[Web4lib] Results: Survey of Distance Learning Programs in Higher Education, 2010 Edition

[Primarydat at aol.com]

Primary Research Group has published The  Survey of Distance Learning 
Programs in Higher Education, 2010 Edition, ISBN  1-57440-147-5.   
The 200+ page report gives detailed  benchmarking data from more than 50 
participating higher education distance  learning programs.  The report 
presents highly specific data  on  
spending on various forms of marketing methods such as Facebook, Yahoo  and 
Google ads, and ezine, magazine, newspaper, radio, billboard and television 
 advertising, to mention a few.  
The report also gives detailed information on trends in revenues,  tuition, 
financial aid, enrollment and other critical issues for higher  education 
distance learning program administrators. Coverage includes course  
development costs, use of new technologies, and efforts in assessment and  tutoring.  
The data in the report is broken out by type of size of college, for  
public and private colleges, for-profit and non-profit colleges, by size of  
distance learning enrollment, and by the scope of the distance learning program  
itself, those that aim at both traditional and non-traditional learners, 
and  those focused exclusively on the latter. 
Just a few of the report’s many findings are  that: 
†      Revenue for the  programs in the sample ranged from just $58,500 to 
nearly $18.7 million with a  median of $838,500 and a mean of about $3.13 
million. 
†      43.4% of the  programs in the sample had administratively separate 
marketing budgets distinct  from the overall marketing budgets of the 
sponsoring colleges.   
†      More than 55% of  programs queried felt that the economic slowdown 
has led to higher enrollment in  their programs, and only 5.56% thought it 
had led to lower  enrollment. 
†      Private colleges  in the sample vastly outspent public colleges on 
marketing by a factor or more  than 8:1.  
†      32.14% of the  programs in the sample have used magazine advertising 
in the past year and 16%  have used billboards.   
†      Direct mail was  most important for colleges offering 4-year 
degrees, and 21.43% of them said  that direct mail was their most important 
advertising  vehicle. 
†      More than a fifth of  the colleges in the sample plan to increase 
their spending on Google ads, while  another 23.4% plan to hold spending 
constant and 4.26% plan to increase spending  considerably. 
†      Not a single  college in the sample said that its retention rate for 
distance learning  students had decreased in the past year.   
†      Colleges pay  instructors or other course designer a mean of 
$1335.90 to develop a course from  scratch. 
For  further information view our website at _www.PrimaryResearch.com_ 
(http://www.primaryresearch.com/) .