General FAQ3

Prospects4

Applicants5

Overview5

Enrolled Students6

Degree Program Students6

New Students6

Course Takers7

Exam Takers8

General Exam Takers8

DANTES Exams Takers8

Alumni9

Nursing10

Business & Technology12

Health Sciences13

Liberal Arts15

Military17

General Information17

Military Personnel (Active Duty)17

Military Family Members19

Veterans / Retirees19

Military Counselors19

Financial Aid20

Other Student Users22

Center for Professional Development Students22

Special Needs / Disabled Students22

Non-Persistent Students23

Staff Users24

Advisory, Admissions and Phone Support Staff24

Faculty24

Web Maintenance25

Other Users25

Prospective Employees25

Donors25

Media / Press26

Corporate Partners26

Schools / Educational Institutions26

Content & Functionality: Current, Planned, Proposed27

Online Student Services & Learning Support: Current27

Student Services and Learning Support: Initiatives27

Career Center – In Progress29

Degree Planner – In Progress29

Online Communities – In Progress29

Nursing School - Initiatives29

Student Stories / Student Pages – Proposed Content30

Redesign / Rebranding of Credit by Exam (ECEP) – Initiative30

Multilingual Support - Proposed30

Instant Chat – Initiative on Hold30

Other College-wide Initiatives31

Summary of Issues & Ideas from Interviews31

General FAQ

Sources: Tech Support, Communications

Website Registration FAQ

· How do I set up a user account?

· Do I already have an account?

· It’s been a long time since I was on the site…

· I forgot my user name and password / how do I retrieve them?

· (can retrieve with first and last name, e-mail address, and/or phone#)

Contacting the College

How do I send a message to the school / admissions?

General College Information

· Who is Excelsior College

· What’s the focus /what are the goals of this college? (focus on the Adult learner)

· How credible is this school?

· Are you accredited?

· Are the programs I’m interested in accredited?

· Who’s on the faculty / who would teach me?

· What are their credentials?

· Where are they located?

· What other affiliations do they have?

· What are the different ways a student can earn credit towards his/her degree?

· We look at your existing credits

· Help you finish your degree by earning credits in different ways

· You need to work with an advisor during your time here

· What kinds of people come to Excelsior?

· What have they done?

· What kinds of work are they doing?

· What are the graduates saying about their time here?

Prospects

Sources: Admissions, B&T

FAQ

General FAQ

· How good is this school?

· What is the quality of the programs?

· Tech degrees (e.g Nuclear program)

· Very few distance learning programs are accredited, as Excelsior is

· What are students / graduates saying about Excelsior?

· some student stories for the programs I’m interested in?

· Text / Pictures / Video / Quotes ? testimonials

Courses

· What courses do you offer?

· When are they offered?

· How does an online course “work?”

Programs

· What program is right for me?

· What programs fits my…background | aptitude | interests | goals?

· How do these programs compare?

· What are the degree requirements?

· How can I earn credit towards a degree?

· By exam / transfer / taking courses

Costs

· What are the costs for the total degree program?

· What are the costs for exams?

· What are the additional fees?

· Upfront

· Annual

Enrolling

· What’s the process for enrolling?

· First, you have to apply

· Then you get the unofficial result of your application evaluation

· Then you enroll (& pay $895 – a big hurdle for some students)

· What are the benefits of enrolling?

· You get academic advisors to help you with your degree program and give you course approvals to satisfy your requirements

· Everyone needs help mapping out a degree program. Enrolling helps ensure you attain your goal.

· Where do I send my transcripts? (THIS IS A BIG FAQ)

Applicants

Sources: Advising

Overview

Process as supposed to take place

· Undergraduate admission

· Evaluation (2 weeks)

· Q& A period /phone interview if needed

· Study plan created / course approvals

· Financial Aid

· Registration

General Issues

· Welcome packet not widely read

· Only a small paper component – with links to website

· Students aren’t going to the links (or so it would appear)

· Students don’t do what they say they’re going to do, and things get out-of-synch

· Withdrawals are a big concern / need information on this in a timely manner

· Not everyone is computer savvy

· Some have problems getting oriented to how to find info on site

· Students unfamiliar with the academic lingo / makes it hard to find info on the site

· “What you have left to take” would be better than: “Your evaluation summary,” for example

FAQ

· How does an online course “work”?

· How do I register online? (for promotions where online registration is required for the discount)

· When can I start?

· Have to wait until evaluation is complete

· If I were to go on to a higher degree, what kinds of jobs could I get?

· Put fees up front

· Don’t mislead them about costs

· How and why Excelsior is different

Enrolled Students

Sources: Student Services, Provost

General Comments – Current Enrolled Students

· Besides all the Web stuff, we send students an enormous amount of information (via email, phone messages, regular mail)

· Unclear how much they are reading

· Many students do not understand the fees. Many are shocked when they are charged the various fees ($895/$440/$495, etc.) and appear to not have been aware they were going to be charged these fees.

· Messages about fees, bills coming due and other time urgent messages need to noticed

· Prominent placement (“in their face”)

· Could we also be more proactive with notices (email issue?)

· “Student Service Annual Fee” notice should be shown every year to eliminate the surprise of getting charged a fee they were not expecting

· Message Center should capture the messages

· More central location for Courses / Accessing courses

Degree Program Students

· My Progress

· Am I in the right program?

· How am I doing?

· My Future

· What are my remaining requirements?

· How do I satisfy these requirements?

· Which courses can fulfill these?

· If I were to go on to a higher degree, what kinds of jobs could I get?

