Frequently Asked Questions on NIU Partnership with Wiley Education Services

NIU’s support for online and off-campus students and programs was identified through Program Prioritization as needing transformation. Implementation of a comprehensive transformation of online and off-campus program support is currently underway and includes establishing strategic leadership for NIU’s online/off-campus programs in Academic Affairs; reconfiguring the core course development, program development, faculty development and logistical support functions; strengthening the services provided to online/off-campus students; and improving centralized marketing and recruiting efforts for these audiences.

The university is seeking to increase its existing online program enrollment as well as develop new online programs. Additional support and expertise are needed for market demand analysis, marketing, recruitment/lead generation and concierge online student support services necessary to grow online enrollment and retain online students.

The partnership seeks to leverage the expertise of NIU faculty and staff in course content and delivery with Wiley’s expertise in marketing, recruitment and student support services. The following division of services, roles and responsibilities for online and off-campus program and student support will be maintained throughout the agreement:

The environment for recruiting, enrolling and supporting online students has become very sophisticated. These services are not part of our core function as a university, and NIU does not have the capacity to deliver them in a competitive fashion. A partner provider like Wiley offers ability to scale quickly and brings years of expertise, a multi-million dollar technology investment, and an experienced brand management and digital marketing team of nearly 80 in-house digital marketing specialists. Even if NIU were able to replicate this level of expertise, the time and cost to the institution in doing so would be exorbitant.

The university engaged in a Request for Proposals (RFP) from qualified vendors to provide the needed additional support services in an unbundled, fee-for-service model on an as-needed basis for an initial contract period not to exceed three years based on satisfactory performance, continuing need and availability of funds. Wiley was selected to provide these necessary support services.

Wiley is uniquely positioned to provide the services needed. Currently working with 35+ higher education institutions supporting over 250 degree programs, Wiley brings multi-million dollar technology investment and an experienced brand management and digital marketing team of nearly 80 in-house digital marketing specialists to elevate NIU’s online education brand at both the regional and national levels. Wiley will also provide a dedicated recruitment team that supports prospective students throughout the entire application process and will provide NIU with a dedicated team of online student service specialists who will become a fully integrated extension of NIU’s retention support to offer concierge level retention and support services for NIU online students from program acceptance all the way to graduation.

• Breadth of services and solutions – Wiley provides the expertise, resources, technology and tailored services to help us meet market needs, increase enrollments and support the entire student journey
• Flexible financial model – Allows an a la carte, fee-for-service model (not a required long-term revenue share)
• Unique approach – Wiley works collaboratively with higher education institutions to create comprehensive solutions that respond to their unique needs and challenges, setting them on course for long-term growth.
• Experience and long history of success – Decades of experience marketing online programs and supporting online students
• Chicagoland location – The Chicago office of Wiley is in Oak Brook, approximately only 50 miles from NIU’s main campus. Wiley’s Oak Brook office is home for approximately 200 of Wiley’s experts representing all service lines (marketing, recruitment and student retention) along with a number of their executive leadership. A high percentage of the Wiley team who would be dedicated to NIU would be based out of Oak Brook. Wiley has been based in the Chicagoland since their start over 20 years ago.

As part of its RFP response, Wiley performed a high-level market analysis on academic programs that NIU currently offers online and offered program enrollment goals based on market demand. The selection of academic programs for support will be based on demand analysis, academic quality and program readiness. Online program support for prioritized programs will be the first implemented, with support for other online academic programs to be added on an as-needed basis based on market demand.

The first NIU online programs, referred to as “phase 1 programs” to launch with the marketing, recruitment and student support services from Wiley to impact fall 2019 enrollment include the following:

• Master of Science in Digital Marketing (MSDM)
• Master of Science in Data Analytics (MSDA)
• RN to BS in Nursing (RN-BS)
• Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)
• Master of Public Health (MPH)
• Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

As part of the overall contractual process, NIU and Wiley will agree upon enrollment goals.

In addition to enrollment projections and associated support costs, Wiley also offered attributes based on market best practices of program readiness for successful online enrollment growth that provided a framework for selecting our existing online programs most ready for immediate growth.

Attributes of program readiness for identifying programs to prioritize included:

• A clearly identified program leader who is ready, willing and able to be the liaison and invest time in the launch
• Instructional capacity (including both staffing and course development).
• Clear understanding of the program’s value proposition.
• Existence of multiple entry points into the program. Bonus for an 8-week calendar rather than a 16-week.
• Ease of entry (i.e. ability to make quick admission decisions; willingness to use holistic evaluation rather than require standardized test).
• Time to degree.
• Price competitiveness.

