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Conversations with higher education leaders about online learning, the future, and the pandemic’s lasting impact on higher education.

An interview with: Dr. Michael Huffman, Virginia Commonwealth University - Founding Director of the Office of Continuing and Professional Education (retired), Founder Lexicon Advisors

Dr. Michael Huffman is a long-time leader in the field of professional and continuing education. He spent the better part of two decades with Virginia Commonwealth University — first as a faculty member and then with ever-expanding roles leading continuing education for the university. Among his many areas of expertise are online education, digital and micro-credentials, and strategic corporate relationships. He has served in a board capacity for the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). Dr. Huffman is a strategic advisor and investor to Fourth Rev, an ed tech company that collaborates with industry leaders and top universities worldwide to deliver the best of career-focused education. He recently joined the Advisory Board of myFootpath.

Dr. George Rohde interviewed Dr. Huffman as we approached fall 2022. Here are edited excerpts of his expertise, with a particular focus on online education and reengagement trends he is seeing as well as ongoing work in the marketplace.

Rohde: Well, first let me say, I’m excited to work with you! Let’s start this conversation with what are you working on? What gets you excited in the [online education] industry these days?

Huffman:  I got involved with myFootpath because I am a huge believer in adult learners, and the value a college degree can bring to adults later in life. I focused most of my career at the university level in continuing education, and I saw again and again the value education can bring to enhance and develop the careers of adult learners.   

Rohde: That’s a great overview. How are you seeing universities approach reengagement of adult learners? How has the pandemic factored into this approach?

Huffman: Well, university enrollments are down 4-5% nationally, and community colleges are down even more at 8% or so just last year. So, there are lots of students who stopped out or didn’t get started at all during the pandemic. These lower student numbers are a substantial drain on universities and the tuition revenue these students bring. This trend is compounded by the looming enrollment cliff in 2025. The pandemic worsened this substantial pressure on student enrollments, and it’s only going to get more challenging as the decade continues. 

I think universities are now seeing reengagement of adult learners as one of the few strategies they can actively pursue to try to make up this student shortfall. That said, I think universities are just starting to see the real scale behind this opportunity. By that, I mean most universities go after the students who stop out for a year or two already. However, the opportunity can be much, much larger when you go back two decades or more. It’s a different scale, and universities are just discovering how powerful this channel can become.

Rohde:  What role did the move to ‘all online’ coursework during the pandemic play in universities seeing the reengagement opportunity?

Huffman: The pandemic was an all-out crisis. I would characterize much of the education colleges delivered as emergency online coursework rather than online education. The pandemic forced the hand of universities. They had to innovate, right now, with online coursework.

But now, universities are really stepping back, evaluating their early work [in the pandemic], and enhancing what they have done. I believe universities need to meet students where they are, and right now, many students are seeking an online, or at least partially online, experience. I think many universities have risen to the challenge of delivering an online education. They have turned the emergency work into a strategic imperative to bring high-quality online degree programs to the marketplace.

Rohde: What are you seeing amongst leading universities in online education? Where are they making investments?

Huffman: Many universities I have conversations with are bringing their extensive resources to help faculty teach online. Let me illustrate. Some faculty, especially early in the pandemic, just put their syllabus online and posted the homework. Now, I am seeing faculty really invest in making online coursework great. Faculty are looking at the A/V equipment, figuring out how to use multiple cameras/angles, making sure they have the right microphones to capture sound, working with instructional designers on formats and visuals and interaction. The depth of [course] development has evolved significantly in the past 18 months, and I think it will only continue to get better among leading online universities.

Rohde: Do you see universities investing in reengagement?

Huffman: Yes, I do see universities making some investments [in reengagement], but they often just aren’t positioned to capture all possible students from a full-scale reengagement effort. As you know from myFootpath’s work, it can take years of multi-channel marketing messages to reengage an adult student. Stop-out students take more time than traditional students, as they are leading adult lives now. Most universities are focused on new students, and that gets most of the investment. Reengagement may get a partial position or a student worker to assist, but that’s nowhere near what’s needed. I think that’s good news for myFootpath, especially as you invest in your institutional partners’ success through tuition share and other financial models.   

Rohde: Thank you, Michael, for sharing your insights and perspective with me today. I look forward to sharing your comments with our readers.