· Paying for College

· Annual recurring fee information needs to be “in their face” and obvious so there are “no surprises”

· How do I apply for a continuation discount?

New Students

RE: Incoming transfer students – the Majority of students are transferring into Liberal Arts or Business & Technology schools

· Orientation information

· Should include technical information

· How to use the site’s resources

· How to do the online courses

· What are the fees? (Fee information needs to be “in their face” on an annual basis)

· What’s the process for transferring credits from other schools?

Course Takers

Sources: Communications, Nursing, Tech Support, Provost

Misc comments

· 20% of students take courses

· Policies related to courses (eg course withdrawals) should be easily accessible

Question whether they pay attention to any of it / if it is information overload

FAQ

· Courses

· How do I register for a course?

· How do I log-in to my courses?

· Records

· How am I doing? (Status Report and Evaluation Summary)

· Have I gotten my course exam approvals yet?

· Paying

· I need to pay a bill – where do I find out how much I owe?

· Learning Services

· How do I use the library to do an in-depth article search for a course?

· Who do I call for help with the library?

· Where do I go to get help with…math / writing?

Exam Takers

Sources: Exams-2, Military Ed

General Exam Takers

About these Users

4-5,000 registrations per month (which doesn’t include military exam takers, who don’t have to register beforehand

· Web: 2,400

· Phone=1,800

· Mail = smaller

English as a 2nd language is a large portion of the population, esp. from the following geographical areas:

· Texas

· California

· New York City

· Florida

FAQ

· Do you have the exams I want?

· What’s the process for exams?

· What’s the difference between registering and scheduling an exam?

· How do I register for an exam?

· Where do I go?

· What’s the timeframe for Clinical Performance Exams?

· What’s the process for practice exams?

· How do I register for a practice exam?

· When can I register for a practice exam?

· Do I need to register for the regular exam first? (yes)

· What is the cost for me?

· Who pays and who doesn’t for practice exams?

· How do I get a Content Guide for an exam?

DANTES Exams Takers

Source: Dantes Exams

About these Users

· Currently, 5,100 DANTES exams are taken annually (in addition to the 40,000 exams taken by other students)

· Exams is currently a relatively easiest process for military users, as they are taken right at the base

· DANTES students can take any or all nursing exams without being enrolled in a degree program.

· Students are very “self-directed”

· They set up a Web account (i.e., register for the site)

· Don’t have to have any prior experience with Excelsior to take an exam. They can literally walk into an exam center and take a test (paper & pencil format are the bulk).

What they Need to Know

· Find information about the DANTES exams

· Find out about the Practice exams

· Sometimes “Free” promotions

· Find out Where the tests are being given

· “Find a Center”

· Over 600 sites globally

· Get the right Content Guides (need more direct access to these, since don’t have to register)

· Currently this is not how it works/ these are behind the registration

· Q: Can this be changed for the military personnel pp?

Alumni

Sources: Alumni

FAQ

· How do I request a transcript?

· What are the benefits of being an Excelsior alumnus?

· What career opportunities are available to me, now that I’ve graduated?

· How do I donate to the college?

· What networking opportunities are there?

· How can I get in/ stay in touch with my fellow alumni?

· How do I update my contact information? (let the college know I’ve moved, etc.)

· What’s the value of my (recent) degree?

· What’s the latest news about how graduates are doing with my degree?

· Locally?

· Nationally?

· What’s the news about my field?

· Can I get access to Excelsior resources?

· Library

· Bookstore

· How do I sign up for Alumni news?

· How can I join a local chapter?

Nursing

Sources: Nursing, Advising, Admissions

· Student population dominated by single program: Of 33,000 total current students, 18,000 are in Associate Nursing program

User Profiles of Nursing Students

Prospective Nursing Students

· Know what they want to do – less wavering than LA students

· Already prepared in the medical field

· Existing occupations include:

· LPNs

· Respiratory therapists

· Paramedics

Associate Degree Students

· Almost half of the Associate Nursing degree students complete most of their requirements offline.

· Some nursing students (such as Associates) get all of their credit by exam, and don’t use online courses at all / don’t even use e-mail

· Preferred means of correspondence is regular mail

· Many of these students are technophobic:

· Some do not have their own computer or web access

· Computers are not a big part of their life. They may need to borrow use of a computer or even use a public computer

· 50% may be computer illiterate.

· Majority % of these students are “uncomfortable” with the Internet (have trouble navigating the website and knowing how to log on)

Current process for registering for exams may be to get a Student ID# by phone, register by phone, get a Content Guide sent to them by e-mail, then even have their exam scheduled by phone.

They are not using the “MyEC” section or doing an online course until possibly 2 ears into their program, after they have completed their general education requirements.

Bachelor Degree Students

· More prepared / aware of requirements of the college than Assoc. degree students

· More computer literate/ comfortable using computers & Internet

· Hybrid of Assoc & master’s student (part online courseware, part exams)

Masters Degree Students

· All online courses

· Computer savvy

FAQs for Nursing Students

Associate Degree in Nursing

Is this an Online Nursing Program?

No: It’s Credit by Exam

General Nursing FAQ

· What degree program should I be in?

· What’s my starting point?

· What do I want to achieve?

· How do programs compare?

· What are the career benefits of having…

· A bachelor’s degree?

· A master’s degree?

· What jobs are available to me with each degree?

· What textbooks do I need (to study for) this exam?

· Where can I buy them?

· How much do they cost?

· What are the State Board requirements I need to be aware of for my state?

· I plan to re-locate – what do I need to know for the new state?

· What resources are available to me to help me [pass my test]?

· How much do they cost?

· How do I sign up?

