systems Market for Higher Education

Eduventures® Highlights Systems that Manage Student Engagement, Record Management, Student Financing and Billing, Attendance Tracking, and Class Registration and Scheduling

Boston, MA – October 4, 2019 ​

ACT® | NRCCUA®, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of the Eduventures 2019 Market Analysis of Student Information Systems. This report includes analysis of products offered by companies such as Campus Management, Ellucian, Jenzabar, Oracle, Unit4, Workday, as well as additional Student Information System (SIS) vendors.  Eduventures Research, ACT | NRCCUA’s research division, has based its analysis of this market segment on its annual Eduventures Higher Education Technology Landscape that categorizes the technology products used in higher education.

The Technology Landscape report has become the definitive source for rationalizing the array of technology products created to support the needs of higher education. Like other technologies included in the CollegeWide/IT Enterprise Backbone category of the landscape report, SIS provides a set of functionalities that meet a broad range of back-office and administrative requirements across multiple administrative units, faculty divisions, and students within an institution.

Eduventures defines SIS solutions as those that allow institutions to collect, store, analyze, track, and report student-level data as systems of record. The functionality of these systems includes outreach and engagement management, student record management, student financing and billing, attendance tracking, and class registration and scheduling.

Competitive Market Pressures

Currently, the SIS segment is best understood as highly competitive; there are a few primary SIS providers for institutions with high enrollments and several players attempting to carve out a niche at institutions with low enrollments that serve specific student populations.

Meanwhile, the market is slowing, as clearly evidenced by a decrease in new system implementations over recent years. This report includes a market share assessment, size and share of implementations, and historical growth rates for a range of technology providers who serve this market.

Highlighted trends in the Eduventures 2019 Market Analysis of Student Information Systems include:

  1. Cloud Migration: Institutions are in varying states of readiness to migrate to hosted or cloud environments and oftentimes wedded to highly customized legacy systems and outmoded operations. Migration to the cloud has been a concentrated effort of SIS vendors. This report analyzes the longitudinal trend of on-premises and hosted/cloud SIS implementations.
  2. Increased Interest in Institutional Transformation: Institutions are increasingly focused on initiatives such as digital transformation and expanding non-traditional academic models and programs (e.g., competency-based education and certificate programs) and online and hybrid programs. Many student information systems seem largely concentrated on operational concerns—tracking student records, for example—and do not appear to lend themselves to helping institutions address the more transformational concerns.
  3. The Rise of CRM: Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) solutions have historically been used for marketing campaigns, recruitment, and other areas that address stakeholder engagement. As such, institutions have deployed integrations between the CRM and SIS to ensure that they captured and consolidated student data. Recently, we have seen a rise in institutions considering whether a CRM alone can address both areas by serving as the central source of student data and providing a mechanism by which institutional leaders can engage with stakeholders.

According to Michael Miller, Eduventures Senior Analyst, ACT | NRCCUA, “The SIS segment is at a crossroads. For providers to be successful, they must demonstrate the value of SIS as an asset that cannot only provide operational efficiencies, but help institutions create a platform for strategic transformation.”

 

About ACT® | NRCCUA®

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org  

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ACT® | NRCCUA® Unveils New Insights into How College-Bound Seniors Make Enrollment Decisions

Based on Eduventures® Annual Survey of Admitted Students, Research Findings Highlight Nine National Benchmarks to Inform Yield Strategy

Boston, MA – September 26, 2019 ​

ACT | NRCCUA, an educational data science and research organization, announced today the publication of Eduventures’ 2019 Benchmarks for Admitted Students report. This research uses data from the Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students to understand student decision-making around college choices. Eduventures is the research division of NRCCUA.

Bringing Student Enrollment Drivers into Sharper Focus

This new report is designed as a “how to” guide to enable enrollment offices to measure their performance on yield and take specific action. It is a complementary report to the recently-published piece Enrollment Driver Analysis: How Admitted Students’ Perceptions Shape the Enrollment Choice, which examines both stated and latent factors influencing a student’s enrollment choice vs. the next alternative institution. The benchmarks included in this new body of research provide a deeper dive into Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students and includes regional and national data. A set of questions is included with each benchmark, providing enrollment leaders with a way to contextualize findings based on their specific datasets.

The Nine National Benchmarks for Admitted Students unveiled in this report include the following:

  1. Admitted Student Mindsets: This benchmark includes the percentage of enrolling students who belong to each of Eduventures’ six behavioral and attitudinal Admitted Student Mindsets (Mindsets): Experiential Interest, Career Pragmatists, Social Focus, Exploration & Meaning, Career through Academics and Grad School Bound.
  2. Decision Segments: This benchmark represents the percentage of students identifying the most important single factor in their enrollment decisions among the top eight: Affordability, Reputation, Feeling of Fit, Quality of Program, Value for Money, Career Outcomes, Sense of Community, and Proximity to Home.
  3. First Choice: This benchmark measures the number of enrolling students who choose a particular institution as their first choice destination.
  4. Destination: This benchmark shows where non-enrolling students are attending school, segmented by control, Carnegie classification, and in-state vs. out-of-state status for public destinations.
  5. Distance: This benchmark measures the mileage between an enrolling students’ home zip codes and location of the institution in which they enrolled.
  6. Brand Constructs: This benchmark shows student ratings on 10 aggregated brand constructs, including: Friendly/Comfortable/Community, High Quality/Challenging/Intelligent, Well-Rounded, Fun/Exciting, Career-Minded, Spirit School/Athletics, Prestige/Rigor, Affordable/Value, Diverse or Well-Known.
  7. Quality Perception Gap: This benchmark measures the gap between enrolling and non-enrolling students on perceptions of quality for key enrollment drivers, including: Overall Reputation, Strength of Program, Job Opportunities for Graduates, Sense of Community, Feeling of Fit, Value for Cost, and Availability of Financial Aid.
  8. Communications: This benchmark shows the percentage of students who both use and find useful key components of enrollment communications, including: In-Person, Websites, Publications, Social Media, Campus Visits, and Admitted Student Events.
  9. Net Cost Comparisons: This benchmark shows the percentage of students choosing to attend an institution with a lower, same, or higher net cost than the inquiring institution. It includes student-estimated dollar amounts of the difference in net cost.

According to Kim Reid, Principal Analyst at Eduventures and author of this study, “The Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students helps institutions to understand the nature of important perception gaps and to develop appropriate strategies for addressing these gaps for traditional-aged undergraduates. Our new benchmark research goes further by helping institutions accurately measure themselves against regional and national competitors to craft and apply an informed yield strategy.”

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900-member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org  

 

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ACT® | NRCCUA® Releases Eduventures® 2019 Higher Education Technology Landscape

Eduventures Research Highlights Four Market Pressures that Impact Technology Decisions

June 24, 2019 – Boston, MA

ACT | NRCCUA, an educational data science, analytics, and research organization, today announced the publication of the Eduventures 2019 Higher Education Technology Landscape (Landscape). Eduventures Research, ACT | NRCCUA’s research division, began publishing the Landscape to make the market more understandable and help higher education leaders evaluate the expanding array of standalone and bundled offerings. Available today, this Landscape is part of an ongoing body of research that includes updated market data and trends for specific segments of the technology market.

Since the inception of this Landscape in 2014, classifying technology solutions has proven to be both challenging and dynamic: various solutions have overlapping functionalities, and there are conflicting marketing messages around the benefits solutions provide. As a result, the accompanying Landscape Report, to be published in fall 2019, will provide greater insight into the technology segments through the lens of macro pressures.

This year, while our overall classification method remains the same, we further enforced our criteria to exclude services and added new segments to reflect solutions that support the teaching and learning ecosystem.

Market Pressures Driving Change

Ongoing analysis of the Landscape has concluded that four market pressures are impacting segments of the higher education technology market. They include:

  • Challenges in Defining Student Success – Today, there is a lack of clarity around the term “student success.” Is it career attainment? Persistence to graduation? Student achievement? Or something else? Likewise, a growing number of technology solutions claim to support different types of student success, which increases the difficulty of institutions trying to determine which meaning of student success is a priority and align that meaning to the right technology segment.
  • Increasing Focus on the Learning Ecosystem – Ongoing Eduventures technology research highlights a change in how institutions consider technology selection. It’s shifting from solely focusing on a solution’s functionality to balancing these considerations with a solution’s fit within an ecosystem. This ecosystem view plays out in terms of the arrangement of products and guiding principles underlying teaching and learning ecosystems. Within the market segments that support teaching and learning, there is an increased expectation that they fit within and support this ecosystem.
  • Aiming for Transformation – Today, institutions are less focused on the role technology plays in supporting essential operations, such as maintaining student records, and more about the role it should play in helping an institution transform itself to deliver value to its stakeholders. Many institutions ask how solutions in specific segments help them go beyond supporting functions, such as managing grades and courses to empowering them to leverage data for performance improvement.
  • The Rise of the Engagement Layer – Student engagement often refers to how institutions exchange information with students through texts, emails, or social media posts. Increasingly, institutions look to supplement this type of communication with a deeper form of engagement—one that aims to deliver a better student experience, an increased student sense of belonging, and better student achievement.

According to James Wiley, Eduventures Principal Analyst, ACT | NRCCUA, “Most attempts to provide a deeper understanding of market pressures rely on an analysis of trends of implemented solutions over time or the competitive environment of vendors within a market segment, such as learning management systems. Our research has shown that relying solely on these approaches can obfuscate the overarching pressures that make segments poised for growth (positively affected) and under pressure (negatively impacted).”

To download the Eduventures 2019 Higher Education Technology Landscape, visit: https://encoura.org/Tech-Landscape-2019 

About ACT | NRCCUA
Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more
information, visit https://encoura.org

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ACT® | NRCCUA® Announces the 2019 Eduventures® Innovation Award Winners

Award Winners Honored at Eduventures Summit and Include Adelphi University, Harvard Business School Online, Southern New Hampshire University, and Western Governors University

June 7, 2019 – Boston, MA

ACT | NRCCUA, an educational data science, analytics, and research organization, announces the winners of the annual Eduventures Innovation Award Program. The Program was created to recognize the achievements of individuals and institutions that share the company’s vision for innovating to improve enrollment, student experience, and student outcomes. Selected by a panel of higher education leaders and advisors, winners were celebrated at a ceremony and reception that took place during Eduventures Summit, which is co-presented by
ACT | NRCCUA and Strada Education Network℠.

The 2019 winners include:

  • Adelphi University in Garden City, New York
  • Harvard Business School Online in Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire
  • Western Governors University in Salt Lake City, Utah

Award winners were announced by Patrick Vogt, CEO of ACT | NRCCUA and Cara Quackenbush, Eduventures Vice President of Research for ACT | NRCCUA.

“By embracing new thinking and bold ideas, these teams and institutions are redefining the meaning of excellence and demonstrating the transformative power of higher education for students, educators, and communities,” said Patrick Vogt, CEO of ACT | NRCCUA. “Winners leverage best-in-class processes, technologies, and teams to set themselves apart from the competition. On behalf of all of us at ACT |
NRCCUA, I congratulate this year’s group of individuals and institutions.”

“Innovation, at its best, is a collaborative effort, and the Center for Applied Learning Science (CALS) exists to incubate and spread the best ideas with the greatest potential to improve student learning—redefining the way we serve students in a changing world,” said Jason Levin, Executive Director of CALS. “We’re honored to receive this award from Eduventures and thank them for recognizing the power of innovation to benefit not just WGU students but learners everywhere.”