Conversations with higher education leaders about online learning, the future, and the pandemic’s lasting impact on higher education.

myFootpath’s mission is to help universities transform lives by engaging and graduating nontraditional students who may have stumbled along the path to degree completion. And not to understate the problem, but COVID-19 sure caused a lot of students to stumble. In summer 2022, we set out to examine why. Through a series of conversations with higher education leaders, we discovered how different universities approached online learning, career readiness, student success, and more.

These conversations were conducted by Dr. George Rohde, just as universities were getting ready for students to return in fall 2022. As Dr. Rohde set out on this endeavor, his first conversation was with myFootpath’s CEO and Founder, J.T. Allen. Read the edited excerpts from their conversation below.

Rohde: You’ve been leading myFootpath for over 20 years. How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the university market you serve and myFootpath?

J.T. Allen: Like so many industries, the university business model was up-ended virtually overnight. While overall enrollment was declining slightly among the traditional 18- to 24-year-old population, it plummeted with the pandemic. Schools who were dabbling in online learning were forced to adapt to 100% online or risk shutting down permanently. For an industry that has historically moved slowly, this was a pace of change that leaders rarely had to face before. I think leaders throughout the industry are still shell-shocked and wrestling with how to compete effectively in this new era.   

For our business, we’ve always focused on online, adult students, and suddenly there were a whole lot more of them (editor’s note – almost double according to NC-SARA). As a result, we enhanced and expanded how we help our university clients.      

Rohde: How well did universities adapt to delivering online learning?

J.T. Allen: Surprisingly well. We saw example after example of resilience. Not to say there weren’t hiccups, but I think the pandemic forced reluctant faculty to jump into online learning “with two feet.” I remember chatting with one online leader, and she mentioned that she had never had so many calls and meetings or such urgency around online courses as she did during the height of the pandemic. Everyone was “all in.” Most universities needed this to survive, and faculty recognized it and rose to the occasion.

Rohde: Ok, so now what? How will universities continue to deliver online courses and degrees? And, maybe more interestingly for our audience, given this new phase of the pandemic we are entering in fall 2022, how are colleges going to compete effectively in what feels like a very different world than fall 2019?

J.T. Allen: That’s a great question. What we are hearing in the marketplace from university leaders probably falls into a couple of categories. First, we are seeing many universities commit to delivering high-quality online courses and degree programs. These institutions have decided to invest in this area, recognizing that the demand for online degrees has drastically increased because of the pandemic. They expect students to continue demanding at least some online courses, and institutions are focused on meeting the students “where they are.” Second, we are seeing more and more schools consider alternative channels for attracting more students to plug enrollment gaps that are still lingering. For our business, that means a lot more institutions are interested in reengagement and bringing back stop-outs. But universities are also looking at community partnerships, the military, and other areas that may bring more students to the physical or virtual campus.

Rohde: How are higher education institutions attacking student reengagement, particularly for students who may have stopped out during the pandemic?

J.T. Allen: As I mentioned, we are seeing more and more interest in and evaluation of reengagement of stop-outs as a viable channel. Indeed, I think in this series, you will see this theme consistently. But what we are also seeing is university offices just decimated by the Great Resignation, and most of the folks we talk to are struggling to hire the talent they need to pursue the student opportunity around reengagement. As a result, we seem to be having many conversations with institutions about how we can potentially help.

Rohde: What do you hope readers will take away from the Perspectives column?

J.T. Allen: I think this column can highlight the deep higher education industry expertise that myFootpath encounters in conversations every day. The pandemic is entering a new phase, and so many leaders I talk to are trying to figure out how it will impact their institutions. From online learning to reengagement to the value of a degree to student success — I hope readers will use this column for insights and practical examples of tips, tools, and strategies that they can bring to their institution.

Rohde: Thank you, and we hope our readers enjoy the columns below. We’ll be releasing a new one for the next several weeks as part of this series.  

Perspectives: Courtney Borton - Golden Gate University - Chief of Marketing, Vice Provost of Marketing & Enrollment

Perspectives: Dr. Michael Huffman, Virginia Commonwealth University - Founding Director of the Office of Continuing and Professional Education (retired), Founder Lexicon Advisors

Perspectives: Joshua Bedwell, University of Central Florida, Assistant Vice President, Marketing Strategy

Perspectives: Robert Springall, Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Education and Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Penn State University

Perspectives: Adam Herman, Rice University – Executive Director, Office of Academic Programs and Student Experience

Conversations with higher education leaders about online learning, the future, and the pandemic’s lasting impact on higher education.