· What’s the timeframe for the Clinical Performance Exams?

Business & Technology

Source: Anne Connor

Profiles

· Most everyone in the 2 programs are tech-savvy.

· 90% already employed in the area they are studying

· Most prefer e-mail as a form of communication

· They generally understand the basics of online learning:

· Online course registrations have exceeded expectations every semester

What’s important to this group

· Career advancement and How to make it happen

· Military is a huge audience for the tech programs – military content needs to be visible

· Most students do not even know where the Career Center is

i. Could there be links to it from the B&T top level page or even from the Home Page

· Half of the B&T degree is liberal arts & sciences

· Many major writing projects are involved – need to use the library and student resources efficiently

Things are do not seem to work with the B&T students:

· Online chat (outside of courses)

· Connecting with each other (outside of courses)

· Reason may be: They are all at a different stage of the program, or have an individualized program. They don’t generally have the same needs at the same time (unlike Nursing students, where everybody may be taking the exams together).

FAQGeneral FAQ

· What program is the best fit for student aptitude?

· If one program has a heavy calculus requirement (for example) and the student does not/cannot handle this requirement, s/he really should not sign up for that program and it should not be recommended

· What are the specific requirements for each program?

· What courses are available?

· Need a better course search

Enrolled Students

· What are the graduation deadlines?

· What’s my degree program?

· What are my remaining requirements?

· What courses can be used towards those requirements?

Health Sciences

Source: Health Sciences

Overview

· New program / Small program (only 118 students / only 14 graduates to-date)

· Students need to have at least 20 credits to get into this program. It is therefore referred to as a Degree Completion Program. This may not be sufficiently clear on the Website. Some students do not understand this.

· Because the program is small, the faculty does the advising.

· Challenge is to direct students to a specific job/career. The career impact of a degree depends greatly on what they are already are doing.

· There’s a high turnover in the School. As many withdrawals (requested by students) as new admissions.

· Potential concern: Are discounted promotions making it too easy to get in?

Profile

· Health Sciences students are “Fast trackers”

· There are a large amount of clinical / professional credits transferred in as the start of this degree program.

· They understand their program requirements and do not generally need help with this.

· They get the evaluation summary which states the # of credits they have left

· Once they enroll, they get another summary

· They are “above average” in tech-savvyness

Undergraduate Students

· Biggest area of study is Health Care Mgt.

· Health Education is next biggest area (clinicians who no longer want to be active, but prefer to teach)

Graduate Students

· Informatics is a graduate-level certificate program comprised mostly of students already employed in the Informatics field. This ties in with the baccalaureate degree.

· Most are nurses

· Some are business students

Course takers

Most popular courses are:

· Ethics

· Wound-care

· Spanish for Health-care professionals

FAQ

· Where do I go for:

· My online courses

· Course registration status

· Summary

· Status report

· Evaluation summary

· Grades when they’re posted

· How do I order books for a course? (NOTE: They’re posted in online course description, but this is not obvious)

Other information needs – Health Sciences

· FAQ for military students

· More community for health sciences students

Liberal Arts

Profiles

Undergraduate Students

· 130 graduates/month

· 4 with a major in CJ

· 3 in psych

· 3 in history

· 50/50 mix of male & female (CHECK THIS STAT)

· Military students make up the bulk of student body:

· 60% of degree students

· 95% of course students are military

· “Area of focus” is very important for Liberal Arts students

· Most students go for “BSL” (no major)

Graduate Students

· 1/3 are military

· 1/3 are NYS teachers looking for certification

· 1/3 are mix (including teachers at Comm. Colleges, older, more mature liberal arts majors, and the “Curious”)

· Can come in with up to 15 grad credits from other schools

· Must complete a thesis:

· Traditional thesis / research-oriented OR

· Creative thesis

· Could use a Virtual Gallery to showcase these (e.g., surrealistic children’s book)

· Could utilize Face pages

Course-takers

· There is a trend towards course-takers:

· Military can use tuition to pay for courses

· Spouses & family members can use benefits

· Title IV (grants/loans for courses available now)

· CD-ROM option driven by the military

· Started out as partnership with Indiana Univ. / originally exams-oriented

· NOTE: These students may not all be aware of the “MyEC” section of the site, where they can go for student records and other personalized information

· In addition to military, 3 large populations of users are:

· TTI (Jewish studies)

· NYC agencies

· Chiropractic students (need bachelor’s in order to complete credentials)

Unique Challenges in communicating about Liberal Arts Programs

· It is a less pragmatic degree than other schools

· Differences between the terms:

· “Areas of Focus” – 21 credits / not prescribed / eg Admin

· Can get an area of focus in lieu of a major

· originally designed with to serve specific military needs

· Mgt/Technical/Health professions

· “Major” – 30 or 33 credits req. / traditional description (e.g. Psychology)

· “Depth” – degree requirement of 2 depths of 12 credits each

FAQ

Prospective Students

· What is a liberal arts degree?

· What are the different levels? (Assoc, Bachelors, Masters, Certificate on the side)

· What can I do with a Liberal Arts degree?

· What are possible careers? (need links)

· What’s the benefit of a LA degree from Excelsior College?

· Flexibility!

· What are the available majors?

· What’s the requirement for each major?

· What’s the role of an advisor?

· VERY central to undergraduate success for:

· Course approvals

· Single advisor from start to finish

· graduate students use them for:

· Advice on thesis

· What services are offered to help me succeed?

· Who will teach my course?

· Who are the students / what’s the student experience?

· Include student stories for:

· Military personnel

· All pages

Enrolled Students

· How do I Plan my degree (Sue Ohern working on this for Fall 09)

· Get a status report?

