The 5 Biggest Mistakes That Almost All Schools Make When Launching a Distance Education Program (and how

to avoid them)

By Paul Jacobelli Founder & President EdTek Services, Inc.

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The 5 Biggest Mistakes That Almost All Small Schools Make When Launching a Distance Education Program (and how to avoid them) By Paul Jacobelli Are you thinking about starting an online program? Congratulations. The rewards can be tremendous - but only if you put your online program on the right path. Its a mistake to think you can just throw a couple courses or programs up on the Internet, sit back, and count the enrollments. Many schools have tried that approach - and a year later they had a long list of expenses and a short list of students. We have all read about the big-name universities that launched distance learning programs to great fanfare. Then, 18 months later, they were out of the online business, red-faced and millions of dollars in the hole. As well, we all know about the tremendous success of the large for-profit schools which have huge amounts of capital to invest in their programs and, more importantly, their enrollment marketing efforts. The question then is what are smaller education providers to do in a world of online learning populated by frightening failures and hyper-dominant competitors? This report focuses on the special challenges small schools face when considering a distance education program. In it, I discuss the most common pitfalls 95% of small schools make that prevent them from achieving the success they want. Some of the mistakes are costly - depending on your situation - upwards of a million dollars (or more). Worst of all, you may not even know it until its too late. This paper will help you avoid that fate. If your school is already online and your costs seem out of control or you are overwhelmed with tech headaches or you are not seeing the kind of success you envisioned - its not too late. Read on and discover how to substantially cut your costsimprove retentionreduce riskput your eLearning program on autopilotand have more students with less headaches. Mistake #1: Underestimating What It Takes to Do It Yourself and What It Really Costs Trying to build and deliver an online program yourself is like deciding to build your own house. Could you do it? Perhaps. But how much time would it take? What would be the costs? Is it a good use of your time and resources? Even if you eventually manage to get the walls up, are you spending the rest of your days fixing leaky roofs, faulty plumbing, etc.? For most of us, its likely not worth the price in terms of time, aggravation, and wasted dollars (from having to fix all the false steps). Its the same with trying to do it yourself with an online learning program. You have to become an expert in online curricula, faculty development, technology deployment, 24/7 technical help desk and student support services, online marketing and lead generation and student retention strategies for online learners - and thats just for starters. If you are not a specialist in developing online learning courses or programs, the learning curve can be steep and the investment in hardware, software, staff (and time) can be

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significant. Even if you finally get your online learning program up and running you will still need to support a uniquely skilled in-house IT group to keep it online and running reliably for 24 x 7 x 365. So, the first order of business is to get down on paper all the hardware, software, staff, training and services you need to have in place to deliver the kind of quality program you envision for your school. As you may have guessed, all the pieces that go into making up a quality online learning program will cost an awful lot of your budget dollars. That said, your next order of business must be to develop a total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) report. This report should list not only what you need to put in place to launch your program but all the pieces that you will need to support it on an ongoing basis in the years ahead. Most TCO reports try to look ahead 3-4 years. When you see that final number you will be no doubt shocked. One common reaction to the real cost of going online is to choose instead to keep it simple by using a Basic (cheaper) version of one of the popular Course Management Systems (CMS), hosting the software on one or two in-house servers, hiring students to monitor the Help Desk, giving one of your IT people a pager so they can answer student and faculty questions after business hours, and have your online courses consist of text only. However, todays students expect more than that - much more. What many small schools dont realize is you can look to outside organizations to deliver all of these components and services. A growing number of vendors will provide the eLearning technology, the Help Desk, the courses, the instructors - even the enrollment marketing service for you. More importantly, for many years now a number of vendors have adopted a business model whereby you pay for their products and services on a per-enrollment basis. So, the first critical decision you have to make is whether you want to handle these essential components yourself or outsource them to a company that provides these fullservice, turn-key solutions. Mistake #2: Choosing The Wrong Technology Platform Because You Only Looked at the Technology Here are the key questions to ask when evaluating a technology platform: 1. 2. 3. 4. Does it employ the latest technology? Does the vendor offer free tech support to your IT people? Are student and faculty support services included? Are these support services available 24 x 7 x 365 or do extra charges accrue after certain hours?