About the Eduventures Innovation Award Program

Now in its 5th year, the Eduventures Innovation Awards Program honors organizations and teams that are shaping the future of Higher Education. Entries are submitted in 3 categories and are designed to identify higher education institutions that have demonstrated significant innovations when developing and deploying programs that impact these areas of an institution:

  • Enrollment: A new enrollment management strategy in a fast-changing environment
  • Student Experience: A new approach to teaching and learning or student support
  • Outcomes: A new effort to define and report student outcomes

Judges select winners from written applications and, if needed, follow-up interviews. Entries are scored on value to the institution, innovation, and relevance to the mission of the school and are announced in conjunction with Eduventures Annual Summit.

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between
students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more
information, visit https://encoura.org

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Fresh Insights Into Online Learning Emerge In Newly Released Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Report From Quality Matters and Eduventures® Research

CHLOE 3 Breaks New Ground in Identifying Five Institutional Models of Online Learning While Providing a More Complete Picture of Key Strategic and Operational Initiatives

March 26, 2019 – BOSTON, MA

In its third year, the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) Survey — a survey of Chief Online Officers (COOs) — experienced significant growth, with 280 U.S. colleges and universities responding, including public, private and for-profit institutions. That represents a 54% increase from CHLOE 2.

The results — now available in the report CHLOE 3: Behind the Numbers — reflect the strategic and operational evolution of online learning and provide important insight into online learning trends and developments, including the emergence of five institutional models of online learning.

“The developing picture of online learning models is a significant new finding,” said Ron Legon, QM Executive Director Emeritus and co-lead of the CHLOE project. “These models — such as enterprise schools and community colleges — represent clusters of institutions based on shared characteristics, including online enrollment, institutional type, online management, pedagogy, and outcomes. These models are important because they help define the scope of what is typical — and what is possible — for similar institutions and may provide those institutions with a benchmark for their own practices, policies and strategies”

According to Richard Garrett, Chief Research Officer for Eduventures® Research, a division of  ACT | NRCCUA, and co-lead of the project, “CHLOE 3 also goes behind the online learning label to explore the nature of a typical course. We found a striking association between the required involvement of instructional designers or design teams and diversified online student interaction. Other things being equal, a systematic approach to online course design means a better student experience.”

Additional key findings include:

  • Online Growth — In an otherwise weak enrollment environment, online keeps growing. Median online enrollment growth among CHLOE 3 respondents was 10% between Spring 2017 and 2018.
  • Councils and Committees The emergence of online-focused committees and councils in all sectors of online learning.
  • Neglect of Blended Despite evidence of student demand for blended options, CHLOE 3 respondents reported that blended course enrollment growth is less prevalent than for fully online courses, and median growth rates are lower.
  • Alternatives A significant interest in alternative models and credentials, but a lack of investment.

“This year’s report reflects the continued evolution of online learning from a tool for access and scale, toward a strategy to improve outcomes and equity at scale,” shared Whitney Kilgore, Chief Academic Officer at iDesign, CHLOE 3’s platinum sponsor.

Additional CHLOE 3 content includes:

  • A summary of Eric Fredericksen’s work in identifying the background, characteristics, and organizational placement of online learning leaders. Eric is the Associate Vice President for Online Learning at the University of Rochester.
  • Quotes from COOs on several contentious issues, including online governance and the role of instructional designers in online course development.

This report was made possible through the partnership of QM and Eduventures Research — a division of ACT® | NRCCUA®  — and the support of sponsors iDesign, ExtensionEngine and Instructional Connections. To download the report, visit the Quality Matters website or the Eduventures Research website.

The co-authors of the report, Ron Legon for Quality Matters and Richard Garrett for Eduventures Research, are available for comment:

Ron Legon, Ph.D., Executive Director Emeritus, Quality Matters (rlegon@qualitymatters.org;  312.545.2325)

Richard Garrett, Eduventures Chief Research Officer, ACT | NRCCUA (rgarrett@eduventures.com;  617.704.8481)

About Quality Matters
Quality Matters (QM) is the global organization leading quality assurance in online and innovative digital teaching and learning environments. It provides a scalable quality assurance system for online and blended learning used within and across organizations. When you see QM Certification Marks on courses or programs, it means they have met QM Course Design Standards or QM Program Review Criteria in a rigorous review process.

About ACT | NRCCUA
Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org


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Members of the media who wish to receive a press pass for Eduventures Summit 2019 can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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Eduventures® Student Success Ratings Identify Institutions That Excel at Retaining and Graduating Students

After Analyzing 1,100 Institutions, the Report Illustrates Which Have Made Demonstrated Improvements in Student Retention and Graduation Rates and How They Were Successful

February 25, 2019
BOSTON, MA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization that was recently acquired by ACT®,​ ​today announced findings from its Eduventures Research division. The 2019 Student Success Ratings Report is designed to help colleges, universities, students, and their families by identifying institutions that excel at retaining and graduating students, as well as potential trouble spots that would hinder student success initiatives.

Efforts to improve student success involve almost every constituent on campus and are among the most complex endeavors an institution can make. Institutions of different sizes with different student bodies and different missions must find contextually appropriate approaches. Even then, changing the institutional culture, prioritizing a new strategy, and executing targeted programs is challenging. By showcasing best practice examples, the Student Success Ratings Report can help other institutions find their own way.

The Eduventures Student Success Ratings offer an excellent starting point for institutional self-management on student success. Note that this report identifies schools’ “ratings” not “rankings.” This is a small, but important distinction. Fundamentally, Eduventures created these scores for institutions to measure themselves against their own efforts within the context of their peers. This is a subtle point, because one institution surely does end up being the top-rated institution. From a philosophical standpoint, however, the ratings are intended for self-reflection in balance with competitive comparison.

Which colleges and universities are beating the student success odds?

Eduventures analyzed more than 1,100 institutions based in the United States and compared a composite of each institution’s predicted retention and graduation rates with its actual rates based on academics, affordability, and social factors. The results of that analysis, our Student Success Ratings, with institutions categorized by Doctoral, Master’s, and Baccalaureate levels in both public and private sectors, can be found here: http://bit.ly/ev-ssratings-2019

Key findings from the 2019 report include the following: 

  • Our research on overperforming schools shows us that the best public institutions are aggressively moving forward on the agenda to improve completion rates. For over-performing private institutions that generally have less room to improve than the public sector, we see evidence of steady balanced improvement in both first-year retention and graduation rates.
  • At the low end, the underperforming public institutions are mired in persistent poor performance on graduation rates with continuing slight declines in both retention and graduation. In the private sector, these underperforming institutions are experiencing more acute cases of decline. According to our research, they should be doing better given their circumstances, and their retention and graduation rates are approaching something of a freefall.

According to Kim Reid, Eduventures Principal Research Analyst and author of the study, “Given our philosophical standpoint that all student success efforts are highly contextualized to institutional settings, the case studies of overperforming institutions included in this report will bring a depth of understanding to how they have been able to achieve real student success.”

Quantitative Research that Matters

The cornerstone of Eduventures Research is the quantitative research that is conducted across multiple disciplines within higher education. A team of experienced quantitative research analysts collects and analyzes data from both prospective and current students.

Eduventures Research conducts a wide array of scientific survey projects each year, from highly-targeted single-client surveys to large multi-client studies that include tens of thousands of prospective students. It provides a combination of robust measurement tools, custom data cuts, data analysis, and ongoing client advisory services to help private, public, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions accelerate their recruiting strategies, boost program growth, and create compelling messages for their target audiences.

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit  ​https://encoura.org

About ACT

ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as the nation’s leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality achievement assessments grounded in more than 50 years of research and experience. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions that help people succeed from elementary school through career, providing insights that unlock potential. To learn more about ACT, visit www.act.org.

Members of the media who wish to receive a press pass for Eduventures Summit 2019 can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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ACT® | NRCCUA® Announces Marquee Lineup of Keynote Speakers for Eduventures® Summit 2019

Confirmed Keynote Speakers Include College President, Author, and Retired Politician Mitch Daniels and Former New Orleans Major, Social Justice Champion and Author Mitch Landrieu

February 20, 2019
BOSTON, MA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization that was recently acquired by ACT®,​ ​​today announced a lineup of accomplished professionals from the public and private sectors who will share expertise and insights on an array of issues facing the higher education community.

The annual Summit, delivered in conjunction with NRCCUA’s research division, Eduventures®, will include keynote presentations by visionary thought leaders Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University and Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans. Eduventures Summit will take place at the InterContinental Boston Hotel, June 5 – 7, 2019.

The event, which will sell out, provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity for leaders from higher education institutions and the partners who serve them to come together to network with one another, share best practices, and engage in a discussion about the future of higher education. The program theme, Higher Ed Remastered, captures both the timeless qualities of higher education and the need to create innovative models. Given the current state of higher education, this theme promises to stimulate debate and discussion on a variety of issues.

Headlining keynote speakers include:

  • Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University. Joining the institution at the conclusion of his term as the 49th governor of Indiana, Daniels is responsible for making student affordability and student success a priority at Purdue.
  • Mitch Landrieu, former Mayor of New Orleans. In his first term as mayor, Landrieu inherited a city stalled by post-Katrina and on the brink of bankruptcy. He is credited with creating, among many things, an Office of Social Entrepreneurship to advance measurable and sustainable solutions to social problems.

In addition to keynote speakers, Eduventures principal analysts will present new research and proprietary market data gathered and analyzed from thousands of students and adult learner surveys. Plenary sessions and workshops will debate burning issues facing higher education leaders, such as the degree market, online learning, the evolution of enrollment recruiting based on student mindsets, and how to quantify student success.

The cornerstone of Eduventures Summit is to provide access to insights from prominent, high-caliber experts across multiple fields, and our keynote speakers are an integral component of this. With an agenda that highlights our commitment to access, fit and career success for all students, our keynote speakers will help us envision a world where the opportunities afforded by an education transform lives and communities. Eduventures Summit will continue to be one of the most important events for higher education leaders who are looking for transformational ideas that address the pressing issues of the day,” said Patrick Vogt, CEO of NRCCUA.  

The Eduventures research team will also showcase winners of its Annual Innovation Award program, which honors higher education institutions, companies and other organizations that share Eduventures’ vision for a responsive, innovative higher education sector through programming that has impacted enrollment management strategy, teaching and learning and student outcomes. Last year’s winners included Adelphi University, Anderson University, Elon University, Georgia State University, National Louis University, and Walden State University.

To view the preliminary conference agenda, visit https://encoura.org/resources/eduventures-summit/eduventures-summit-2019-agenda/

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit  ​https://encoura.org

About ACT

ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as the nation’s leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality achievement assessments grounded in more than 50 years of research and experience. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions that help people succeed from elementary school through career, providing insights that unlock potential. To learn more about ACT, visit www.act.org.

