Business Question

HEA 540 Module Eight Short Paper

Eliciting Support

Overview

In Modules Seven and Eight, you have worked on different parts of your communication plan, including internal and external audiences, the information these audiences would want to know, and how to deliver that information to them. In this assignment, you will build on your work in these modules to consider how you will elicit support from these stakeholders.

Prompt

You have done a lot of work to evaluate your academic program and make recommendations based on this evaluation. You do not w ant to see all of this work wasted because you lack support from the many different stakeholders you have identified. How will the messaging you develop create support, also known as buy-in, from these groups? In this assignment, you will consider how you can generate buy-in from at least three sets of stakeholders whose support you need to implement and evaluate your program recommendations.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

• Stakeholders: Describe at least three sets of stakeholders whose support you need to implement and evaluate your program recommendations. Who can influence the implementation and/or evaluation of your recommendations? Use headings within your document to separate you r discussion of each set of stakeholders.
• Messages: Discuss how the messaging you develop as part of your communication plan will resonate with each set of stakeholders. What does each set of stakeholders need to hear in order to support your efforts?
• Methods: Explain the different communication methods you would use in your solicitation for support from each of the sets of stakeholders. How will you deliver the messages to each stakeholder?

What to Submit

Your paper should be a minimum of 5 pages in length (including title and reference pages) and submitted as a Microsoft Word document with headings, double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and any sources cited in APA format.

HEA 540 Final Project Week 9 (this assignment can not be completed until the assignment above as you will combined week 3,5 and 7 with this one to complete the project.)

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation of a program plan. The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final product will be submitted in Module Nine.

It is incumbent upon a higher education administrator to possess the skills and abilities to effectively engage in academic program planning and evaluation. This is an integral component of internal performance monitoring as well as the external accreditation and review processes. Higher education administrators must obtain and use empirical evidence to identify what academic programs are candidates for improvement opportunity, address changes necessary for academic program success, and evaluate the effects of academic program change. Data-driven decisions are the basis for program planning and analyzing program results. This helps to ensure appropriate continuous improvement ensues according to institutional goals and objectives.

In the final project for this course, you will have an opportunity to engage in the academic program planning process. You will create a program plan for stakeholders in which you explain how you would identify, address, and evaluate an opportunity to improve an academic program based on relevant qualitative and quantitative data. You will demonstrate your ability to “see the big picture” in relation to the institution’s mission and values, and you will translate that vision into the necessary processes, benchmarks, and indicators for achieving success.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

• Determine opportunities for improving the alignment of academic programs with institutional goals using appropriate qualitative and quantitative evidence
• Design targeted methods of communicating program evaluation findings and eliciting stakeholder approval
• Develop evidence-based processes for the continual improvement of academic programs that respond to an ever-changing academic environment
• Propose program improvement recommendations that align with appropriate regulatory and accreditation standards

Prompt

Using the provided case study college chart (or instructor-approved information of your own—see below), identify an opportunity for improvement within the academic program, plan how you would address the needs of that program to improve it in accordance with institutional values, and then detail how you would evaluate whether the improved program is successful. All of your decisions must be grounded in relevant and accurate qualitative and quantitative data. In creating your program plan, you will need to use data analytics and program management methods and tools. This includes using tools to generate appropriate visuals (e.g., flowcharts, planning matrices, Gantt charts for time-sequence implementation, PERT charts, work breakdown structures [WBS], project critical paths, budget spreadsheets) to support your plan as appropriate. You will include an appendix that presents all the data that you used for your program plan.

You can find the case study college chart in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubric section of the learning environment, as well as in the Module One Resources and the Module One Final Project Review. If you have access to the proper information from an institution of your choice and would like to complete this project using that institution rather than the one presented in the case study, you must first obtain your instructor’s approval so that the instructor can ensure you will be able to meet all the critical elements below with the information that you have. All students must show competency in the same critical elements, regardless of the source of their information.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed.

