The fifth edition of the annual Pacey Educational Games (PEG) for Lagos and Ogun states’ schools got underway Wednesday at Lagos African Church Grammar School, Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos State.
According to the organisers, the competition, which will feature over 50 secondary schools in Lagos and Ogun states with about 1,500 athletes, is aimed at fostering all round development of students in secondary schools, through fun and interactive games.
Speaking at a media parley to unveil the competition at the weekend, spokesman for the organisers, Mr. Apo Olugbenga, said the games will help Nigeria to discover its next set of champion athletes, adding, “Since 2016, PEG has set out on a journey to discover and harness the hidden greatness in each and every one of them, because of the belief that every child is unique in his or her own way and they find expressions through different means.”
He disclosed that the students will fight for honours in such interactive games as chess, monopoly, scrabble, Rubik’s cube, and many other games that challenge their reasoning and help them unlock their brain power.
“The past events were greeted with wonderful experiences by students from Babcock University Secondary School, White Hall Schools, Wellspring College, and Lagos African Church Grammar School to mention but a few.
“This year’s event promises to be bigger and better, as it will attract many other schools. It has been carefully packaged to help the students develop their team spirit through exciting and competitive games,” he said.
Olugbenga disclosed that Honeyland College Breakthrough Academy, Whitehall Schools, Babcock University Secondary School, Lagos African Church Grammar school, and many other schools in Lagos and Ogun states will feature in the exciting games.
Olugbenga, who announced the games’ partnership with Sports360nja, said “the partnership is borne out of our aim to reach 40 per cent of the population of students of primary and secondary schools in Nigeria in the next five years.”
Also speaking during the media parley, Sports360nja Online Editor, Mr. Ugochim Uzoije, said: “This partnership is borne out of our aim to reach 40 per cent of the population of students of Primary and Secondary schools in Nigeria in the next five years.”
Earlier, PEG’s Founding Partner, Mr. Adeyemi Anifowose, disclosed that the organisation will launch Hackathon (coding challenge) for secondary schools, which is tagged “unveiling the power of technology.”
Anifowose said the importance of the challenge is to enable secondary schools’ students to crave more interest and develop trending relevant skills in IT, “which is needed or required to navigate their career as the world is continuously revolving around IT.”
An effort on Tuesday to add fifth grade at three charter schools, in alignment with Metro Nashville Public Schools’ own initiative, devolved into chaos and a heated debate about the role of school board members.
Metro Nashville school board members eventually voted to allow three charter schools — Rocketship Nashville Northeast, Purpose Prep Academy and Smithson Craighead Academy — to add fifth grade to their current K-4 elementary schools in alignment with the district’s own initiative to move fifth grade from middle schools back to the elementary level.
But the vote came only after heated debate as board members drew pro- and anti-charter lines and a yelling match with some of the many parents who showed up in support of the charter schools.
An initial motion by board member John Little, a charter school advocate, failed and he slammed his colleagues for not supporting the desires of parents. His colleague, board member Sharon Gentry, called his remarks a “tongue lashing.”
“We’re sending the wrong message to our families to say we’re going to change how we do elementary and middle school, but we’re not going to allow charter schools,” Little said.
Board member Freda Player-Peters had earlier said charter schools could have made the move to add fifth grade before Metro Schools introduced the ReimaginED initiative to do the same, saying the process is dependent on the school board’s decision.
But Little reminded Player-Peters that charter schools still have to propose amendments to their initial agreements with the district to change the grade levels along with the number of students they serve.
Parents applauded Little’s comments before the tone quickly shifted.
“It’s worth noting that these are charter school students, not necessarily our students,” said board vice-chair Rachael Anne Elrod, who attended the meeting virtually.
Several parents voiced their disappointment with Elrod’s comments, prompting Little to interrupt Elrod before stepping away from the dais. One parent stood in the middle of the board room, pointing and shouting at Elrod on the screen while chair Christiane Buggs gaveled for silence.
A motion by Elrod to deny Rocketship’s proposal also failed.
On top of that, there was confusion about the Rocketship vote totals, with some members not voting but not officially abstaining, either. As a result, the board had to reconsider Rocketship’s application.
When it was made clear that Rocketship was not requesting an enrollment increase to add two fifth grade classes, board members eventually approved the matter with a 6-2 vote.
