Institutional Factors - Recruiting Elearners

Higher Education Prospecting Resources - Recruit, Enroll and Retain - EducationDynamics.com
Presentation by Andrew Gansler at United States Distance Learning Association [4.22.08]

Gansler encourages elearning providers to "Understand Your Customer and Their Needs" by listing the most common reported "school factors" influencing enrollment decisions. Schools can influence but not always strictly control these items.

4 Traditional Factors:
Cost
Financial aid
Reputation of school and quality of instructors
Admissions requirement

Newer Factors:
Number of calendar starts
Curriculum delivery (students becoming more savvy...ask these questions now)
Credit transfer policy AND process (prospects now more concerned with the process hassle factor)
Requirements for completion
Required campus attendance
Geographic presence (evolving - eventually becomes unimportant to elearners after they actually take courses)
Uniqueness of program (newness of degreee - e.g. homeland security, criminal justice)
Enrollment process

The interesting conclusion is that these factors are the basis for identifying quality enrollment leads for distance learners. Whether your university does well or poorly in any of these is not the point. Instead, the point is understanding where the school is on these issues and where the student is (expressed needs) on these issues.