Tulane School of Continuing Studies Tuition
The Marketplace of Higher Education
Distance education as a percentage of all higher education enrollment has grown steadily over the past decade. Despite an overall enrollment decline of 1 million U.S. college students from 2012-2019, the percentage of students taking online classes increased by 11% during those years – and at a faster pace over the latter half of the span.
Where did these gains come from? Public 4-year universities fared best in increasing overall enrollment (although the trend was top-heavy), while public 2-years lost the most students. For-profit enrollment slid throughout the period before finally showing meager gains in 2019. Privates grew slowly throughout.
Will these trends continue post-Covid? Online enrollment in 2020-2021 skyrocketed even as overall enrollment turned down significantly due to stop outs.
The combination of strong support services, a reputable brand name, and affordable tuition are essential elements of an institution's ability to scale its distance education program. Institutions that have successfully scaled and have the highest online enrollments are typically for-profit or private non-profit fully online universities with centralized support services, or public universities that have adopted key aspects of this model. Examples include The University of Phoenix, Western Governors University, and University of Maryland Global Campus, respectively.
There have been a variety of mergers and acquisitions in recent years that have simplified the distance education marketplace in some respects. Such transactions may streamline processes and cut costs, increase program offerings or enrollment, or allow a university to buy a readymade centralized Online Program Management solution.
Not every distance education program is a traditional college/tuition/credit-based model. Some disruptive players include Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), boot camps, and the "Go Pro Model." MOOCs are large course platforms open to the public which are often hosted by third-party companies for no cost and no credit, but they may also be hosted by or partnered with universities, charge nominal fees, and convert course completion towards credits in a micro-degree program. Boot camps are short-term skills training programs. They are especially common to teach students software coding. The Go Pro Model is much like an apprenticeship, where students' tuition is supported by their employer as they learn skills to that current job, or alternatively, to prepare them for promotional opportunities in their organizations.
Online Learning at Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, non-profit university in New Orleans, Louisiana, accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), and is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities.
2019 Tulane University IPEDS Enrollment Data
Tulane is not known for its distance education program (because half the fun of attending Tulane is living in New Orleans), but it has invested in online in recent years, particularly its graduate programs. According to government data, the vast majority of Tulane's 9,100 undergraduate and 5,600 graduate students take courses on campus, with only 219 undergraduates and 633 graduate students enrolled exclusively online. Another 570 undergrads and 181 grad students took at least one online course prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tulane's purpose is to create, communicate, and conserve knowledge in order to enrich the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities to think, to learn, and to act and lead with integrity and wisdom
Tulane currently fields distance education programs in five colleges: the School of Professional Advancement (SoPA), Law, Public Health & Tropical Medicine, Business, and Social Work. In total, these programs award 19 master's degrees, 1 doctoral degree, 16 graduate certificates, Title IX certification, and 4 post-baccalaureate certificates, the only bachelor's-level online offerings at Tulane.
In this commercial for SoPA's Digital Design post-baccalaureate certificate program, we see a day in the life of an online student at Tulane. Not only can she live life at her own pace, but she can also take part in asynchronous digital design studio facilitated by her professor that allows her to collaborate with her classmates. Synchronous courses are fairly common across Tulane's distance education programs.
Marketing and Recruitment
Students are drawn to distance education programs for a variety of reasons. And colleges do their best to give students every reason to enroll. Students may come into first contact with a college in a variety of ways: through social media and YouTube commercials, as well as more traditional media such as TV ads and billboards. Once a student has filled out an online form, attended a recruitment event, called the admissions office, or otherwise expressed interest in an institution, they become a lead and begin receiving one-way marketing, typically through email.
When students become more serious about a college, they are considered prospects and begin receiving personalized recruiting pitches and two-way communications with the institution (such as phone calls) with the goal of nurturing interest and encouraging an application. After a student submits the application and becomes an applicant, communication increases even more with the intent of enrolling the student.
