Developing Micro-Credentialing Plan

Five steps to determine which short-term micro-credential you should be offering:

1. Look at employer and industry needs in your region.

While online means you can receive your certificate anywhere, students still prefer and more often select a location close to home. That means your local employment needs directly impact demand. Specific skills of high need are the places to start your search.

2. Assess competitors in your region offering similar short-term credentials – consider non-higher-ed competitors as well as their price point.

The competition is stiff, and similar to the change to offering more fully online programs, your institution needs to enter the short-term credential market and learn how to compete.

3. Evaluate special business partnerships you already have to uncover needs.

Employers are looking for more ways to train their workforce but also shifting benefits from office perks to growth and training. A partnership can provide a faster and lower-cost alternative to enrolling students.

4. Involve tenured faculty who can switch to developing and teaching certificates.

With the demand shifts, tenured faculty with only a few students in their programs is not uncommon. This can create a complicated situation, and one of the most successful solutions is evaluating how this faculty group can launch micro-certificates.

5. Evaluate how the short-term credential can be stacked to a for-credit degree.

The short-term credential may open the doors to students who had not considered you before and provide a new recruitment pipeline.

2022 Demand Forecast

Using Stamats’ analysis of the IPEDS Degree Completion Database, we would like to share insights and suggestions for your short-term certificate plan.

Business Disciplines

Business undergraduate certificates are the third-largest undergraduate certificate discipline in the USA; what do you offer?

• The number of undergraduate certificate awards in Business (CIP 52) grew to 104,708 in 2020 (+0.5% year-on-year growth).

Specifically in Business disciplines, the following subjects or skill sets posted larger volumes in undergraduate certificates:

• Accounting
• Financial Planning
• Operations Management
• Entrepreneurship
• Human Resources

Stand out from competitors by highlighting that your institution teaches to the industry standards or association standards, such as SHRM HR-Certified Professional or Certified Financial Planner.

Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services

• CIP Discipline 11 is the 7th largest undergraduate certificate discipline in the US.
• Number of awards grew +4.7% to 46,204 awards in 2020.
• This is where cybersecurity, networking, and specialized IT certifications come into play. CompTIA, Amazon Web Services and CISSP certificates are in demand by employers.
• Many credit and non-credit options are available to students—don’t overlook non-higher ed providers in this realm when doing your competitive analysis.
• The following map shows institutions reporting distance format undergraduate certificates in CIP code 11. The largest two providers in the country are not 2-year institutions:
  • MyComputerCareer.edu with 8 locations and online delivery conferred over 3,800 CIP 11 undergraduate certificates in 2020.
  • University of Phoenix – 1,057 CIP 11 certificates awarded in 2020.

Institutions conferring computer and information science undergraduate certificates in the distance format.

Big Data or Data Analytics

Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods (CIP 52.13) Post-baccalaureate certificates grew from 969 to 1,220, representing +33.4% in year-on-year growth (2019-2020). Some institutions are reporting their data analytics and big data certificates here.

Data analysis and analytics skills are needed in a wide variety of occupations. Hopefully, your institution has a plan to prepare students from many disciplines in this area.

Education

Special Education Post-Baccalaureate certificates (CIP 13.10) grew from 1,680 to 2,229 certificates, representing +32.7% in year-on-year growth from 2019-2020.

Most K-12 school districts are always on the hunt for teachers with special education skills. State teacher requirements differ greatly; some states require more education than a PB certificate.

Curriculum & Instruction Post-master’s certificates (CIP 13.03) grew from 912 to 1,061 (+16%) from 2019-2020. Additional education at the master’s level may help licensed teachers increase their salary or career options. Again, state requirements for master-level education will differ, so pay attention to what your state department of education issues for salary differentials.

