powered by Sounder Fueled by the isolation of the pandemic, online education grew in importance. Over the past two years, higher education had a choice – halt lessons entirely or shift to remote education. These impending choices may have made the prediction of the late great Clayton Christensen seem all the more likely.  Clayton Christensen […]

powered by Sounder The business model of higher education is simply broken — even with great colleges, wonderful staff, and terrific students, the numbers simply don’t work for many liberal arts colleges. But how, then, can we fix the problem? Dr. Jeffrey Docking, President at Adrian College joins the podcast to discuss how the survival strategy […]

powered by Sounder Young students today face significant barriers to education and employment success, with so many of those barriers showing up for the first time in the student’s first 12 months in college. Mollie Waller, Executive Director at Youth Solutions, joins the podcast to discuss their Jobs of Michigan’s Graduates (JMG) program and its […]

powered by Sounder For the first time, college athletes will have the right to use their name, image, and likeness for profit. But what makes the change so massive? Michelle Meyer, NIL Coordinator at San Diego State University and Founder at NIL Network joins the podcast to discuss: The economic & enrollment impact of the […]

powered by Sounder What if you could get up to 90% open rates on your email communications to prospective students? Allison Turcio, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing at Siena College joins the podcast to talk about the difference between merge field “personalization” and actually making your prospective student communications “personal.” How Enrollment Growth […]

powered by Sounder Are partnerships a small college’s secret weapon? Jayson Boyers, President of Rosemont College, explains how partnerships can help small schools increase enrollment and better serve their communities. He also discusses how to find “natural partners”, why smaller schools may find more scale with partnerships than other marketing strategies, and how the right […]

powered by Sounder We can keep our fingers crossed that we’ll avoid crises on our campuses. But not preparing for crises only ensures that when they come, we’ll manage them poorly and they’ll be even worse. Christy Jackson, Senior Director of Reputation Management and Communication, and Chris Gonyar, Director of Emergency Management at UNC Charlotte, […]

powered by Sounder Can a targeted digital strategy like geoframing really help you get 30% more applications?  Eric Grindley, CEO at Esquire Advertising, joins the podcast to talk about geoframing, a location-based audience building strategy that can help universities increase their application and enrollment rates. Let’s dig in. Geofencing vs. Geoframing? You can look at […]

powered by Sounder Without a CRM, data is just dead facts. With a CRM, data comes to life. But a CRM is only as powerful as the data we feed it and the systems we connect it to. Lawrence Levy, Founder and President at Enrollment RX, joins the podcast to talk about getting beyond the […]

powered by Sounder College presidents are sitting on a gold mine. They just don’t know it. Peter Shafer, EVP of Sales and Marketing at Everest Communications, joins the podcast to talk about the hidden value higher ed is sitting on because too many of us haven’t structured our unstructured data yet.  We discussed: Creating admissions […]

powered by Sounder Presidential tenure is shortening. College presidents hired in 1975 served up to 39 years with an average of just over nine years of service. Those hired in 2005, however, served a maximum of 23 years with an average of a little under eight.  Surprisingly, 75% of presidents are one and done. So […]

powered by Sounder Higher education has this well-intentioned habit of adding “good” things but never subtracting anything to make room for doing it well. Perhaps it’s time to get back to the root of our mission? But how? Dr. Robert Talbert, Author, Professor, and Presidential Fellow for the Advancement of Learning at Grand Valley State […]

powered by Sounder Bosses don’t give grades, but we constantly receive helpful feedback from them. How can higher ed better align its feedback mechanisms with real-world settings? Dr. David Clark, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University, joins the podcast to discuss the findings from his recent ungrading experiment and why he believes […]

powered by Sounder How can higher ed be sure that its programs are delivering the skills employers and students want? Joann Kozyrev, Vice President of Design and Development at Western Governors University (WGU), joins the podcast to talk about taking a skills-based approach to program development. A new program development approach for an increasingly skeptical […]

powered by Sounder As the college selection process for our undergrads just keeps on changing — and fundamentally so — do high school students have more influence than we might think? Matt Diteljan, Co-Founder and CEO at Glacier, joins the podcast to talk about identifying and partnering with university influencers and content creators who are […]

powered by Sounder While Mark Zuckerberg has been “introducing” the metaverse to the world the past few months, some players in the education space have been improving student outcomes using virtual simulations for nearly a decade now, Why should colleges and universities integrate the power of the metaverse into their classrooms as an enrollment growth […]

powered by Sounder All numbers need context. That being said, is there a better way to compare colleges by student outcomes?  Kim Dancy, Associate Director of Research and Policy, and Piper Hendricks, J.D., Vice President of Communications and External Affairs at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), join the podcast to discuss the Equitable […]

powered by Sounder Dr. Perry LaRoque, Founder and President at Mansfield Hall and author of Taking Flight: The Guide to College for Diverse Learners and Non-Traditional Students, joins the podcast to discuss the demographic reality that, for many institutions, future enrollment growth necessitates increasing access for more types of students than we’ve historically taught. Higher […]