Behind the scenes, a marketing department may spend as much as $2,200 per new student on various types of advertising. Recruiting is spearheaded by recruiters, who become prospects' primary contact with the institution, answering all questions and helping guide them towards enrollment. Something they don't want is melt, which is when a student who has enrolled (and often made a deposit) either receives a better offer from another institution at the last minute or otherwise changes their mind and decides not to attend. Depending on the selectivity of the institution, applications will be considered by an Admissions or Enrollment Office.
In Tulane University's distance education programs, there is very little active marketing at the scale of a major online institution. Although Tulane produces occasional commercials or student testimonials, this is the exception. Tulane relies on email marketing to leads, and does not initiate phone contacts upon the student's first interest (at least within SoPA). Here is an online lead form typical of Tulane's marketing efforts.
It offers events, such as the digital open house, but students must opt-in and are not actively recruited. Tulane may recruit differently in its different Schools, however, as some are contracted with Online Program Management companies (OPMs), while others are not. SoPA, for example, is independent and has its own marketing budget, while Social Work and Public Health use one OPM, and the Law School uses another.
Tulane's reluctance to market its programs vigorously, combined with the lack of a centralized marketing budget and multiple management organizations, will make growth difficult. In order to sustain and grow its programs, Tulane must decide what it wants to be. Does it want to focus on workforce programs or professional programs? Students in New Orleans or nationwide? Tulane should either hire one OPM and hand over the reins or else centralize all of its efforts under one on-campus marketing and recruiting office.
Learner Concierge Services
Knowing who to talk to when you're struggling with classes or having trouble with your financial aid is difficult when you're taking classes on campus. When there is no campus, it can be even more difficult unless the university provides stellar academic and wrap-around support that is easy to access. Many online colleges provide a single point of contact known as an advisor or mentor, who can point students in the right direction. Advisors must be well-trained in all the areas of student support, or at least know who to refer students to if they don't have all the answers. If a student needs immediate help and the advisor isn't available, many colleges also provide 24/7 chat functions and self-service websites.
In addition to the advisor, other support services able to help students may include:
- Accessibility services, to help students with disabilities receive accommodations, career services
- the Bursar, who manages bills and collects tuition payments
- Tutors, to help students understand academic concepts in their courses
- the Help Desk, to provide technical support for online courses
At Tulane, most online program support services are decentralized. SoPA, Public Health, and Social Work each have their own academic advisors, and each staff is organized differently. SoPA's five academic advisors are available to online and on-ground students and are responsible for specific programs. Public Health uses a two-tiered program and faculty advising system specifically for its distance education students. Program Managers in Social Work advise all students enrolled in the degree program they oversee, whether online or in person. None of these advisors provide concierge services in the customer service sense that larger online colleges use it. They follow the traditional advising model of evaluating transfer credits, helping with course selection, and conducting degree audits. Though they provide campus referrals, they don't go the extra mile to provide extended services themselves.
Additionally, each School has its own specialized wrap-around services. SoPA is the only School with its own admissions process and staff (for all of its undergraduate and graduate programs); all other Schools use Tulane's Graduate Admissions Application Portal. To keep track of all of Tulane's available student support, SoPA provides a New Student Orientation Guide especially for its students. Here, SoPA's Assistant Dean for Student Support and Success discusses some of the supports that the school provides its students.
Public Health offers its distance education students peer or professional mentorships, success coaches, a Virtual Student Union, and student organizations. Its Career Services office provides online or in-person appointments to students who need them.
And Social Work has Academic Success Coaches in addition to its advisors.
Financial aid counseling, on the other hand, is not kept in-house by any of Tulane's distance education programs. But it is not centralized in one office either. Undergraduates and the Law School have their own offices, and all other graduate programs (including distance education and all of SoPA) are divided between two campuses where classes are offered.
All other wraparound services are the same as those provided to on-campus students, such as the Goldman Center for Student Accessibility and Academic Learning & Tutoring Center.