Nursing

Registered Nursing Post Master’s certificates (CIP 51.38) jumped 17% from 2,584 to 3,032 from 2019-2020. These certificates represent many specialties outside of Administration/Nurse Leadership. The Stamats research team can provide more detailed information on graduate nursing trends. As healthcare jobs become more specialized, your nursing programs may need to adjust to specialized fields of study in nurse practitioners.

Law/Legal Affairs

Legal Research and Advanced Professional Studies Post-master’s certificates (CIP 22.02) grew from 352 to 472 (34%) from 2019-2020. Certificates and Master of Legal Studies for non-JD professionals are a growing trend. A wide range of legal areas is covered by these programs, such as Labor Law, Business/Finance/Tax Law, Health/Healthcare Compliance, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, and Cybersecurity. Regulatory compliance is followed by various professions outside of law, so the need for additional training in specific areas of the law has increased.

Source: IPEDS Degree Completions 2020 (most recent data available).

Have a program you want to investigate?  Ask our research team to help! We have access to student demand trends, labor data, and competitor trends.

Increasingly, we see items related to the teaching-learning experience aggressively climb the list of items considered most often.

In many respects, this is not surprising. Students are, after all, pursuing an education.

What is surprising, however, is students’ growing interest in hybrid learning. Hybrid learning is a combination of traditional face-to-face instruction with distance and offline learning.

While students may not use the terms hybrid or flex learning, they intuitively understand what it means. For example, they routinely demonstrate their interest in a teaching-learning experience that is:

• Robust
• Both synchronous and asynchronous
• Personalized
• Intuitive
• Seamless in its use of technology
• Integrative across platforms

These words and phrases, we know, are central to what hybrid learning is all about. In fact, they are pretty much a definition of hybrid learning.

Flexibility

The research findings also highlight another trend. Again and again, students of all ages use the word flexible as they think about their college experience.

However, they use the word flexible in two distinct ways.

First, flexibility involves a teaching-learning experience that easily incorporates and accommodates traditional lectures as well as group discussions and online resources.

Second, flexibility means they are able to decide that morning whether they want to attend that day’s lecture in person, online, or later when it is more convenient.

Take care not to overlook this point. Each day, students want to decide whether to take that day’s classes in person on online. Not the entire course, but that day’s classes.

Technology

There is, finally, one more insight. While students love technology, they are quickly frustrated when technology does not meet their expectations. They expect technology to be sophisticated, simple, intuitive, and largely transparent.

As colleges and university administrators and faculty consider the future of teaching-learning on their campus, it is incumbent on them to keep the heightened needs and expectations of students central to the discussion. As part of this conversation, we believe, they need to begin offering or transitioning to the most dynamic hybrid learning experience possible for all the students they serve.

Of course, we are way beyond Zoom™ here. At best, Zoom has whetted students’ appetites for hybrid learning and opened their eyes to greater possibilities. We expect students to become ever more sophisticated as they tease out which schools offer true hybrid education and which do not.

Beyond the pedagogical implications of hybrid learning, we know there are marketing ones as well. Those schools that seek legitimate, enduring points of differentiation in their brand (and messaging) should consider incorporating hybrid learning.

Elevated Experience

Finally, a robust hybrid teaching-learning experience solves a thorny problem. Many students, forced to learn from a distance during the pandemic, were angry and frustrated that they were still being charged full tuition for an educational experience that they felt was sub-par. A hybrid learning platform will quickly elevate the teaching-learning experience and help ease students’ frustrations over tuition costs even when they are given the choice to continue to learn remotely or return to campus.

Looking ahead, even as we transition out of the pandemic, we expect student interest in hybrid learning to continue and deepen because it offers both the robust educational experience they demand and the flexibility they need.

Interested in exploring how students rank key college characteristics in their college-choice process? Drop me an email to schedule a call.

To make sure that inquiry, insight, and implementation are linked, we suggest that you follow a short, eight item checklist that Stamats uses to help guide its clients through research in the healthcare market.

