June 2006

Recruitment & Retention - June 2006 - Full Issue PDF
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Text Messaging to Prospective Students
The admissions office at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio is among the first in the United States to use text messages to reach prospective students.

Taking a Holistic View of Online Student Retention
Distance education has opened up opportunities for more nontraditional students than ever. With this increase in nontraditional students and the growing use of online course delivery methods comes a need to develop student retention strategies that are tailored to these students’ experiences, which often are quite different from those of traditional-age students in face-to-face settings.

Resources
'Guiding the Way to Inclusion' workshop; Registrar’s best practices guide; Monograph on common first-year reading programs

Quality of Instruction Needs Improvement, Online Learners Say
Colleges and universities are doing a good job preparing online learners to participate in the distance learning environment, say the results of a new student satisfaction survey. However, these institutions also face challenges regarding quality of instruction and faculty availability and feedback.

Study Examines the Impact of the ‘Electronic Tether’
Preliminary findings from a study conducted by a Middlebury College student and a faculty member indicate that there is indeed an “electronic tether” between parents and first-semester, traditional-age students. Further, the study suggests that the tether not only affects students’ development into adulthood but also their academic development.

Twelve Strategies for Building Internal Support for Your Marketing Initiatives
By Dr. Robert A. Sevier, senior vice president of strategy, Stamats, Inc.
Building internal support for your marketing effort is not difficult, but like laying the foundation for a new building, it does require the investment of time and effort. In doing so, however, you are assured that your marketing efforts will serve the institution well.

The All-Electronic Admissions Process
Texas Christian University in Fort Worth will no longer print and distribute paper application forms to rising seniors in high school. The institution believes it will become the first in Texas to move to an entirely electronic application process. The University of Dayton in Ohio and California Polytechnic State University are among the handful of other institutions nationally that have moved to a wholly electronic process.