Members of the media who wish to receive a press pass for Eduventures Summit 2019 can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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EduventuresⓇ Research Reveals the Role of Social Media in Higher Education Recruitment Marketing

New Research Shows That the Influence of Social Media in College Recruitment Varies Significantly by Platform

February 5, 2019
BOSTON, MA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization that was recently acquired by ACT®,​ ​today announced findings from its Eduventures® Research division. The 2019 Social Media Report focuses on the use and effectiveness of social media for the purpose of college search. The report builds on initial findings from the annual Student Sentiment Survey™ and reveals the impact of social media recruitment practices based on specific student populations. With current high school students active across a variety of popular social media platforms including Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, research shows that the influence of social media in college recruitment varies significantly by platform.

Key findings in the report include the following:

  • Currently, nearly one-third of students say social media is influential in their college searches.
  • The same number of students plan to use it when deciding where to enroll.
  • Some student populations are more likely to be influenced by social media:
    • African American and Hispanic or Latino populations
    • Career Pragmatist and Exploration and Meaning students as defined by Eduventures Student Mindsets™
    • High school sophomores
  • An emerging trend illustrates that one-third of prospective students find college sponsored ads on social media helpful in their searches.

According to Johanna Trovato, Eduventures Senior Analyst and author of the study, “Technology and social media play an important role in the way colleges and universities communicate with students and share information. Today, the savviest schools are using social media platforms to reach students at every stage of the student lifecycle, from awareness, to enrollment, to graduation. Colleges and universities have learned from other industries about the power of branding and digital marketing, using social media to attract students and keep them engaged throughout the course of their education and beyond.” But, Trovato warns, “Social media is most effective when used as one part of a holistic outreach strategy and mindful about the specific target audiences it will reach.”

Applying the Data 
The data on social media preferences confirms the dawn of the digital advertising age in undergraduate recruitment. Other engagement channels, including website, print collateral, and face-to-face outreach must complement social media as a way to influence prospective students.

Quantitative Research that Matters 
The cornerstone of Eduventures Research is the quantitative research that is conducted across multiple disciplines within higher education. A team of experienced quantitative research analysts collects and analyzes data from both prospective and current students.

Eduventures Research conducts a wide array of scientific survey projects each year, from highly-targeted single-client surveys to large multi-client studies that include tens of thousands of prospective students. It provides a combination of robust measurement tools, custom data cuts, data analysis, and ongoing client advisory services to help private, public, nonprofit, and for-profit institutions accelerate their recruiting strategies, boost program growth, and create compelling messages for their target audiences.

About ACT | NRCCUA 
Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those organizations providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling, and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org.

About ACT 
ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as the nation’s leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality achievement assessments grounded in more than 50 years of research and experience. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions that help people succeed from elementary school through career, providing insights that unlock potential. To learn more about ACT, visit https://www.act.org.

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Eduventures® 2018 Prospective Student Survey™ Report Reveals the Mindsets of College-Bound, Gen Z Students

The most comprehensive research of student expectations and perceptions of colleges and universities nationwide, the Prospective Student Survey details how Student Mindsets™ provide critical direction for enrollment professionals.

December 6, 2018
BOSTON, MA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization that was recently acquired by ACT®,​ ​today announced findings from its Eduventures® Research division. Available in the Eduventures app on the Encoura™ Data Lab platform, the 2018 Prospective Student Survey Report is the largest student market segmentation and brand study revealing the preferences of Gen Z college-bound students. Using Eduventures’ Student Mindsets, the results of this study are used to provide critical direction for enrollment professionals, as it informs their practices to better recruit, retain, and serve students.

What are Prospective Student Mindsets?

Initially developed to identify high school juniors’ and seniors’ dreams and desires for college, the Student Mindsets help institutions understand what students expect from their college experiences, know what their blind spots are, and evaluate how to support them throughout the student lifecycle. Prospective students in Generation Z fall into six distinct Mindsets: Experiential Interest, Career Pragmatist, Social Focus, Exploration & Meaning, Career Though Academics, and Grad School-Bound. This report provides dossiers on how to work with each Mindset, and illustrates the most common areas for enrollment professionals to infuse a “mindset approach” into their practices.

Key Findings in the 2018 Report Include the Following: 

  • Every institution has a distinct profile of Mindsets that are drawn to that type of institution. For example, the top Mindset for students likely to attend an in-state public university is Experiential Interest at 23%.
  • Academic major is strongly linked to Mindsets. For example, nearly half (45%) of students interested in studying the physical sciences fall into the Grad School-Bound Mindset.
  • Access students—defined as first-generation college, low-income, or underrepresented minority students—are increasingly aligned with the two career-oriented Mindsets, Career Through Academics and Career Pragmatist.
  • Eduventures recommends using a Mindsets approach for opening conversations with prospective students, to address their blind spots, and to identify opportunities to support them.

Our Research has Identified Four Main Ways to Apply Mindsets:

  • Bursting recruiter bubbles: sharing the Mindset research with recruiting stakeholders helps them learn about a data-driven typology of students.
  • Revitalizing communications with relevance: by prioritizing which Mindsets your institution should target, enrollment marketing and communications professionals can immediately see the benefits.
  • Rethinking campus visits: the Mindsets can be used to differentiate campus visits; a relatively simple, pre-visit Mindset assessment can change the nature of visit programs.
  • Helping academic colleagues see their students: the final, and potentially most fruitful area, is the ability to share

Mindset research with faculty to impact not only the recruiting partnership, but also the way faculty think about student support and academic programs.

“Mindsets provide a point-in-time snapshot of prospective undergraduate students,” said Kim Reid, Eduventures Principal Analyst and author of the report. “One of the most important ways to use Mindsets is the ability to train those involved in recruiting to empathize with today’s prospective students. Mindsets provide context for how institutions should bring students into the enrollment funnel.”

Quantitative Research that Matters

The cornerstone of Eduventures Research is the quantitative research that is conducted across multiple disciplines within higher education. A team of experienced quantitative research analysts collects and analyzes data from both prospective and current students.

Eduventures Research conducts a wide array of survey projects each year, from highly-targeted single-client surveys to large, national, multi-client studies that include tens of thousands of students. Our team of quantitative and principal analysts provide robust measurement tools, custom data cuts, data analysis, and ongoing client advisory to help private, public, for-profit and non-profit institutions accelerate their recruiting strategies, boost program growth, and create compelling messages for their target audiences.

About ACT® | NRCCUA®

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®) is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. Since 1972, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures® research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org

Members of the media who wish to speak to the author of this study or obtain the full report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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Eduventures® Student Sentiment Survey™ Examines the Communication Preferences of College-Bound High School Students

Data Highlights the New Communication Landscape of College Search

August 29, 2018
BOSTON, MA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization that was recently acquired by ACT®,​ ​today announced findings from its Eduventures’ Research division. Available in the Eduventures app on the Encoura™ Data Lab platform, the inaugural Student Sentiment Survey™ explores the key areas of college search behavior and communication preferences to help higher education enrollment officers create more effective outreach strategies. Designed as a compliment to Eduventures’ Prospective Student Survey™, which measures brand perceptions of college-bound high-school students, and the Survey of Admitted Students™, which examines the enrollment decision and helps traditional institutions improve yield, this latest survey answers one of the most burning questions facing enrollment offices today: Now that I’ve identified my prospective students and crafted my message, how do I get it out?

Key findings from the survey include:

Six Prospective Student Search Strategies that reinforce that students are not a homogeneous group, but rather they are individuals with unique preferences and behaviors. These include:

  • Let Me Talk to Someone (15%)
  • Don’t Find Me, I’ll Find You (25%)
  • Excuse Me, Do I Know You? (14%)
  • I Already Know You (16%)
  • Whatever You Say (17%)
  • Give Me All You Got (14%)

Analysis of the most used vs. most trusted marketing channels that highlights the influence of email (most used and trusted), social media (less used and very little-trusted), and third-party sources (often used and trusted).

The influence of search stage that illustrates how more than 80% of all students—sophomores, juniors, and seniors—actively engage in college search, their communication preferences change as their searches progress. In particular, it highlights the increased use of mobile for college search among younger students (39% of sophomores vs. 30% of seniors).

“As growth in the number of high school students has stalled in recent years, the composition of those students has evolved,” said Johanna Trovato, Senior Analyst and primary author of this study. “More first generation, underrepresented minority, and low income students are placing a wholly different set of pressures on recruiting efforts. Students are applying to nearly twice as many colleges and universities, on average, than they did a decade ago. In the zero-sum game of traditional undergraduate student recruitment, this creates an increasingly competitive landscape.”

As generations change and traditional undergraduate student recruiting becomes more complex, a “one-size-fits-all” marketing strategy is not sufficient. This report highlights an outreach strategy that will help institutions attract, engage, and convert best-fit students.

About ACT

ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as the nation’s leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality achievement assessments grounded in more than 50 years of research and experience. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions that help people succeed from elementary school through career, providing insights that unlock potential. To learn more about ACT, visit http://www.act.org.

About ACT | NRCCUA

Now part of ACT, The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,900 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, Eduventures research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org.

Members of the media who would like to speak to the author of this study or obtain the full report can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

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ACT® Acquires NRCCUA®

Acquisition is aligned with ACT growth objectives and mission to support educational success for students

IOWA CITY, IOWA – July 24, 2018

ACT® , Inc., the nonprofit developer of the ACT® test and other assessments taken by millions of individuals annually worldwide, announced today that it has acquired The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization. NRCCUA was a portfolio company of Sterling Partners’ Education Opportunity Fund. Terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1972, NRCCUA links colleges and universities to the nation’s largest college and career planning program for students seeking post-secondary guidance. More than 1,800 four-year non-profit colleges and universities are NRCCUA members.

NRCCUA serves K-12 schools, students, parents, and educators with a free college and career program called myOptions™, which is the nation’s largest college planning program, currently reaching 6 million students.  In addition, the company’s Encoura™ platform provides colleges and universities with advanced, data-driven enrollment management and research offerings.

“ACT’s acquisition of NRCCUA advances our mission to help people achieve education and workplace success,” said ACT CEO Marten Roorda. “NRCCUA is a longtime champion of lifelong learning, providing proven solutions to students and colleges. Together, ACT and NRCCUA will be able to provide more students with comprehensive tools and resources to make the best decisions as they navigate their future. NRCCUA’s services and capabilities closely align with ACT’s efforts to transform into a learning, measurement and navigation organization.”

“ACT and NRCCUA are mission-aligned in helping both students and institutions make more informed decisions that optimize fit for the highest probability of success,” said NRCCUA CEO Patrick Vogt. “Together, we will be the most skilled, innovative and effective organization in the higher education industry in delivering data science, analytics, research, measurement and assessments. Our collective members and clients will benefit from our focus on encouraging students to find their path, while also helping colleges and universities better serve students to significantly improve outcomes.”

Vogt will remain on as CEO of NRCCUA and myOptions, reporting directly to Roorda.

The acquisition of NRCCUA will advance ACT’s efforts to promote equity in education, providing the organization with immediate opportunities to make a meaningful impact on underserved K-12 students through expanding market reach and access to free, comprehensive career and college planning tools and resources. ACT will also leverage NRCCUA’s capabilities to enhance ACT’s Enrollment Management products and services.

Postsecondary institutions will benefit from ACT and NRCCUA joining forces by having access to actionable data science and relevant research—delivered through Encoura Data Lab—that will enhance their marketing and recruiting efforts. NRCCUA’s Encoura platform, college member reach, and marketing strengths foster insightful decision making for colleges and universities. Their proven solutions enable higher education to combine data, analytics, technology, and digital services to make more informed decisions that help improve student outcomes.