· Get an evaluation summary?

· See my course approvals?

· Where am I in my program?

· What format have I registered for? (CD-ROM vs Online)

· See what I’ve done so far?

· What am I currently taking?

· See what I still need to do?

· Where are my student records?

Military General Information

Source: Military Ed

Profiles

· Content is determined by MOU (Memoradum of Understanding) partnership agreement.

· “Degree roadmaps” are critical

· Key user profiles (highest usage / distinct from each other):

· Army (active)

· Other armed forces (active)

· Navy = a large audience

· Veteran

· Family member

· Not a local population of users

· National

· International (10%)

· Unique challenges for this user audience = connectivity (Internet connections can be very slow)

· Email communications + CD-ROM = communications media

· Process is very paper-heavy

· 40% of registrations are via consultants + a paper process

Focus military pages equally on prospects and current students (historically, 50% of calls are from each group)

FAQ· How do I enroll? (don’t understand difference between Apply and Enroll)· Which degree do I choose?· How do I use tuition assistance to sign up for a course? (enrolled students)

Military Personnel (Active Duty)

· Unique challenge in enrolling Army prospects, as they need to be registered on the Army’s website in order to take a class or degree program at Excelsior.

· “GoArmyEd” is the 2006 virtual portal for all education transactions. It is the umbrella category.

· “eArmyU” is a subset of programs available from GoArmyEd

Current Steps in the process of getting an army student registered is too complicated:

1. Go to GoArmyEd

2. Fill out a Common Application

a. Pick Excelsior College

b. Pick a degree program

3. File sent to Excelsior electronically

a. Student Record created

b. GoArmyEd code created

4. Work Queue

5. (for undergraduates) If student not enrolled yet, an email is sent to student that they need to either:

a. Apply to Excelsior.

b. See a military consultant at a base who can file a preliminary application.

6. Enroll in a program & pay the enrollment fee (Tuition assistance doesn’t cover enrollment fees, so this is a big choice for many students.

a. Option #1 Pay $75 if going to take at least 12 credits at Excelsior.

b. Option #2 Pay $765 with no requirements to take Excelsior credits directly.

7. Get course approval from Excelsior

a. On MyEC, the “My Course and Exam Approvals” is listed on the left

Sue’s comments:

Process is “too complicated” – “ a lot of students don’t understand esp. the difference between Apply and Enroll.”

eArmyU

· Also done through the GoArmyEd portal

· Specific sub-set of degrees with no enrollment fees

· Have to take a certain # of credits

· You can enroll right away (without applying) for undergraduate degree programs

Navy

· Everything done through Excelsior except for Navy tuition assistance to pay for courses

· Degree roadmaps important

· They need to be updated annually to reflect rating changes

· 14 Military consultants available to meet with sailors one-on-one

· Can we feature the consultants on the site so they are easier to find? (“Find a Consultant”)

· List names / Search by location

· What they do

· Walk through the application process

· Degree planning

· Discuss courses & exams

· Military Consultant Profiles

· Picture

· Bio / Military background

· Which bases they cover

· Upcoming schedule (for 2 months in future)

· Contact information

· Email

· Phone

· “Make an appointment”

Military Family Members

· Spouse as well as family members

· Should not be bundled with “DoD Civilian”

· A fairly new process

· Enroll as Option #1

1. Same tuition

· Focus is on obtaining scholarship $

1. Currently this is hard to find on the site

2. FAQ: “What does scholarship money pay for?” (what does it include?)

Veterans / Retirees

· Important group

· Will be marketing to this group more in the future, due to the better benefits in 09

· Financial Aid office likes them to call to walk them through the process

· Student enrolls

· Pays information

· Files paperwork and then gets reimbursed

Military Counselors

Military counselors on bases currently process a large number of military applications by traditional (paper based) means.

· Information needs for this user should minimally include:

· A target page with partner information

· Contact information for who to contact at Excelsior

Financial Aid

Source: Financial Aid

Bulk of Excelsior students have some form of financial aid and/or are eligible for aid.

Women make up the majority of the financial aid applicants. In the past year, the numbers were:

· 3,951 female applicants

· 1,954 male applicants

Types of Financial Aid / Availability to Students

· The biggest source of financial aid to students is now Federal Aid (now in the millions) This includes:

· Loans

· PEL Grants

· Financial aid packages aim to cover majority of expenses in schooling, including tuition, room and board, (fees?)

· Associate degrees in nursing do not have access to Federal Aid. They do, however, have access to scholarship monies;

· Much smaller amount overall.

· Term awards available in Aug / Dec / April

· Discounts available for continuing students (Bachelors-Masters)

Determining Eligibility

Financial aid office spends a lot of time explaining how financial aid process works

For FAFSA, answering question “Are you eligible for Federal Aid?) includes finding out:

· Which program you’re in

· Is it eligible for aid?

· # of credits you’re taking

· Term you want

Based on these factors, the process then includes:

· Talking to an advisor

· Getting an estimate over the phone

Last minute requests are an issue for financial aid fulfillment. It is very difficult to streamline the financial aid process. Going forward in 2009, Financial Aid office wants more lead time (3 weeks) to prepare financial aid packages

General Comprehension of Aid· Financial aid is very complicated at Excelsior because there are 36 periods of enrollment (instead of 3 for traditional colleges).

· It is very hard for students to understand that all their (8-week, 12-week, or 15-week in length) in order for them to qualify for financial aid.

· The turnaround time for processing is at least 7-10 business days (2 weeks). Financial Aid office would like to increase the wording on the site to 3 weeks to be on the safe side.

