What I Realized Working with an OPM

Throughout campus management circles, I hear the identical considerations repeated time and again: enrollment pressures, federal funding uncertainty, and ongoing skepticism about the value of a college degree. These forces make it more durable than ever to stability establishments’ educational mission with long-term monetary stability.

This second looks like one other main inflection level for larger schooling. Will we proceed to do issues as we have at all times executed them, or will we embrace new fashions that may help each our mission and our margins?

On-line studying sits squarely on the intersection of those pressures — providing a chance to succeed in new college students, diversify income, and ship schooling in ways in which match at present’s learners.

For a lot of universities, together with my very own, on-line program managers (OPMs) are crucial companions in navigating this complexity — bringing the experience, advertising and marketing muscle, and enrollment help that almost all establishments merely cannot replicate on their very own.

But, when OPMs come up, there’s typically skepticism within the room. Why outsource one thing as crucial as scholar recruitment and program help? Are these partnerships giving freely an excessive amount of management or driving up prices?

I need to share my very own expertise with OPMs: how we navigated that skepticism, what worth these partnerships deliver, and the teachings I’ve realized as we proceed to develop our applications. At a time when larger schooling is being requested to do extra with much less, I’ve seen how these partnerships could be the distinction between merely surviving and actually thriving.

How We Constructed Sustainable On-line Development with an OPM Companion

A decade in the past, on-line studying was an experiment. 5 years in the past, it grew to become a lifeline because the pandemic compelled establishments to pivot virtually in a single day to distant instruction. At present, it is a strategic crucial.

At Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), our personal journey with on-line studying displays that evolution. About seven years in the past, our central administration started exploring what it could imply to scale on-line studying past one-off school efforts. This was properly earlier than COVID-19, however we already noticed graduate schooling shifting on-line and knew we would have liked a plan.

We engaged a advisor who recognized applications well-suited for on-line supply, together with our MBA program. As dean of the enterprise college, I participated within the early discussions that led us to contemplate an OPM partnership.

At first, skepticism ran excessive. The college apprehensive about sustaining educational high quality and management, whereas directors questioned whether or not outsourcing recruitment and enrollment capabilities was the best transfer. Addressing these considerations required transparency, collaboration, and numerous conversations to make clear what was — and wasn’t — altering.

We quickly started working hand-in-hand with our OPM associate to construct out a digital presence, design a personalized advertising and marketing technique, and combine new processes with our enrollment and IT groups. Simply over a 12 months after launch, our MBA enrollment almost tripled — and we have sustained a a lot larger base enrollment ever since.

That success shortly modified minds. College who as soon as doubted the partnership noticed the standard of scholars coming in and appreciated how a lot time was freed as much as give attention to educating and analysis.

Directors additionally acknowledged the worth. We did not have the interior sources to deal with prospecting, market analysis, applicant follow-up, and scholar re-engagement on the identical stage as an OPM might ship. These aren’t core educational capabilities that almost all universities excel in. They’re enterprise operations — and so they’re precisely the place specialised experience is smart.