The six programs selected for “phase 1” marketing and support implementation to impact fall 2019 enrollment are those which offer the strongest initial return on investment (ROI), are best positioned for both short term and longer-term enrollment growth and/or are of strategic importance to offer.

In the RFP, we listed all the current online programs that NIU offers and asked prospective providers to respond with the following:

• Enrollment goals for each existing online program for one, two, and three years based on current market demand.
• Cost by program for marketing, recruitment and student support/retention services to achieve stated enrollment goals.
• Identification of any existing in-person programs that NIU offers in which there is market demand for offering online, with associated enrollment goals and costs.

It was clearly stated in the RFP that the selected provider would complement and work seamlessly with NIU’s already established capabilities and capacity for faculty training/support, online course development (offered through Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center) and course delivery by colleges and academic units.

Wiley offered not only the most comprehensive list of services and flexible options, but also the best price for the services needed.

The funding request amount approved by the Board reflects the total cost for the full menu of requested marketing, recruitment, and student support services if offered by Wiley for all of NIU’s existing online programs as well as five additional online programs not currently offered and matches the RFP award in the Illinois Public Higher Education Procurement Bulletin to comply with state of Illinois procurement requirements.

**Note – The actual cost will be significantly less and is still to be determined as NIU engages with Wiley to identify which current and new programs have the highest demand, prioritize which current and new programs are to be supported by the partnership and establish the timeline for support to be added.

The approval of the full awarded RFP amount provides the university with the maximum flexibility and ability to move quickly to pursue support for additional programs where market demand exists.

As NIU is still negotiating contract terms with Wiley, specific costs for the first six programs to be supported are not yet available to share. However, in broad terms, during year one for every $1 that the university invests in the services provided by Wiley, approximately $3 in revenue is expected. By year three of the agreement, the return increases to approximately $6 in revenue for every $1 spent.

Wiley has confirmed that a six-program launch for fall 2019 is actually quite ambitious, especially given the short timeline that we have and the heavy lifting we have to do on the technical/integration side to launch the partnership.

Wiley is generally always in the market with digital marketing and recruitment nine months leading up to a program launch, so we are cutting it close even with these initial programs for fall 2019.

Wiley’s market research will serve as a continuous driver of the long-term partnership strategy with NIU. Wiley will conduct market research for all new programs that NIU is considering bringing to the online market. In addition, Wiley will make recommendations to NIU for additional programs to bring into the online market given NIU’s curriculum and expertise. This research can be completed on an agreed upon cadence by Wiley and NIU.

We anticipate engaging in this market research for new programs in spring 2019 immediately after the contract is approved.

Wiley’s forecasting process to provide enrollment projections begins with a holistic analysis of the market for NIU’s programs, in which the following factors are considered:

• Secondary market research and proprietary data insights including prospective student audience profiling, historical degree demand analyses, development of competitive set, etc.
• Wiley’s own historical data around program performance for related programs as well as consideration of the performance of competing and substitutable programs and degree types.
• Program information publicly available on NIU’s website combined with prioritization and direction from the information provided in the RFP document.

Armed with this information, Wiley’s marketing team creates projections for leads and costs on a per-channel basis by individual program. In creating these projections, the information above as well as anticipated NIU brand strength in market is combined with data from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Wiley then applies key performance indicator metrics related to the ability to convert leads to contacts, contacts to appointments (substantive interactions) and appointments to applications to the prospective student lead pool. Wiley’s final calculations also include projected annual growth rates in the number of leads driven (eight percent) and new student starts (35 percent year two, 28 percent year three) based on the assumption that brand and program awareness, as well as, performance efficiencies will increase year over year. To calculate the total number of unique students, Wiley then applies retention rates ranging from the mid- to high-80 percents.

The graphic below is demonstrative of the information that each of Wiley’s teams engages in forecasting activities and the data points they return to influence a final enrollment and financial model.

Wiley’s Recruiting Services refers to support services from the moment a prospective student inquires about a program to the point that they are admitted. During this process, inquiries move through three areas of Recruitment Services: the Contact Center, the Recruitment Center and the Application Center. All members of this team are dedicated to NIU.

• Contact Center: To ensure that potential students are qualified and being directed to the appropriate program right from the start, all incoming leads are routed to the Contact Center via Wiley’s proprietary lead routing mechanism that is integrated with their Student Relationship PlatformTM (SRP). Members of this team, Contact Specialists, are 100 percent dedicated to responding and reaching out to new inquiries to make contact quickly and move qualified leads on to the Recruitment Center.