As with marketing and recruiting, the decentralization of Tulane's learner concierge services makes growth difficult, but not impossible. Some support services such as Accessibility and Tutoring already help all students, and Financial aid is apportioned simply to keep the number of students manageable in each office and accessible to students. Admissions is fairly simple also, and SoPA would be able to scale easily if it continues adding programs and remains separate from the regular Admissions office. Advising, on the other hand, requires specific curriculum knowledge, which is siloed within programs, and is not treated as a "One-stop" for student needs. Cross-training would allow scalability, but it would also require a change in the nature of advising duties from strictly academic support to a more holistic model.
Learning Experiences
The learning experience, simply put, is the curriculum a student will take and the relevant Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Dispositions (KSADs; Thackaberry, 2021d) they will learn in their courses. A well-designed online course will not only teach students relevant subject matter but will also make the student feel invested in the class and not alone or left to their own devices.
Instructional Design is the creation of classes. This doesn't just mean the subject matter that will be taught, but also the technology used to teach it – the Learning Management System (LMS) platform and all of the teaching materials, assignments, and resources that will be uploaded into the LMS. High quality online courses are ADA-compliant, socially engage students, and are designed according to best practices such as Quality Matters.
Instructional Designers create course blueprints, define measurable objectives, design assessments that align with course objectives, and use quality assurance tools to structure the course to best facilitate student learning. Faculty are the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who create course content. They are also the course instructors. Others involved in Instructional Design include course authoring specialists, who integrate the content into the Learning Management System (LMS), graphic designers to create multimedia, and IT specialists to manage technology and man the help desk. Finally, a project manager supervises to keep everyone on track and meeting goals.
There are two general models of Instructional Design: decentralized and centralized. In the decentralized model, faculty do most of the heavy lifting to create courses for themselves from scratch. They are the SMEs and the course designers, while Instructional Designers act as consultants to help with details. In the centralized model, Instructional Designers develop master courses with the help of faculty SMEs. These master courses are then taught by other faculty members who are specifically trained in online learning.
SoPA, which offers the majority of the Tulane's distance education programs, somewhat blends the two models. Instructional Designers present an online course development workshop , which teaches faculty how to design master classes that can be used by others. Thus, Instructional Designers are consultants, as in the decentralized models, but they also provide faculty training and help create master courses, as in the centralized model. Here is a syllabus from the workshop and one of the designers explaining how she supports Tulane faculty.
In addition to Instructional Designers, SoPA's distance education staff includes a Media Content Manager and Media Instructional Designer. Other Tulane Schools offering distance education programs, such as Public Health & Tropical Medicine, also have their own online instructional designers, as does the Center for Engaged Learning & Teaching, but Social Work relies primarily on its OPM's Instructional Designers.
SoPA, with most of an Instructional Design team intact, is prepared to scale should the need arise. The other Schools will rely on an OPM if they were to scale, but they could potentially allow SoPA to take over their course building. Turning all learning experience over to a program that already has the infrastructure and skillset might be the best method for overall sustainability.
Faculty Support
Though faculty may be subject matter experts, teaching a distance education course requires more than just knowing course content. Most faculty are not trained in pedagogy or online learning, so professional development is necessary to help them provide better learning outcomes to students in online courses. Professional development provides overall familiarity with online learning, including tools to help students learn and help desk resources available to ensure that the online technology is doing what it's supposed to do. For the student, this means that the course is organized in a way that is learner-friendly and easy to navigate.
High quality distance education programs also deliver robust professional development in areas such as Universal Design for Learning (Thackaberry, 2015). Knowing a bit about Instructional Design, or at least the types of LMS integrations to ask an Instructional Designer about, is essential for any faculty member interested in teaching online. Subsequently, colleges and universities in the distance education space offer a variety of professional development and support to faculty. This may be rudimentary or, in some instances, may include weeks of seminars and stackable courses taught by a dedicated faculty development office, which ultimately confer online teaching certificates (Thackaberry, 2021c).