· Language mandated by Federal rules & regulations

· Question: Can you add language to it?

General FAQ – Financial Aid

· Am I eligible for aid?

· What kinds of aid can I get?

· How do I go about getting it? (start the process / apply)

· What is the status of my application?

· There are many calls about “Incomplete status” of financial aid

FAQ: Federal Aid

· How much aid can I get?

· When can I expect to receive it? (if applied)

· Where’s my disbursement? (already applied)

· Why is there so much of a wait? (Excelsior takes longer than other schools because….)

FAQ: Scholarships

· How do I apply for a scholarship?

· When do I find out about my scholarship?

FAQ: Dropping Classes and its Impact on Aid

· Most students are not aware of the complications of dropping classes

· Every year a few take advantage of fact that you can get aid, then cancel classes and still keep your aid if you’ve completed 60% of your schoolwork

· Complicated area based on whether student withdraws from one or more courses

· If you are no longer eligible for aid, $ needs to be returned to the govt / Title IV

Other Student Users

Sources: Admissions, Advising, Tech Support, Provost, CPD, Student Services

Center for Professional Development Students

Source: CPD

Overview

The CPD has only been operational for 1 year. For the most part, these are external vendor programs that are either:

· Self-paced

· Instructor led (these are the military-approved programs)

Registration has been low, but is expected to grow. Prospects are:

· Military active or vet (reimbursement can be very attractive for this group of users)

· Military family members (smaller market)

· NY State employees

Majority of students are:

· High-school grads

· Career changers

· Residents of South & Midwest

The CPD programs can be considered “gateway programs to a degree.” Excelsior will be developing more internal CPD programs.

Special Needs / Disabled Students

Source: Student Services

Accessibility services include requirements and requests for:

· Vision impairment

· Alternate browsers

· Font sizes on the browser

· JAWS / other screen readers

· Alt-tags for images / graphic alternatives

· Hearing impairments

· Transcripts / closed captioning for all videos

· Mobility impairments / physical accommodations

· Test-taking accommodations

· Alternate resources

· Requests for more time (for exams, course completion, etc.)

Non-Persistent Students

Source: Advising

RE: Retention, there is an initiative underway (Student Success Steering Committee)

to examine the issue of “non-persistent” students – roughly 16,000 currently.

Questions that Excelsior needs to answer are:

· Who are the students that could benefit from an intervention? (proactive communication)

· What form does that intervention (need to) take?

· Phone

· Email

· Regular mail

· Who should be contacted?

· How to contact them?

· How many times should they be contacted?

The Website might be able to help this group of students by providing answers to such questions as:

· Where am I in my studies?

· What are my remaining requirements?

· How much will it cost me to get there?

· What financial aid packages are available to me to help me bridge the gap?

· Who should I contact for help?

Staff Users

Source: Admissions, Advising, Tech Support

Advisory, Admissions and Phone Support Staff

Staff issues (when dealing with students)

· Staff has a hard time quickly locating critical information such as:

· Fees

· Catalogs

· How to register

· Course description

· Course extension

· Deadlines for Withdrawals

· Terminology is inconsistent throughout the college as well as on the site. (E.g “major” “focus” and “concentration”). This makes it confusing to discuss with students.

Content Needs

Advisory and other staff who interact with students by phone need:

1. A solid search tool with good results

2. To more easily mirror the student experience

· However, when search is updated, advisers need a “heads up”

Faculty

Faculty use the site to access the courseware via the MyEC section. They also have a unique display of the MyEC pages.

Numerous parties have mentioned providing faculty profiles as a means to satisfy the needs of prospective students researching Excelsior.

Faculty profile information could potentially include:

· Name

· Photo

· Title

· Location

· Qualifications

· Degree

· Professional experience

· Other affiliations

· Faculty member of the month

· Story | Video

Potential issues with developing faculty profile information:

· High turnover of faculty staff

· Reliance on adjunct faculty for teaching coursework

· Dominance of nursing school in the full-time faculty staff

· How to ensure profiles are up-to-date and properly maintained

Web Maintenance

The Web content development team uses the site to locate pages for maintenance and support. Currently, the Web team has a hard time locating pages when requests are made for updates.

The Web Team needs a structure to the site that is:

· Highly intuitive

· Easy to maintain

· Easy to refer to

· Has a logical naming structure

Other UsersProspective Employees

Excelsior College uses the site to attract prospective employees. Content of interest to this group includes:

· General information about Excelsior

· Who works there?

· What’s the work environment like?

· Are there any job openings of interest to me?

· What is the job description?

· How do I apply for this position?

· Who do I contact?

Donors

(source: Development)

Profiles

· Donors are broad-based, and include:

· Trustees

· Faculty

· Staff

· Alumni

· Partners

· Types of donations range from annual donations, stock transfers, life insurance gifts in kind, contributions to the endowment fund

What’s important to this group

· Need to be able to find ways to give quickly and easily

· Need to be able to make an online donation for any amount

Issues / Missing Content

Current site does not do a very good job of communicating important information on:

· Mission

· Reasons to Give (“Why give?”)