ACT’s acquisition of NRCCUA follows other recent investments and acquisitions designed to help the organization transform from an assessment company into a measurement, learning and navigation company.

In the past few years, ACT acquired OpenEd and ProExam and made strategic investments in Smart Sparrow and the New Markets Venture Partners, a pioneering education-focused fund. In partnership with nonprofit The NROC Project, ACT created ACT CollegeReady. And, earlier this year, it announced a partnership with Arizona State University to identify dozens of advanced research and product development initiatives to enhance the future of learning.

About ACT

ACT is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people achieve education and workplace success. Headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa, ACT is trusted as the nation’s leader in college and career readiness, providing high-quality achievement assessments grounded in more than 50 years of research and experience. ACT offers a uniquely integrated set of solutions that help people succeed from elementary school through career, providing insights that unlock potential. To learn more about ACT, visit www.act.org.

About NRCCUA

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,800 member institutions comprised of public and private four-year colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, four-year colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of its Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. NRCCUA was part of Sterling Partners’ Education Opportunity Fund (EOF), which is a mission-based private equity fund investing in purpose-driven educational organizations. For more information, visit https://www.nrccua.org or http://www.encoura.org.

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NRCCUA® Announces the 2018 Eduventures® Innovation Award Winners

Award Winners Lauded at Eduventures Summit for Excellence and Innovation in the Areas of Enrollment, Student Experience, and Student Outcomes

Boston, MA – June 15, 2018

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization,​ ​today announced the winners of the 2018 Eduventures® Innovation Award. This awards program was created to recognize and showcase the achievements of individuals and organizations that share NRCCUA’s vision for generating improved outcomes through innovative programming that supports critical areas of an institution.

Selected by a jury of higher education leaders and advisors, NRCCUA celebrated award winners at an awards ceremony and reception that took place during Eduventures Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. The winners were announced by Todd Boullion, Chief Marketing Officer at NRCCUA and Cara Quackenbush, Vice President of Research at NRCCUA, and include:

  • Adelphi University
  • Anderson University, South Carolina
  • Elon University
  • Georgia State University
  • National Louis University
  • Walden University

“The 2018 Eduventures Innovation Awards winners showcase true thought leadership at their institutions,” said Patrick Vogt, CEO at NRCCUA. “They exemplify creative and forward-thinking approaches that are making demonstrable changes in the way colleges and universities recruit, teach and retain students. On behalf of the team at NRCCUA, I congratulate this year’s group of individuals and organizations.”

“Our team is constantly creating new ways to define and enhance the teaching and learning experience across our institution,” said Dr. Benjamin Deaton, Vice President for Technology, Online Learning and Innovation at Anderson University (SC). “We are thrilled to see our team honored for their unwavering dedication to innovative programming.”

About the Eduventures Innovation Award Program
The Eduventures Innovation Awards Program was created by NRCCUA’s research division. It is designed to identify and honor higher education institutions that have demonstrated significant innovations when developing and deploying programs in each of these categories:

  • Enrollment: A new enrollment management strategy in a fast-changing environment
  • Student Experience: A new approach to teaching and learning or student support
  • Outcomes: A new effort to define and report student outcomes

Judges select winners from written applications and, if needed, follow-up interviews. Entries are scored on value to the institution, innovation, and relevance to the mission of the school and are announced annually in conjunction with Eduventures Summit.

About NRCCUA
The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,800 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For more than 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit ​https://encoura.org

NRCCUA® Announces Featured Programming for Eduventures® Summit 2018: Higher Ed Remastered

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biographer and Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, MissionU CEO Adam Braun, and Strada Education Network Executive Vice President and Former Assistant Secretary for Adult and Vocational Education Carol D’Amico to Provide Keynote Addresses.

Boston, MA – May 17, 2018

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization, today announces that Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and American presidential biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin, will serve as a keynote speaker for Eduventures® Summit: Higher Ed Remastered, NRCCUA’s 2018 annual summit with presenting partner Strada Education Network. MissionU CEO and co-founder, Adam Braun, and Carol D’Amico, executive vice president of mission advancement and philanthropy, with Strada and former assistant secretary of adult and vocational education, will also deliver keynote addresses during the conference, which is scheduled to take place at the Intercontinental Boston Hotel June 13-15, 2018.

The annual event provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity for leaders from higher education institutions and the partners who serve them to network with one another, share best practices, and engage in a discussion about the future of higher education. The program theme, Eduventures Summit: Higher Ed Remastered, captures both the timeless qualities of higher education and the need to create innovative models. Given the current state of higher education, this theme promises to stimulate debate and discussion on a variety of issues.

In addition to keynote speakers, Eduventures principal analysts will present new research and proprietary market data gathered and analyzed from thousands of student and adult learner surveys. The Eduventures research team will showcase Innovation Award Program winners, honoring higher education institutions, companies, and other organizations that share the Eduventures vision for a responsive, innovative higher education sector through programming that has impacted enrollment management strategy, teaching and learning, and student outcomes.

Plenary sessions and workshops are designed to address critical issues facing higher education leaders and shed light on answers to the following questions:

  • Will online learning continue to expand the degree market or boost degree alternatives?
  • How can enrollment offices adapt recruiting practices to reflect prospective undergraduate mindsets?
  • How do institutions convert adult learner mindsets into action through marketing, promotion, and recruitment?
  • With a goal of quantifying student success, how do institutions know if they are on track?

More about the keynote speakers:

  • Doris Kearns Goodwin – a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of six critically acclaimed and The New York Times bestselling books, including her most recent, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (November, 2013).
  • Adam Braun – New York Times bestselling author and the founder & CEO of MissionU. He was previously founder & CEO of Pencils of Promise, the award-winning organization that has built nearly 400 schools around the world.
  • Carol D’Amico – executive vice president, mission advancement and philanthropy, Strada Education Network and former assistant secretary for adult and vocational education at the U.S. Education Department. Co-author of “Workforce 2020: Work and Workers in the 21st Century,” she is a nationally recognized expert in designing and leading strategies related to higher education, workforce development, and business-led involvement in education reform.
    “We have developed this year’s agenda to highlight our commitment to access, fit, and career success for all students,” said Patrick Vogt, CEO of NRCCUA. “Eduventures Summit will continue to be one of the most important events for higher education leaders who are looking for strategic advice and guidance on new ways to enhance decision making, and we are thrilled to have Strada Education Network join us as the presenting partner for our 2018 Summit.”

View the full Summit agenda here.

Members of the media who wish to receive a press pass for Eduventures Summit 2018 can contact Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

About NRCCUA
The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,800 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit Encoura.org.

About Strada Education Network
Strada Education Network is a national nonprofit dedicated to improving lives by catalyzing more direct and promising pathways between education and employment. We engage partners across education, nonprofits, business and government to focus relentlessly on students’ success throughout all phases of their working lives. Together, we address critical college to career challenges through strategic philanthropy, research and insights and mission-aligned affiliates — all focused on advancing the universal right to realized potential we call Completion With a Purpose. Learn more at StradaEducation.org.

Eduventures® Releases 2018 Report on the Changing Higher Education Technology Landscape

New taxonomy and updated market map show a dynamic sector that continues to mature, converge and evolve.  

Boston, MA – April 23, 2018

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization, today announces the publication of the Eduventures 2018 Higher Education Technology Landscape Report. Eduventures® Research, NRCCUA’s research division, began publishing the landscape to make the market more understandable and help higher education leaders evaluate the expanding array of standalone and bundled offerings. Available today, this report is part of an ongoing body of research that includes updated market data and trends for specific segments of the technology market.

Since the inception of this report in 2014, classifying technology solutions has proven to be both challenging and dynamic. Various solutions have overlapping functionalities, and there are conflicting marketing messages around the benefits solutions provide. For the 2018 market map, Eduventures has updated the methodology and analysis used in the report and refreshed the technology landscape as it matures, converges, and changes.

Highlights of this report is as follows:

  • Eduventures has sharpened the methodology and inclusion criteria into four categories that align with our definition of the student life-cycle: Enrollment Management, Student Success & Instruction, and Advancement. The fourth involves those solutions that underpin the entire learner lifecycle and support the creation of institutional educational intelligence – College-Wide IT/Enterprise Backbone.
  • Our work on the education technology landscape has also revealed five segments under pressure from changing institutional needs or internal competition. These highlighted segments include Learning Management Systems, Competency-Based Platforms and Advisory Services, Learning Analytics, Systems Integration Solutions, and Financial Aid Processing Solutions.

According to James Wiley, Principal Analyst at Eduventures, “Technology solutions have the unique potential to help institutions overcome the challenges associated with recruiting and educating a large and diverse group of students. There are so many demands on higher education to improve teaching and learning. From instructional models to accessibility to engagement needs, as well as rapid changes in technology, such as cloud services and online delivery, higher education leaders need to ensure that their technology choices help them meet these demands. Our goal is to provide a framework that helps both institutions and vendors understand the role technology plays throughout the student lifecycle.”

Wiley added, “The characteristics of the higher education technology market make it an attractive one for vendors seeking to grow revenue by increasing their footprint within the institution. However, as institutions are becoming more skilled at identifying the degree to which technology solutions align with their unique needs, they will select products that can deliver value.”

About NRCCUA
The National Research Center for College and University Admissions is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,800 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit https://encoura.org

Members of the press who would like to receive a copy of the Eduventures 2018 Higher Education Technology Landscape Report and would like to

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Eduventures® Launches Online Program Management Market Forecast for 2018

Research Findings Suggest that Schools Partnering with OPMs have Outperformed their Peers in Increasing Enrollment  

Boston, MA – April 9, 2018​ ​The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data science and research organization,​ ​today announced findings from Eduventures, NRCCUA’s research division. A new report provides a fresh view of Online Program Management (OPM) companies by examining their business models and service tiers in the context of a more mature and crowded online higher education market. This analysis includes companies that provide combinations of online program services, but may not identify themselves as an OPM. The fourth in a series of research studies, Eduventures has investigated the conventional OPM market since 2013.

The goal of this study is to provide a clearer understanding of the current state of the OPM marketplace and prospects for growth going forward. This will enable institutions seeking to initiate or expand online programming to make more informed decisions about whether to use an OPM provider or leverage internal capabilities. It will also help providers of online program management services to better appreciate their market position.

Research highlights in this report include the following:

  • On average, schools that partner with OPMs have experienced a five-year online enrollment increase significantly above that of peers- 43% versus 15% at undergraduate level, and 34% versus 23% for graduate students.
  • The marketplace of online service providers has become more diversified, specialized, and differentiated with annual revenue forecasted at $2.72 billion by 2020.
  • Changing market dynamics and evolving business models warrant an updated definition of the OPM market.
  • There are two dominant trends shaping OPM innovation cycles:
    • The development of alternative financial models to the classic OPM revenue-share agreements.
    • The development of unbundled service tiers as a contrast to the classic, end-to-end OPM provider model.

According to Howard Lurie, Principal Analyst at Eduventures and author of this study, “Our research has uncovered examples of OPM innovation in response to changing needs of colleges and universities. With evidence of longstanding and successful OPM relationships in many sectors of higher education, we anticipate the market to continue to grow and thrive.”