Tulane provides additional supports on top of the online course development workshop mentioned above. Faculty receive guidance and training from Instructional Technologists in the Innovative Learning Center (ILC). Whereas an Instructional Designer builds a course with an eye towards learning outcomes, Instructional Technologists work more with courses' technological integrations and software to help ensure that they are being used effectively by students and faculty. For example, Tulane's Instructional Technologists help faculty understand various Canvas LMS integrations, as seen in the following video.
If they have immediate technology problems, Tulane faculty can call IT's Service Desk. The Service Desk is manned by IT Specialists, whose role is to know specific computer technologies (especially hardware) and ensure that everything is running smoothly. Although there is a primary IT department, some Tulane Schools also have their own IT offices.
Tulane's faculty support, while sparse, is capable of growth. The IT infrastructure is in place, as is the ability to create high-quality courses with integrated software functionality. Sustainability and scalability would be much easier, however, if there were a greater emphasis on preparing faculty to teach online (bulking up distance education training and workshop options, for example). As it is, training is more ad hoc than intentional. Even if Tulane were to remain decentralized, giving faculty the same tools to work with across the university would simplify this process.
Data & Analytics
Colleges and universities collect reams of data each day from every department in the institution. Data collection is an important requirement for legal and accreditation compliance, but it can be so much more. By applying analytical tools to the data, colleges can discover useful trends and insights, and forecast predictions. According to the Association for Institutional Research, Educause, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers, "Analytics can help colleges and universities advance institutional goals, improve quality and efficiency, strengthen student outcomes, and enhance teaching, learning, and advising."
Most often, predictive analysis is employed to improve institutional services and practices rather than student learning. Colleges can use data gathered to create a shared set of facts for departments to use when making decisions. For example, knowing the reality of the campus budget and student needs can help the financial aid department put together an aid package suitable enough to enable a prospect to enroll but not so large as to take away funds from others who may need more.
In addition to such operational uses, data can also inform student learning outcomes and help colleges intervene to improve student performance. Colleges can devise a success model based on previous data, find students deviating from the model, and provide personalized support based on student needs.
Most universities have an Office of Institutional Research that collects, analyzes, and disseminates data. The Institutional Research Analyst collects data and writes reports for their area of responsibility. The Director of Institutional Research is in charge of overall planning and direction of the office, provides necessary data to other areas of the institution, and is vital to supporting accreditation and compliance activities, among other responsibilities.
Tulane's Office of Assessment and Institutional Research compiles all data and analytics for the university. This includes not only information derived from SIS and LMS integrations, but also from surveys and assessment plans used to assess the success of student learning. Here is an example of undergraduate graduation rates to date, with proposed goals based on analysis.
And below is an example of a dashboard of current enrollment.
It is difficult to determine how well Tulane is structured for growth from a data and analytics perspective because very little of its data collection infrastructure is public knowledge, nor is much internal data analysis or reporting public. Assuming that its technology integrations are well-designed and the use of analytics tools is robust (more on that below) , the fact that Tulane's organization is centralized bodes well for sustainability and scalability.
Financial Models
The burgeoning expense of a college education has compelled many prospective students to seek out cheaper means of attaining a degree. Colleges and other affiliates, in turn, have begun to devise alternative financial models that reward completion without breaking either the student's or institution's bank. Examples include subscription-based models, which allow students to take as many courses as they're able to in a fixed period of time, and income share agreements, in which the student agrees to return a percentage of income from their first post-graduation job to the college over a period of time.
Successful distance education programs have detailed predictive financial models that consider variables such as:
- Course creation and maintenance cost
- Expected enrollment and retention
- Cost of academic and faculty support
- Overhead
- Marketing and recruitment (Thackaberry, 2021a)
However, the most important variable is tuition. Nothing can undermine an online college faster than a failed tuition model.
Significant roles within this area include Budget Analysts, who collect budget data and prepare analyses and reports, and the Chief Operating Officer, who oversees a university's operations, including finances, budgets, and underlying infrastructure.
