Creating an Enrollment/Marketing Management Information Matrix Maureen Pettitt, Director Beth Hartsoch, Analyst Office of Institutional Research Skagit Valley College

Presentation Overview Why an Enrollment Management Matrix? Collaboration Key Questions Information to Answer Key Questions Technical Aspects Other Uses of the Matrix Next Steps

We could have called it the Enrollment Management Information “Grid” instead of the Enrollment Management Information “Matrix”— but then we couldn’t have used these cool pictures in this presentation!

Why? Registrar & IR jointly publish an Annual Enrollment Report with lots of interesting enrollment data and trends…which hardly anybody uses…yet both offices get requests on a regular basis for enrollment-related information The current system in Washington for supporting programs (high-demand, high- salary) has made access to additional information an imperative for program planning We’re running as fast as we can….

Borrow Shamelessly! Presentation of a matrix by David Kalsbeek from DePaul University: Market Metrix TM –Information tool for specific graduate school programs at DePaul –Focus on market share/performance, industry trends, competition, etc. Modified the idea for a community college environment –a web-based grid with links to information that would assist program chairs, the Enrollment Management Committee, PIO and administrators with planning and decision making

How? Initial Thoughts on X-Y Axes External Internal Data Source or Focus Key Enrollment Management Questions

Where? The Web, of course… Alternative to phone and requests for data Increasing amounts and quality of data on the web Much faster and wider access Fewer piles of folders on my desk/their desk

Collaboration

We took the initial version of the matrix (filled in with some of the current information resources) to the Enrollment Management Committee The committee had suggestions for refining key questions and for additional information We also realized we needed to give non- research and low-tech folks some instructions on how to find information on some of the web sites

Enter The Matrix

Key Enrollment Management Questions Where is our potential market and what is the outlook for that market? What are the prospects for students taking classes at SVC? What is the profile of our applicants and current students? How successful and satisfied are our students upon completion/departure?

Information Resources Questions drove the identification and selection of information resources (rather than the opposite) Resources included information from admissions & registration, IR data, State Board, Workforce Explorer, Census data, etc.

Examples: Information Resources Census –Population projections, distributions in the counties by age, ethnicity, education OSPI –Enrollment by grades, ethnicity, gender and dropout and grad rates in the counties’ school district OFM –Washington State Population Survey, population projections and trends, projected higher ed enrollments, degrees awarded by major, participation rate by county

Examples: Information Resources Workforce Explorer (ES/LMEA) –Occupational employment & wages, county profiles, current employment statistics, job vacancies by WDA IPEDS PAS –Comparison with peer institutions on IPEDS data SBCTC/WTECB –SBCTC Fall & Annual Reports, Job Training Results, Mobility Reports

Examples: Information Resources Internal –Enrollments –Graduation Data –Clearinghouse data for high school grads in SVC district –Data on applicants (Admissions) –CCSSE results Enter The Matrix

Technical Aspects

Development Developed matrix in Excel; IT recreated matrix in Front Page Each cell links to a page with a list of links to relevant information, both internal documents and external web resources Copy/paste page content into templates provided by IT for use on the Intranet; documents reside in a downloads folder in the Intranet file structure Used relative links to facilitate transfer to the Intranet file structure

Implementation & Feedback Loop IR and IT create draft matrix Post matrix on SVC intranet Enrollment Mgmt Committee, Faculty and Administrators use matrix Users provide feedback via web survey web survey Revise matrix to address user needs

Maintenance Issues

Can be maintained by IR via the Intranet administration site where pages were created Changes can be made in the admin site, or in Excel or Word files then copied/ pasted into the templates through the admin site

Quarterly Evaluation Plan to update once per quarter Take into account survey results Keep track of potential changes in a file on the shared drive Evaluate potential changes and update as appropriate

“ Everything that has a beginning has an end…” …except for web- based data tools Our matrix needs to be continuously “revolutionized” (read “maintained”) IR is responsible for the matrix -- checking links, adding current info, etc. IT provides platform, templates

The matrix has value for a number of college activities besides enrollment planning and management

Grant Writing –An easily-accessed information source for grants Strategic Plan Revision –A good resource for external scanning process in conjunction with revision of the college’s strategic plan this year