1. Assemble Your Team

First, assemble a project team that includes representatives from research (the people who will design and execute the study), marketing (the people who will implement the findings), and finance (the people who will pay for the study). Involving these three groups is a critical first step.

2. Inquiry

Second, identify the big question to be answered. In other words, you must, at the outset, fully understand the “what” or reason for the study. Perhaps you are wondering why the number of outpatients in gerontology is declining or why the new women’s center is having difficulty gaining traction.

While this step may seem obvious, it is still surprising how many research studies launch without a clear sense of what they are trying to find out or how the marketing team will actually use the data.

Clarity on the “what” will help you focus on those questions and issues that are truly essential. It will also help guide your decision about how much time and money to invest in the study. Big questions generally require bigger budgets. Finally, it allows you to think about the research methodology to be used and how you will analyze the data.

3. Determine Participants

Third, identify the “who.” In other words, who—current patients, prospective patients, healthcare providers, suppliers—has the answer to the big question you are asking? Understanding the “who” will give you an initial sense of the population size. It will also provide insight into how difficult it might be to reach this audience and guide your decisions about which is the most suitable research methodology.

4. Using Results

Fourth, think carefully about how the results of the study will be used. In other words, what actions are you willing to undertake if supported by the research. This is enormously useful as you think about the questions to be asked. For example, if you anticipate refining your communication strategy for reaching prospective clients, it is important to ask respondents about their media habits.

5. Perform the Study

Fifth, execute the study. At this stage, the goal is all about utilizing best practices to enhance confidence in the study and its findings.

6. Insights

Now it is time to analyze the data. At this point it is very important to match the level and type of analysis with the sophistication of not only the project team, but the healthcare marketing team. It does little good to analyze data beyond the level of understanding of those who will operationalize it. Hopefully, initial thoughts about analysis were discussed at the “what” and “who” stages of the project.

7. Report Your Findings

This next step is twofold.

To begin, the research team should write the initial report/presentation. Their goal is to ensure that the research is analyzed, interpreted correctly, and organized around the big question to be answered.

Next, present the research report to the project team so the entire team can have a role in turning the data into insights and insights into action. Again, keep the big question in mind. The team must resist the temptation to spend time on interesting findings at the expense of essential findings.

8. Implementation

The last step in the process is for the project team to develop an implementation schedule. This schedule identifies specific actions generated by the research, when they will be implemented, and by which member of the healthcare marketing team.

Linking inquiry, insights, and implementation is not difficult as long as you follow this short checklist.

If you have any questions about this blog, wish to further understand the best practices that support great healthcare research, or need help with a marketing plan for your most important audiences, please contact Nadine Brock, Research Director.

Read Next: ‘New Normal’? Higher Expectations: 2021 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends

Part 3 of 12: What I wish I knew as a new marketer

In the last article, I focused on integration. This week I’ll examine how you can improve your strategy by understanding the need for alignment in six key areas:

1. Your vision
2. Institutional needs
3. Marketplace needs
4. Campus culture
5. Existing and anticipated resource base (time, talent, and dollars)
6. Other existing, operational plans

Read Part 2: The Critical Importance of Integration

Your Vision

First, is vision. At its most basic, the purpose of strategy is to achieve your institutional vision. When strategy is not aligned, or pinned to vision, the result is an inability to focus, poor stewardship of resources, and no means by which to measure results. Rather than order, you will have chaos.

Institutional Needs

Your strategy must align with prioritized institutional needs. The key is “needs” and not “wants.” Needs must always precede wants. You may want more STEM students, but you need to update your science and engineering facilities before that can occur. Research into why students elect not to enroll or why donors give once but not again can be helpful in identifying your institutional needs.

Marketplace Needs

Don’t forget marketplace needs. In particular, this means prospective students (and their influencers), donors, and employers. Understanding their needs will help assure the flow of resources to the institution. Strategy that does not align with the marketplace is likely to lead to further isolation, loss of support, and marginalization. Research into student and employer needs and competitor offerings can help make sure that your strategy is aligned with the marketplace.

