Category: Blog

Recent projections by technology researchers confirm that mobile devices and tablets are seeing rapid adoption — and that more prospective students and alumni are first viewing your institution’s website from a mobile device. For example, market research firm IDC reported last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through mobile devices than through wired Internet connections. And Brett Pollak, director of the campus web office for the University of California, San Diego, reports that in past months, UCSD has seen an average increase of 0.5% each month in the number of website views from mobile devices. Now, nearly 20% of their web traffic is from a mobile device or tablet. Yet an informal May 2012 Academic Impressions survey of marketing professionals in higher education found that less than half have their website optimized or enabled for viewing on mobile devices. Reviewing the Options Not optimizing your site for viewing on mobile devices is no longer an option; as more students research your institution from a mobile device, it’s going to become increasingly critical that they are able to view and access needed information quickly and conveniently, that they are able to complete tasks (such […]

Market research firm IDC projected last year that by 2015 in the US, more people will access online content through mobile devices than through wired Internet connections, and many institutions are reporting sharp increases in the web traffic they are seeing from mobile devices. For example, Brett Pollak, director of the campus web office for the University of California, San Diego, reported that over the past two years, UCSD has seen an average increase of 0.5% each month in the number of website views from mobile devices. Now, nearly 20% of their web traffic (counting both prospective students, current students, and alumni) is from a mobile device or tablet. Curious to see how the majority of shops are responding to this increase in student and alumni reliance on mobile technology, we conducted an informal survey this month of annual giving and alumni relations professionals. The results are indicative of a gap between the technologies alumni are using to interact with their alma mater and the technologies the alma mater is prepared to use in reaching out to its alumni. Key Takeaways From the Survey When asked what percentage of their fundraising dollars are received through online giving, nearly one third […]

In Academic Impressions’ recent edition of Higher Ed Impact: Monthly DIagnostic, “Success Leaves Clues: Predictive Modeling in Higher Education,” we interviewed a number of experts to provide a conceptual overview of how institutions can take steps toward a more rigorous mining of their current and historical student data to identify predictors not only of which students will be at-risk — but predictors of success. Learning the shared characteristics of persistent and academically successful students can drive more informed investments in your recruitment and enrollment efforts. This week, we wanted to isolate one of the “big” factors — GPA — and take a brief look at how you can take a more sophisticated look at high school GPA and first term GPA as predictors. For a few tips, we interviewed Bernadette Jungblut, West Virginia University’s director of assessment and retention, and Jim Scannell, president of Scannell & Kurz Inc. Here are some of the thoughts they shared with us. Rethinking High School GPA “Don’t just rely on overall high school GPA,” Jungblut warns, noting that often one’s first impulse is to isolate high school GPA as a more effective predictor than standardized test scores and other frequently-used indicators. But Jungblut suggests […]

With scarce resources, it’s time to become increasingly savvy about the students you recruit and enroll, how you support them in ways that make a difference in their academic success and persistence, and how you approach the student-to-alumni transition. Success Leaves Clues Look at your past and current students and your current donors to identify indicators of retention, academic success, giving, and engagement. This entails identifying the shared characteristics of those students and alumni who are most successful and have the most pronounced affinity for your institution. Success leaves clues, and locating those clues can help you make better decisions at each stage of the student lifecycle, from recruitment, to retention, to graduation and transition to alumni. Predictive modeling based on current student and alumni data can inform your investments in recruiting, student support, as well as student philanthropy and young alumni engagement. [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”1405″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”border”:”0″,”class”:”media-image” ]] “Predictive modeling is a powerful statistical tool because it isolates those statistically significant variables that really drive the behavior of students—to find out of all the students who inquire, who will apply; or of admits, who will enroll; or of those enrolled, who will stay or who will leave.” Jim Scannell, President, Scannell & Kurz […]

Few institutions are performing sophisticated predictive modeling on factors affecting student retention, and given how many factors there are (both within and outside the institution’s control), predictive modeling can appear quite daunting. But you don’t have to go from A to Z all at once. “Typically,” Jim Scannell, president of Scannell & Kurz Inc, advises, “we encourage institutions not to leap into predictive modeling immediately. Start by doing univariate analysis, collecting descriptive knowledge.” For example, out of an entire class, you could set out to describe: How many men retain versus women? How many men versus women achieved higher than a 3.0 GPA? How did your transfer students from two-year institutions perform versus your transfer students from four-year institutions? Students from public versus private high schools? Student cohorts based on race? Suppose you find that men in that class are, on average, achieving a lower GPA than women. Can you dig deeper? For example, if you have strong athletics, compare both the academic preparation of entering athletes versus non-athletes and the academic success of those two groups during the first year. Do you have a lower GPA for male students because you enrolled 100 football players who were less academically […]

Moving beyond high school GPA and standardized test scores, you will want to look for predictors of student success and affinity for your institution by analyzing data on your past and current students at each stage of their relationship with your institution. Identify shared characteristics of those students who model behaviors you want to encourage. Look for shared characteristics among: Prospects who apply (versus prospects who don’t) Admits who enroll Students who take leadership roles Students who perform high academically Students who persist into the second year Students who graduate within a certain time range Students who stay engaged with the institution after graduation and take leadership roles in the alumni community Once you know the characteristics of your current, most successful students, these characteristics become additional attributes that you can identify in your recruiting process. Suppose that your data indicates that a significant percentage of the students who show high academic performance and persistence in your engineering program took calculus prior to entering it—and you find that many of these are transfer students who completed calculus while enrolled at a local community college. With this knowledge, you can look to your applicant pool and identify applicants who have taken […]

Your institution has enrolled a strong class of students, and a high percentage of them have persisted and are thriving academically. Now it is the senior year. In a few months, these students will graduate, and, if you do not engage them proactively now, you will lose your best opportunity to invite them to engage with you and give back to the institution as alumni. A few figures to consider: According to Eduventures’ 2008 study Transitioning Donors to Higher Gift Levels, almost half of all donors make their first gift to the institution more than 20 years before making a contribution at the major gift level. According to the 2011 Capgemini and Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report, 32%—nearly a third—of high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in North America are under age 55, an increase in the number of the young wealthy over previous annual reports. These data speak to the importance of cultivating donors as early as possible. And as affinity with your institution develops while alumni are still students, managing the student-to-alumni transition is especially critical. Key Indicators of Giving and Engagement What can you learn about preparing students to become engaged alumni, based on the data you have (or […]