The board then approved Purpose Prep and Smithson Craighead’s request to add fifth grade but did not approve enrollment increases for the two schools Tuesday night.
Should fifth graders stay in elementary schools?
For years, most elementary school students have transitioned to middle schools for fifth grade in Nashville. An earlier effort to move fifth grade back to elementary school — the most common practice for school districts — in 2017, under then-superintendent Shawn Joseph, failed after district officials determined the $300 million price tag was too high.
Starting in 2018, three elementary schools that feed into Antioch Middle School began adding fifth grade and now as part of the district’s multi-year Metro Schools ReimaginEd initiative, schools in specific clusters are making the change.
And district leaders acknowledge that most parents prefer their fifth-grade children stay in elementary school.
Academically, fifth-graders learning in an elementary school environment outperform their peers attending fifth grade in middle schools, said Elisa Norris, executive officer of strategy and performance management and leader of Metro Schools’ ReimaginED initiative.
State standards and most curriculums also group grades together, typically as K-3 or K-5, 6-8 and 9-12, making it easier for fifth-grade teachers to plan and collaborate with other elementary school teachers, said David Williams, the district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction.
This school year, elementary schools in the Pearl-Cohn, Maplewood and Whites Creek clusters, have transitioned fifth grade back into their buildings
Bobby Miles, principal of Rocketship Nashville Northeast, told The Tennessean Tuesday morning that his school hoped to add two fifth grade classes for the 2022-23 school year because many current parents have been hopeful the school board will approve the effort.
Amending charter school agreements
Charter schools have to propose amendments to change the grade levels along with the number of students they serve. Both Purpose Prep and Smithson Craighead asked to increase enrollment in addition to adding fifth grade. But Rocketship Nashville Northeast is only requested to add two fifth grade classes, which the board granted.
Rocketship’s second Nashville elementary school, United Academy, did not seek to add fifth grade because the school does not have the space, said James Robinson, executive director for the Rocketship charter school network in Tennessee.
The district’s Office of Charter Schools recommended the board approve the grade additions for all three schools but found that Purpose prep and Smithson Craighead’s enrollment increase requests “fall outside of the maximum enrollment threshold” at both schools per their charter agreement.
Smithson Craighead for instance has never met its current enrollment cap and does not have a weight list, according to Shereka Roby-Grant, director of charter schools for the district.
Board member Emily Masters, who typically sides with the anti-charter school board members, voted in favor of adding fifth grade at all three schools and even spoke in favor of Smithson Craighead, which is located in her district.
“I had a great visit at Smithson Craighead and I was really straightforward that I’m very appreciative of everything that they’re doing in that school and that I would be glad to vote for them to add fifth grade …because that is a pedagogical decision that doesn’t require the addition of seats. I can be understanding of that,” Masters said.
The role of school board members
After the board finished its votes — and the room nearly cleared out — Gentry questioned Little’s motives
“I would be remiss if I didn’t say a couple things. I will be honest with you Mr. Little, I’m talking about you sir, with some of these comments you made sitting at this board,” she said. “It just concerns me that I would be chastised for serving as a school board member and making decisions that are in the best interest of MNPS. I’m concerned when the tongue lashing comes.”
Gentry also reiterated Elrod’s earlier point that charter schools are not MNPS schools.
“They’re public schools, but they’re not MNPS schools,” she said.
Little said many families have children in a variety of schools, whether a charter school, a traditional zoned public school or a magnet school, and therefore parents and students should be treated equitably no matter the “brand” of their school.
Gentry argued the board is capable of making decisions in the best interest of students, using Tuesday’s votes to add fifth grade as an example, but members are charged with making decisions in the best interest of the district.
Charter school proponents often argue that parents choose charter schools when their zone or neighborhood school doesn’t serve them well or when their only options appear to be underperforming public schools. But those who are against charter schools argue they have little oversight and pull money out of local schools, making it harder for them to improve.
The majority of the present board members eventually voted in favor of the three charter schools’ amendments. Elrod voted against all three. Board member Abigail Tylor voted against the proposals for Rocketship and Purpose Prep but in favor of Smithson Craighead’s application.
The board also voted to renew its contract with LEAD Prep Southeast but deferred Knowledge Middle School’s renewal at the request of the school.
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Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.