· Ways to Give

· Make an unrestricted gift (now)

· Annual giving

· Larger gift to the college

· Give for the future (restricted giving)

· Set up an endowment

· Types of endowments

· How your gift helps

· Marcy has compiled a mini-database of quotes from thankful scholarship recipients

· These could rotate

Requirements for Development Office

· Annual Campaign changes every year, beginning July 1. Web pages about it need to be updated in synch with other materials (eg., “With Pride and Purpose”)

· Process for updating site seems very complicated. Can it be simplified

Media / Press

(source: Communications)

Media and press primarily need to see:

· Press releases

· Contact information for Communications Dept. (Bill Stewart)

Corporate Partners

Corporate Partnerships

· 30 partnerships

· Corporate partners (McDonalds)

· Promote Excelsior to employees

· Special discount

Schools / Educational Institutions

Other schools and educational institutions will be interested in the information about Excelsior exams. This includes:

· About Our Exams

· Content Guides

· Contact information (x166)

Content & Functionality: Current, Planned, Proposed

Online Student Services & Learning Support: Current

Main audience =

· Enrolled students

· Exam Takers

· Course takers

Liberal Arts students currently use these services the most. Improvements in access to and quality of these services are likely to improve both student success and student retention.

Services currently include:

· Bookstore

· Top-level bookstore page may be an issue (links/buttons not sufficiently clear)

· Need to allow financial aid students to use vouchers towards purchase of books

· Library

· Not being utilized to the degree it should be

· Students don’t seem to know what’s available / how to use this

· “Ask a librarian” feature a helpful service that should be more visible

· Tutoring Services

· Online tutoring services are free (should be links to “free tutoring”)

· Guided Learning Packages

· Currently exam support materials include books, guides, and print materials

· There is a charge for these materials

· Not obvious how to find this stuff

· Student Community

· Currently called “Electronic Peer Network” which may be part of the reason it is under-utilized

· Currently includes:

· Chats

· Discussion groups

· Book exchange

· Study buddy finder

· Student union

Student Services and Learning Support: Initiatives

Source: Student Services

Links within Courses

Will be adding more key links to student services and resources from within the courses themselves

Eg: SmartThinking / free tutoring service

New Orientation

· New orientation is being developed (by July 2009) for the “EC Student Experience”

· Will replace the link for “New Student Orientation”

· Will be a required course

· 2-3 mandatory hours of work

Online Writing Lab

· Being developed internally

· 4-6 months development time

Tutorial Center

· About 1 year away

· Will offer remedial services for:

· Math

· Writing

ePortfolio

· Like a facebook page but more dimensions (cf: Univ. of Minnesota and LaGuardia Comm College for their implementations)

· A “resource for all your work”

· Submit work for review by the administrators

· “Tabs” could be, for example: Personal | Academic | Professional

· Different levels could be utilized (Basic / Advanced)

Online Societies and Organizations

Looking at how & when to implement:

· Honor Society: Phi Kappa Phi (national honor society) – online chapter

· Other student organizations

Career Center – In Progress

A new career center is being launched in (Month). This will include the following content and functionality for current, prospective students, as well as alumni:

· Self-assessment tools

· Degree-specific resources

· Career articles

· Career-related FAQ

· Job opportunities

· Job seeker resources, including resume critique services

· Web conferences / Web chats

· Career counseling

Degree Planner – In Progress

Where does it fit in the degree planning process?

Target date September 09

Goal: TO have students be more informed when they do call adviser

Online Communities – In Progress

Initiatives

· Marketing is establishing the following communities:

· A channel on YouTube

· College presence on MySpace

· College presence on Facebook

· Excelsior alumni pages will be on MySpace and Facebook

· The site needs to link back to these communities

Nursing School - Initiatives

1. Promote online courses and related degree programs and their career benefits:

· Bachelor’s degree program

· Master’s degree program

· Post-master’s certificate in Nursing Education

2. Continuation discounts being promoted

3. All forms are going to be put online soon (timing?), eg on Ms in Nursing page:

· Ms in Nursing Forms and Files

· Clinical Systems Mgt / Clinical Systems Docs

Student Stories / Student Pages – Proposed Content

Student stories would be an effective way of illustrating the Excelsior experience for prospective students.

Potential content /fields could include:

· Student name

· School

· Program

· Year of Graduation

· Occupation (former / current)

· Written story

· Testimonial / quotes

· Accomplishments

· Short video

· Links to or integration with ePortfolio (see previous page)

· Links to outside blogs / face pages

· There is a need for monitoring of any student blogs

Redesign / Rebranding of Credit by Exam (ECEP) – Initiative

There will be a name change and rebranding effort by 2010 for the Exams:

· Name change: “Excelsior Credit by Exam Program” (ECEP)

· Center for Educational Measurement = name of the office

· New domain for ECEP?

· Schedule is up in the air

Multilingual Support - Proposed

Spanish language pages and/or files are being considered for inclusion. The content initially, if this initiative goes forward, will include:

· Limited content (about Excelsior / listing of programs)

· Articles of Interest

· Eg: Opinion on the nursing shortage & how degrees are impacted

· Do you have an article of interest?

Instant Chat – Initiative on Hold

A feature that would allow Web users to chat online with Excelsior College representatives in real time is currently on hold for budgetary and limited staffing reasons.

Other College-wide Initiatives

Source: Provost

· Retention of students

· Diversification of academic programs

· Review & eliminate programs that are not working

· Boost other programs (Business & Technology)

· Streamline curriculum

· Standardize terminology

· Quality assurance

· More cohesion between schools

· Utilize & promote webinars for staff training (Adobe Connect)

Summary of Issues & Ideas from Interviews

From Advising

Issues

· Not everyone is computer savvy

· Some have problems getting oriented to how to find info on site

· Some nursing students (such as Associates) get all of their credit by exam, and don’t use online courses at all / don’t even use e-mail

· Students unfamiliar with the academic lingo / makes it hard to find info on the site

· “What you have left to take” would be better than: “Your evaluation summary,” for example

· Some students not connecting with MyEC

· Some not even aware it exists

· “Too much information” on this page

· Once there, hard to decipher what to click on

· Publications too hard to use

· Advisers end up spending too much time on “technical details” and site walkthroughs, rather than on substantive issues with students (how to find certain docs, where to go for what info, etc.)

