Q. Our school has maintained a long-term engagement with an external Online Program Management (OPM) partner. Prior to the recent impact of COVID-19, we were assessing whether to renew this contract, or use our internal services and business units to manage our online programs. Any advice on OPM renewals versus internal management during the current crisis?
The decision to renew an outsourced OPM contract or revert to in-house capabilities should be evaluated from a student-first position. As was the case before COVID-19, schools should carefully and precisely take the pulse of what fully online students will need. Current COVID-19 social distancing and uncertainty about the future may require more flexible OPM business models, re-imagined online experiences, and broader support services. But the first task for schools deciding to renew an OPM or not, is to assess the fears, expectations, and demands of their prospective online students.
While economic downturns in the past have led to enrollment bumps in graduate and professional programs, the speed and extent of this pandemic have created greater uncertainty about future enrollment. This delicate calculus could be hard for many schools to solve. While the recent shift to remote learning has been both swift and unprecedented, it cannot be confused with the challenges inherent in the management of a fully online academic program.
Institutions now have an opportunity to establish strategic priorities by evaluating the impact either an outsourced or in-house online solution might have on student performance, engagement, and outcomes. These questions should form the nucleus of the dialogue among schools, their OPMs, and their internal online service units.
Eduventures Principal Analyst at ACT | NRCCUA
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Tuesday June 25, 2019 at 2PM ET/1PM CT
Most colleges and universities are defined by a physical campus in a fixed location, while online learning knows no geographical bounds. Now that fully online enrollments account for about 15% of all undergraduates, and more than 30% of graduate students, the relationship between school location and student location is changing.
A few schools have used online to become national players with large numbers of students in every state, while most institutions have a predominantly local online student body. But does the future favor national or local online markets? Which strategy—local, national, or both—is in the best interests of different types of schools and different types of students, and should policymakers and taxpayers care? The answers will either reinforce institutional locations and identities as we know them, or advance a completely different relationship between institution, student, and place.
In this webinar, we will review new Eduventures analysis of online higher education market dynamics, and the emerging terms of engagement in the battle for value.