powered by Sounder Eight out of ten future students are asking questions about their future degree programs online. Is your institution’s website popping up with the right answers? Faton Sopa, Co-founder and CEO of Manaferra, joins the podcast to discuss whether or not SEO still matters in 2022 and the advanced strategies higher ed should […]

powered by Sounder Nicolas Chu, Founder and CEO at Sinorbis, joins the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss: How the pandemic has impacted international recruiting, specifically in China New digital recruitment strategies for increasing your international enrollment Ready to advance your international recruitment strategy? Let’s dive in. Recruiting students from China during a pandemic The […]

powered by Sounder US demographics are changing rapidly. As Boomers age, Gen Xers are daydreaming about living in a van, Millennials are buying crypto, and Gen Z is wondering what the future holds.  They’re the smallest generation in some time, they’re saturated in technology, socially responsible, and dedicated to saving the world.  Ellen Johnson, VP […]

powered by Sounder Our universities’ brands are only as strong as the stories we tell. So how can we tell better stories? Ethan Braden, Senior VP of Marketing and Communications at Purdue University, joins the podcast to talk about why a university marcomms teams’ primary role is Chief Storyteller and how critical storytelling has been […]

powered by Sounder Is there an inherent perception conflict between being a faith-based university and being a world class STEM institution? Dr. Mathew Isaac, Professor of Marketing at Seattle University, joins the podcast to discuss the recent research on how the religious language institutions use does in fact impact prospective students’ academic perceptions. Does Religious […]

powered by Sounder Many institutions are using impactful media relations to boost enrollment, especially from key geographies, age ranges, and target markets. But many others haven’t quite worked it out yet.  How can your university use media relations as an effective enrollment growth strategy?  Stephanie Mullins, Associate Director at BlueSky Education, joins the podcast to […]

powered by Sounder Founded in 1966, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a mid-size public institution, located five miles outside of Baltimore. Its population of students represents Maryland’s demographics. UMBC is particularly known and lauded for its success in graduating underrepresented individuals in the STEM fields. The school has accomplished a lot of […]

powered by Sounder Dr. Andrew Gillen, Senior Policy Analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, joins the podcast to discuss why the College Scorecard might start making program reputation an even stronger signal for students than the overall brand reputation of a university. What’s Most Important — University Brand or Degree Program Brand? At the […]

powered by Sounder   Are we developing the ‘wicked’ students required to solve the world’s most wicked problems? Dr. Paul Hanstedt, Director of the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington and Lee University and author of Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses For a Complex World, joins the Enrollment Growth University podcast.  […]

powered by Sounder MOOCs burst onto the scene in 2014 with a lot of hype and flourish.  Some of that enthusiasm of their scaling promise was warranted. Some of the computer science courses in particular were strong. But most MOOCs were pretty terrible. Their course design was amateurish. The pedagogy was boring and ineffective. And […]

powered by Sounder Nearly 10 percent of U.S. undergraduates, or 1.7 million students, are single mothers, according to a 2019 report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The data also shows that nearly 9 out of 10 single student mothers live near or in poverty, and only 8 percent earn a degree within six […]

powered by Sounder Major tech companies are starting on their land grab claim to the metaverse. People who follow the higher ed news outlets might have seen this topic cropping up in publications over the last few months, too. What is the metaverse? Why is it such a big deal (or is it)? And will […]

powered by Sounder For many students, the fear of student loan repayment stops college dreams in their tracks right there.  The student may get excited when their acceptance letter arrives, but then once they see their financial aid award and the loans they have to borrow…and they’re out. How can colleges help take off the […]

powered by Sounder Over the last five years, the number of students seeking counseling has doubled on some campuses.  These student support challenges are creeping across campus from mental health to career services and other areas of student support, including tutoring. Could peer networks help mitigate this student support shortage? Chelsea Waite, Senior Researcher at […]

powered by Sounder Going into the pandemic, Drexel’s social media strategist was a grad student. The school had never had a dedicated social media position on the centralized marketing team.  And social media was about to become the front lines of crisis communications for the university… Joseph Master, Assistant Vice President, Marketing & Digital Strategy […]

powered by Sounder At the beginning of the pandemic, emergency remote learning appears to have been a largely negative experience for both students and faculty. Since then, though, has faculty’s perception of online learning improved? According to the data, it hasn’t. Let’s talk about why. Dr. Kathleen Ives, Senior Vice President for Engagement at UPCEA, […]

powered by Sounder Educators have been waiting for the promise of AI in education to arrive since the late 1960s. Sure, we’ve had some successful, if albeit narrow, applications. Math and chess are classic examples. We’ve even seen universities use AI to identify students who may need additional attention to stay enrolled. Now, however, AI’s […]

powered by Sounder Supplemental instruction (SI) improves academic performance for student participants.  The research shows this. What we don’t yet have solved for is how to scale SI so it benefits more learners and ultimately improves our institutions? Nicolò Bates, Founder and CEO at TEDU, and Jessica Brooks, Director at the International Center for Supplemental […]

powered by Sounder Dr. Tom Green, Associate Executive Director at AACRAO, joined the podcast to discuss the evolution of the one-stop shop admissions model and Harvard University’s plans for Kennedy School to integrate its admissions and financial aid positions. Here’s a quick background on the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). At […]