By Crawford County Now Staff November 23, 2021 9:00 am
MANSFIELD—During the past few weeks, Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center was proud to host the High School Fall Academic Challenge League in the virtual format. Students competed as teams, answering questions about a wide range of topics including literature, fine arts, geography, history, math, and science.
JV, HS runner up (Ashland)
In varsity league competition, the 14 competing teams split into two divisions. The winner of Division A was Mt. Vernon with team members Emily Hammond, Nick Grega, Makenna Hughes, and Charlie Comfort. The winner of Division B was Lexington with team members Katie S., Thomas S., Maggie S., and Wes H. The junior varsity league winner was the team from Lexington with members Seth D., Jacob H., Grant M., and Chloe D. The runners-up came from Madison. Team members were Nate Osborne, Josh Atwell, Katelynn Ransom, Justin Gibson, Zachary Lucas, Samantha Myers, and Grady McElvain.
The Fall Tournament was back in person at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center for the first time prior to COVID. Leanna Ferreira, the coordinator for Academic Challenge, said coaches and students alike were appreciative and the energy level was high as students participated. “It has been over a year since we’ve had in-person meets, and we were so glad that everything went smoothly. We congratulate all of the winners!”
Varsity, HS runner up (Lex)
At the varsity level, sixteen teams faced off in two brackets. The winner of each bracket then faced off for the ultimate winner. Mt. Vernon (winner of bracket B) took champion overall, with the team of Emily Hammond, Nick Grega, Makenna Hughes and Charlie Comfort. Lexington (winner of Bracket A) took runner-up overall with team members Katie S., Thomas S., Maggie S., and Wes H.
JV, league runner up (Madison)
In the junior varsity tournament, there were 16 teams competing in two brackets. The top teams from each bracket faced off in the final. Lexington, the winner for Bracket A, secured the victory. Team members were Seth D., Jacob H., Grant M., and Chloe D. Ashland A, the winner of Bracket B, took runner-Up. Drew Briggs, Klooey Kaeser, James Kinney, Andrew Martin, Riley Hammond, and Austin Conrad made up the team.
Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center provides specialized academic and support services to 11 school districts and over 18,000 students in Crawford, Morrow, and Richland Counties. Client districts receive services from curriculum, gifted and special education consultants, speech pathologists, psychologists, special education teachers, occupational therapists, and physical therapists.
More children are staying away from the classroom and being home-schooled after the pandemic (PA) (PA Wire)
The number of children being home schooled in England has risen amid parents’ concerns over Covid-19, a survey suggests.
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) estimated 115,542 children and young people were being home educated at some point during the 2020/21 academic year, up 34{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} from the previous year.
The ADCS said the most common reason parents decided to home-school children was due to concerns over Covid-19.
It added that local authorities said they had been notified by parents who were pulling children out of school because they had become concerned over their emotional health, anxiety and mental health needs.
A child during a Year 5 class at a primary school in Yorkshire (Danny Lawson/PA) (PA Archive)
In a snapshot comparison, the ADCS also looked at the number of children being home-schooled on school census day on October 7 this year. It concluded an estimated 81,196 children were being home-schooled across all 152 local authorities in England – a rise of seven per cent from the same school census day the year before.
The report published by the ADCS said the number of children being electively home educated has been growing 20{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} each year for the past five years.
A total of 117 local authorities told ADCS they provided support to families with children being home educated using video calls, phone calls and meetings. The authorities said there was a “huge loophole in elective home schooling’s national policy, which makes the existing policy unsafe”.
In a comment made in the report, it was said: “There needs to be a statutory duty implemented to ensure our children who are home educated are learning, have regular home visits (that are statutory, not parental option) so the child is seen and to observe the work taking place.”
Gail Tolley, chair of the ADCS’s educational achievement policy committee, said: “Every child has the right to a suitable education, and we recognise that parents have the right to educate their child at home.
“For six years now, we have seen year-on-year increases in the number of children being educated at home. This report highlights just how much of an impact the pandemic and the closure of some schools has had on this number.
ADCS is concerned that without powers to see both the child and their place of learning, we cannot know that these children are receiving a suitable education in a safe and appropriate learning environment
Gail Tolley, ADCS
“Local authorities have a duty to ensure that children being educated at home are safe and receiving a good education, yet we do not have a role in assurance of this, nor is there adequate guidance on what a suitable education looks like.
“ADCS is concerned that without powers to see both the child and their place of learning, we cannot know that these children are receiving a suitable education in a safe and appropriate learning environment.”