· Don’t want to see other schools’ information in the staff view of “MyEC”

1. Should narrow the content for a staff members

· Not everyone goes to Message Center (or knows how to use it)

· Business & Technology users tend to use e-mail instead

Ideas

RE: Message Center:

· Would be better if there were a more obvious link to “compose a message” or “send message to adviser”

· Message Center communications has advantages:

· Easier to forward on to another dept/adviser

· Leaves an audit trail / activity log

· Can see if the student picked up their message

· Eliminates the “junk mail” issue of excelsior.edu mail not being read by students

From Admissions

Issues

· Identifing students is a major problem

· Many don’t remember their Web login ID and create duplicate accounts

· Some don’t remember even having called previous

· Terminology very confusing to students, specifically:

· Difference between Applying, Enrolling & Registration

· “Apply” to the College

· “Enroll” in a program

· “Register for courses or exams

· There are too many options

· Some have to apply, others don’t (e.g., the military)

· It should be obvious before we send people to the eArmyU which Excelsior degree programs are applicable to eArmyU

Issues

MyEC should possibly be limited to students who are either:

· Applying to a program

· Taking Exams

· Taking Courses

From Tech Support

Largest % of calls are:

· Site registration problems

- 30 students call in about 1st screen/registration every month

- students have a name & password but forgot about it

- aren’t sure what links need to click

Why don't users remember their user name and password?

usually it's because it's been a long time since the last time they logged in

For some people, they can retrieve their user name or password with first and last name, email address and/or phone #

· Online course Issues

The 3 biggest issues here are:

· Course search doesn’t work / can't find a course at all

· Registration for courses / may have already registered for a course and try to click on a link that's greyed out

· Logging in to the course on the MyEC page:

· locating the link to the courses is too subtle

· Practice exams

· Nursing population makes up most of exam takers

· Process is difficult

· “Exams Resources and Services” is hard to find

· Registration link sometimes shows up under MyEC Exams Resources and Service

· Only once you register for the Practice Exam, do you get My Online Courses and Learning Aids

Other issues tech support center reports:

Publications Page

Very hard for users to sort through the various categories of publications

Library

· 2 or 3 calls / month about the Iibrary

· Front page of library - see specific 800# for the library, so most know to call that # for library-related problems

· The ones that call us are generally online course takers

· Can help students get onto the library if they have an account

· Tech support looks at student category to make sure they are entitled to have access

· If they have a question about a search from within the library, the call is referred to an online librarian

General Issues

· INTIMIDATION is a big thing

· People are VERY SCARED TO CLICK ON CERTAIN THINGS

· Sometimes it's Nursing and sometimes it's Liberal Arts

· There is a big FEAR that they might start a process that they can't stop

· It’s VERY HARD to get out of the courseware:

· Once in the Courseware system, user has to click on the logo or "logout" to get back to either Home Page or MyEC

Site Navigation Issues

· Different students see different things

· Staff can't see what the student is seeing

· If student can't see it within 2 clicks they don't want the information

· Too much text and too much redundancy

· Esp. with registration - students click right through the because there is too much text

Registration

· Registration on site vs Registration on the various things

· You have to register for the regular exam before you can register for the practice exam

· Confusing because the practice exam registration looks IDENTICAL to the regular course registration

Problematic wording

1. Course registration

2. Transcripts

Search

· Search doesn’t work well

· Course search doesn’t work

· If use all capital letters, returns different results than upper and lower case letters

Ideas from Tech Support

Underutilized areas

1. Smart thinking access / tutorial

2. MyAccess

MyEC page

Alphabetical sorting in left-hand navigation doesn’t really work

Some things are more important, such as:

· Status Report and Evaluation Summary

· My Course Exam Approvals

· Payment plans

Wish List

· The biggest things that would help us would be improved navigation

· Get information streamlined in a more logical format

· To have the ability for the user to toggle open and close certain sections

· Expand and collapse

From Business & Technology School

Issues

· Search doesn’t work

· very hard to find information currently

· Should show relevant results

· Current / actual imagery isn’t very effective

· The Business & Technology section doesn’t reflect actual people (uses stock imagery)

· Should show real photos of real B&T students

· Might want to show seasonal photos to connect to the Northeast?

· Some pictures of the outside would be nice

· Library functionality is hard to use

· Half of the B&T degree is liberal arts & sciences

· Many major writing projects are involved

· Problem: need training to use the library efficiently

· Military not visible enough from B&T

· Military a huge audience, esp. for the technology programs

· Advisors need a way of better serving students / being online together

· Need a user-friendly way to see what student sees

· Sometimes students have more up-to-date info (e.g., when a course is closed) than the advisors do (which makes it difficult to advise)

· Problems with “ghosting” –it is complicated and difficult to use

· Advisors need to know when pages have been updated

· Sometimes the advisors are not as informed as the student, which reflects poorly on the school

Ideas

Should be highlighting the MBA program

· All online

· Accreditation is coming soon

Other new program that will be good to feature when it comes online:

· BS in Hospitality Management (attractive to people in that industry)

From Health Sciences

Issues

· Sometimes courses don’t show up in a timely manner (SIS not updated)

Ideas

· Would like to force the students to use the Library more / understand it more

· They mostly use the links from the online courses

· Promote the Library resources

· FAQ for military students would help enrollments

· More community could help retention

From Liberal Arts

Issues

· There is a big gap between what students want and what content is being pushed out