powered by Sounder   Andrea Maconachy, EVP of Marketing at All Campus, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about finding blue ocean marketing opportunities in an increasingly difficult and attribution-fuzzy paid media landscape. Where to Steer Marketing Dollars when Digital Attribution looks Fuzzy? Attribution has never been perfect. But new platform changes and […]

powered by Sounder What sets apart a great online learning experience from an ordinary one? Bob Ubell, Author & Vice Dean Emeritus of Online Learning at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering returns to the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about lessons from his new book, Staying Online: How to Navigate Digital Higher […]

powered by Sounder In a recent survey of 500 employers, 77% said that universities needed to reinvent the MBA.  What’s wrong with the foundational degree of business schools? And what would it look like if we did reinvent it? Andrew Crisp, Co-Founder at CarringtonCrisp, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss their recent study, […]

powered by Sounder   Since its origins, the university has persisted, not because it has stayed the same but because it has been remarkably flexible.  Dr. Emily Levine, Associate Professor of Education and (by courtesy) History at Stanford University joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about her new book, Allies and Rivals: German-American […]

powered by Sounder   Dr. Jerry Lucido, Professor and Executive Director at the Center for Enrollment Research Policy and Practice at the University of Southern California joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about the potential false hope created by this year’s mass move to test-optional admissions policies. How Test-Optional Admissions Affected this Year’s […]

powered by Sounder   The business community has a tremendous amount of skin in the employee education and re-skilling game. The amount of money employers invest annually in tuition reimbursement, formal, and informal training every year actually eclipses what the federal government provides in grants and loans. Jason Tyszko, Vice President, Center for Education and […]

powered by Sounder   Dr. Benjamin Selznick, Assistant Professor at James Madison University, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss why transferring may be a feature, not a bug, and why employers may be significantly undervaluing transfer students’ innovation capabilities. The Truth About Transfer Students Is college creating innovators?  In 2009, that question spurred […]

powered by Sounder   A diversity of experiences is proven to improve group problem solving. That’s why bringing folks from all over the world into the same classroom, whether that’s digitally or in person, adds an incredible amount of value. So how can we better build global learning cohorts in our colleges and universities? Karan […]

powered by Sounder   Last year, only 20% of college students participated in an internship, down from 60% the year before. Of those, nearly three-quarters were virtual. The internships that didn’t go online often got rescinded or students had to scramble to change plans.  How has the pandemic’s internship interruption affected our students? Dr. Andrew […]

powered by Sounder It’s time for a sobering reality check. The consistent year-over-year enrollment gains many institutions experienced earlier this century may have been more about favorable demographics than they were brilliant growth strategies. But demographics aren’t our friends anymore.  What are the biggest demographic challenges that higher ed is going to be up against […]

powered by Sounder   The future of work lies in the modern middle, and higher ed will have to adapt its structures and offerings to be ready for the way work is evolving.  How should colleges and universities think about serving and (ideally) credentialing the middle-skills gap? Do we insist on the four-year degrees we’re […]

powered by Sounder The future is inevitable. Holding our collective breath and waiting for things to return to normal isn’t an effective strategy for facing that future. In fact, the changes we need to make are going to become more evident and more serious as time passes. How do we better meet the needs of […]

powered by Sounder The flipped classroom has existed as an organized model for nearly two decades. It’s not a fad. It’s not fading into the wallpaper. It’s not disappearing from the academy. In fact, the flipped classroom was beautiful preparation for the direction higher ed is taking post pandemic. From now on, we’re not going […]

powered by Sounder Many people know about the XPRIZE, which is designed to incentivize moonshot innovations (literally in some cases), but they may not know that the XPRIZE has now come to and for education. Mark Schneider, Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss the $1 […]

powered by Sounder Becky Klein-Collins, Vice President of Impact at CAEL, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss whether or not “college” is the most obvious opportunity for adults to upskill today, and whether or not it deserves to be. The Current Dismal Job Market for Non-college Graduates The pandemic revealed that people with […]

powered by Sounder For most people, college is a very, very good bet — the best thing they can do with their money. The problem is that any individual is not the average. Wade Eyerly, CEO and Co-Founder at Degree Insurance, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about incentivizing prospective students with a […]

powered by Sounder Dr. Anne-Marie Núñez, Professor of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about the ethical questions our society asks STEM technologists to determine for us today, and whether or not they have the global citizenship awareness to answer them well. What kind of people […]