OPMs provides colleges and universities with services to develop, launch, and support online degree and certificate programs. Typically, these services include marketing and lead generation, enrollment management, student services, and course development and delivery.

To learn more about Eduventures 2018 Market Forecast for OPM providers, members of the media can arrange an interview with the author of this research by contacting Ellen Slaby at eslaby@eduventures.com.

About NRCCUA
The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,800 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 45 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit  ​https://encoura.org

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Eduventures® Annual Survey of Admitted Students Examines the Enrollment Decisions of College-Bound High School Students
Data Highlights Seven Key Decision Segments Driving 80% of Enrollment Choices

Boston, MA – February 15, 2018

The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ (NRCCUA®), an educational data
science and research organization, today announced findings from Eduventures, NRCCUA’s research division.
The annual Survey of Admitted Students analyzes the findings from a national panel of more than 100,000 high
school student respondents nationwide and identifies seven key enrollment Decision Segments of admitted
students. The goal of this study is to help enrollment management leaders better understand the decisionmaking
process of admitted students and improve the yield and fit of their incoming class.

Creating a More Relevant Yield Strategy based on Decision Segments

By the time a college-bound high school student is ready to make a final enrollment decision, they have learned
a lot about themselves, their desires for college, and what they believe should make or break the final decision.
They are no longer looking at a wide array of schools on broad characteristics. Rather, they are down to the
details of fit among a finite set of alternatives. Understanding the nature of these seven Decision Segments will
help institutions personalize recruiting and maximize the chance of enrolling each student. Decision Segments
include affordability, availability of a desired program, reputation/academic quality, career outcomes/job
opportunities, value of education for cost, feeling of fit, and proximity to home. When layered with other data
from this study on influencers—pivotal informational needs, communications, and financial aid—enrollment
officers can derive segment priorities and implement targeted yield strategies.

According to Kim Reid, Principal Analyst at Eduventures and author of this study, “Eduventures recommends
that institutions work with their inquiries and admits during the enrollment cycle to understand their individual
concerns. Knowing this information can help you communicate with students throughout the enrollment cycle,
but is vital when admits are making their final decision. If you have an understanding of each student’s main
concerns and their likely Decision Segment, you can create a more relevant yield strategy.”

Key insights in this report include:

  • Eighty percent of admitted students cited one of these seven main reasons—or Decision Segments—driving their eventual enrollment choice.
  • For the 57% of students attending in-state public institutions the largest decision segment was affordability (24%) followed by finding a desired program (14%).
  • Among students attending private institutions (27%), the top Decision Segments were reputation/academic quality (17%), career outcomes (14%), and finding a desired program (13%)
  • First generation college (69%), low-income (70%), and Latino (70%) students were most likely to end up attending in-state public in-state institutions and most influenced by affordability in their choice.
  • Students in the affordability Decision Segment acknowledge that their alternative choice was just as good or better on quality, but cost was the sole factor in the decision.
  • Additionally, for affordability-driven students, decisions are very much made at the family level. Thus, yield strategies should be family focused.
  • As a corollary, for students in other decision segments, while parents do play a role, it is a background role. Yield strategies for these students can assume a greater degree of decision making independence.
  • Admits make decisions for a variety of complex reasons requiring thoughtful communications and messaging during yield season.

Institutions who wish to participate in the 2018 Survey of Admitted Students can contact Eduventures at
contact@nrccua.com.

About NRCCUA®
The National Research Center for College and University Admissions™ is an educational data science and research organization serving over 1,800 member institutions comprised of public and private colleges and universities across the nation. For 44 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges and universities from its offices in Lee’s Summit, MO, Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Austin, TX. These solutions represent the link between students making
important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. With the launch of Encoura™ Data Lab, the company now combines data science, advanced analytics, research, predictive modeling and omnichannel enrollment services in one platform to enable institutions to make real-time strategic and operational decisions to meet their unique enrollment goals and create the highest probability of student success. For more information, visit
https://encoura.org 

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Select Media Coverage

Examining the Future of OPMs
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“OPMs were created to grow and scale online programs,” said Chris Gardiner, a senior analyst at Eduventures, a research and consulting firm. “With so many institutions building the [internal] capacity, expertise and funding” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, “there’s [uncertainty] of what the OPM will look like” going forward.

Partnering with OPMs began as a way to help universities break into the online world and compete with for-profit institutions. However, the online providers’ relationships with institutions gradually expanded, both in the number of colleges working with the providers and the broader scope the companies took on. With that expansion came outcry from some opponents of OPMs, accusing them of predatory practices, including driving up the price of online programs.

Read More

ACT’s Statement on the Use of Race in College Admissions
From ACT:

ACT shares the disappointment of many in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC cases, which strike down the use of race as a factor in college admissions. In our joint amicus brief submitted to the court, ACT reiterated our long-held belief that individualized holistic review of individual students’ applications in the higher education admission process does not involve “racial categorization” or “stereotyping,” as SFFA maintains, but rather is reflective of a process in which all relevant factors, considered in combination, shape applicant-specific judgments about their ability to succeed, and their ability contribute to, and benefit from their learning environment, peers, and community.

Also noted in ACT’s brief:

“Academic judgments inherent in higher-education admissions involve considerations of numerous factors regarding student applicants, which, in combination, are essential to the formation of classes in which students will expand their horizons, have their world views sharpened and challenged by exposure to other viewpoints and experiences, and prepare for productive and engaging lives. In a society where race still matters, an applicant’s life experiences directly associated with their race and ethnicity constitute one part —and often an inextricable and influential part—of their self-identity and context.”

America’s higher education institutions have long recognized and cultivated the educational benefits of diversity, and ACT stands at the ready to work alongside higher education to address the implications of the Court’s decision as we work to preserve learning diversity in support of the students we all serve.

Read More

Principal Analyst James Wiley Explores Opportunities for Traditional Textbook Publishers to Go Digital
Excerpt from EdSurge:

“Obviously, the Veritas deal gives HMH access to capital, which is good for them, Wiley says. But the key will be whether Veritas can provide the expertise to help the company switch to the digital ecosystem.

The publisher has to play catchup, he says.

One question is whether HMH will figure out how to use adaptive-learning tools so that its products are more than just a textbook, Wiley says.

Another fertile area for innovation, says Wiley, is developing content and services to help build digital skills.

‘I think they have a way to go, but I think it’s a good first step,’ Wiley concludes.”

Read More

Colleges Centralize Learning and Operations
Excerpt from EdTech: Focus on Higher Education

Colleges and universities are partnering to centralize everything from online content to administrative services.

Much of the impetus stems from the challenges of the pandemic. As learning institutions were compelled to offer more courses online, many administrators realized that by joining together, they could better serve their student populations.

“There’s a movement out there,” says James Wiley, Eduventures principal analyst for technology at Encoura. “A lot of it comes out of wanting to be more efficient. Instead of having redundancies, institutions are trying to consolidate and share.”

Read More

Tuition, fees continues to rise as pandemic inflation woes hit colleges
Excerpt from NBC News

Universities and colleges “are being pushed to spend more, just when they don’t have any more to spend,” said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at the higher education research and consulting firm Encoura.

One relief valve is that governors and legislatures are proposing boosting what they earmark for public higher education. Governors in Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, New York and other states have called for spending more on public colleges and universities.

States collectively have increased higher education funding by 6.5 percent since last year, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association — the biggest single increase since before the last recession.

Read More

Inflation is coming to college campuses. Prepare to pay more.
Excerpt from The Hechinger Report

Universities and colleges “are being pushed to spend more, just when they don’t have any more to spend,” said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at the higher education research and consulting firm Encoura.

One relief valve is that governors and legislatures are proposing boosting what they earmark for public higher education. Governors in Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, New York and other states have called for spending more on public colleges and universities.

States collectively have increased higher education funding by 6.5 percent since last year, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association — the biggest single increase since before the last recession.

Read More

Important Takeaways from CHLOE 6
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“The annual publication of the Changing Landscape of Online Education report is a big deal for us online learning geeks. We anticipate this annual joint Eduventures Research and Quality Matters publication the way superhero enthusiasts await Comic-Con.

This year’s report (the sixth) may be the most anticipated CHLOE ever.

COVID-19 was a horrible pandemic, but it was also a time machine. In more than a few aspects of higher ed, COVID-19 has opened up a temporal rift that landed many of us (if only briefly) in 2030.

As always, I highly recommend downloading, reading, tweeting and talking about the report. The publication of CHLOE 6 represents a terrific opportunity to gather your institution’s senior leaders together to talk about the future strategic role of online learning…here are 11 big takeaways.”

Read More

Eduventures Research Studies Colleges Offering Systemic Changes for Black Students
Excerpt from Fierce Education

“Led by Eduventures’ Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett, data was collected from ACT and The National Research Center for College and University Admissions NRCCUA, and included information from colleges with similar resources, locations, student populations, etc.—excluding historically Black colleges—as a closer look into the higher education journey for Black students.

The three schools that stood out as what Garrett refers to as “success stories” include University at Albany, Towson University and Amherst College.

“All of these schools would acknowledge they have plenty of work still to do. But they are all role models in that each has managed something very few other schools, of any type, have achieved: to graduate traditional-aged Black undergraduates at a rate far above the national average and close this population’s graduation gap that is the norm at most peers,” Garrett said.”

Read More

CHLOE 5 Examines the Future of Remote Learning
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“‘Everything was turned on its head in the spring,’ said Richard Garrett, Eduventures’ chief research officer and co-lead of the CHLOE project. Faculty with limited online experience faced a lot of pressure to quickly convert courses from face-to-face to remote instruction. ‘No one is pretending that equivalent design and care and attention was taken to build out these classes as would be normally be taken to design a high-quality online course,’ said Garrett.

“While most online leaders described their spring pivot to remote instruction as a success, most also recognized that plenty of improvements could be made to their remote courses. Many respondents felt that their remote courses fell short in terms of student engagement when compared to their fully online courses, said Ron Legon, executive director emeritus of Quality Matters and co-lead of the CHLOE project.”

Read More

Eduventures Research Finds Community Colleges Could See Fall Enrollment Increases
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“The report points out that community colleges did well with their enrollments in the Great Recession of 2008. But the enrollment for this coming academic year will be a “cliff-hanger” as students hold off on making decisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most likely, though, the report said community colleges will see a boost in enrollment in the fall. Adults will lean toward colleges that are affordable and have a local presence. Traditional-aged students from lower-income families will opt for two-year colleges, as they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. And students from four-year colleges may opt to attend a community college for a period of time if their original institutions are cavalier about reopening or provide online learning options that aren’t compelling.”

Read More

Eduventures Research Provides 7 Ways to Support High School Students During COVID-19
Excerpt from eSchool News

“Although COVID-19 has disrupted education for everyone, college-bound high school seniors have seen pronounced disruption in both the abrupt end to their senior year–an end without milestones or fanfare–and in the uncertainty surrounding how they will begin their college experience in the fall.

“New Eduventures research sheds light on the best ways to support high school seniors as they prepare for a new educational chapter.

“Sixty-three percent of surveyed students say the COVID-19 crisis has influenced their college choice, but 54 percent also say they are very certain that their choice is right for them.”