· Focus / tasks they need to do

· Even the nomenclature / terminology (“publications” not very student oriented)

· Not all students are aware of how to get to their student information & records

· The liberal arts students go to “liberal arts” to find information

· May not know what MyEC is / don’t all know to go there or how to get there

Ideas

· Other things to promote / link to obviously:

· Services we offer

· Library

· News & events / the fact that we’re a dynamic institution

· The student experience / flavor

· Need to somehow show / promote the Credit Bank, which is a product of the Liberal Arts school

· Heavily used by NYC police dept

From Nursing

Issues

MyEC

· Too much information about the other schools when in MyEC

· they only want to see nursing-related info

· Too much on the right hand side of the page

Cautionary Text

· Not effective

· Should recommend what textbooks for each exam

· Even for prospective students (you can take 2 exams before enrolling, so this should not be behind the log-in)

· “Excelsior recommends these textbooks..

· Buy it now at (amazon/B&N/Half.com/Bookstore)

· Provide cross-reference of list of textbooks within the exam listing

Ideas

Need to make the following more prominent:

1. Nursing Learning Resources

· These should be promoted, not hidden, esp:

Online Conferences (VERY IMPORTANT)

2. State Board Information

· Impt for prospective students, current students, and alumni

· Everyone needs to be aware of the req. for each state

· Should be able to find the phone # of the office dedicated to this function

· Esp. impt if someone relocates from one state to another

From Communications & PR

Issues

Site is very tailored towards the prospective student

· Much content is very process-oriented, and misses the high concept of what Excelsior college is about

· As an example, the School of Nursing page does not communicate that this is the largest school of nursing in the country.

Ideas

· Top-level information About Excelsior needs to be consistent with the latest messaging from the national agency (Harris)

· Strategy of college is to move away from dependence on single program (AND) and build up other programs

· Facebook profiles for Grad Students would be well-received in the Liberal Arts school

· Would add a personal touch

· Other profiles have met with some resistance inside the college.

· Most impt. Profiles may be:

· instructional faculty (who will teach my course?)

· student-facing staff (advisers, etc.)

· Focus on Hall of Fame

· What kinds of people come to Excelsior?

· See what our graduates are saying

· To attract students / increase enrollment

· Need to connect more to the incoming student

· “That’s for me!”

· To retain students

· Need to be student-oriented / student focused for existing students

· More Web 2.0 / 3.0? oriented to create sense of community

From Exams-2

Want to greatly reduce the amount of content

· Too busy / too much clutter

· Cut out redundant text

· They think many of the links (between left and right) are redundant

· Free Examination / content Guide goes to top level Publications list

· Then, it can’t be found

· Resources” section on the right might be better categorized/labeled as:

· Resources

· Services

· Announcements

· The “Word of Caution!” text seems to appear everywhere and gets in the way

· Wording for the section may be an issue

· Assessment?

· Credit by Exam?

From Exams (DANTES)

Issues

1. Duplicate records are a big issue

· Students are registering more than once (e.g., for Practice Exam and then again for the real exam)

· Date of birth not always reported accurately

2. Hard to comprehend / find information on Transcripts

· Currently transcript information is in 3 different places on the left (hard to distinguish between them) – top link is prior to enrollment/ bottom link is enrolled students, and middle link refers to inbound transcriptions from other schools).

· Students have no idea what to click on

3. Accessing Practice Exams can be a problem

· Hard to find

· IDEA: After Registration process is completed, make a prominent link to Practice Exam

4. During Registration, Discount Codes are not being accepted (either link doesn’t work or code doesn’t work

· Language is s “Please input your coupon” (as opposed to “Enter your Discount Code)

5. Refund & Cancellation Policies are unclear

· Refund on Exams.

· 50% cancellation policy for Exams needs to be more prominent

· Timing on cancellations has to be done right away for cancellation to take effect – based on when data goes to Pearson Eligibility (4 pm)

· IDEA: Right before you complete the Registration process and have your credit card charged, there could have language about “Click to bill your credit card. 50% Cancellation fee applies…”

· Not clear that you can apply non-refundable deposit towards another exam (fact not known by most students calling about this)

· Practice Exams refund/cancellation policy unclear

6. Issue with DANTES students and Practice Exams

· Currently they have to fax a copy of their military access card to Excelsior

· This is against military practice and generally objected to

· Can they be certified online somehow?

· Site needs to communicate who needs to pay for Practice Exam (sometimes they have to pay / when not running a promotion)

7. Contact Information about Exams

· Currently an email is sent that has the wrong information about “we will contact you within 15 days” This is not very user friendly. (It should be 24-48 hours).

From Financial Aid

Issues

· Financial Aid needs to track messages – preference is to have students send messages to Message Center (where the message can be tracked)

· If you’re not registered, send an email

· They get lot of calls because people don’t understand the process

· Types of financial aid currently too segmented / separated (e.g., scholarships are separated out), which is hard to understand. Financial aid is more of a “package” of services.

Ideas

· Make sure to communicate “how to get financial Aid” or “how to get started with financial aid” to include:

· Background information

· Steps in process:

· Create a study plan

· Get course approvals

· Then contact financial aid office

From Provost

Issues

Many students do not understand the fees. Many are shocked when they are charged the various fees ($895/$440/$495, etc.) and appear to not have been aware they were going to be charged these fees.

Ideas

1. 20% of students take courses

1) Policies related to courses should be easily accessible

2. Search with good results would be very helpful for staff users

1) However, when search is updated, advisers need a “heads up”

Sources:

39

User Profiles - Draft1/3/09