*   powered by Sounder We’ve known about the cheating problem in higher education for years. But thanks to the proliferation of academic resource sites on the internet, it’s getting worse. And all the plagiarism-checking tools in the world don’t seem to be holding back the tide. How can we solve the academic integrity problem […]

powered by Sounder More than half of all college students say, “My institution only cares about the money it can get from me.”  And 80% of students say they’re concerned about getting a job — any type of job — when they graduate. A fourth of students believe a 4-year degree is the only route […]

powered by Sounder Higher education likes to think of itself as an engine of social mobility. But how deeply do we actually believe it? Sure, mountains of data support what a degree can do for a student, especially a student who comes from a less-privileged background. Historically, though, we’ve valued things like SAT scores that […]

powered by Sounder Amy Glynn, Vice President of Student Financial Success at CampusLogic, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss new research on the financial reasons students are actually dropping out of college, and how we can create award letters that make sure we’re communicating our financial offer as clearly as possible. What’s Wrong […]

powered by Sounder When COVID hit, almost all our students became post-traditional learners almost overnight. This transformation revealed a lot about the student experience. At many schools, degree-seekers — especially non-traditional students — find themselves coping with multiple systems and departments that may not speak to each other.  What would it take to create a […]

powered by Sounder Amrit Ahluwalia, Editor in Chief of The EvoLLLution (an online publication founded by Modern Campus), joined the podcast to talk about the results from their State of CE survey addressing the gap between what modern learners want and what higher education actually offers. When asked by researchers from the Strada Network, 68% of adults […]

powered by Sounder When a student needs to pick up a course to graduate early or meet admissions criteria, what are their options?  Beyond taking an expensive and time-consuming course in a traditional or online format, of course. It’s a problem that StraighterLine set out to solve. Dr. Amy Smith, Chief Learning Officer at StraighterLine, […]

powered by Sounder College students learning virtually are motivating their parents to go back to school, creating an even larger trend toward multi-generational simultaneous attendance. How can we create initiatives that serve and support these learners? Dr. Sheila Smith McKoy, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Holy Names University, joined the Enrollment Growth […]

powered by Sounder How do we know precisely what students in our classes have learned? And what they haven’t? Traditional assessments don’t tell us quite enough to create a meaningful feedback loop between students and instructors. But there may be a better way. Jon Reifschneider, Director of Masters Studies, AI for Product Innovation at Duke […]

powered by Sounder Students enter community colleges at every level of preparedness.  Consequently, some degree-seekers have a long way to go before they reach their goal. Those juggling jobs and families along with school often drop out along the way. What’s the solution to the completion problem at community colleges? Dr. Ann Buchele, Vice President […]

powered by Sounder Higher ed is experiencing a crisis most of us have never seen at this scale — the pandemic, its economic fallout, and the amplifying reckoning around racial injustice. For people accepting a new role in the middle of this storm, the times call for unusual leadership skills, perhaps nowhere more than in […]

powered by Sounder Dr. Leslie Daugherty, Education Designer at Education Design Lab, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss their BRIDGES inaugural cohort and how creating workforce partnership pathways can help solve the rural student underrepresentation problem in higher ed. The Problem of Rural Student Underrepresentation in Higher Ed “As a first- year admission […]

powered by Sounder Market certifications have been embedded in community colleges, but we haven’t seen that same level of interest at the bachelor’s degree level. Yet we know that an increasing number of job postings require applicants to hold both a bachelor’s degree and proven skills relevant to that occupation. What is the value in […]

powered by Sounder Kelly Ryan Bailey, Global Skills Evangelist at Emsi, a labor market analytics firm, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about forging new partnerships with local employers by creating a shared skills language between us. “Skillifying” Education Employers typically need to move a lot faster than traditional higher education can go. […]

powered by Sounder The pandemic is changing everything in higher education. How can institutions use their resources to help keep their communities safe? Brett Pollak, Director of Workplace Technology Services at UC San Diego, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about using vending machines to create a self-administration protocol for 65,000 COVID tests […]

powered by Sounder What if you could measure your brand and reputation to better engage with key audiences through data derived from online public conversations? Dr. Liz Gross, CEO at Campus Sonar, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about how social listening can be utilized beyond mere brand monitoring exercises, including sophisticated programmatic […]

powered by Sounder During COVID, when we can’t all be together, how can we personalize and humanize our courses to engage students? Dr. David Peña-Guzman, Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities and Liberal Studies at San Francisco State University, and Dr. Ellie Anderson, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College, joined the Enrollment Growth […]

powered by Sounder College esports was surging in popularity even before the pandemic, but the intricacies of esports are still new to many leaders in higher education. How can institutions accelerate the adoption of esports? Joey Gawrysiak, Director of Esports at Shenandoah University, joined the Enrollment Growth University to talk about the “more than games” […]

Fully 36 million people have attended some college but didn’t make it all the way to graduation. How can we re-enroll these students in programs that provide valuable skills for both them and the workforce? Dr. Matt Bergman, Associate Professor at University of Louisville, returned to the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about their […]

Amid a global pandemic and restrictive federal policies around both international travel and student visas, international students are facing a lot of anxiety. Samantha Brandauer, Associate Provost and Executive Director at The Center for Global Study and Engagement at Dickinson College, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss Dickinson’s “Study Abroad at Home” initiative […]

Higher education keeps searching for ways to bridge the gap between academia and industry. One institution may have found the key.  Dr. Martha Saunders, President at University of West Florida, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk university-industry partnerships and their Sea3D lab’s missional pivot during COVID. A high-level overview of UWF’s Sea3D lab […]