Tulane's tuition model is traditional. Students pay per credit hour enrolled, regardless if online or in-person. However, in distance education programs offered through SoPA, it offers special discounts to certain student populations, in addition to scholarship opportunities. Here is the list of students who qualify for 20% SoPA discounts.
In recent years, Tulane has begun using a new financial planning model known as Responsibility Centered Management, designed to analyze scenarios and use predictive modeling. It requires individual schools to be responsible for their own budgets and pay a "tax" for shared services. Here's a video explaining how Tulane came to use this process and how it works.
At $1,119 per credit hour, online graduate courses in SoPA are not cheap compared to other distance education programs, even with the 20% discount. If Tulane chooses to scale, it will need to lower that cost. On the other hand, Responsibility Centered Management does give the Dean of SoPA authority to budget as she sees fit, which might allow sustainability and scalability should she be a good steward of her budget. However, she is also constrained by the tax she must pay for shared services such as facilities, athletics, and the library. Growth would be easier facilitated if this was less of a shared tax than a use tax, based on services a distance education program needs, and which it doesn't already have within its own bailiwick.
Program Development
Students won't consider an online university if it doesn't offer the program they want, so it behooves an institution to add marketable majors to its curriculum. When a university decides to add a new distance education program, it helps to have a plan. Unfortunately, most institutions, according to a study by the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, don't have one. When adding new online curricula, colleges that have scaled distance education programs follow a strategic development process that considers academic governance, market demand, financial considerations, and criteria unique to the university's mission and enrollment goals (Thackaberry, 2021b).
A typical program development effort starts with an idea at the college or department level. This is often championed by the dean of the School or College, who may help to marshal the proposal through development. Depending on the institution and type of program added, this role may also be taken by a Department Chair or Program Manager, the administrative leader of the department housing the new program. As it works its way up through the university's governance structure – curriculum committee (comprised primarily of faculty), provost's office, and board of regents or trustees, for example – certain steps should be taken, which require collaboration throughout the institution. These include considering if there is a compelling market interest for the program (the Marketing Office), factoring budgetary constraints (Budget and Planning) and writing a business and marketing plan (Business Office), preparing state and accreditor approval documents (Institutional Research), and designing courses (Instructional Design/the sponsoring department). The many stakeholders involved in program development, its strategic step-by-step process, and long timeline speaks to the need for centralized or autonomous administration of distance education.
Ohio State's distance education program development process is exemplary in its organization and attention to detail.
As far as I can tell, Tulane does not have a distinct program development plan for distance education. Instead, it mostly follows the same plan used for adding new brick-and-mortar programs, with limited exceptions.
By using the same process for both online and in-person program development, Tulane would not be reinventing the wheel if it were to scale its distance education programs. However, there is something to be said for an Ohio State-like process specifically designed for distance education , with an infrastructure to support it step- by-step, and with individual
coordinators assigned to shepherd the program through the process. Tulane's decentralization again hurts its ability to scale, as even the first step of market analysis is contracted out to multiple consultants, and there is no coordinated timeline as a result.
eLearning Environment
Students access their online courses through a Learning Management System such as Blackboard or Canvas. A well-designed LMS will include everything a student needs to complete a course: content modules, assessments, discussion boards, accessibility tools, and other software integrations. All aspects of courses designed in the LMS should be ADA-compliant to accommodate students with disabilities. Students can register for either synchronous or asynchronous courses taught within the same LMS.
Students and faculty alike often dislike their LMS because they are either overburdened by useless features or lacking useful ones. To this end, there have been moves made to create frameworks, such as the Next Generation Digital Learning Environment (NGDLE), to improve LMS user experiences.
Institutions may centralize academic technology for both on-campus and online environments, or they may house front-end academic technology in the Academic area, while technical support might belong to the Information Technology department. Common roles relevant to the eLearning environment include the LMS Specialist, who ensures that the LMS works properly, the Communications Manager, in charge of course notifications, reminders, and student feedback, and the QA Tester, who verifies that the course has no typos, missing links, or other glitches.
