Meeting & Agendas

In the previous meeting a survey was given asking what works/doesn’t work for MOC. The survey results showed that we’re doing a good job but some things could do better. The meeting is not for Marketing to discuss their department activities/accomplishments; MOC should include input from outside of Marketing. The goal of MOC is to figure out how to best reach as many students as possible.

The group introduces themselves and why they think MOC is important to them and their respective areas.

Brette proposes name change from MOC to “Marketing, Outreach and Recruitment Committee” (MORC). The group is unanimous in favor of the name change. MORC should overlap with the Student Success committee, the two should work together. Members of MORC are included because they all bring value to enrollment management. Brette also proposes that Patty Behr (Salazar) be the MORC co-chair. She has a lot to share and offer and Brette would like a recruitment/marketing partnership in leading MORC. Brette would like the MORC members to review the membership list and make suggestions for inviting new guests to join the conversation. Suggestions will be discussed at the November meeting.

Tung Huynh gives a presentation/recap of ACC 1-on-1. The idea of the campaign is to reach out to the community. The project is a reminder to the community that ACC offers 1-on-1 advising similar to our competitors. 662 appointments were set up with advisors as a result of the campaign which helped people who had previously either been unfamiliar, unaware, or too intimidated to ask for personal advising. There is a devoted phone line and email address just for this campaign. Many more requests came in than were handled by advisors because questions were able to be answered immediately on the phone. The website was highly effective at getting students set up with advisors. Students were polled before and after their appointments to gauge success/satisfaction. 50% were brand new students, 50% were current and former students. 76% would recommend the service to a friend, ease of scheduling rated 8.2 out of 10 and overall satisfaction rated 7.6 out of 10. Key takeaways were that more than half were brand new students, Thursdays and Fridays tended to be the most popular days for 1-on-1 advising, the ACC home page was the most effective marketing tool and email was particularly effective for current and former students. Advising times were generally not scheduled during peak times based on the recommendation of deans/departments. A splash webpage was built just for this campaign that received thousands of views. The traffic was surprisingly high and response times for requests were within 24 hours. In the summer, 1-on-1 was offered for only 2 weeks and over 1000 phone calls were received. It’s not increasing the work load of advising, it’s just a way to help students and give a personal touch and interact with the students directly. In the fall the service will be offered for a month. Most of the student questions were regarding general information (registration logistics, campus information, etc.). It’s rare that a student calls expecting a full advising session which is a sign that we’re targeting the right group. The program is not marketed toward current students, it’s primarily meant for prospective students but questions can still be answered from current students, as well but it’s not the focus of the campaign. The service is a combination of supporting the help desk and helping market the college to prospective students. It is branded as a help center type of scenario.

Student Services played a key role in developing the new website. There is no good time to launch a new website but we also want to launch at a time that it will have as little disruptive effect on people as possible. The site will tentatively launch on November 11, 2013. Anyone in a role that directly helps students should be using the test site now to see what works and what needs to be changed. There will be a thorough communications campaign notifying every one of the upcoming change. Ongoing suggestions and changes are being applied to the website. Patty Scogin shares survey results from the new site. The group with the highest approval of the new site is faculty. The project has been in the works since 2011 and has involved a huge amount of input from a large number of departments as well as a lot of research on web usability with other college sites. 341 responded to the survey, 120 of which were students. Overall the site received a 91% approval rating, which is an extremely positive result (70% being a good rating). The design is entirely new and is a “flat design” with a clean look that is created specifically for students and is task-oriented. The testing with students is very positive. There was an 85% approval rating of the new homepage being easy to navigate. 82% approved of their ability to find information. Overall we’re very happy but it’s an ongoing process that will not please everyone. The primary goal is to make sure the student can find what they need and complete the task they’re trying to accomplish on the site. The content of the site is entirely based on research and not at all dependent on any individual’s personal taste or likes.

Brette will be sending an email about proposing changing the time of the monthly meeting from 3:30 to 2:30pm