  Is student distraction a uniquely 21st-century problem? Is education powerless to compete against students’ other technological options? Dr. James Lang, Professor of English and Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University, returned to the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss his new book, Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You […]

The offline-to-online shift accelerated rapidly in 2020. Some experts say we’re probably 5 or 10 years ahead of where we would have been without COVID.  What does that acceleration mean for digital trends that impact the student lifecycle? Jennifer Garrett, Head of Industry, Education at Facebook, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss AI, […]

Times like these require unique and collaborative approaches. Whitney Soule, Sr. Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Student Aid at Bowdoin College, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss the efficiency and effectiveness of joint admission events with like institutions, especially in a new era with fewer SAT and ACT takers. What Is […]

  COVID has accelerated the evolution and adoption of a lot of new technologies across higher ed. What has the pandemic done to the blockchain movement specifically?  Ray Schroeder, associate vice chancellor of online learning at University of Illinois Springfield, and senior fellow at UPCEA, returns to the Enrollment Growth University show to remark on […]

How do you scale educational technology at a university of 31,000 students to enable learning in virtually any setting? Dr. Kathi Kern, Associate Provost of Teaching, Learning, and Academic Innovation, and Kathy Hamperian, Executive Director of Customer Support and Student IT Enablement at University of Kentucky, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about […]

Are two-year colleges a revenue threat? Or can we see them as retention partners for our four-year institutions?  Dr. Vivian Liu, Postdoctoral Research Associate at Columbia University’s Community College Research Center, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about supplemental enrollment partnerships in higher education. Are Two-Year Schools a Revenue Threat? Each kind of […]

How big is the online cheating problem in higher education today? Dr. David Rettinger, Professor of Psychology and Director of Academic Integrity Programs at University of Mary Washington, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about changing the incentives altogether and prevent the very need for online cheating in the first place. An Honest […]

The last eight months have looked collectively different than the all the prior years leading up to this point. Everything in higher ed seems to be changing, and campus design is no different. After a decade’s focus on maker spaces and collaborative learning, interest is shifting to hygiene concerns such as HVACs.  What does the […]

How can we create relatable content that’s filled with empathy? Anne Stefanyk, CEO and Founder of Kanopi Studios, joined the Enrollment Growth University  podcast to talk about the concept of inclusive storytelling and using language that helps ensure our students can picture themselves in our institution’s story. What Is Inclusive Content? What’s the difference between […]

Many institutions are reassessing their financial aid policies in light of the COVID recession. What do college finances look like right now because of COVID and how tricky are financial calculations going to get?   Dr. Phillip Levine, professor of economics at Wellesley College and founder of MyinTuition, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk […]

Right now, college faculty and administrators are trying to help students tie up loose enrollment ends, reopen campus (if possible), all while navigating a pandemic. It’s a tough time. Miranda Benson, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Helix, talks about our high risk for student melt this fall, and 10 ways to mitigate your risk […]

Is “negotiated curriculum” a great way to increase your student engagement this fall? Brenda Thomas, Director of the University Colloquium Program at Florida Gulf Coast University, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about negotiating course curriculum with our students and the incredible engagement power of getting student buy-in up-front. The Negotiated Curriculum Experiment […]

Imagine you are on an airplane. You’ve gotten 10-15 minutes into your in-flight entertainment when the screen pauses, the audio cuts out, and the captain’s voice comes on. He tells you where his crew is from, why his airline cares about your comfort, and then mentions the current cruising altitude. That’s all accurate information, but […]

If you knew someone was recording you, would you change what you say? How would it affect your participation in a discussion? Is it even ethical to record your conversation with other people? These are tough questions, and yet, we record students in college classrooms all the time, often without thinking through the implications and […]

Online teaching doesn’t work. At least, that’s what the latest reports say.  But what we started doing in March was not online teaching. In fact, online education needs to be transformed in exactly the same way in-person brick and mortar education needs to be transformed, and it simply hasn’t happened yet. We cannot continue to […]

We may be underutilizing a student’s GenEd experience as an on ramp for declared major discovery.  Dr. Andre Audette, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Monmouth College, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about how to turn more GenEd discovery students into declared majors for our programs. GenEds: An On-Ramp to a Declared […]

Many universities are offering tremendous student support, but most can extend this support further by transitioning from the foundations of coaching to a culture of coaching. That way, students can experience connection and support in every interaction with university faculty and staff members. Miranda Benson, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Helix Education, shares proven […]

“If I can get a student on my campus, that seals the deal.” That mantra gets a lot of airtime, but does the data back it up? And even if it is true, how do you get students to experience a college campus during a global pandemic?  Gil Rogers, Executive Vice President at PlatformQ Education, […]

There’s more to online teaching and learning than what happens inside the learning management system. And since COVID is apparently going to be with us for a while, we need to have some discussions about broader key operational considerations as we move into the fall term. Dr. Jenna Templeton, Vice President of Academic Affairs at […]

Cherron Hoppes Ed.D., Vice President and Chief Academic Officer at Helix Education, and Emily Wood, Director of Instructional Design at Helix Education, created this webinar to discuss how presidents, provosts, and faculty can use Helix Education’s Online/Blended Course Quality Rubric to prioritize immediate needs in improving their institution’s online learning experience. The Circumstances Higher Ed […]