1. Institution Overview
   1. Describe the institution and the specific program or initiative being addressed. What are the program’s history and role or purpose? What are the expectations of the program as it currently exists?
   2. Determine an opportunity for continuous improvement within this program or initiative. Support your response with quantitative and qualitative data from the program that you have collected. For instance, what data confirms that the program is not performing as it should? What institutional goals informed your decision?
   3. Incorporate relevant data from outside the academic institution to support your determination. For example, what are the institutional/national standards, milestones, benchmarks, and/or trends that the program is not performing well against?
   4. Discuss what additional quantitative or qualitative data would be relevant to your evaluation and which assessment tools would you use to collect this additional data.
2. Recommendations: In this section, you will take the identified opportunity for improvement in the program you selected and develop your plan for implementing it.
   1. Make recommendations for how you will address the program need that you identified. What, specifically, needs to happen to help the program meet its outcomes and meet institutional goals and objectives? Include a budget sheet to illustrate the costs of your recommendations.
   2. Develop strategies to implement the recommendations. Be sure to cite relevant sources to support your strategies. Consider which best practice methodologies exist that support your approach to addressing this type of program.
   3. Explain which regulatory and accreditation standards helped drive your recommendations. In other words, how have particular standards informed your decisions regarding the trajectory of this program?
3. Evaluation Plan: In this section, you will determine a plan for evaluating the success of your recommendations once implemented.
   1. Outline the process by which you will measure the success of your recommendations. In other words, what are the steps you will need to take to measure the success of your recommendations, and what further information or indicators will you need to find and verify? Be sure to include appropriate visuals (e.g., flowcharts, pie charts) to illustrate the time sequence.
   2. Discuss how the evaluation of your recommendations will foster continuous improvement within the academic program. What ongoing processes will be in place? How will adjustments be identified and made?
   3. Explain how these continuous improvement processes address institutional challenges. How do they respond to the ever-changing academic environment? Use specific examples to support your explanation.
4. Communication Plan: In this section, you will provide a broad outline of how you will communicate your findings with stakeholders.
   1. Discuss how your findings from the program evaluation will be communicated to the appropriate stakeholders. Who are the relevant stakeholders and how do you know this information? Which communication methods will be most effective for which sets of stakeholders?
   2. Explain how you intend your communication methods to elicit support for your recommendations from various sets of stakeholders. How will the messaging you develop create buy-in from these groups?
   3. Explain how different technologies and data will assist your communications to different stakeholders. Which sorts of data will be most helpful to which groups, and how will data be represented? Be sure to provide samples of these representations of data.

Milestones

Final Submission: Program Plan In Module Nine, you will submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric.

What to Submit

Your program plan should be at least 20 pages in length (including the cover sheet, reference page, and appendix) with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and adherence to industry-standard guidelines for formatting and citing sources.

HEA 610 Milestone week 7

An effective enrollment plan cannot be successful without considering the product offering, customer success, and financial implications. The product (courses) and customers (students) are what drives an enrollment plan. The courses and programs offered by an institution define what the institution values and how it responds to market demand. In most institutions, the product mix is a factor of the institution’s brand, the economic opportunities, and the forces that influence student enrollment decisions. Nothing is without cost.

If a program or major is discontinued, that will affect the faculty and staff associated with that program. If majors are added, then new resources must be committed to support them. In both cases, the product mix requires that the institution can respond to student demand. Keep in mind that sometimes programs are kept, even with small enrollments, in order to ensure a diverse and robust general education offering, or to meet accreditation or other regulatory requirements. None of these decisions should be made lightly and all will require compelling evidence to support them one way or another.

For this milestone, you will submit a robust projected outcomes analysis that considers the product mix, customer demands, and financial implications of those decisions. The institution will be committing significant resources to the enrollment plan, so these decisions must be made with the best possible evidence of value and return on investment. The projected outcomes provide the framework by which the institution will measure progress toward achieving its goals. Some elements for the outcomes can include key performance indicators (KPIs) or specific and measurable metrics that indicate achievement of a business goal. You should consider the costs for each step of the recruitment process and weigh them against the potential revenue. Generally speaking, the institution’s revenue goals are maximized with graduates, not student starts.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Recommend programmatic changes in program offerings necessitated by indicators from your enrollment marketplace analysis and your strategic enrollment management plan. Consider the following programmatic issues you could address, in addition to other issues relevant to your institution:
   1. What program graduates are a current career placement challenge?
   2. Which program placements are projected as promising in the near future (based upon feedback and projections from advisory boards, employment agencies, career services, market analysis, etc.)?
   3. Given the market and strategic analysis, if it should come to pass, which programs are logical candidates to be discontinued? Which programs that are not currently offered are viable candidates for inclusion or addition?
2. Analyze the impact on student achievement. Recommend policies and procedures to improve student persistence and retention, in relation to the institution’s mission and goals. Explain how these policies and procedures address the issues identified in the strategic enrollment plan. Describe how they will impact the quality of student life and student achievement. Consider the following programmatic issues you could address, in addition to other issues relevant to your institution:
   1. What effect should the implementation of your plan have on your institution’s enrollment management effort?
   2. How will the quality of student life be impacted by the success of your plan?
   3. To what degree will first-year student persistence and student retention be affected as a result of your plan?
3. Defend the financial implications of the plan in relation to your institution’s strategic plan. Note that it is not necessary to create a budget or know the exact dollar amount the plan would cost. Rather, you should discuss the types of costs and revenues in general based on the KPIs and defend them as necessary costs and benefits of plan implementation. Consider the following in your defense, in addition to other relevant information that will enhance your position:
   1. Defend the types of costs that should accompany the strategic enrollment outreach initiatives and why these costs are necessary in relation to the institution’s mission and strategic plan. Explain how the program changes will impact expenditures. Identify what resources might be required. Consider the factors that would predict any unintended costs. Identify any mitigating factors, such as accreditation criteria or state regulations that merit consideration.
   2. Defend the types of revenue that should accompany the strategic enrollment outreach initiatives in relation to the institution’s mission and strategic plan. Identify how these changes will positively impact retention, attrition, and persistence. Be aware of any potential revenue streams that might result.

