How colleges and universities can provide better major, minor, degree, and certificate information on the web

PROGRAMGet the deck! slideshare.net/thedougco

GET WITH THE

AGENDA:

I. WHY PROGRAM PAGES MATTER

II. HOW TO MAKE BETTER PROGRAM PAGES

@DougGapinski

#higheredCH

Defining programs:

In the context of this presentation programs means majors, minors, degrees, concentrations, and certificates.

Defining program pages:

The web page or pages to represent majors, minors, degrees, and certificates.

In Europe In the U.S.

faculty or school college or school

professors faculty or professors

programme, degree, or sometimes course

degree or program

bachelor’s degree major or bachelor’s degree

#higheredCH

What are some of the best program pages (degrees, minors, concentrations,

or certificates) you’ve seen?

WHY PROGRAM PAGES MATTER

Program listings are the top priority forprospective students – according to them!

0%

7.5%

15.0%

22.5%

30.0%

Academic program/ major listing Cost Academic program/ majors details Financial aid Scholarships Enrollment/ admissions information Housing details

Students Parents

First content targets on college and university websites

Source: Noel-Levitz

How can you demonstrate value?

29%

22%

16%18%

4%

33%

25%

32%

6% 5%

Academic program content Testimonials Statistics (job placement/grad schools) Videos Calculators

SeniorsParents

How can colleges and universitiesdemonstrate value?

Source: Noel-Levitz

For higher education, the programs are the core products!

But what about the experience?

What about the professors?

Has a Ph.D.

What about the campus?

All that stuff is important.

But the programs are the core product of colleges and universities.

In the U.S., college is expensive.

The average cost (tuition and fees) of one year of college as an undergraduate in 2013–2014:

$30,094 – private colleges & universities

$22,203 – public universities, out-of-state

$8,893 – public universities, in-state

Source: Collegeboard

Source: Collegeboard

For four years:

$120,376 – private colleges & universities

$88,812 – public universities, out-of-state

$35,572 – public universities, in-state

Note: financial aid, inflation, average time to complete (about 55 months and variable based on type of institution) aren’t calculated into the numbers above.

m

Source

• Ranked #1 liberal arts college in the nation

• 17% acceptance rate

• $46,600 per year (tuition and fees)

• Economics is their most popular program (major for 19% of undergraduate students)

m

Does the design or content of this page demonstrate the value of a $186,400 product?

m

• Very little information for a prospective student – majority of page describesfunctional requirements for current students

• Contains references to students in classes of 2007 and 2008

• No links to apply, request information, or visit

• Event feed still shows up when there are no events.

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• Very little information for a prospective student – majority of page describesfunctional requirements for current students

• Contains references to students in classes of 2007 and 2008

• No links to apply, request information, or visit

• Event feed still shows up when there are no events.

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Program pages matter because

matters.

Google is handing you targeted leads that don’t come through your home page or your admissions pages.

These targeted leads come from search terms.

This is the average number of monthly searches for “best college” in Seattle, Washington.

This is the average number of monthly searches for “computer science degree” and related terms in Seattle, Washington – as reported by Google AdWords.

A single specific program search is generating almost 2x the number of leads as a generic college search. What are they gonna see when they click your program?

Program pages have huge potential for appealing to high-ability students, focused

leads, and/or stealth applicants.

The homepage an all-purpose Swiss Army Knife for millions of visitors per year.

The program pagea state-of-the-art surgeon’s tool designed for a few thousand visitors per year who are investigating a specific product.

HOW TO MAKE BETTER PROGRAM PAGES

PROLOGUEDo you have a content strategy for your site yet?

If you don’t know what you need to say about your institution, then you don’t know what you need to say about your products.

Program pages need to relate to institutional strategy as much as they can.

Examples:

• Engage and solve problems globally

• Offer experiential learning

• Recruit and grow leaders

• Promote service and community initiatives

• Support faith-based learning via a specific religious pedigogy

1Assess your existing program pages

Pick 5 to 10 examples programs to show your team why your program pages need to be better.

• choose examples from different schools, colleges, and departments

• do an assessment of a very old program vs. a very new program

• if you’re a college, do an assessment of a graduate degree vs. an undergraduate degree

IDEAS

Are you gonna need a spreadsheet? OF COURSE!

What do your program pages do to help a student understand why the degree is valuable?

What do they say about how getting the degree at your institution is different?

What do your program pages do to explain options for customizing (concentrations, dual majors, co-op programs)?

What do your program pages do to explain functional requirements for getting in?

Do a competitive analysis of the program pages of your top three competitors and top three aspirants.

Decide whether or not your model will be centralized or decentralized2

Decentralized (common) Find “Computer

Science Major”

Decentralized (common)

Decentralized programsIn this model, the deans and/or content editors for each department are usually responsible for maintaining the program pages.

Centralized (uncommon)Find

“Computer Science Major”

Centralized programs (uncommon)

Program pages live under a single sections – academics or admissions.

This model doesn’t require someone to browse the department to get to the program.

Program pages link to departments.

To departments

ACADEMICS OR ADMISSIONS

UNDERGRADUATE GRADUATE OTHER

HOME

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

PROGRAM PROGRAM

Is it possible to have both models?

Yes – sometimes undergraduate majors and minors are contained in one centralized location on the main .edu site and all graduate programs are contained on the department sites.

Why a mixed model?Up to 50% undergraduates are undecided / undeclared and up to 80% of undergraduates will change majors.

It doesn’t make sense to take them down into the college and school level. They need to be able to navigate all programs.

Why a mixed model?More than 90% of graduate students of will only apply to one program (though they will apply to multiple universities). Information outside of the school, department, or college, may not be relevant to them.

3Assemble a core team to work on program pages and decide...

... who needs to buy-in to the process.

... who will be writing / editing the pages.

Who owns program development? You’re going to need to work with the deans or faculty.

Meet your new best friends!

4Start planning the content models.

Anyone who needs to help write needs to participate in making content models.

5Make some prototypes and test them with prospective or current students.

This could be your current pages or concepts for new pages.

Prototype testing for content needs:

Ask questions about labels, about types of information are most valuable, about what’s missing.

6Set up easy, semantic URLs for redirection to program pages – so you can promote or link to programs in marketing materials.

miskatonic.edu/biology

7Set up review cycles.

for program pages need to correspond to actual curriculum changes.

The review cycles for program pages need to correspond to curriculum changes.

The review cycle for program pages probably shouldn’t be longer than one year.

8Don’t forget about that listing page!

0%

7.5%

15.0%

22.5%

30.0%

Academic program/ major listing Cost Academic program/ majors details Financial aid Scholarships Enrollment/ admissions information Housing details

Students Parents

First content targets on college and university websites

Source: Noel-Levitz

Few but meaningful choices

Classification (tabs)

Type of degree (as legend)

Keyword search, only returns programs

Multiple ways to explore degrees

Take action!

Multiple ways to the degrees

9Don’t forget about those undecided or undeclared undergraduates!

60-80% of incoming freshman are undecided

Full list of undergraduate programs

?Questions?

Thanks!@DougGapinski mstoner.com