I am often surprised at how many education providers choose their online learning technology based solely upon the functions and features of the course and campus

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software. There is much more to having a quality online learning program than the software you employ to teach the class. You need to be sure to get satisfactory answers to all these questions before you pick a solution for your school. Some of the biggest software providers utilize outdated technology and try to get around it is with costly programming patches that you pay for either outright in real dollars or indirectly through system downtime, lost data, student access issues, etc. Often you pay extra for tech support and training as well. A good Help Desk service for your students and faculty can cost upwards of $50-60,000 even when you staff it with students. If you want your online program to run effortlessly 24 x 7 x 365 you can expect to pay a surcharge in the form of enhanced service packages. All these fees can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Some of the more well-known commercial eLearning systems are Blackboard, eCollege, Desire2Learn and its learning. For those who want to do-it-yourself you can choose Moodle or Sakai. The policies of each commercial company differ as to what is included as standard and when extra charges kick in. You would do well to understand this fully. In the 14 years that I have been involved in developing and offering eLearning programs I have, quite naturally, developed my own biases and preferences based on real-world experience. For example, after examining all of the commercial eLearning systems in depth, my own personal preference for many years was the eCollege CMS. In the last year I have added the its learning LMS to my favorites list. When I look at who is using eCollege and its learning products and services I can see that I am not alone in my views. Some of the largest providers of online learning in North America utilize the eCollege full-service solution because of its proven reliability and easy-to-use collaborative learning environment. These include Strayer, DeVry, Corinthian, Laureate, Lincoln Educational Services, Kaplan, Westwood, Pierce College, Golden Gate, Park University, EMU and the University of Colorado. More than 2000 organizations and 2 million students around the world use the its learning LMS. Perhaps the biggest benefit that draws people to these companies is that all of the hardware, software and support services are under one roof. Their package enables you to avoid the heavy upfront investment required to build an in-house system and support that year after year. It includes the online campus, the course management system, fully online course evaluations, free upgrades, full hosting, data storage and unlimited scalability, 24 x 7 x 365 security monitoring and Help Desk support, faculty training and daily administrative support, to help your staff run your online campus. More importantly, if youre a small school, the business model enables your current IT staff to refocus their time and resources on more value-added projects around the school. In the eLearning industry this sort of offering means the vendor owns the problem if and when it occurs. Having a system that is fully integrated and one single point of accountability is the best way to insure a high-quality experience for students. This translates into strong retention rates and enrollment growth.

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In the past the challenge for small education providers that wanted to use services like those offered by eCollege or its learning was the cost. Now, the way to circumvent this obstacle is to utilize the services of vendors approved by these two companies to service the small school market. This enables smaller organizations to use a top-level LMS without having to make a large upfront investment or pay sizeable licensing fees. This can be a low-risk way for smaller schools to get access to the same powerful Learning Management System as the largest and fastest-growing online degree, certificate and professional development programs in the country. Mistake #3: Poor content and the wrong online faculty If you could look at all the online programs available today you would see that the difference between success and mediocrity often lies in the quality of the online courses and the faculty who teach them. Too often people accept the notion that traditional faculty know how to build and teach an online class. Its just not true in most cases. If your faculty doesnt have extensive experience in building and teaching online courses, why risk your reputation on their ability to do so? Would you let a first-year lawyer handle the sale of your business? Who do you want to design your new house? You want the best that you can get for your budget. Today, course content can be acquired from many of the major publishers or from custom course developers. Some companies also offer lease-to-own or fee-perenrollment pricing models to make it easier for you to acquire quality content from the outset. A few also provide you with either fully trained online faculty or they will conduct intensive training programs for your current faculty. The best online learning programs take advantage of the medium. They combine audio, video and text in an exciting and compelling way. They utilize realistic simulations voice-over tutorialscarefully placed quizzes and flash cardsreal-world case studies and remedial paths and final exams aimed at helping students move what they learn from short-term to long-term memory. They feature instructors who know how to maximize the web as a teaching tool. They also foster a sense of community and shared learning. And most importantly, theyre interactive. You can no longer thrive (or even survive) in todays marketplace with low-quality courses or untrained online learning instructors. Your competition is better than that. Mistake #4: Overpaying Do you remember the Dot Com craze when Internet stocks were going through the roof and people would pay any price for them? That era is over - except, apparently, in the online education software world. Scores of schools continue to pay very large annual fees for enterprise-wide software licenses based on the number of students enrolled at the institution. This happens even when the school and the vendor know that getting full adoption by students and faculty is a long way off. After you pay that large fee you still need to cover all the other costs that make up your TCO.