She said ADCS is calling on the Government to establish a mandatory register of all electively home-educated children, with a duty on the local authority to visit the child to assess their education provided.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We support parents who want to educate their children at home. However, now more than ever, it is absolutely vital that any decision to home educate is made with the child’s best interests at the forefront of parents’ minds.
“We have provided guidance for councils and parents to help them in situations where home education is being considered, and remain committed to a registration system for children not in school, which will help councils with their existing duty to make sure all children receive a suitable education.
“Further details on the register will be set out in our upcoming consultation response.”
Although most parents and carers provide a good home education, the LGA is concerned that the pandemic has led to increasing numbers of children receiving education outside the classroom and missing out on the benefits that a school environment brings
Anntoinette Bramble, Local Government Association
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “The Government must find out the reasons behind so many more families choosing home education.
“The concern is that many appear to have chosen home education because they have lost faith in the Government’s approach to school safety during the pandemic.”
He added there was a “clear safeguarding concern”. This was because there was no legal obligation for a parent to provide any notification to a school about the withdrawal of a child to be home educated.
He said: “It could lead to a child at risk being missed, with neither school nor local authority knowing for certain what has happened to them. Without an officially maintained register, there remains the risk of children becoming lost outside system.”
Councillor Anntoinette Bramble, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said local authorities need to be given more powers to enter homes to ensure children are receiving a suitable education.
She said: “Although most parents and carers provide a good home education, the LGA is concerned that the pandemic has led to increasing numbers of children receiving education outside the classroom and missing out on the benefits that a school environment brings, such as safeguarding and learning and socialising with other children.”
We know regular exercise is really good for health, but even with the best of intentions, many workers do not exercise as much as they should. To get more workers in all types of workplaces to be active, public health messaging must move away from making it only an individual’s responsibility to be more active. It should instead recognize the important role employers can play in creating the conditions for workers to focus on exercise.
There’s much to be said for this approach. From a public health perspective, focusing on workplaces can seem like low-hanging fruit, since they are settings where people already go every day. Consider the resources that would otherwise be required to build activity-friendly environments, let alone address the root social causes of physical inactivity. However, the reality is more complicated.
On-site gyms and access to walking paths or stairs support workplace fitness. (Shutterstock)
The World Health Organization’s physical activity guidelines recommend adults strive for at least 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination every week. To meet these recommendations, for 80 per cent of working-age Canadians in full-time jobs, it means finding time to exercise before, after or at work.
That’s easier for some than others. I am part of a team at the Institute for Work and Health that published a paper showing that people in certain work conditions are less likely to exercise. These are workers who: report long work hours, have little say in how to use their skills, or are in physically or psychologically demanding jobs.
Otherstudies have reported the same. These findings support the theory that stressful and strenuous working conditions can increase a worker’s fatigue and decrease motivation and perceived time available to exercise.
Workplace spillover
Job-related physical activity often does not provide the same health benefits of leisure-time exercise. (Shutterstock)
The spillover of strenuous working lives on exercise participation is a reality for many people — especially when there are competing demands such as taking care of children. But the ability to overcome these barriers can depend on job type.
Supportive workplace facilities that offer standing desks, stairs, on-site showers and gyms and easy access to walking paths can make it easier for people to fit in exercise and reduce sedentary time. However, these are mostly available to white-collar, higher-income workers who already face fewer barriers to exercise outside of work.
Read more:
Lack of exercise linked to increased risk of severe COVID-19
Some manual labour jobs involve high levels of physical activity with little time to rest, while workers in service sector jobs can spend long periods of time standing. A body of research is showing the potential harm of these occupational activities — including the risks of physical activity for people doing such jobs. Job-related physical activity often does not provide the same health benefits of leisure-time exercise, and can even have negative effects because of factors like the nature of the movements and duration of work.
Healthy workers are safer workers
Many employees have little say in how they spend their work time. (Shutterstock)
Physical activity guidelines aimed at all adults will not be achievable for many workers. A more inclusive solution is for employers to create the conditions for their workers to thrive so that they can also prioritize their health.
In another example, a police department reduced the number of night shifts for its officers. It also offered mental health support and allowed staff to take one hour off each shift to exercise. The result was a reduction in workplace injuries.