Campus Culture

Your strategy must align with your campus culture. Your culture is both stated (vision and core values) and unstated (this is the way we do things around here). Strategy that aligns with campus culture will benefit from tremendous synergy.

Existing and Anticipated Resource Base

Fifth, your strategy must align with your existing resource base. Strategy that is not aligned with available resources will struggle at the implementation stage because dollars will be scarce, and contested. The result will be disillusionment.

Existing, Operational Plans

Finally, your strategy must align with existing operational plans. Strategy that does not dovetail with existing operational plans demonstrates a lack of internal coordination and likely will not achieve the needed momentum to be successful.

As you develop your strategy, factor in the alignments outlined above. The result will be strategy that is much more likely to move your institution forward.

Interested in a discussion on how research can be used to identify critical institutional and marketplace needs? Please contact Becky Morehouse.

Read Part 4: First Among Equals: The Importance of Audience Centrality

What’s the highest, best use of my time and resources.

Or alternatively:

Which activities will have the greatest impact on achieving our vision?

As you can see in the diagram, a basic matrix is four quadrants—numbered 1-4:

• Quadrant 1: Activities that are relatively easy to accomplish and have a great impact on organizational success
• Quadrant 2: Activities that are more difficult to accomplish but also have a great impact on organizational success
• Quadrant 3: Activities that are relatively easy to accomplish but have less impact on organizational success
• Quadrant 4: Activities that are more difficult to accomplish but have less impact on organizational success

In the lower right corner of the matrix you’ll see the addition of a fifth “quadrant” that represents the parking garage (hence the “P”). The parking garage contains important things I don’t want to forget but can’t, for a number of reasons (time, budget), address right now. I have “parked” them for later consideration.

In the 25+ years I have been using the matrix I have learned key lessons about using the pay-off matrix. Here are the five most important:

1. Limit the total number of major initiatives to four or five and make sure all are located on the matrix, preferably Quadrants 1 or 2.
2. Have no more than 1 or 2 Quadrant 3 activities.
3. Don’t put anything in Quadrant 4.
4. When a new initiative is added, consider what initiative(s) must be dropped.
5. Regularly review the parking garage. Changing circumstances might mean that some of those activities can be added to Quadrants 1 or 2.

Want to learn more? Schedule a free consultation today.

What’s more likely is a combination of several factors, including marketing, recruitment, brand health, and pricing strategies.

We know from working with hundreds of colleges across the country that pricing (cost of attendance) is one of the most important factors to students when choosing a college. And you know, as a higher ed professional, that tuition pricing is a multifactorial challenge, and sometimes painful to discuss with stakeholders.

The only way to know whether your pricing strategy was to blame for low matriculation is to conduct a tuition pricing elasticity study (TPES). This dual-purpose study digs deep to identify appropriate price thresholds for your students and region, as well as clarify your market positioning.

Think you might be ready for a TPES? Consider these three situations that can indicate now is the time to reduce the risk of low enrollment in the next academic year.

1. You’re Unsure How Students Feel About Your Brand

Competitive pricing encompasses more than having a lower price than competitors—you must also consider how prospective students and parents feel about your current price as it relates to their perceptions of your brand value vs. competitors’ brands.

A TPES can help you get to the root of both pricing and branding concerns. Higher ed researchers can conduct a blend of student and parent surveys to find out what people really think about your pricing and brand and how their perceptions translate when comparing your institution to competitors.

2. You Don’t Know How Students Feel About Your Published Price

We’ve heard it before. You worry prospective students will think you have a poor academic reputation if you come across as “cheap.” But if you’re priced too high compared to the market, will students get sticker shock?

The published price is one of the first things students look at when researching colleges. More importantly, they’re concerned with what they can afford and how they resonate with your brand.