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Theres no reason to overpay. Today there are reliable companies who offer a complete, stable, proven and effective solution that students and instructors enjoy, with a pricing structure that administrators can appreciate. The key to solving this pricing issue for smaller education providers??? Its referred to as a fee-per-student, variable cost model. Smart vendors know that the way to an administrators heart is to only charge them for the products and services they actually use rather than for set licenses they may never fully utilize. If they use more of your product they pay more, if they use less they pay less. Some vendors are even willing to operate on a revenue-share basis as a way to minimize upfront investment and lower risk to their partner schools. If you are not already online, be sure to comparison shop. For example, you may find a price difference of 50% from one LMS provider who charges annual license fees to another that uses the fee-per-student, variable cost model. On a $500,000 / year software budget, that means $250,000 drops down to your bottom line every year simply by choosing the right provider. That adds up to an extra $1 million every four years. Mistake #5: Not having a marketing system in place to attract qualified students automatically, month after month Some schools blindly plunge into online education, spend a fortune on technology and course creation, only to realize they have no way to attract online leads and turn them into enrollments. These are the schools we read about (some well known) who end up closing down their online division after 12-18 months. Other schools shy away from offering online courses because they are inexperienced or uncomfortable in the online space. Questions such as, How do we get leads? and How do we know theyre any good? can be paralyzing. On top of that, theres conversion, follow-up, financial aid and enrollment to worry about. How is all that done without ever seeing a prospect face to face? The process can seem so overwhelming that many administrators end up sitting on the sidelines - and perhaps throw away a significant opportunity. The enrollment marketing challenge is the one critical area where the big conglomerate schools have focused a significant amount of their financial resources and personnel. They understand that it is THE key piece of the puzzle if they are going to have online learning success. As a result they have dedicated a huge percentage of their spending to go into the market in a very aggressive manner and in a way that will bury the enrollment marketing messages of many of their smaller competitors. Heavy media advertising and lead generation is quickly followed up by very fast, persistent and methodical outreach by teams of highly trained student registration staff. If you ever get the opportunity to tour the enrollment marketing offices of one of the large for-profit schools just do it. While we all know or have heard the stories about

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how important this part of the process is to growing and maintaining success you will still be amazed when you see it in action and see how smooth and efficient these departments are. School administrators are right to be cautious. Generating leads online can be more complicated and risky, and does require a different skill set, than getting leads offline. Plus, the Internet world is rife with unprincipled vendors who prey on the inexperienced. Sometimes you dont even know your pockets been picked until you have burned through a big chunk of your budget. So while its probably not an area where you want to do it yourself, there are ways to greatly decrease risk and still ensure enough enrollments to make your eLearning program profitable from the start. One way is to hire an outside agency or consultant who specializes in online enrollment marketing (although this can be expensive). Another way is to work with an eLearning vendor who provides the online lead generation and marketing for you as part of their all-inclusive package. Although this service is not very common, there are a handful of providers who will supply a steady stream of new, qualified student prospects every month to help ensure the school reaches its online enrollment goals. Summary The attraction of online education are the opportunities to impact more students lives, service a wider audience, and create a new, potentially lucrative revenue source. The dangers are the potential problems and pitfalls lurking around every corner. In order to successfully navigate these tricky waters and minimize risk, you need to first determine what youre comfortable doing yourself, and what youd prefer to leave to the experts. That and knowing where the most common and costly mistakes are can give you a tremendous advantage (not to mention a sense of comfort). Undeniable trend: there are more and more schools coming online every month. Therefore, its more important than ever to differentiate yourself by curriculum, content, service, online marketing, or even better, all of the above. If you do all that, or find someone who can help you achieve that goal, you have no reason to fear competition. I also strongly recommend not sitting on the sidelines. Online education is changing at a dizzying pace. The longer you wait to dive in, the harder it is going to be to catch up. Even if you start with a hybrid program where half the program is taught online and the rest in the classroom, you will be better off than watching from the sidelines while the larger online learning providers pick off your summer school enrollments or adult learner audience or worse. ABOUT PAUL JACOBELLI Paul Jacobelli is founder and President of EdTek Services, Inc. He has been in the trenches of online education since 1996. He was both a client and a Regional Director

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during the explosive growth of eCollege (hence the clear bias). After helping to launch some of the biggest players in distance learning, he now works exclusively with small colleges, career schools and non-profit organizations. His varied client list includes The Allen School, Bay State College, Green Mountain College, the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, West Suburban College of Nursing and Ethicon Endo-Surgery.