Enhancing working conditions
Employers should discuss supportive policies and practices with workers to create a workplace environment that supports the safety, health and well-being of their employees. (Unsplash/Arlington Research)
Employers that want to create an environment conducive to the safety, health and well-being of their employees should discuss with their workers how policies and practices could support those goals.
While there is no simple solution to getting workers more physically active, an important step forward is to get employers involved in enhancing working conditions so that more Canadian workers are supported in getting the health benefits of regular exercise.
As the COVID-19 pandemic surges across the United States, colleges have been forced to adjust their plans almost daily. As of late August 2020, just one-fifth of colleges in the United States were planning to return to campus fully or primarily in-person,
with the balance either undecided or planning for hybrid, online, or other remote teaching models. Already, several colleges have had to rapidly shift to 100 percent remote instruction following local COVID-19 outbreaks.
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Last spring, as colleges were forced to move to remote models from one day to the next, the focus was on ensuring engagement and access for students, and just-in-time training for faculty to finish the academic year. As restrictions on in-person learning extended through the fall, the imperative shifted to building the capability to provide a robust remote offering for the longer term. This need for remote learning has expanded interest in developing or scaling proper online education, leveraging the best practices learned from a set of institutions that have successfully implemented this educational model.
In this article, we briefly outline trends in online higher education over the past decade. Then, we review five critical lessons from leading online institutions that could help every university improve and scale their online offerings. The marketplace is moving quickly, so institutions of higher learning must act now.
The shift to online: At first a trickle, and now a flood
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, online education was a driver of growth in higher education. As traditional enrollment in postsecondary institutions continues to decline, distance learning has increased by around 40 percent in five years, from 2.2 million students in 2012 to 3.1 million students in 2017. While some students studied online exclusively, more took a combination of online and in-person courses. Before the pandemic hit, roughly one-third of students had taken at least one online course.
However, this growth was unevenly distributed. Big institutions such as Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), Western Governors University (WGU), and Arizona State University (ASU) accounted for around 10 percent of the growth, building national brands for online higher education that set them apart from their peers (Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1
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A trend that was playing out over a decade was then compressed into a semester. While many students will likely return to in-person learning when it is safe, others may stay remote for the long term, raising the
stakes on building sustainable offerings, not just stopgaps. Indeed, GSV Ventures, a venture-capital fund focusing on digital education, forecasts that “online-first pedagogy will become normalized for virtually every college student” and all growth in higher education until 2030 will happen online.
The imperative is clear: every university should build a robust online offering, and fast.
Taking the plunge: Standing up online programs
We interviewed leading online universities to understand what it takes to plan and implement quality online programs in higher education. We identified five key success factors.
Develop a student-centered approach
“The secret sauce to our success is our student-advising operation,” says Paul LeBlanc, president of SNHU. Leading institutions agree with this statement and have developed online strategies with one main objective in mind: support students to successfully complete their programs. Institutions have put in place three types of student support mechanisms to achieve this goal:
Personalized counseling and guidance. ASU and SNHU use personal success coaches and academic advisers to help students navigate admissions, enrollment, degree selection, and course requirements. Counselors also employ predictive analytics to identify students at risk of struggling academically and provide the required interventions.
Engagement with in-person and online communities. Part of student success relies on developing strong ties with faculty and peers. To ensure student engagement, Pennsylvania State University and SNHU have introduced personalized feedback sessions between faculty and students, enhanced peer-to-peer interactions through video calls, access to in-person networking events, and development of online
communities (for example, an honors society).
24/7 IT support to enhance learning experience. State University of New York and ASU installed a 24/7 IT concierge service that helps students with technical questions related to course access, course materials, and software.
Invest heavily in marketing
The biggest players spend heavily on marketing (Exhibit 2). Institutions with the largest online enrollment have marketing budgets similar to fast-growth tech and digital-retail companies. We found a positive correlation between share of voice and market share; in other words, the more an institution spent on marketing, the higher its market share. This highlights the role of marketing in spurring enrollment.
Exhibit 2
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Two-thirds of students complete their first application within four weeks of starting a search for online programs. Leading institutions recognize that online students move faster in their decision-making process than their peers in the in-person applicant pool and have seamlessly integrated their marketing efforts with enrollment departments. Students not only move faster during their application process but also expect to receive timely information on financial aid and transferring credits when finalizing enrollment. The Online College Students report shows that within two weeks of having applied, 71 percent of online students expect to find out how to transfer previously earned credits, while 66 percent expect to receive an estimate of their financial aid award.