3. You Wonder If You’re Discounting at the Correct Rate

Discounting is one of the most important factors students and parents consider. Students and parents today are more educated about tuition prices than ever before. They understand discounting, and it’s a top concern when considering college. But discounting is complex and often requires adjusting your published price and net cost to set an amount that appeals to students.

That’s where a tuition pricing study can play the largest role: It can determine the best discounting based on student and parent preference toward both published price and net cost. Identifying these price points drives enrollment and revenue growth.

Final Thoughts

One question we often get is whether doing a “tuition reset” is worthwhile.

Resets can increase enrollment and certainly appeal to students given the right circumstances. But they’re not effective for every school. In fact, tuition resets can be harmful. If implemented incorrectly, a reset can ruin a school’s reputation and decrease enrollment.

Every college should consider evaluating their tuition pricing strategy each year. Importantly, tuition pricing strategies need to be guided by data-driven research to ensure your prices reflect student interests to drive enrollment and revenue.

Ultimately, tough conversations and thorough research can make the difference between enrollment goal success and disappointment. If you’re ready to improve enrollment and brand sentiment, it’s time to consider a TPES.

Let us help you meet (and exceed) your enrollment goals. Schedule a free consultation today

Without hesitating, I respond, “A nonmatriculant study.”

By definition, a nonmatriculant study is directed at students who applied, were accepted, and then chose not to enroll.

In other words, they are directed at students that were within hailing distance of matriculating at your institution but chose not to attend.

Knowing why these students opted, at the very end of the funnel, to go elsewhere is extra-ordinarily important.

• Was the reason cost?
• Did they get a better offer?
• Was there a particular college choice attribute or quality that they found irresistible?
• Did distance play a factor?
• Or perhaps the campus visit experience?

The list of potential answers to the question, “why didn’t they enroll” is enormous and without clear data, then any decisions about how to improve your recruiting operation, adjust financial aid, or even refine your communication flow will, at one level, be a guess. And right now, in today’s highly competitive landscape, that last thing you need is more uncertainty.

Let us know if you are interested in talking about a nonmatriculant study.

If you’re interested in gathering systematic feedback, here are some helpful pointers:

• Sampling: Most institutions will use the entire pool as their base. Even with the full population as the base, you must be realistic about the number of expected completes. A typical response rate for this audience is at best around 20% (for telephone fieldwork and much lower for web or postal methods). For example, if you have 1,000 nonmatriculants, a reasonable goal would be 200 completed interviews. However, if you have just 500, a sample of 75 to 100 would be more likely.
• Timing: The best time to conduct these studies is shortly after you get the final word on students’ choices. This most often falls during the early summer months. The window is narrow and requires persistence in order to get as many completed surveys as possible before the students pack up for orientation at their selected institution. This will require numerous attempts and, likely, list exhaustion in order to garner a sufficient sample.
• Comparing: Budget permitting, it’s wise invest in a side-by-side comparison between matriculants and nonmatriculants. Using the same instrument and conducting the fieldwork at the same time for both audiences allows meaningful comparisons and highlights key differences for those who chose you and those who didn’t.
• Instrument: Ask the biggest question (“Why them and not us?”) of course, but ask it in different ways several times. Include specifics of particular interest in close-ended questions, but mix with open-ended questioning to get additional insight and spontaneous thoughts about key areas as well.
• Fieldwork: This study is labor-intensive. Although the study can be completed via the web or postal mail, response rates and representativeness will suffer. To gain control over the sample size and composition, a phone survey is the most efficient method. Typically, every name on the list will be need to be contacted several times in order to achieve the sample.

Final thought

If you don’t do any other marketing research studies this year, this would be the one you should do.

I recently presented a 30-minute webinar on the importance of gathering data from your nonmatriculating students. Let us know as soon as possible if you’re interested in conducting this study for your institution.

This finding, among many others, is included in Stamats’ fifth annual Adult StudentsTALK™ study conducted last fall. Presented with a list of 15 information categories or pieces of information they might seek on a college website, prospective adult students were asked to rank order the top five most important.