Ana Maria Echeverri, AI Skills Learning and Certifications Lead at IBM, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about how higher ed can spin up new programs faster, and the open source data science curriculum kit they’re building together with University of Pennsylvania and the Linux Foundation. An Overview of IBM’s Open-source Data Science […]

Welcome to a brief blog drawn from our recent Helix Education webinar, “COVID-19: the Roadmap to Fall 2020 Remote Emergency Teaching to Quality Online Education.” You can view a full transcript of the webinar here.  During this webinar, Cherron Hoppes, Ed.D., Chief Academic Officer and Vice President at Helix Education, shares how to go beyond […]

It’s hard to stand out right now. There are thousands of colleges and universities doing their job and educating their students well. But most of their websites are saying similar things. At times, the sites can almost seem like they contain the same content with a new institution’s name slipped in. That doesn’t help you […]

No one wants to look foolish. And the social discomfort of expressing yourself in front of people you respect may very cause 49 out of 50 students to sit on their hands when the professor asks, “Any questions?” How can college professors encourage more and better questions from students, especially from students who already feel […]

How much boldness is required in order for colleges and universities to successfully navigate the current uncertainty? Dr. William Kuskin, Professor of English and Faculty Director for Innovation in Online Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss why higher ed needs to start experimenting in order […]

Does the data show a disconnect between students, employers and educators? The future of work is shaping the future of learning, forcing education and industry to work together in fresh, creative ways.  Ken Eisner, Director of Worldwide Education Programs at Amazon Web Services, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss how cloud computing is […]

The first university opened up about 1000 A.D. in Milan, so we’ve got about 1,000 years of good data on how higher ed works and doesn’t. A little-known subfield of economics called cliometrics can help us use that data to figure out how things are going to change for colleges and universities. Economist Eric Mason […]

Faculty and school officials are currently scrambling to put together learning continuity plans during COVID-19 campus closures.  We invited Dr. Perry Samson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at University of Michigan, to join the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about engaging your live, in-person classes online during campus closures due to Coronavirus (COVID-19). How the […]

What does the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) mean for those hard skills that universities and colleges have been working so hard to prepare students with? And what do these and other macro-level changes mean for the future of higher education?  Steve Prentice, writer, speaker, Fortune 500 consultant, and futurist, Enrollment Growth University joined the […]

When we talk about learning innovation technology, many of us immediately jump to the learning management system (LMS), but the conversation needs to get broader than that. Jolie Tingen, Product Manager at Duke University, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about the next generation digital learning environment (NGDLE) and how Duke’s Kits project […]

Like nearly every other industry, higher ed is starting to feel the effects of AI. What do we need to know about the future of AI in higher education? J Scott Christianson, Assistant Teaching Professor at University of Missouri, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about why we should be both bullish and […]

There is so much focus on student outcomes in higher education right now, but are we potentially looking at the wrong numbers?  Should we stop evaluating colleges by the students they graduate, and judge them instead by the improvements the students make while enrolled there?  And if so, would different “winners” jump to the tops […]

What if we could combine the breadth of a liberal arts education with hard technology skills into a single experience that gives students enough exposure to be able to launch into a tech career immediately upon graduation? Kristen Eshleman, Director of Innovation Initiatives at Davidson College, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about […]

What does the advent of artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and their related sub-fields mean for the future of business programs at universities? For example, financial technology, usually called fintech, is an emerging discipline that includes AI, big data, blockchain, and crypto. This assortment of components makes fintech an interdisciplinary field and thus presents […]

The singular degree is losing value. Apple, Amazon, Google, Netflix, IBM, and Starbucks have made public statements about the fact that a degree really doesn’t matter in a lot of cases for them. The largest and most powerful companies are providing a clear indication of what’s valuable in this new, software-driven gig economy.  It’s a […]

American teenagers love gaming. How can universities and colleges capitalize on the potential that video games  — or Esports — hold to increase and diversify enrollment? Drew Boehm, Assistant Director for Esports at University of Texas, Arlington (UTA), joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about the massive growth of Esports and its potential […]

You’ve probably heard the buzz around TikTok, the vertical video platform that has captivated users in the 13-24 age bracket. While TikTok can seem complicated and overly casual for a higher education institution, it is still the place where future college students are hanging out online. If you want to talk to your future students, […]

Evidence shows that students learn more from active learning strategies than from traditional lectures.  We also know from both published results and anecdotal evidence that students and faculty seem to resist active learning. In fact, many faculty members have tried active learning and then switched back to doing lecturing.  Why? Dr. Logan McCarty, Director of […]

There is a long history of research proving the correlation between student engagement and student retention, even for non-academic offerings on campus. But how can we make those student connections most effective? And what proof do we have that our efforts at connection-creation are paying off in student retention and outcomes? Dr. Jeff King, Executive […]

Higher education institutions of all sizes rely on private gifts, especially major gifts, to help achieve their missions. But many advancement teams focus on finding major gift donors instead of developing them.  Let’s say you have 100,000 alumni, and 10% (10,000) of them contribute. Out of that group, about 1,000 of them will have the […]