Read More

Eduventures Research Reveals Mixed Outlook for Adult Student Enrollment
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“Recessions are normally good times for colleges that enroll adult students. A new report from Eduventures explores the reasons that may not be the case with the recession that was brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“‘While we conclude that economically distressed adults will need education and training, just as they always have, the question is whether this downturn will favor colleges and universities or prove a breakthrough for other providers,’ the report says. ‘The currency of degrees, long and expensive, and often not directly tied to employment, will be tested as never before. Alternative credentials, typically short, relatively inexpensive and more closely aligned with the ultimate ‘good job’ goal of most adult learners, may look particularly attractive. Some nontraditional providers are pressing to be admitted to federal student aid, which would break a distinct advantage enjoyed by college and universities.'”

Read More

Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Describes 5 Enrollment Scenarios for Fall 2020
Excerpt from Campus Technology

“…According to Richard Garrett, Eduventures chief research officer, writing in ‘Forecasting Five Fall Enrollment Scenarios,’ the last economic downturn saw undergraduate enrollment rise by about 3 percent in fall 2007 and 2008. As he noted, the Great Recession happened to coincide ‘with perhaps the largest high school graduating classes in U.S. history, boosting enrollment regardless.’

However, the current situation has several variables in play other than demographics: the extent of federal stimulus funding bolstering schools and families; the persistence of the virus; and the quality of the learning experience delivered online.”

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Forecasts International Student Impact on Graduate Programs During Pandemic
Excerpt from The Hechinger Report

“…The biggest question is whether students from abroad will risk coming to the United States. While that’s a problem at all levels of higher education, it has much more of an impact on graduate programs, where international students make up 13 percent of the enrollment, compared to less than 3 percent of undergrads.

“’If you took the international students out, some of those programs would halve in size, or worse, and the revenue also is obviously critical,’ said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at the consulting firm Eduventures.

“The pandemic has restricted travel and closed consulates that process student visas. Garrett also expects international skepticism about the American response to the crisis to keep potential students away — especially from China, the biggest source of graduate students, with which there are also growing geopolitical tensions.”

 

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Eduventures Research Reveals How Colleges Can Provide Best Fully Virtual Experience
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“…If campuses are unable to open physically in the fall — and therefore less able to deliver on what Garrett calls the ‘higher education fundamentals’ of ‘learning communities, diversity of ideas, human formation,’ can canceling the semester and closing the colleges really be the right answer? ‘Surely the right move is not to give up, postpone or settle, but to recreate those fundamentals in new ways,’ the report states.

“It adds, ‘If fall 2020 can’t happen on campus, we need to find a way for it to happen, vibrant and unchecked, online.’

“In an interview, Garrett said he understands the tendency of many people at traditional colleges to assume that without the campus, ‘we can’t function.’ But the ‘essence of higher education is not defined by these physical objects,’ Garrett said. ‘It can persist between engaged faculty, staff and students. We just have to reimagine how.'”

 

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Remarks on Gap Year Options During Pandemic
Excerpt from PBS News Hour

“…Gap years traditionally involve travel abroad, internships, full-time work or volunteering, which will be off the table if international borders remain closed and jobs prove hard to come by.

“One option might be a national service program such as AmeriCorps, which some officials have said could be critical to the nation’s response to the pandemic. Two Democratic senators have introduced a bill that would increase the number of AmeriCorps volunteers to as many as 500,000, and double the stipends that participants receive.

“Still, ‘if you’re an 18- or 19-year-old, your alternatives are pretty limited,’ said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at the consulting company Eduventures. ‘Your job prospects are very much curtailed. Your ability to travel and volunteer [is] very, very much curtailed.'”

 

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Principal Analyst Kim Reid Shares Students' Views About College Amidst Pandemic
Excerpt from WGBH News

“…The pandemic is reshaping students’ choices and their decisions on whether to enroll right away as they face the deadline of Friday, May 1, for submitting deposits to most colleges. Many high school students, like Serratore, are also wondering whether they’ll be able to afford to go to college at all, given economic conditions. Some colleges have moved their deposit deadline back a month, to June 1, to give themselves more time to sort out their incoming first-year class.

“’Students are really thinking about COVID in terms of the influence it might have on their college choice, but they’re not really panicked yet,’ said Kim Reid, an analyst with the Boston-based research and advisory firm Eduventures. ‘It’s a very uncertain time.’

“…'”If this is not the college experience that I imagined in my dreams, do I want to go? Do the colleges want me to go? Will they delay it? What would it look like?”‘ Reid said, ticking off a series of unanswered questions running though students’ minds as their families prepare to make initial deposits. ‘I don’t think that the students have answers for that yet, and I don’t think that the colleges have answers for that yet.’”

 

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Principal Analyst Kim Reid Reveals Student Financial Concerns for College During Pandemic
Excerpt from the Metrowest Daily News

“Concerns about delays were prominent among students whose families had experienced a job loss or other financial blows as a result of the public health restrictions. Thirty-four percent of respondents reported some lost family income, and of those students, 64 percent believed they may delay their enrollment and 30 percent were concerned they may change their college choice.

“‘The greatest certainty in these uncertain times is that families are experiencing and will continue to experience financial instability,’ Kim Reid, the principal analyst for Eduventures Research and the study’s primary author, said in a statement. ‘We may see some families rebound from initial losses, but we will see other families endure financial loss as layoffs move deeper into the economy.’

“More than 22 million workers across the United States and almost 573,000 in Massachusetts have filed initial unemployment claims over the past four weeks, a never-before-seen level of need.

“Reid said higher education institutions ‘must be prepared for scenarios with increased financial pressure on families.’”

“’This means moving beyond the immediate communication and yield efforts into discussions of sustainable financial aid and pricing strategies that will assist families in the difficult time ahead,’ Reid said.”

 

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CHLOE 4 Report Recommends Focus on Completing Course Requirements Online
Excerpt from Campus Technology

“…This response to the crisis is clear evidence that online learning has entered the higher education mainstream, but expectations of what the online infrastructure can achieve in the short run need to be tempered. Mounting successful online courses requires time, effort, and expertise that are likely in short supply under emergency conditions. The immediate goal should be to facilitate communication between faculty and students on the remaining tasks and assignments necessary to complete course requirements, and to help sustain campus communities in these difficult times.”

 

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Eduventures Research Finds Students May Change College Choice or Delay Enrollment
Excerpt from The Daily News of Newburyport

“An Eduventures Research survey released last week found that a quarter of students believe that the pandemic may cause them to change their college choice, and 56 percent were either moderately or extremely concerned that it may delay their enrollment.

“About a third were “extremely concerned” about their family’s financial situation changing, and all but 10 percent expressed some level of concern about the impact of illness on their families.

“…Reid said higher education institutions ‘must be prepared for scenarios with increased financial pressure on families.’

 

‘This means moving beyond the immediate communication and yield efforts into discussions of sustainable financial aid and pricing strategies that will assist families in the difficult time ahead,’ Reid said.”

 

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Remarks on Online Learning Post-Coronavirus
Excerpt from The New York Times

“…advocates for true online instruction say that students’ experience of taking courses on their own schedules over mobile platforms may come back to them later, when they’re ready to move on to graduate or professional educations.

“Online higher education ‘is a thin diet for the typical 18-year-old,’ said Richard Garrett, the chief research officer at Eduventures. ‘But today’s 18-year-olds are tomorrow’s 28-year-olds with families and jobs, who then realize that online can be useful.’

 

“Already, more than half of American adults who expect to need more education or training after this pandemic say they would do it online, according to a survey of 1,000 people by the Strada Education Network, which advocates connections between education and work.”

 

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Provides Insight on "Transnational Education"
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

“…While Ramsammy’s model for “transnational education” may be unique in the United States, other countries have used it for some time, according to Richard Garrett, chief research officer at Eduventures, a higher education research and consulting company.

“There’s great potential for a variety of U.S. institutions to think about these kinds of arrangements,” Garrett said, adding that the current political climate and increased competition from other countries makes it somewhat necessary. “It wouldn’t surprise me if more U.S. institutions are saying, ‘We need more tools in our tool kit.'”

 

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Principal Analyst James Wiley Identifies Essential Components for Digital Transformation
Excerpt from EdTech Magazine

“…While transformation is undoubtedly a type of change, it differs from more routine types of change in its depth and breadth. Change is more about reacting to immediate needs and focusing on the incremental and local shifts that are required to meet those needs. Transformation is about the proactive, enterprisewide steps that institutions can take to meet future needs.”

 

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Senior Analyst Michael Miller Reveals Key Factors for College Esports Program
Excerpt from EdTech Magazine

“…Making an investment in a sustainable esports program should be viewed as a long-term, continuous endeavor in an evolving field rather than a one-and-done addition to the list of cocurricular activities offered on campus. The promise of esports programs is massive, and some institutions will undoubtedly realize positive outcomes in numerous forms. But this will not be everyone’s experience.”

 

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Eduventures® 2019 Student Sentiment Research Report Explores College Search Sources
Excerpt from Campus Technology

…”As the Student Sentiment Research Report results show, it takes hard, long-term work and collaboration between the admissions and marketing teams to move a prospective student from initial awareness about a school to enrollment,” said Johanna Trovato, Eduventures senior analyst and primary author of the study. “Each stage in the college search process requires a different outreach strategy that fits within the students’ search behaviors at the particular stage.”

 

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Principal Analyst James Wiley Provides Insight on LMS Usage
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

…James Wiley, a principal analyst at Eduventures, agreed that the rate at which institutions switch LMS providers has slowed, but he said he still hears from many institutions that they are switching providers out of frustration with their existing systems.

Uncertainty about how best to adapt to online learning may be causing some institutions to hesitate about switching to new providers, said Wiley.

“LMS companies are playing catch-up to all the changes happening in teaching and learning,” he said. “There’s a sense that the LMS is necessary but not sufficient.”

Wiley said having to think about all the services and functionality that their institutions will need to add to their LMSes to make them work for them in the future gives some higher ed leaders pause. These leaders are increasingly thinking through “where they might go” and considering whether they want to pursue a bundled or unbundled solution before they purchase a new LMS, he said.

Other colleges have made strides in developing their own software, Lurie said, noting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University specifically. Michigan is notable in the space for its commitment to sharing its results and its intention to address diversity and equity.

 

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Remarks on University's Center for Academic Innovation
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

…Howard Lurie, principal analyst for online and continuing education at Eduventures, said the investment is exciting and a natural progression for the university. “They’re taking advantage of the existing ecosystems they have about teaching and learning,” he said. “Rather than stand up a business unit to go and enroll more students, they’re thoughtfully going about trying to figure out what they can learn through the innovation cycles.”

Other colleges have made strides in developing their own software, Lurie said, noting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University specifically. Michigan is notable in the space for its commitment to sharing its results and its intention to address diversity and equity.

 

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Institutional Benchmarks from Principal Analyst Kim Reid's Work on the Survey of Admitted Students
Excerpt from Campus Technology

…Researcher Kim Reid, an Eduventures principal analyst and author of the report, used data on nearly 76,000 students drawn from the company’s “2018 Survey of Admitted Students.” Each student had to make an enrollment choice between at least two schools and provided information and ratings about their ultimate enrollment choice and the next one in line. That analysis allowed Reid to produce an institution-level dataset with 151,676 sets of ratings for 1,383 four-year public and private nonprofit schools. From there, the research resulted in the development of “benchmarks” that institutions can use to “inform recruitment, yield and brand strategy.” 

