7 Steps to Successfully Grow Your Online Enrollment
When I moved from four years as Director of Residential Recruiting to Executive Director of Distance Learning, I realized I was comparing apples and oranges in the recruiting cycle. Through this posting you will see bits and pieces of an article written by Marketing Sherpa, Inc. in June 2008 that I participated in. (I could not include the whole article because of copyright laws) Please click the logo above to visit their website. They have a full range of useful articles and tools.
Here was the challenge I was faced with when I first came into the online industry:
“Adult distance learners are a difficult demographic for colleges to attract. It’s not like targeting high school students within a certain radius and knowing that many of them will be interested in you simply because of your location.” (Marketing Sherpa June 2008)
“Ronald Kennedy faced this dilemma when he became Executive Director, Distance Learning and Graduate Studies, Liberty University, about 2 1/2 years ago. He was charged with increasing the college’s distance learner enrollment, which were about 12,000 students when he took over. At Liberty, adult and distance learners are almost one and the same — 60% to 70% are 30 to 45 years old.” (Marketing Sherpa June 2008)
Six Online Distance Learning Success Steps
In an earlier posting I laid out a five point plan on how to determine what your next steps should be once you thought going back to school in your future. Below I have outlined six steps to being successful once you start. Are you nervous to try online education? I myself was very skeptical of taking online versus the traditional classroom setting. I felt I was not disciplined enough to take responsibility for my studies without procrastinating until the very last minute on assignments and test. It was not until a friend of mine started taking classes online and logged in and showed me how to navigate the course (Liberty University uses Blackboard technology). Once I saw how simple the technology was to use and how the students and faculty interacted it took the fear out of trying this. I was in my early 30’s when I decided to attempt my MBA online. I felt I was very computer literate, but I still was nervous until the above encounter showed me I could do it. I can imagine for older students the fear of the technology is even greater.
Junior Achievement Award Ceremony
This year was the first year that I participated in Junior Achievement as a business educator. My brother and I both received a plaque for our efforts. I only have a picture of my brother receiving his plaque because I was on vacation and could not attend the ceremony.
Junior Achievement is a worldwide partnership between the business community, educators and volunteers — all working together to inspire young people to dream big and reach their potential. Junior Achievement’s hands-on, experiential programs teach the key concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to young people all over the world.
My brother Rick Kennedy (high school business teacher for E.C. Glass high school) and I teamed up this year. This was his fourth year doing this and my first. Below is the article from the Lynchburg City School website about this year’s results.
Good Business Sense: E.C. Glass Economics Students Awarded for their Entrepreneurial Skills
Do you do what is right or what is easy?
I would say for the biggest portion of my life, through the age of 30, I have always been an individual who has done just enough to get by. I was always cutting corners and looking for the path of least resistance. Some of you may know exactly what I am talking about, but for some maybe not. Starting back even in middle and high school I was satisfied with a B or C in a class. I could have easily worked a little bit and received a higher grade, but my motto was to exert as little effort as possible to get by and keep mom and dad from killing me. You become what you practice, so this same lackadaisical attitude started to follow me into all areas of my life, sports, college, relationships, worship for God and prayer. I once heard Suze Orman say, “Do what is right, not what is easy”. Of course, she was talking in a financial context, but it struck me as a very compelling statement. Read more
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