Questions persist about the utility of a liberal arts degree. Prospective students ask questions such as: Will I be able to get a job when I graduate? How will this degree prepare me for employment? In that environment, liberal arts colleges may know students will be alright when they graduate, provided those students engage in […]

A lot of students persist through the early years. Once they get into their junior or senior year, though, when financial aid packages are smaller, they tend to reduce their course loads in order to work more. That choice prolongs students’ time to completion, and there’s an opportunity cost for extending the time to graduation. […]

Traditional plateau pricing was originally designed to incentivize early completion. But for adult part-time students who are balancing education with family and work responsibilities, they end up paying more per credit hour for the same education. Others may overstretch themselves just to take advantage of the discounted tuition, ultimately having a poor experience or dropping […]

Students are struggling with their mental health. The percentage of incoming students who report feeling overwhelmed has jumped from 28% to a full 40% over the past two decades.  What are the primary theories about this? Have overall stress factors increased? Some experts blame helicopter parenting, saying it leaves students unprepared for the disappointments and […]

The Department of Labor wants to expand apprenticeship programs between higher education institutions and key industries. So much, in fact, that it invested $183 million in grant funding to do so.  Dr. Elizabeth M. Béjar, Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Florida International University, and Dr. Bridgette Cram, Assistant Vice President for […]

When many in higher education think about self-driving car technology, we’re tempted to jump straight to robotics, but autonomous car manufacturers are also going to be looking for generalists who understand the bigger picture of autonomous vehicle design and manufacturing.   How can universities help prepare students to work in the autonomous vehicle industry? Dr. John […]

For a decade or more, higher ed has been talking about badges and alternative credentials in higher education. Sometimes, that’s turned into creating an alternative credential in a bubble and hoping it scale. But some universities are working directly with employers to develop new competency signals. Jill Klein, Interim Dean of the School of Professional […]

Publishing sales reps work with faculty members to try to convince them that their textbook is the best one. From there, faculty decide what books to require, but the students are the ones who actually open their wallets to pay for them. This is called the principal-agent problem. So how can universities help solve this […]

You’ve probably heard about conversion rate optimization. But what exactly is it? And how might it fit in with your higher education marketing strategy? Dan Sanchez, Marketing Director at Bethany Global University joined a recent episode of the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about the tools, techniques and massive enrollment growth successes they’ve had […]

What’s so amazing about Lassonde Studios at the University of Utah that everyone’s clamoring to be a part? On a recent episode of Enrollment Growth University, I got to talk to Troy D’Ambrosio, Assistant Dean of the David Eccles School of Business and Executive Director of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the University of Utah, […]

Should higher ed degree programs incorporate additional skills credentials and certifications within them employers are specifically looking for? Dr. Michelle Marks, Vice President for Academic Innovation and New Ventures at George Mason University joined the podcast to talk about their new cloud computing degree in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Northern Virginia Community […]

Lecturing for 90 minutes, no matter how much you channel Dead Poets Society, just doesn’t work. The 12-minute rule, however, is magic.  The kind of magic that comes from a deep understanding of human cognition and psychology. Dr. John Branch, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, joined the podcast […]

Higher education leaders have begun recognizing the communication gap between the academic bubble and industry. What does business-oriented America expect in terms of the quality of employee they believe they’re getting from new graduates versus what they’re looking for? And once students throw those mortarboards in the air, can they hit the ground running with […]

Today’s students will change careers many times over the course of their five or six decades of a working life. So how can universities develop a model that will launch students into a multi-faceted, six-decade career that probably involves technology that doesn’t exist yet? Dr. Chris Dede, Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies in the Graduate […]

For all the research being done in the learning sciences, how much are college classrooms appropriating that data and adapting to it? Are people learning better in today’s classrooms than they were in the past? To describe improvements in learning, Herb Simon coined the phrase “learning engineering” nearly 50 years ago at Carnegie Mellon University […]

Dr. Aaron Brower, Executive Director at the University of Wisconsin Extended Campus and Sr. Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin System, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss the difference between thinking about instructional teams vs. catch-all individual instructors. The Historical Context of an Unbundled Faculty Higher ed faculty […]

The sticker shock of higher education prices hits students early. First-generation college students in particular may not anticipate the total expense of the university experience. Tuition, living expenses, transportation and books add up quickly. Plus, students can feel anxious about the benefits awaiting them on the other end of a bachelor’s degree, having heard from […]

If you get 49 positive comments and one negative one on a course evaluation, as a teacher, you tend  to fixate on the negative one at the expense of the others. That’s a real problem. First, it takes an emotional toll on the faculty member. Second, it makes using student feedback to improve difficult. How […]

Can a prospective student imagine themselves at your school? If they can, then they are more likely to do the things that they need to do in middle and high school to prepare themselves for college. But geography and cost often limit the number of campuses prospective students can visit. They may write off great […]

Students currently live in a uniquely distractable world due to the onslaught of information technology, so how can higher education create safe spaces from those distractions in order to get deep work done? Dr. David Peña-Guzman, Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities and Liberal Studies at San Francisco State University, joined the Enrollment Growth […]