An interview with: Courtney Borton – Golden Gate University – Chief of Marketing, Vice Provost of Marketing & Enrollment

Courtney Borton is a long-time higher education leader and marketer, with stints helping university clients at Pearson, University of Central Florida, University of Colorado System, and Golden Gate University. She excels at building all the marketing and enrollment elements that drive successful online student programs.

Dr. George Rohde interviewed Courtney. Here are edited excerpts of her expertise, with a particular focus on the online operations at Golden Gate University.

Rohde: As we approach Fall 2022, what does the competitive world look like for online programs? What are the dynamics?

Courtney Borton: That’s a great question and let me just set the stage. Golden Gate University (GGU), even before the pandemic, faced some daunting competition. And one thing I quickly learned throughout the years of working within higher education and launching online programs is, “Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come [and enroll in the program].” GGU competes against several California institutions in addition to the saturated online program market. That means as we launch programs, we need to be strategic, really thinking through what programs students are looking for and need today, in addition to how we can differentiate those programs and win against the competition. It was true before the pandemic, and now with more and more schools offering online programs than ever before, it’s true today.

Rohde: That’s a helpful background, but let’s go a little deeper with this topic. How is GGU really setting itself apart, specifically in the online program offerings amongst competitors today?

Courtney Borton: GGU has a rich history of being an innovator in higher education and is now expanding into other markets globally. We are on a mission to provide radically affordable access to higher education for students around the world. With a vision to provide online programs throughout the world, GGU is being very intentional about offering programs that students are asking for. These programs include business, technology, and law, to name just a few. Over the next several years, we will be continuing to launch innovative high-market demand programs. The key is to ensure you are meeting the needs of your students.

It’s worth noting that regardless of the program offerings over the years, I’ve noticed adult students are really looking for three things: 1) affordability; 2) entry points (meaning how quickly they can start from the point they engage in the process); and 3) how education helps them meet goals – which could be a promotion, a career change, family motivation, or updating their knowledge. This was true when I launched my first online program in 2011, and it’s still true today. The difference during the pandemic was that the students 18 to 24, who traditionally went to a campus, were suddenly forced online when that was the only option for a time. Guess what — many students liked the flexibility of online, the ability to hold down a full-time job and attend class, the delivery model — all those things that we use to highlight the value of online! But as the world enters a new phase of the pandemic, the 18 to 24 crowd is realizing, like the adult students have for years, that online programs need to be of high quality to keep the student because there is so much choice [of other institutions] in the marketplace when you aren’t limited to the geographic constraint of being on a college campus. I think those three reasons are why adult students choose an online program, and they will continue to be front and center in this new phase.

Rohde: But don’t the students miss the interaction? As a professor at Depaul University, my returning students sure are glad to be back. What are you seeing and how does it impact online marketers?

Courtney Borton: Honestly, it really depends. Modality is a student preference about how they prefer to learn. In my opinion, there have been preconceived notions about learning online. During the pandemic, when we were all forced to go remote, some of those notions by students and even faculty changed. Students were forced to either go remote (often Zoom sessions), change to an online program/course, or drop out. Many tried the online program/course route during the pandemic and not only enjoyed the experience but also appreciated the flexibility. Lives continue to get busier and busier, but students do not want to sacrifice education, so that flexibility means everything.

Rohde: What about the service model of delivery of online education? What are you seeing in the marketplace?

Courtney Borton: With the push to all online during the pandemic, I think some service gaps were exposed and may have increased on some campuses. The fully online population has a built-in expectation of a little more support — there’s advising, a success coach, a help desk, professor outreach — always resources that students can tap into on demand. An online student wants to send an email or chat request and get help right now. Compare that to the experience on campus where you would make an appointment with the department you need help from 3 days from now, and you patiently wait. That “make an appointment” approach just won’t work as well as it used to now that students have experienced the “higher touch” support.

Rohde: What are you seeing surrounding reengagement of stop-out students? Are colleges really pursuing this population?

