Advising Without Borders!

VCO: New tool for advisers and prospective students Not a substitute for individual advising Cover regions without EACs Oriented for new audience Training model for beginning level advisers

VCO project now Team of 36 advisers from 21 country Seven templates 1000 IP`s daily 7800 incoming questions 5219 subscribers One hit per second Extension to the two new language versions The VCO on-line consulting technique Supported by one tech specialist

VCO: How it works Team-based operation Dynamic multilingual content Simple and unified structure Web template method VCO on-line consulting technique (2008)

English CC Russian CC Arabic CC Spanish CC Chinese CC

Virtual Consulting Service: Challenges Many general questions Takes too much time Repeating Inappropriate Provocative Advertisements SPAM

Objectives: To develop a classification of incoming questions and, accordingly, to prepare a set of concrete recommendations.

Expected results Saving time for VCO team members Increase of professionalism in consulting service Use this methodology for training of new VCO team members Try to implement this consulting technique for telephone and consultations

Classification of incoming questions Very basic Labor-intensive Concrete Miscellaneous

Very basic questions 75% of all incoming questions Student never been to EAC New and underserved category of our potential clients Just curious about education in the USA

Example of incoming questions: very basic Location: Uzbekistan. I want to study In USA. What I should do about this ?

Very basic questions: recommendations Inspirational sentence Simple and brief explanation of the application process Use of template answers Referring to the nearest EducationUSA center

Labor-intensive questions 15% of total questions A prospective student who finally decided to take the first step in the application process A prospective student who somewhere heard about this opportunity and is wondering where to begin

Example of incoming questions: labor-intensive Location: Mongolia. Please give me information about top universities in computer science in California and amount of financial aid in them

Labor-intensive questions: recommendations Avoid “digging too deep” when answering question Instead of doing search for student show only direction where to find the answer (directing answer) Present direct link or contact information

Concrete questions 5% of total questions Coming from students who are in the active phase of the application process Requires a “tailored” answer Allow advisers to demonstrate expertise in a certain field Doesn't require too much time A collection of concrete questions is the most valuable part of the question archive of the project.

Example of incoming questions: concrete Country: United Arab Emirates Question: What is the difference between online studies and distance studies? Thanks

Miscellaneous questions 5% of total questions Is a typical side effect of all online interactive tools Can be divided into three types: advertisements, inappropriate, provocative Must be deleted from the Administrative Center without answering

VCO Consulting Service: Summary of the Structure of Answers 1. Inspirational sentence 2. Body of the answer: template for “very basic” questions directing for “labor-intensive” questions tailored for “concrete” questions 3. Call to action sentence (invitation)

Expected results Saving time for VCO team members Increase of professionalism in consulting service Use this methodology for training of new VCO team members Try to implement this consulting technique for telephone and consultations

VCO and US educational institutions Refer interested applicants with questions not specific to US institution to the VCO web portal Let your current students and alumni know that they are welcome to participate in the "forum" and other sections of the VCO project Locate the VCO banner on your website

Advising Without Borders!