Higher education has seen a decline in MBA interest over each of the last four years even at the prestigious business schools. Could specialization help boost business school enrollment while simultaneously preparing students for the deep work expected in today’s business environment? Dr. John Quelch, Vice Provost at the University of Miami and Dean at […]

Can students interact meaningfully online? It’s a question faculty members and educational leaders are still debating. But one online educator believes she has found the ways to make it happen. Dr. Carolyn Speer, Manager of Instructional Design and Access at Wichita State University, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about why she’s doubling […]

Students can struggle to understand material presented in class. Those who fall the farthest behind are typically the most reluctant to ask questions. But when the same students get tutoring, they often fearlessly ask questions and easily grasp the subject matter. So how can a classroom be more like a tutoring session? Shana Cooper, English […]

Inside Higher Ed recently published an article about students who are choosing a degree, often computer science, for the practical benefits, but then three years into their career, many are realizing they don’t want to code their whole life – despite computer science being a much broader field than mere coding. How can students explore […]

Nearly all colleges and universities solicit student feedback through a formal evaluation process at the end of a course. The value of that feedback varies, and often, the activity seems more like a standardized exercise than a rigorous evaluation. What if a professor wanted deep, genuine feedback that students had thought through carefully? How would […]

The State of Georgia wants to increase the number of residents who hold postsecondary credentials. Consequently, Georgia’s academic institutions face huge but intriguing challenges in admissions, advising, and program development in order to assure student success. The University of North Georgia (UNG), an institution of five campuses and 20,000 students enrolled in graduate and undergraduate […]

Dr. James Lang, Professor of English and Director for the Center of Teaching Excellence at Assumption College, joined the Enrollment Growth University podcast to talk about the one question faculty should ask themselves before designing a new course. What Is Backwards Course Design? Backwards design says we should think about how to plan our courses […]

When a sizeable percentage of students are failing a critical, upper-level course, what can the university do? Many solutions could reduce academic rigor, ignore compliance issues, or eliminate core content. But that doesn’t have to be the case. At Cal State Polytechnic University, Pomona, a primarily undergraduate institution with a heavy emphasis on teaching and […]

Many faculty members came through the academy with a traditional approach to the classroom, the flipped classroom, and similar traditional educational models in mind. Whatever their pedagogical preferences, those faculty members possess critical, relevant content. They know what to teach. But then came distance education. And traditional faculty members often didn’t know how to teach […]

If a student has a specific goal in mind, something they’re passionate about and actively working toward, that they will be more likely to succeed. What we see on the ground, however, is that students tend to fall into career planning traps. How can career services offices use distance learning technology to help students avoid […]

You’ve heard the old adage, “You haven’t learned something unless you can teach it to somebody else.” What if that were the attitude with which we approached year-end exams? For one professor, it is. Dr. Stan Eisen, Professor of Biology and Director of Pre-Professional Health Programs at Christian Brothers University, joined the Enrollment Growth University […]

As universities are striving to increase student collaboration, Dr. Scott Roberts is succeeding. He started at the beginning. In the classroom. He believes traditional learning spaces were designed with the teacher in mind, so they could speak at students. Collaboration was never a component of the traditional lecture hall setup. That’s all changing at The […]

Research shows that students who work 10 hours/week can succeed in college despite their jobs creating occasional bumps along the way. Those students working more than 15-20 hours/week, over one or more jobs however, might not have such a fortunate outcome. Long work hours can run late into the evening, so students show up for […]

Universities already know that a myriad of benefits stem from pursuing integrated partnerships with national and global employers. What is possible, though, when a company as large as FedEx joins forces with a university the size of the University of Memphis to make a meaningful impact on recruiting and retaining employees? We invited Dr. Richard […]

Universities need to engage with students in innovative ways. What that means changes from year to year as the pace of the technological revolution accelerates. It’s important for schools to find ways to use the technology that students themselves are using, not just the technology the institution previously invested in. How can universities better leverage […]

Many studies support a high-touch approach to faculty-student communication, citing how critical faculty engagement and relationships are for helping students value their academic experience. But how does that work in an online setting? When people think about email marketing, they often think of it as a high-value channel for their internal marketing teams. But could faculty […]

Every college has a mission, and most are pretty boring. Colleges have to figure out how to put that mission into compelling language that aligns with the audience they’re seeking. It’s a challenge because, at many small colleges, the mission statement was written in institutional language that falls flat. How can a university communicate it’s […]

A recent study from the Association of American Colleges and Universities reports that 60% of employers don’t believe college graduates are prepared to succeed in entry-level positions.    How we can better bridge the technology gap between what institutions are teaching and what employers are expecting? To learn more, we invited Jennifer Johnson, Senior Lecturer […]

We invited Paul Bolton, Director of Adult Enrollment at Spalding University, and host of the podcast, “Reboot, 21st Century Enrollment Management” to join us on the Enrollment Growth University podcast to discuss all the steps necessary to successfully launch a new program at your institution. How to Gauge Market Demand and Student Interest Demand is […]