The overwhelming pick—rated a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 by more than 75% of respondents—was “cost information (tuition, fees).” That’s 33% more prospective students indicating a top-five rating for cost information than for the next closest piece of information—class schedules at 56%.

The top eight most important pieces of information, representing all types of students, include:

• Cost information (tuition, fees) 56%
• Class schedule (56%)
• Specific academic program (52%)
• Degree completion time (50%)
• Admissions requirements (47%)
• Financial aid, including loans (40%)
• Credit for prior work or life experience (40%)
• Transfer credit policy and process (32%)

NOTE: Percentages represent the proportion of respondents who ranked the information topic a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.

Essentially, these findings support what many of us might have guessed—that potential students are extremely interested in the nuts and bolts basics to best assess their options.

It goes without saying that essentials such as these must be readily apparent on not only college and university websites, but also repeatedly presented and reinforced throughout all communication channels.

Job placement rates, tuition reimbursement with local employers, career information for graduates of the program, student-teacher ratio, contact information for a specific admissions counselor, comparative rankings, and stories about adults “like me” at college didn’t make students’ top-five list of significant influencers when choosing a school or program.

These findings from a national study of tuition pricing reflect exactly what we’re seeing in the field and why having a tuition pricing strategy is more important than ever. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Pricing strategy is more than setting a high discount rate—it’s about analyzing a complex set of data that examines the combined effect of your current market price and brand value compared to your competitors. That’s why tuition pricing elasticity and brand value studies are indispensable. They look at a combination of data-driven factors that inform pricing strategy.

Pricing studies are always directed at inquiring students, applicants, and parents of these students, with the end goal of reaching your future prospective students and parents. Depending on institutional needs, these student groups can be segmented.

For example, you might direct a study at general inquiries and applicants, STEM students, athletes, or even students from different socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds. In many cases, public institutions cannot adjust tuition without approval from an authorizing board. However, many public institutions are free to make decisions about fee structures.

A pricing study offers considerable insight into how fees might be adjusted and communicated. Private institutions tend to have more freedom to adjust published price and net cost, and a pricing study can produce results that can immediately inform or confirm these strategies.

Without a doubt, justification is a prudent and necessary measure that data-driven pricing models can produce.

Accurate Pricing Strategies

Using choice-based modeling (often referred to as choice-based conjoint) rather than simply looking at historical data, pricing studies allow you, with great precision, to:

• Determine the price point (both publish and net cost) that will attract the most students (including whether significant pricing adjustments are required, such as a tuition reset)
• Identify the price point that will generate the most revenue
• Calculate the number of students you will gain (or lose) at different price points
• Determine the impact financial aid and discounting will have on enrollment
• Understand how students of different abilities (think GPA and ACT/SAT scores), geographies, and backgrounds (such as household income) value your institutional brand

Understand Your Brand

Beyond pricing strategy, a tuition pricing elasticity and brand value study will allow you to:

• Determine how different student segments compare to your competitors
• Understand how students who list you as “first choice” compare and contrast with students who list you as a “second” and “third” choice, or “never attend”
• Identify the college characteristics and choice attributes that are of most value to students and parents so you can build your brand and customized communication strategies
• Identify both the general messages and the specific messages that create interest and drive value
• Create baseline brand metrics or compare existing metrics

Timing Your Pricing Study

As you might guess, it is especially useful to conduct a pricing study ahead of any changes in tuition or when building revenue models. For most schools, this means starting to conduct the study in Fall (though TPES studies can run through the next year).

Timing is especially important because it needs to coincide with student knowledge and decision-making. By fall, inquiring students and applicants begin to have a greater awareness of which colleges they are interested in, pricing, and what factors are unique about each college they are considering.

No matter the time of year, there’s never a wrong time to start thinking about your tuition pricing strategies. If you have any questions about how a pricing study might help you, email us for more information.