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Journal of College Student Retention and Recruiting for both On-Campus and Online Universities
Peter Tomassi
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PEOPLE WITH IMPACT INTERVIEW - Peter Tomassi, Senior vice president of product development
Enrollment and Retention Services Division, EducationDynamics
As senior vice president of product development of EducationDynamics’ Enrollment and Retention Services Division, Peter Tomassi leverages the his in-depth understanding of Web-based communication and engagement to create smart tools for managing enrollment and retention in higher education. A presenter at the upcoming National Dialog on Student Retention Conference, Peter takes a few moments to share his insights on the topic of non-traditional student retention in the following interview.
Q: Why do you think student attrition rates have climbed for adult and online learners?
Peter Tomassi:
A combination of factors contributes to increased levels of student attrition in non-traditional learners. While the common perennial factors—marriage, having a baby—still affect retention levels, we are definitely seeing new issues emerging that lead to more students stopping out prior to program completion, including but not limited to the rising cost of higher education, increasing demand from work, support—or lack thereof—from family and friends and a general lack of motivation.
Financial issues affect the adult learner because they are not as flexible with time due to their current positions. Adult learners want to get in, get out and get on with things and most importantly, they do not want to risk their current career placement or their current job. Besides the rising cost of higher ed, work demand is also rising. As we all know, the American work week continues to get longer and longer, and it prevents adults devoting the necessary time to ensure success and persistence within a program. Obligations to friends and family have also emerged as a contributor to attrition, as has a lack of support from this very group. Many students feel they are not getting sufficient support—both emotional and financial—from friends and family to persist in programs. We have also seen larger class sizes in recent years. As the online programs get bigger, we have found that student outcomes tend to be negatively affected as there are fewer teachers per student and less personal attention.
From our research on the adult market, lack of motivation is a huge contributor to poor student retention levels. Motivation and realistic expectations are crucial to success in a program, and they tend to be especially important in online programs as they require students to be self-starters. In some ways, online programs require more motivation than traditional schooling as there is physically no one there with which to commiserate. We interviewed a number of adult students—both successful and unsuccessful in online programs—through a series of focus groups and the participants consistently complained about the lack of commiseration with other students leading to decreased motivation.
Q: In your opinion, what are the key best practices for schools in improving student retention?
Peter Tomassi:
Customer service after the sell. Schools need to be especially cognizant of customer service after students become students in the online and adult realms. Our focus groups also conveyed that there was no one to talk to, and that while schools invested so much time, energy and attention to recruiting students, this attention sharply dropped off once they got there and enrolled. This lack of customer service and guidance left students feeling very alone. On one side, increasing administrative presence is key, but on the other hand, richer online peer communities can also be tremendously helpful. For-profit schools are especially good at the sell, but they have to improve the next step after the admissions process.
Simplifying the financial aid process. Plain and simple, students find the initial application and reapplication to be an absolute nightmare, even more so in light of the recent happenings with the subprime mortgage credit crunch and the cutbacks in offerings of individual loan providers.
Increase honest service offerings. Honest services are those offered by schools that aren’t trying to sell students anything—in other words, these are student support services. Such services often include career counseling, tutoring and the like.
Encourage networking. Institutions need to offer easy mediums through which students can network with not only other students to cultivate a sense of connection and community, but also to access the aforementioned honest support services. This tool is especially helpful for online programs where, while students have the option of accessing services on-campus, proximity or work schedule generally prohibits them from doing so. Adult learners also tend to find networking especially important from a career perspective as it gives them a place to put their professional portfolios.
Get personal. Adult and online learners have unique challenges that differ from those of traditional learners. Schools should offer resources to students to help them overcome their personal obstacles to persistence. These resources may include help on time management skills, which they desperately need due to hectic work and family schedules, or help in managing a healthy balance between work, life and school. Any support schools can provide in these areas would go a long way toward keeping students enrolled.
Offer a course before the course. Many adult students actually need refresher courses in exam preparation, writing, highlighting text. These are all skills that schools take for granted in high school students who come to college with those skills freshly honed, but in reality, adult students generally lack these skills and need academic support in those areas.
Q: You are leading a pre-conference workshop at the upcoming National Dialog on Student Retention Conference—what will the session entail?
Peter Tomassi:
Yes, I will be leading a pre-conference workshop on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. during the National Dialog on Student Retention Conference. Titled the ‘Blueprint Sessions,’ we anticipate it will be a very helpful and interactive session for conference attendees. The workshop will likely commence with participants filling out a survey designed to reveal the specific challenges facing the session participants in regards to retention. Based on the information gleaned from those surveys, we will combine the results with what we know at EducationDynamics to develop a strategic and realistic blueprint, or plan, for best practices in retention. While my session will focus on online retention for non-traditional learners—the adult and online population specifically—Dr. Jennifer Jones from the University of Alabama will conduct a parallel session focusing on online retention strategies for traditional students
For those not familiar with the conference, this is the inaugural year for the National Dialog on Student Retention Conference, hosted by EducationDynamics. Held June 2-3, 2008 in Atlanta, the conference will bring together experts in student retention for all higher education program types, including for-profit and not-for-profit institutions serving graduate and undergraduate students seeking degrees on campus or online. This is the only event of its kind, and we are really excited about it. Visit the conference website for more information at www.educationdynamics.com/retention_conference.
Peter Tomassi, Senior vice president of product development Enrollment and Retention Services Division, EducationDynamics Peter Tomassi brings to EducationDynamics more than 15 years of experience in publishing, research, direct marketing, interactive learning and online media product development. He previously served as executive producer, editor-in-chief at LookSmart, where he oversaw the development of consumer and syndicated web content in North America, Australia and Europe. Earlier in his career, Tomassi became the youngest senior editor on the record at Reader’s Digest, leading the publisher’s entry into the interactive media market.
See an index of all the "People with Impact" Interviews
Additional sections of this journal address student recruiting and student retention. We have also placed all articles with a common theme of online education and distance education programs in a separate portal. New articles will be posted each Monday, please check back by bookmarking this site or placing a link to this Innovative Practices in Communicating with Students portal.