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Gives Insight on How Online Graduate Programs Get You
Excerpt from The Atlantic

…As they communicate with prospective students, universities must contend with an ever more crowded market. Eduventures’ Howard Lurie explained: “Enrollment trends are flattening among graduate populations due to economics and demographics … You have more institutions fighting for more or less the same number of graduate students, while unemployment is dropping.” (Unemployment typically pushes some people to reenter school.) Nearly every university administrator and OPM executive I spoke with alluded to the challenge of breaking through the noise in a hypercompetitive market.

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Speaks about 2U and OPMs in IHE
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

…Like other OPMs such as Wiley, 2U has been busy acquiring companies that offer non-degree-level credentials. The acquisitions of short-course provider GetSmarter in 2018 and coding boot camp Trilogy earlier this year were early acknowledgments by 2U that its business model had to change, said Pianko.

Howard Lurie, principal analyst for online and continuing education at Eduventures, agreed that the acquisitions were an acknowledgment by 2U that its core business was “going to run into some headwinds.”

“When we think about the OPM market in general, it’s not surprising that 2U and others are having a hard time. Graduate enrollment is flat. The economy has been pretty good, and that means going to school is not as attractive as staying in a job,” said Lurie.

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett's Perspective on Online Education
Excerpt from The Chronicle of Higher Education

Sometimes all it takes is one interesting image to drive home a point. Last week, at the Eduventures Summit in Boston, one slide in a presentation by Richard Garrett did it for me. It was a color-coded state map of “Winners and Losers” in online education.

The map, along with Garrett’s commentary, highlighted for me some overlooked opportunities. Many states are not taking concerted steps to use online education to promote the kinds of priorities that state leaders have historically championed, such as affordability, access, or meeting the needs of local employers.

Garrett, the chief research officer at Eduventures, an advisory and research organization, had been talking about trends in distance education, including the dominant role now being played by institutions like Southern New Hampshire University (which I wrote about last year) and other online mega-universities. Then he showed that slide on how states stack up in their population of online students. It compared the number of residents enrolled in online programs at out-of-state institutions to the number enrolled online in-state.

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Weighs in on Competency-Based Education (CBE)
Excerpt from Education Dive

Colleges must clear various institutional and regulatory hurdles to implement CBE. That could change as an outcome of the U.S. Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking on accreditation, which is also addressing the credit hour and rules governing online learning.

Although some have expressed doubts that the process will yield a consensus, the department has signaled its support for alternative models like CBE, with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos telling higher ed leaders late last year that it’s time for a “rethink” of the industry in order to reach more students.

“You have to acknowledge the boundaries of what the rules are and then figure out bureaucratically and administratively friendly … ways to do this,” said Howard Lurie, principal analyst for online and continuing education at Eduventures. “Innovation comes in these small little doses. I think you need a more systematic, broader scale approach.

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Principal Analyst James Wiley Writes: Lifelong Learning Credentials Require Both Technology and a Trust Framework
Published in EdTech

Lifelong Learning Credentials Require Both Technology and a Trust Framework

Security, validity and portability are key components as colleges pursue new ways of demonstrating students’ skills. 

There has been much discussion recently about the value of credentials in helping studentsdemonstrate the skills required for career success and the need to transform how students collect and share these credentials.

These valuable discussions point to exciting changes in the role of higher education, in which students may have access to a portfolio of skills demonstrations throughout their lifelong learning journey.

Unfortunately, from a technological perspective, conversations about how to realize this vision often devolve into something much less exciting: requirements around establishing identity, formatting data, and designing interfaces to ensure consistency and interoperability across all transactions, often through the use of standards and standardization.

Similarly, as with many conversations around how technology will support innovation in education, this topic sometimes centers on a particular solution, such as blockchain.

The downside of this devolution is that it obfuscates a critical question: How might technology support a new vision of lifelong learning and skills attainment?

We need to answer this question in a way that helps us understand the critical components of the relationship between this vision and technology, to see the areas in which technology can genuinely provide value and where it might fall short.

Driver’s License Model Reflects the Role of Trust and Authenticity

We already have a model we can use to understand how this might work: driver’s licenses. The majority of us have used our licenses to validate our identity, provide proof of our abilities or gain access to specific places and activities.

While these activities may seem simple, they depend on a complex relationship of trust between the issuer and reviewer. It’s a relationship in which the driver’s license represents an official certification of who you are and what you can do.

At its core, the trust question in higher education requires three components to ensure that individuals, organizations and devices have valid access, exchange, use and transfer of information:

  1. Security: Proper security makes it possible for all parties to accept that there have been no unauthorized changes to the information.
  2. Validity: Validity means all parties can accept that the information and identities are authentic.
  3. Portability: Portability allows all parties to access and show information in different environments. Therefore, it appears that to understand fully how technology can support the new vision of student skills attainment, we should first establish how it provides these three components.

Technology Supports the Trust Framework for Credentials

It should be clear that technology could support the security aspect of the trust framework. Identity and access management solutions, for example, have long handled the provisioning and verification of identity, as well as the linking between credentials and identities.

Likewise, technology can support the ability to recognize that a credential is valid — that is, issued by a recognized authority — similar to the process of identity verification. Last, with the use of portals, students can access their credentials anytime, from anywhere, which would undoubtedly support the portability component of a trust framework.

Equally clear, however, is that these technological activities are necessary but not sufficient. For a trust framework to be successful, there must be much more than simply a technological underpinning.

For example, there must be agreement about the significance of the shared information and understanding that certain information applies to given contexts. As with the driver’s license example, there are agreements about what licenses can certify (identity and driving ability) and where they are applicable (between states, but not between countries, for example).

Technologies such as blockchain and credentialing platforms may be necessary for the vision of where higher education may go. Yet other pieces of the puzzle are equally important.

I hope that viewing a trust framework through the lens of its key components — and not in terms of technology — will help us identify and focus our attention on what is necessary to help students attain, store and share demonstrations of their skills over their lifetimes.

 

Read the Article on EdTech

Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Speaks Out on Online Learning and Affordability
Excerpt from Campus Technology

Could online learning can help institutions provide a lower-cost education to more students? That’s a question that Richard Garrett, Eduventures chief research officer, examined recently in a brief on the Encoura website. According to a 2019 study on “published tuition,” fully online institutions “charge the least” at both the ungraduated and graduate levels — and the price has gone down as the number of students enrolled in these programs has gone up.

A common assumption, Garrett pointed out, was that an online program was less expensive to produce than one offered face-to-face; after all, there’s no physical campus and there are the opportunities for “economies of scale.” However, a WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) survey done in 2017 put the kibosh on that, finding that quality online instruction is “often more time-consuming and expensive than the in-person norm.”

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Noted as the Go-To Expert on Online Program Management
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

Learning Innovation, Consultants and Scholarship – Locating the Experts:

Today, the go-to expert on the online program management ecosystem, and what the growth of for-profit and nonprofit partnerships mean for the future of universities, is Howard Lurie of ACT | NRCCUA’s research division, Eduventures.

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Principal Analyst James Wiley Remarks on Why a Plagiarism-Detection Company Is Now a Billion-Dollar Business
Excerpt from The Chronicle of Higher Ed

James Wiley, principal analyst for technology at Eduventures, a higher-education research organization and consultancy, said education-technology companies have long struggled with such ethical challenges. It’s one thing, he said, to use students’ work internally to refine products. It’s another to use it externally in pursuit of further sales and marketing opportunities. “I’m going to be watching for the privacy questions,” he said.

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Says it's Slow and Steady for Competency-Based Education
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

Many colleges are resigned about problems around the application of financial aid to competency-based programs, said Howard Lurie, principal analyst of online and continuing education at Eduventures and a co-author of the report. That’s partly because of snags due to the programs’ nonstandard academic calendars and approach with the credit hour.

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett's Predictions for 2019 Included in How ‘Micro-Internships’ Could Make All Types of Students More Employable
Excerpt from The Chronicle of Higher Education

I’m a sucker for annual predictions, especially if they’re specific enough to evaluate a year later. Three predictions for 2019 on college access, cost, and outcomes, made last week by Richard Garrett, fit that bill.

What does Garrett, chief research officer at Eduventures, expect?

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Comments on Inside Higher Ed's "Crowded OPM Market Begins to Consolidate"
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

In a market widely seen as ripe for a new round of consolidation, the first domino fell Tuesday, as Wiley Education Services paid $200 million to acquire the online program management company Learning House. . .

. . .Howard Lurie, principal analyst of online and continuing education at Eduventures, said the acquisition “makes a lot of sense for Wiley.”

“Wiley has done a really good job of listening to the market. They’ve taken a very flexible approach to service and finance models. They see there is growing interest in adding certificate programs. And they know that smaller schools might have different needs,” he said.

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More love for CHLOE 2 in Forbes, "Report: Digital And Online College Programs Chase Revenue, Not Savings Or Quality"
Excerpt from Forbes

Although they may not see it that way, officers in charge of digital learning at colleges and universities have been spilling secrets – telling us what they and their schools really value in their online and digital courses and programs.

As reported in Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE2) by Quality Matters and Eduventures/Encoura, when asked about their strategic plans for online and digital learning, leaders of those programs said their institutional plans were, “… most likely to make specific references to increasing enrollment.” With 73% saying so, it was the most common answer.

Those leaders also told CHLOE2 that they are most likely to win internal funding and support for their online endeavors when those investments, “… are likely to result in enrollment growth.”

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The Economist turns to Richard Garrett when writing, "Universities withstood MOOCs but risk being outwitted by OPMs"
Excerpt from The Economist

…Around a third of graduate education in America is now online, according to Richard Garrett of Eduventures, a consultancy. Many universities take a do-it-yourself approach, but the better-known ones tend to go into partnership with the OPMs. 2U, a ten-year-old startup, led the way, and has been followed into the business by, among others, Pearson, an educational publisher, and Coursera (which started off as a provider of MOOCs). Coursera joined up with UoI to create its online MBA programme…

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Find out what Howard Lurie had to say about "University of Pennsylvania to offer fully-online master's program in computer science"
Excerpt from The Philadelphia Inquirer

The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science will offer its master of computer and information technology  (MCIT) program online, making it the university’s first entirely online degree. It is slated to start in January.

This master’s program admits students with no computer science background, and the online version will cost around one-third of its on-campus counterpart. The standard program typically accepts about 80 new students each year, but the online effort will allow Penn to accept several hundred more from around the world, said Boon Thau Loo, associate dean at Penn Engineering, who oversees the school’s master’s programs…

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IHE quotes Eduventures Principal Analyst, Howard Lurie in, "Mixing and Matching Cal State Online Courses -- Free"
Excerpt from IHE

…Cal State plans to promote the initiative on social media and on the websites of individual campuses. Every student portal will have links to CSU Fully Online, and campus advisers will undergo professional development to ensure they can fully explain the program to students.

The announcement comes as Cal State undertakes a broader initiative to double its systemwide graduation rate by 2025. Other efforts toward that goal include ending placement exams and sending excess applicants from one institution within the system to another, expanding opportunity for those who previously would have been denied admission.