Tulane uses Canvas (branded as MyTulane) across its distance education programs. Amongst its many integrations, it provides synchronous course meetings using Zoom, Adobe Connect, and Blackboard Collaborate.
Students use the Respondus Lockdown Browser for online exam integrity and TurnItIn as a plagiarism detector. Outside of Canvas, Tulane providesan array of media creation and STEM-related software for students and faculty to use.
The vast majority of Tulane's LMS infrastructure is supported by the Innovative Learning Center (ILC). The ILC team is focused primarily on supporting Canvas for on-campus courses, however. Accordingly, some Schools, such as Public Health & Tropical Medicine and SoPA, have their own LMS staff.
Technologically, Tulane has what it needs to grow. In fact, it has too much of what it needs, for example, the competing video conferencing integrations. While there may be a legitimate need to use different solutions, it only hinders sustainability and scalability to require upkeep and maintenance of different software packages. Likewise, with personnel, the ILC is Tulane's biggest LMS staff, but it is focused on Canvas for Tulane's campus-based courses. While it is not necessary for the ILC to take over LMS duties if Tulane hopes to scale its distance education programs, it would be wise to consolidate all of the other LMS teams into one team.
Technology Integrations
Effective distance education programs collect and utilize data by integrating enterprise software systems from throughout the institution. From the student's perspective, data collection begins as soon as they become a lead and their contact information is uploaded into the college's recruitment software. As students continue further along the college's marketing funnel, their data is collected in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Once enrolled, all of their schoolwork is collected in the LMS, and their grades are uploaded into the Student Information System (SIS), which also keeps track of their course schedules, transcripts, financial aid, billing, and much more. On the back end, these same systems collect data from faculty, staff, and administrators, such as salaries, budgets, work assignments, and more.
For data to be useful to a college, it must be integrated from these many different software packages, organized and analyzed, and the data must be able to flow in both directions. Data is collected in a data warehouse or data lake, where it can later be accessed and used by other software to model learning and retention outcomes, determine effective teaching methods, and improve operational outcomes. See the graphic below how Arizona State integrates data from a variety of on-campus and non-campus sources, stores it in the cloud, applies analytic tools, and reports out discoveries that can be used to improve processes and outcomes.
At some point, almost everyone employed by a college comes into contact with at least one system, if only to update a salary time sheet. But some work with systems more than others. Recruiters, for example, use recruiting software or CRM to develop relationships with prospects and encourage them to apply to the college. On the back end, a CRM Manager analyzes data to create personalized marketing strategies to optimize effective communications with college customers. And within the IT department, Data Warehouse Architects develop and manage the warehouse infrastructure and keep it secure.
Although Tulane's distance education programs are technologically segmented in places, especially the eLearning environment and IT support, the university's enterprise systems are more centralized and serve all Schools and departments, including those that are online. Here's a list of some of the integrations Tulane uses.
Note that Banner is Tulane's SIS. I can't be sure who Tulane uses as a CRM, although ajob posting for the School of Social Work requires Slate CRM proficiency. To aid student retention Tulane uses Salesforce, which collects LMS data such as grades to track student outcomes and allow advisors to intervene when necessary. See how that works in this video.
If you're still wondering how extensive and specialized technology integrations can be, Tulane also uses a company that helps it manage alumni relations and donor information.
To collect all of this data, Tulane has its own Enterprise Data Warehouse. To report out data and dashboards, Cognos is the university's primary analytics reporting tool.
This is one area where Tulane seems to be in a good position for future sustainability and growth. There don't seem to be competing or overlapping technology integrations across domains. While I don't know for sure that advisors across the various distance education programs all use Salesforce, for example, or that Slate is the CRM used across the university, it seems that these are universal integrations across the institution.
