Perhaps, some of the readers may have received many free webinar offers from many different consulting or analytics software companies. These institutions are trying to offer services which can help US higher eds to solve their problems with retention & graduation rate or increase student enrollment, fund raising, data analytics & visualization and others. Well, how useful and helpful are these apps, gadgets or offered services and advices?
Here are a couple basic questions to ask:
- What is the purpose of doing an investment?
- Are the benefits of the investment measureable?
- Always remember that the sellers always try to sell their product, regardless how it will benefit your institution in short or long-run.
Keep in mind, that there are at least two variables to make an equation, LHS and RHS. In a more fancy terms, folks call it a dependent and an independent variable. After the two basic variables are answered, can one put it in a mathematical form? Which of these variables will be in the LHS or RHS?
Lets us take an example that institution A, which is a Liberal Arts college sees a downward enrollment trend. What should institution A do, to at least stabilize the unfavorable metric? Putting all the choice and independent variables into one or complex relations will help the College decision makers to take the right path. Often, an investment made before this critical step is conducted. When resources seem to be abundant in the past, institutions have the luxury to pass this critical process. But it can be a game changer under the current situation.