Here is a real-world situation.
You’ve been hired by an industry association representing the 3,000 colleges located in the United States. Due to COVID-19, nearly all universities in the United States will be conducting classes via video conference at the start of the new academic school year, which begins in August 2020.
A few months ago, the association sent out a survey to the college students attending their member universities. The survey asked a simple question:
Given the remote learning situation, do you plan to re-enroll and attend school in the next academic year?
25% responded “No.”
What should the association’s member universities do regarding this finding? How would you structure this problem? What are the possible implications of this finding?
Post your answers in a comment below.
24 thoughts on “Real-World Case”
25% no as an answer just seems to be cut short… let me add up all the possibilities
1. no… resume on campus immediately
2. no… i opt to study on campus occasionally e.g. once a month
3. no… i prefer a more regular on campus schedule e.g. 2-3 times a week
4. no… im ok with full time remote yet the course quality, design, interactive content/activities should be improved
so based on above we then work out the root cause and resolution accordingly
To summarise, the issue is that only 25% of students choose to enroll with these 3000 U.S. colleages this academic year. Our objective is to find a solution to improve the enrollment rate before the enrollment deadline or start of this academic year.
I would like to find out what factor(s) contributed to the decline in enrollment rate the most and prioritise that when recommending a solution.
Firstly, I would like to explore student satisfaction. – – – How is that different from last year?
– Which segment has caused the decline e.g. social activities, learning experience in the classroom?
Accordingly, we can figure out how we can make the virtual experience to fulfill the gap that students have been concerned with.
The second bucket that I want to explore is financial consideration:
– How many students’ family have been impacted directly by the Covid-19?
– Have they been able to receive any financial assistance?
– Have there been any other concerns on the school fee perspective?
Thirdly, I want to explore the career prospect.
– Have Covid-19 impact the no. of employers want to recruit from this college?
– Have the employers prepared to do virtual recruiting this year?
– Have people been trained for virtual recruiting?
– Any opportunities that will be available virtually but not in person vs the previous year?
Forthly, I want to explore infrastructure.
– How many students have adequate set up at home to do virtual lessons?
– Have any students express any specific concerns? Can colleagues provide any support that fulfill the social distancing requirement (e.g. study room, borrowed laptop services etc.)
Finally, I want to access the strategic options of the industry
– How big is this threat if only 25% of students enroll this year?
– Will universities be financially viable ?
– Will this be not profitable to any colleges?
– Any industry support that the association can provide?
I would like to examine this problem from four different aspects:
• Who are these 25% students that responded “No”? Why they voted “No”?
o Types of colleges? Majors? Which school year are they in?
o Nationality and where are they staying now?
o access to computer and internet?
o Rubric change?
• Go with pure online teaching?
o Financial factors: budget limit and financial goal?
o Non-financial factors: student retention rate, cut in faculty, enhancing the IT department/hiring more IT staff for online teaching support, school reputation, etc.
• Alternatives to online teaching?
o Offer a gap year to students who voted “No”
o Offer hybrid teaching (online and offline mixed)
o Offer full in-person teaching for students in less severe covid-19 areas through exchange program at collaborative universities (could be international universities).
• Potential changes as time goes
o If covid-19 situation gets contained, start offer in-person meetings with health and safety precautions.
o When vaccine is available in early 2021, consider offer in-person meetings after students get the vaccine.
o Seek for financial and non-financial help from alumni, government and private sectors.
First, we want to study “who are among the 25% that responded No?”, that is, the demographical breakdown and details of these students. What types of colleges (e.g., Liberal Arts, Polytechnic, Public vs. Private, Community colleges) are they from? What majors are these students in (Engineering, Math, Medical & Life Sciences, Liberal Arts, Business, etc.)? which year will it be for these students for the coming school year (Sophomore, Junior, or Senior)? What is the nationality of these students? Where are they currently staying (in the US or outside of the US)? Do these students have difficulties accessing computers/laptops and internet which are essential to the online teaching? Are they worried about any rubric change or grading system change and the effects of these changes to their overall academic performance from the online teaching? All the above factors could affect students’ preferences between online teaching and in-person meetings. If we can find the key characteristics of the 25% students who responded “No”, it will help us better define the problem. For example, these 25% students could be made of those who are currently enrolled in Engineering majors in public universities, outside of US, the in-coming senior, inaccessible to internet or computers; whereas students who are in Liberal Arts colleges or in Business majors prefer online teaching because they do not need to worry about any hands-on projects.
Second, once we have a better idea on “who are these 25% students?” and “why they chose “No”?”, we now can evaluate whether it is good to conduct classes via on-line teaching or other potential alternatives (see possible options in the framework above) from both Financial and Non-Financial factors. Financial factors include: budget limit and financial goal and their effects to the finance of the college in the next 5 to 10 years; if there is a budget short, ask for support from the governments, alumni and other private businesses. Non-Financial factors include: how the pure online teaching will affect the students’ performance, retention rate and enrollment in the next few year? What changes need to be made to the faculty and the IT support department? e.g., cut the number of the faculty or reduce their salary? Hiring more IT staff and paying more to the existing IT staff? How the online-teaching will affect the reputation of the universities, positive, neutral, or negative?
Third, we can apply the financial and non-financial factors to the various alternative options in the framework. Besides that, we need to address the health and protection issues for all these alternative options to limit the spread of covid-19 due to our students. We also need to develop new collaborative relationships with international universities to offer students the exchange program option.
Lastly, the covid-19 situation could change rapidly as time goes, so we need to be prepared to potential changes. For example, if covid-19 cases get reduced and the virus is largely contained in the next 3-4 months or a vaccine is available early 2021, we can think of offering in-person meetings for the 2nd half of the semester. Universities should also seek for financial and non-financial support from governments and private sectors as well as individuals to make sure that college education is available to students because college education is critical to the economic and societal development.