To enable a seamless application and enrollment process, SNHU established a team of 275 admissions representatives that follow up with interested students within two minutes of a query. It also uses a credit-transfer team that supports students tracking down the necessary transcripts for a small fee. The university recognizes that time-sensitive adult learners are the target of its programs and require a streamlined application and enrollment process.
Involve faculty early and enable academic staff to launch successful programs
Helping faculty develop successful online programs comprises two areas of support:
Provide faculty with the time required to develop online offerings. In our interviews, faculty members cited fear of time commitment and lack of recognition for remote teaching when asked to develop an online offering. Universities have added monetary and nonmonetary incentives to address those issues. University of Central Florida provides faculty with stipends and time for instructors to pursue the training required to develop and launch quality online courses. Similarly, Pennsylvania State University gives faculty the same credit for developing and teaching remote courses that they would receive for teaching in-person programs. The latter is aimed at addressing the perception that online classes are inferior to in-person courses.
Develop a standardized end-to-end process to support faculty. We identified a series of best practices that some universities have put in place to support faculty, from the assessment of the idea to quality assurance when launching an offering:
Create a standardized course proposal and approval process. To launch viable online courses, University of Florida created a central curriculum-development team with a dual mission: first, identify potential offerings that respond to both students’ needs and labor-market demand while taking advantage of the university’s strengths, and second, assess ideas proposed by faculty using the same framework.
Provide instructional design and course-production support to ensure offerings meet students’ needs. University of Florida’s Center for Online Innovation and Production supports faculty with training, instructional designers, and all production needs.
Develop a strict quality assurance process. ASU has a dedicated design and development team that manages quality assurance with a detailed rubric to measure course quality. It includes 22 instructional designers who each support 50 to 75 faculty members.
Establish an online organization with clear accountability
When defining the organizational structure required to carry out and grow an online program, institutions reported following three guiding principles (see sidebar, “Choosing an appropriate operationalization model”):
Have a clearly designated unit, with budget responsibility and decision-making power, that is responsible for executing the online program.
Enable faculty participation to ensure that implementation meets student needs and provides the support faculty requires to develop quality programs. Most of the public institutions interviewed reported having the online organization under the provost as a mechanism to enable faculty to take a leadership role in shaping the organization’s value proposition.
Define clear targets and ensure standardized practices are put in place to meet these targets. Examples of standardized practices include a vetting system to assess financial viability of new programs along with a clear resource-allocation framework for course development.
Adjust standard operating procedures to align with the needs of frequent online start options and shorter terms
Online programs that scale rapidly typically offer concentrated learning modules of six to eight weeks. They have multiple, staggered start options ranging from four to six in a given year (for example, January, March, May, June, August, and October) to provide several flexible entry points for target audiences. August and January are the most popular and have the highest enrollment of the start options. Most traditional university programs offer only fall, spring and, in some cases, summer admissions cycles.
The multiple-starts approach has important implications for several teams involved with the operations and student life cycle, including:
Admissions. Six application-processing cycles, with shorter turnaround times compared with schools that have three traditional cycles.
Marketing. Digital and print advertising must be rapidly readjusted and relaunched for each of the six starts.
Financial aid. Turnaround and application-processing times ramp up with significant spikes in activity in the five days before the admissions deadline versus traditional admissions cycles, in which financial aid processing is typically completed several months before the deposit deadline.
Student success. Advisers and counselors must get accustomed to digital responses, broader availability, and proactive outreach to address motivation and persistence.
Universities that operationalize online programs successfully also take into account these adjustments:
appointing people dedicated to directing online operations within their respective teams
instilling a strong customer-focused view in colleagues who support online operations
tweaking the school calendar to be flexible for the variations needed with multiple starts (for example, flexible work hours over the holiday break to ensure support for the January launch)
creating buffer capacity in their teams to address spikes in activity just before and after a new class start compared with traditional enrollment cycle activity
The transition to any form of online education is a major effort. In the past, universities could choose whether to invest in a first-rate online offering. Now, they have little choice, and they need to act fast. The good news is that there is plenty of experience from which to draw and build. Universities that take these lessons to heart can create or scale an online offering that will not only carry them through the pandemic but also set them up for success in a post-COVID-19 higher-education world.