Howard Lurie, principal analyst at the research firm Eduventures, thinks the option is in line with what prospective students want: more access to a wider range of courses. “They’re listening to the market,” Lurie said…

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Forbes References Eduventures CHLOE report about, "Why College Tuition Is Actually Higher For Online Programs"
Excerpt from Forbes

…According to The Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE2) by Quality Matters and Eduventures/Encoura – a survey of 182 academic and institutional officers in charge of digital learning at their schools – nearly three-quarters of online programs (74%) charged the same tuition for online programs and on campus ones. And nearly a quarter (23%) said they charged more for their online programs than the others. Accounting for different pricing systems and for different programs, 18% also said they charged less for online offerings. But, based on the responses, it is clear that online programs are, at best, not less expensive.

Those programs in the CHLOE2 survey that said they charged more for online programs said they did because they cost more. The three main reasons for higher online tuition were, in order, “Added costs of online instruction and support services,” the “Added cost of online course and program development,” and “Added costs of online program marketing.”

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Chief Research Officer Richard Garrett Provides Content for "Online Options Give Adults Access, but Outcomes Lag"
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

Does online education help cities and states increase postsecondary access and success for the undergraduate students who need it most?

No hour-long presentation can reasonably purport to answer that question, and the kind of data that might present a clear yes or no verdict probably don’t exist yet. But Richard Garrett, chief research officer at Eduventures, wove together an intriguing set of statistics and assertions at the group’s annual summit, Higher Ed Remastered, here last week.

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Principal Analyst James Wiley Helps in "Defining the Undefinable"
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

Our definition of “digital learning” contains within it numerous similar phrases: Distance learning. Online learning. Blended learning. Hybrid learning. Multimodal learning. Mixed-mode learning. Distributed learning. Technology-enabled learning. Technology-enhanced learning. Elearning.

That’s a lot of overlapping terms. When “Inside Digital Learning” asked James Wiley, principal analyst at the research and advisory firm Eduventures, for help getting to the bottom of this categorization conundrum, he replied with a note of caution about the nuances that awaited.

“I do not envy you writing this piece,” Wiley said.

Indeed, this one was tough and hit close to home. Some institutions use “digital learning” interchangeably with “online learning.” But not everyone likes the term or agrees on what it means — some think it’s too broad, others too limiting. Assigning concrete terminology to an increasingly complex ecosystem has never been more challenging.

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Weighs in on "A Tipping Point for OPM?"
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

…A recent Eduventures report, “Expanding the OPM Definition,” explored how the OPM market is changing and expanding. Writing about this report in a blog post, Howard Lurie, principal analyst of online and continuing education at Eduventures, said that offering full up-front investment (as companies like 2U, Academic Partnerships and Pearson Online Learning Services do) is a model that has “staying power.”

Many institutions are happy with these arrangements, said Lurie. But as online learning has become mainstream, more institutions have built in-house capacity, and are turning to “fee for service” options for help in specific areas such as online marketing, enrollment or instructional design. This arrangement offers greater flexibility for the institution, and shorter contracts, said Lurie. But he views the emergence of fee-for-service options as an “evolution, not a rejection, of the OPM model.” (Many of the fee-for-service companies have been founded by people who cut their teeth at traditional OPMs, including John Katzman, who founded Noodle Partners after co-founding 2U, and Paxton Riter, founder of iDesign, who was a senior official at Academic Partnerships.)

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The New Stealth and Not-So-Stealth Applicants: Transfers
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

…Data released last week at the Common Application annual meeting suggested that many community college transfers may be a new type of “stealth applicant,” doing research on where to apply without contacting the four-year institutions they are considering.

Gil Rogers of the National Research Center for College & University Admissions presented findings of a survey of 990 people who, when surveyed in high school, said they planned to attend a community college. Following them three years later, NRCCUA found that attending community college was generally part of a strategy to move on to a four-year institution.

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Gaining Insights into Adult Learners: Looking at Findings from Eduventures® Adult Prospect Survey
Excerpt from Evolllution

As educational alternatives for adult learners—such as MOOCs and bootcamps—proliferate in the academic market, colleges and universities must do more to recruit this growing segment of students. What’s more, the key to recruiting adult learners lies in understanding them. In February 2018, Eduventures released its Adult Prospect Survey, a nationally representative survey that provides key insights into this student demographic. In this interview, Howard Lurie provides an overview of their findings and shares his thoughts on how colleges and universities can leverage those findings to better understand adult learners.

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Research Finds Online Service Providers Boost Program Enrollment
Excerpt from Campus Technology

Universities that contract with an online program management company tend to outperform those that go it on their own. OPM providers may offer end-to-end services for online programs, including marketing, recruitment, course design, enrollment and retention; examples include Pearson Embanet, 2U and Academic Partnerships. Or they may focus on a specific vertical, such as healthcare education, or type of service, such as instructional design.

Research by Eduventures has found that on average, schools working with OPMs have seen a five-year online enrollment increase significantly above that of peers: 43 percent vs. 15 percent at the undergraduate level between 2012 and 2016; and 34 percent vs. 23 percent at the graduate level, during the same period.

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Principal Analyst, Howard Lurie, Quoted in NY Times Education Section, "Letting Adult Learners Show What They Know"
Excerpt from The New York Times Education Bulletin Board

With more college students now considered nontraditional than traditional, higher education institutions have been scrambling to shift their models to better meet their needs. Many have turned to competency-based education, known as CBE, to reach the increasingly important returning adult learner.

These students graduated from high school years ago and have work and life experiences that distinguish them from their young adult counterparts on campus. With competency-based education, they can earn credits for that.

The idea is that students should not have to sit through lessons they have already learned. Once they prove their knowledge — competency — they can move on to new material.

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The One Truth About Online Education in Higher Ed: Everybody Seems to do it Differently According to CHLOE 2
Excerpt from EdScoop

Though online learning has been around for about 30 years now, little data has been available to compare how higher education institutions implement it. A new report confirms that the differences among programs can be vast, whether it’s how they charge for courses or when they require participants to be online.

CHLOE 2 — the second annual report by Eduventures Research and the nonprofit Quality Matters — aims to offer insights about online learning policies, practices, plans and impact across higher education. CHLOE stands for “Changing Landscape of Online Education,” and this year’s edition is subtitled “A Deeper Dive.”

Online Learning's Complex, Fractured Landscape According to Eduventures Research: The 2018 CHLOE Report
Excerpt from Inside Higher Ed

A new survey of those who oversee online learning programs at their institutions reveals significant diversity in the online education landscape, from differences in colleges’ strategic goals in going online to how they structure and price their programs and how much they require/encourage faculty members to work with professional designers to craft their courses.

The report, “The Changing Landscape of Online Education: A Deeper Dive,” is the second such report from Quality Matters and Eduventures Research, leading them to dub it CHLOE2. (Inside Higher Ed and “Inside Digital Learning” covered last year’s report here and here.) One hundred eighty-two senior officials responsible for online education at their institutions responded to the survey (up from 104 last year), drawn roughly equivalently from four-year private, four-year public and two-year public colleges.

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For Students Focused on Cost, Quality Takes a Back Seat, According to Eduventures Survey of Admitted Students
Excerpt from Campus Technology

Affordability is a driving factor in deciding where to go to college for many students, according to Eduventures’ annual Survey of Admitted Students.

The survey compiles responses from more than 100,000 high school students recently admitted to colleges and universities and breaks down those responses into seven decision segments, in an effort to help enrollment officers better understand student decision-making and improve the yield of the incoming class.

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The Chronicle of Higher Ed runs feature story on Eduventures Principal Analyst Kim Reid and the Survey of Admitted Students
Excerpt from The Chronicle of Higher Ed 

What happens when a high-school student from a low-income family wants to attend a private college 100 miles away, but has a parent whispering in her ear to look closer to home? The “Survey of Admitted Students: Targeting Yield Strategies,” may provide some answers, as well as more questions.

The report, produced by Eduventures, a consulting company, and written by Kim Reid, a principal analyst there, distilled insights from more than 100,000 high-school students nationwide.

It identified seven key “decision segments” on the minds of aspiring college students: affordability, availability of a desired program, reputation/academic quality, career outcomes/job opportunities, value of education for cost, feeling of fit, and proximity to home.

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Eduventures Principal Analyst James Wiley Featured in Evolllution
Excerpt from feature article in Evollution

The most significant challenge to how institutions currently approach student engagement is in thinking of it as merely being tactical communication for a specific purpose at a point in the student lifecycle. Many higher education leaders seem to think of student engagement in terms of how best to leverage the channels of engagement—email, text messages, social media, etc.—for recruitment and alumni gift giving. Thinking of student engagement this way narrows its power, brings fewer foundational considerations to the forefront, and reduces it to little more than simple outreach. For example, rather than considering it a robust path for providing a better student experience, increasing students’ sense of belonging, driving better student achievement, or enhancing the reputation of their institution, higher education leaders often focus instead on the technological delivery methods and the timing of the specific engagement activities.

As a result, institutions miss more critical aspects of student engagement, such as how it could benefit students across their entire life-cycles. Likewise, this view also overlooks what key relationships genuinely promote it, i.e., between students and their institution’s mission and culture, between students and their faculty and advisors, between students and their learning activities, or between students and their social networks.

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Principal Analyst Howard Lurie Agrees, Perhaps the "Netflix For Textbooks" Can Save Students Money
An Excerpt from OnCampus

College students returning to campus this semester month will shell out a lot of money on textbooks. The College Board estimates students typically spend more than $1,000 each year on their course materials.

Now, a Boston-based publisher wants to make them more affordable by becoming the “Netflix for textbooks.”

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Richard Garrett and Howard Lurie Remark on How Online Degrees Find a Spot in Workspaces in 2U-WeWork Deal
Eduventures’ Principal Analysts Quoted in EdSurge News

Finally, WeWork will effectively become a “channel” for 2U to offer minicourses, namely those developed by its South African division, GetSmarter. (2U acquired GetSmarter last May.)

Richard Garrett, the Chief Research Officer at research and advisory firm Eduventures, thinks the partnership between 2U and WeWork may signal a new approach to blending learning, “recognizing the limitations of fully online delivery and potentially opening up a broader market.”

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Prediction: 2018 Will See More Blended Learning, Alternative Credentials and International Competition
Eduventures Research Covered by Campus Technology

Over the next year, the higher education segment can expect to see a major shift to blended learning; an innovative education stack from an existing institution to “rival” the bachelor’s degree; and serious inroads to cross-border online learning. Those are the predictions for 2018 from Eduventures, a membership advisory service for colleges and universities.

The company said it expects a “regionally accredited four-year institution” to put together “a creative combination of pedagogy, experience, assessment and delivery mode” that will offer an alternative to the traditional undergraduate degree — but in a shorter amount of time and for less money. “This year, we expect a credential newcomer that will really shake things up,” said Richard Garrett, Eduventures’ chief research officer.

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NRCCUA Marketing Pros, Mary Kay Hyde and Gil Rogers, Give Tips on Making the Most of Your College’s Location
An excerpt from The Chronicle for Higher Education

For prospective students, choosing a college is a lot like dating. Most want to go out with the guy or gal who’s the most attractive, the smartest, the funniest. Most are probably less interested in the strange kid who’s socially awkward.

But if your institution has one or more “dating” challenges, there’s still hope. Maybe your campus isn’t stunning, or your location leaves something to be desired. Perhaps your program offerings are a bit antiquated. Whatever your Achilles’ heel, there are ways to stand out and get more students to enroll — without breaking the bank.

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