Courtney Borton: Most of the time, as a marketer, my focus was on “net new” students. There’s a department for retention and preventing students from stopping out, and during the pandemic, there was a little more focus and soft touch applied to the student experience. But as for extensive outreach to reengage students that stopped out or were admitted and didn’t enroll, there were some limited efforts underway but those were just scratching the surface.

Rohde: So, people are stretched thin, probably impacted heavily by the Great Resignation as in every other industry. So, is this an opportunity for myFootpath’s Operation ReEngage offering?

Courtney Borton: People see the issue, no question, but they just don’t have the resources. No one is just an advisor, or financial aid coordinator, or a marketer. Everyone, and I mean everyone, must pitch in and do more jobs with less resources. So, when universities look at reengagement, it’s an area where they likely have limited resources and expertise (editor’s note: because the focus and measurement is on net new students), and someone on the staff has to do the reengagement work in addition to everything else. People often just don’t get to it on the list.

Rohde: So, people are stretched thin, probably impacted heavily by the Great Resignation as in every other industry, so is this an opportunity for myFootpath’s Operation ReEngage offering?

Courtney Borton: There is definitely an opportunity to partner with companies like myFootpath. University administrators are constantly battling the Great Resignation since the pandemic and doing what we can to backfill and recruit positions. If I had to look specifically for reengagement expertise, I think it would have been tough to find it, as it’s a limited skillset to start with. The expertise and staffing that myFootpath brings to reengagement could make a big difference at a lot of institutions today.

Rohde: Thank you, Courtney, for sharing your insights today. Your perspective has been invaluable to me, and we hope it helps our readers at their institutions.

myFootpath and National Student Clearinghouse to Reengage More than 39 Million Students with Some College, No Credential

CHICAGO, IL and HERNDON, VA – September 29, 2022 – More than 39 million Americans have some college, but no credential, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The “some college, no credential” population is up 3.1 million from nearly 36 million previously reported in 2019. The National Student Clearinghouse and myFootpath are partnering to bring these students back to college and help them earn a credential. Under this partnership, myFootpath will bring the Clearinghouse’s StudentTracker Premium Service to colleges and universities, at no charge to the institution, in order to provide secure, dedicated access to university datasets. These datasets unlock myFootpath’s Operation ReEngage service, which encourages students to re-enroll in college and guides adult students through graduation. “As one of the most important areas of rising focus to many sectors of higher education, the National Student Clearinghouse actively seeks partners like myFootpath, who are working to bring students who have some college and no credential back to college, to ultimately try and help them graduate,” said National Student Clearinghouse President and CEO Rick Torres. “They align with our mission and work to improve student outcomes, and we are thrilled to partner with myFootpath in their work.” “While many universities’ institutional research offices have overseen these datasets for years, there’s often a disconnect between institutional research and the enrollment leaders who need to turn the datasets into actionable insights to drive student recruitment goals,” said JT Allen, President & CEO of myFootpath. “In our work with universities and colleges throughout the nation, we focus on collaborative ways to empower leaders to act. We offer a powerful new method to bring speed and scale to these efforts.” Additionally, National Student Clearinghouse partners need to go through a rigorous data security evaluation process, which requires background checks, security clearance, and additional staff training. “myFootpath has always taken data security very seriously and had protections in place for data access, but the Clearinghouse process added additional rigor that will make these systems even stronger while we empower our clients,” said Dr. George Rohde, who leads Student Success and Research for myFootpath. “We work with many universities’ technical departments, and they have responded favorably when we’ve described the data classification system, how we manage network/device access, and how we easily stratify access to employees that ‘need to know.’ It’s made filling out things like the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit questionnaire a breeze.” About myFootpath myFootpath’s mission is to help universities transform lives by engaging and graduating nontraditional students who may have stumbled along the path to degree completion. We fulfill this mission through two primary service offerings. Operation ReEngage brings back students to the university with which they have had a prior affiliation. Operation Graduate provides new, supplemental, online, adult students to university partners. About the National Student Clearinghouse The National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit formed in 1993, is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verifications and electronic education record exchanges. Besides working with nearly 3,600 postsecondary institutions, the Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni. For more details, visit StudentClearinghouse.org.

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The National Digital Roundtable and myFootpath convened a group of experts to discuss successful reengagement strategies. This whitepaper highlights different tactics leading universities are using to reengage, reenroll, and rejuvenate stop-out students.