Regulations
In order to maintain their federal financial aid, American colleges must ensure that their online programs adhere to the U.S. Department of Education's distance education regulations – especially that they provide "regular and substantive interaction" between student and faculty. Attendance must also be reported in the first week of class. These regulations not only prevent financial aid abuse and fraud, but they also encourage colleges to improve their online courses and students to get the most out of them.
Institutions must also be accredited, generally by a regional accreditor. Accreditation is based on peer-review and self-regulation and is important to maintain an institution's reputation and to encourage continuous improvement. Distance education programs may have additional accreditation requirements beyond those required of brick-and-mortar programs. Furthermore, for a college to offer online courses to students from other states, they must comply with laws and regulations in those states. The easiest way to do this is to participate in the National Council for State Authorization and Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). Institutions employ a Director of Accreditation and Compliance, whose job is to coordinate the college's accreditation activities, making sure that every School and department provides required data, and then to report progress towards institutional goals. Compliance specialists work in individual areas to ensure that the institution follows rules and regulations accordingly.
Tulane's regional accreditor is The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Tulane's accreditation was last reaffirmed in 2011 and is up for re-evaluation in 2021-2022. This presentation explains to faculty what they need to do to help in the accreditation effort.
And this graphic from an online conference shows how faculty can use the Interfolio technology integration to upload data that will be used in accreditation reporting.
As noted above, accreditation is the primary stage where Tulane's regular program development process deviates from its distance education development process. In following SACSCOC's Substantive Change Policy , Tulane fulfills all federal distance education regulations. Tulane also participates in NC-SARA . Tulane's university accreditation and compliance practice is led by the Director of Academic Compliance and Accreditation, a position which oversees accreditation and leads state authorization efforts. Joining with faculty and other members of Tulane's administration, they form the SACSCOC Compliance Certification Committee .
Tulane is well set up for sustainability and growth in the area of regulations. The university is fully accredited, and its participation in NC-SARA enables it to offer online courses to students outside of Louisiana.
Partnerships and Continual Innovation
Colleges and universities rely on grant money to fund innovative programs to improve student outcomes and the quality of distance education programs. Partnerships go beyond foundations though. Some universities work with corporate partners, such as Arizona State's partnership with Starbucks, to fund distance education programs and student tuition to create a win-win for both sides. The university gets higher enrollment and funding for an alternative financial model , while the corporate partner gets an image boost and the ability to use the program as a recruiting tool in its own right.
Depending on the size of the partnership, different stakeholders might be involved. For a foundation grant, a grant writer will be required to put together the proposal, and grant managers will be required to seek out new grants, create a grant-finding strategy, and manage the grant portfolio. But for a major foundation or a corporate partnership with millions of dollars at stake, you can be sure that the college president will be involved to seal the deal.
Tulane has two types of distance education partnerships: industry certifications and collaborations designed to attract specific student groups. Students enrolled in SoPA's IT programs can take courses that lead to industry-standard certifications such as ServiceNow, CompTIA, EC-Council, ASIS, and AWS. Students receive discounts or vouchers to take the certification exams when their courses are completed. Here you can watch testimonials about these partnerships.
Tulane also maintains partnerships with the National League of Cities University (NLCU) and the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. that are meant to increase diversity within its student population. The NLCU partnership invites municipal leaders, both elected and appointed, to work toward a Master of Public Administration through SoPA. The School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine agreement with ΑΦΑ provides a path way to encourage African-American men to enter public health fields. As in the previous partnerships, students enrolled in these programs receive tuition discounts.
Tulane's current SoPA partnerships are structured for growth from an IT curriculum perspective, but not so much from a recruiting perspective. If it wanted to become a leader in IT certifications and began partnering with major industry organizations, it might be able to grow. Its NLCU and ΑΦΑ partnerships are good starts toward recruiting, but they are still small when compared to a corporate partnership such as Starbucks. Additionally, these partnerships only apply to specific programs, allowing the majority of Tulane's programs partnerless. If it wants to grow, Tulane must be more aggressive as an institution to seek out partners.
In Conclusion...
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