What to Submit

This assignment should be a 4- to 7-page (not including title page and references) Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and compliance with APA style.

HEA 610 Final Project WEEK 9 (this assignment can not be completed until the assignment above as you will combined week 3,5 and 7 with this one to complete the project.

Overview

The final project for this course is the creation of a strategic enrollment plan. As you continue your journey to become a higher education administrator, you must understand the enrollment management process within higher education, including techniques used to attract, admit, and retain students. Whether or not you work in the for-profit arena, attracting and retaining students in accordance with the higher education institution’s mission is at the core of the operation. In this strategic enrollment plan, you will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to apply the tactics for successful onboarding and continued retention of students, as well as approaches aimed at improving student achievement and persistence.

The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Three, Five, and Seven. The final submission will occur in Module Nine.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

• Analyze assumptive models and theories regarding why and how prospective students choose institutions of higher learning for their application to an institution’s enrollment management strategic choices
• Analyze higher education institutions’ enrollment marketplaces using the relevant empirical data to inform programmatic decision making
• Propose policies and procedures for improving retention and student persistence in higher education that support the institution’s mission
• Develop appropriate marketing and recruitment strategies using marketplace data that support successful recruitment and retention
• Analyze institutional costs that impact the continuous improvement of student retention, attrition, and persistence for their fidelity to an institution’s strategic goals

Prompt

For this project, you will work with your instructor to develop a strategic enrollment management plan covering the multiple enrollment periods relating to an annual planning time frame. You may complete this plan for an institution of your choice in any sector of education (public, private, or for-profit), so long as the institution is accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Through research and readings, you will gather the information needed to complete your plan. You will examine the tools for effective admissions marketing, predict admissions yields, and assess how financial aid influences enrollment behavior. You will also analyze the critical stages of the enrollment process, identify models used to frame retention, differentiate the fiduciary enrollment management responsibilities inherent in all enterprise positions, and appraise the impacts that student achievement and quality of student life have on student persistence.

Utilize the following institutional goals to drive your plan:

• Goal 1: Enhance marketing, recruitment, and early outreach strategies from initial contact through first-day attendance and first-year persistence
• Goal 2: Increase the probability of student achievement through the development of early academic and support strategies targeted for the student’s first-year experience
• Goal 3: Enhance academic programs and support systems in order to improve student persistence and student success

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

1. Prospectus
   1. Describe the organization and its enrollment marketplace; for example, students who are likely to enroll, where they are, and what they want and can afford. What overall details about the institution will help contextualize your plan? What overall data is relevant to determining the marketplace?
   2. Describe the role of enrollment management at your chosen institution. How does this role complement the institution’s enrollment marketplace? What is the organizational structure that supports this role?
   3. Describe the theories and models that underpin your plan and how they are applied. How do the roles and practices of relevant institution employees impact student retention, attrition, and persistence? What responsibilities shared by all college employees are relevant to enrollment management? How can faculty, staff, and administrators assist in the successful implementation and continued success of this plan?
   4. Summarize your plan and articulate the value it will bring to student success efforts. Overall, how will you address the goals? What is the planning time frame? What other relevant details do you need to include in your prospectus that will contextualize the plan for your audience?
2. Analyze the Current Enrollment Management Landscape
   1. Explain the strengths and opportunities of the institution’s current enrollment management initiatives. What data about the institution’s enrollment marketplace supports your assertions? How will your plan capitalize on these possibilities?
   2. Explain the institution’s weaknesses and threats regarding enrollment management. How will your plan mitigate these challenges during the planning time frame? What data about the institution’s enrollment marketplace supports your assertions?
3. Foundational Assumptions For Proposals
   1. Describe the external assumptions that provide the contextual framework for your plan. What are the demographic, economic, or cultural realities of your chosen institution’s enrollment marketplace? What theories and assumptive models drive your decisions?
   2. Describe the internal assumptions that provide a contextual framework for your plan. What details such as program offerings, cohort section size, facilities limitations, or regulatory compliance impact the institution’s enrollment marketplace? What theories and assumptive models drive your decisions?
4. Detail Your Strategic Enrollment Management Plan
   1. For each of the institutional goals provided above, create aligned objectives (approximately three objectives per goal) that clearly characterize the plan. Ensure that they align to the institution’s mission and vision. The enrollment objectives should be achievable and inspirational and should push the institution’s strategic vision to a new level. Do they provide all the necessary information in a clear format?
   2. Explain your key performance indicators (KPIs). What are the quantifiable measures you will use to gauge the performance of your objectives? Are there any relevant accrediting agency requirements? What metrics will be utilized to measure performance? How will the results be analyzed with regard to goals (planned vs. actual)?
5. Projected Outcomes: How will you measure or analyze the impact of your plan? Be sure to include your KPIs in your projections.
   1. Programmatic Changes: Recommend changes in program offerings necessitated by indicators from your enrollment marketplace analysis and your strategic enrollment management plan. Consider the following programmatic issues you could address, in addition to other issues relevant to your institution:
      • What program graduates are a current career placement challenge?
      • Which program placements are projected as promising in the near future (based upon feedback and projections from advisory boards, employment agencies, career services, etc.)?
      • Which programs are logical candidates to be discontinued? Which programs that are not currently offered are viable candidates for inclusion or addition?
   2. Impact on Student Achievement: Recommend policies and procedures to improve student persistence and retention in relation to the institution’s mission and goals. How do these policies and procedures address the enrollment marketplace? How will they impact the quality of student life and student achievement? Consider the following programmatic issues you could address, in addition to other issues relevant to your institution:
      • What effect should the implementation of your plan have on your institution’s enrollment management effort?
      • How will the quality of student life be impacted by the success of your plan?
      • To what degree will first-year student persistence and student retention be affected as a result of your plan?
   3. Financial Implications: Defend the financial implications of the plan in relation to your institution’s strategic plan. Note that it is not necessary to create a budget or know the exact dollar amount the plan would cost. Rather, you should discuss the types of costs and revenues in general based on the KPIs and defend them as necessary costs and benefits of plan implementation. Consider the following in your defense, in addition to other relevant information that will enhance your position:
      • Defend the types of costs that should accompany the marketplace outreach initiatives and why these costs are necessary in relation to the institution’s strategic plan. What resources might be required? Can you predict any unintended costs? Are there mitigating factors such as accreditation criteria that merit consideration?
      • Defend the types of revenue that should accompany the marketplace outreach initiatives in relation to the institution’s strategic plan. How will program changes impact revenue? How will these changes positively impact retention, attrition, and persistence? Can you predict any unintended revenue that might result?
6. Communication and Messaging based on the data from your marketplace analysis
   1. Explain how the proposed enrollment strategies will be communicated to the organization. Will you need to differentiate your messages or approaches for different stakeholder audiences? What types of messaging will you need to create? How will you use your data to support your claims?
   2. Explain how you will communicate to the marketplace.
      • Given the characteristics of your chosen institution’s marketplace, what types of messaging will you need to create?
      • What techniques or technologies should be successful in reaching your audience?

Milestones

Milestone One: Institutional Background: Prospectus, Enrollment Landscape, and Theory In Module Three, you will submit the prospectus for a comprehensive enrollment management plan for the institution you chose in Module One. You will take an in-depth look at your institution, resulting in a prospectus that provides an overview of your institution and the theories and models that explain its current enrollment management strategies. You will also provide an overview of the institution’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and the internal and external assumptions that underpin your institution’s enrollment management plan. This section will be a major part of your final project. To develop your prospectus, you will need to visit the IPEDS Data Center, the institution’s website, and other sources for local, regional, and national education and population trends. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Milestone Two: Strategic Enrollment Management Plan In Module Five, you will submit a comprehensive strategic enrollment management plan. Identify at least one institutional goal that can be realized, with sound enrollment decisions, if your plan is adopted. The strategic enrollment plan must be clearly aligned to the institution’s mission, vision, and strategic objectives. This section of your final project will build on your previous submitted work by expanding the peer analysis, conducting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), and a market analysis. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Projected Outcomes In Module Seven, you will submit a robust projected outcomes analysis that considers the product mix, customer demands, and financial implications of those decisions. The institution will be committing significant resources to the enrollment plan, so these decisions must be made with the best possible evidence of value and return on investment. The projected outcomes provide the framework by which the institution will measure progress toward achieving its goals. Some elements for the outcomes can include key performance indicators (KPIs) or specific and measurable metrics that indicate achievement of a business goal. You should consider the costs for each step of the recruitment process and weigh them against the potential revenue. Generally speaking, the institution’s revenue goals are maximized with graduates, not student starts. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.

Final Submission: Strategic Enrollment Plan In Module Nine, you will submit your strategic enrollment plan. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission is graded using the Final Project Rubric.

What to Submit

Your strategic enrollment plan should be approximately 18–26 pages in length, include a title page and references, and follow these formatting guidelines: double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and APA-style citations.