Over 50% of leads are contacted within 15 minutes of inquiry.
100% of leads are contacted within 90 minutes of inquiry.

• Recruitment Center: Once a contact specialist has determined a lead is qualified, they are immediately transferred to the Recruitment Center to speak to a program manager (or, if the prospective student is unable to speak at that time, the specialist will schedule an appointment). Program managers are dedicated experts on specific partner universities and sometimes specific programs, and are trained in talking to potential students about their motivations and goals and determining whether the program will help them achieve them. Program managers also use Wiley’s Behavioral Analytics technology to facilitate better communication and engagement with potential students. Once a potential student decides to apply to a program, the program manager passes them to the Application Center for dedicated and expert support with this stage of the process.
• Application Center: At this stage, application managers help students get their application paperwork done and gather and coordinate other required materials, such as transcripts and referrals. They also conduct online student orientations and assist with course registration. They stay in constant contact with applicants and admitted students prior to the start of the program, helping them navigate the application and admissions process and providing encouragement and support during the sometimes stressful period. This also helps with retention if there is a longer period between admission and the start of the program. Once students actually begin the program, Retention Services takes over.

Below is an example of the level of support that NIU students would expect with Wiley.

*Dependent on the time zone in which students reside.

Wiley currently has 35+ institutional partners and supports over 250 academic programs. Some of these programs do include the health, nursing and business disciplines. However, Wiley does not currently support or partner with any other public universities within Illinois.

Wiley is in the midst of creating a marketing strategy solely for NIU to market the overall NIU online brand and the six programs planned for fall 2019. Leads that come from this proprietary strategy are not shared with any other Wiley partner. If a lead does not move forward with any NIU program, the lead is archived for future NIU marketing purposes. This archived lead will not be shared with any other partner at any time.

To ensure confidentiality, Wiley makes an individual agreement with each institution. Each program is given a unique web address and toll-free numbers to route all student inquiries to Wiley’s Recruitment Services team. All student inquiries are digitally protected and are never sold or shared with other parties. To improve transparency, Wiley’s processes are regularly audited and Wiley encourages institutional partners to visit their offices.

Wiley is committed to positively impacting retention and graduate rates at or above reported IPEDS statistics, through personalized student support. From program inquiry until graduation, Wiley provides a suite of Retention Center services tailored to NIU to maximize online student success as they proceed through the program.

Student Services Coordinators (SSCs)
Wiley strives to keep NIU online students constantly connected with NIU with support services like 24x7 Personal Support Center and student engagement drivers such as course participation monitoring, student orientations, and student-institution communication via a student services coordinator (SSC).

As soon as a student enrolls in an online program, they are connected with an SSC. As well as maintaining a relationship with the student until graduation, the SSC works closely with NIU to identify and create specific workflows and processes to address the student’s needs while complying with NIU’s institutional standards.

As the first-line contact for students, the SSC conducts student orientations, assists with course registration, monitors course participation and provides proactive student outreach. The SSC is also the first port of call for technical assistance. They are committed to resolving any technical and student support issues in collaboration with the 24x7 Personal Support Center team.

The SSCs will receive extensive training by NIU and become immersed in NIU’s institutional goals and traditions, becoming a fully integrated extension of NIU’s student services team.

SSCs will do the following:

• Conduct activity and performance monitoring. The SSC monitors student activity and performance in the Learning Management System, analyzing problem areas, determining solutions, and conducting intervention activities and processes.
• Deliver proactive reminders. These include term-over-term reminders via phone and email regarding start dates, books and financial aid requirements.
• Apply early intervention strategies. SSCs identify incoming students who might need more support, reaching out to them to ensure they feel supported and are fully aware of the resources available.
• Customize problem resolutions. They identify and promptly resolve student concerns through coaching, tutorial remedies designed to improve student retention, and other strategies to meet campus benchmarks and goals.
• Conduct ongoing outreach and engagement. SSCs coordinate with faculty to develop and execute proactive outreach and communication strategies to keep students engaged with particular focus on students who take time off from their program, to ensure they are able to re-enroll when ready.
• Deliver marketing and communications. These tasks include coordinating marketing programs and mailings, actively participating in development activities to promote student awareness, retention, and success, and delivering salient institution/program information.
• Provide customer service and tech support. SSCs are responsible for handling incoming student service-related questions or concerns, eliminating delays that impede student success.
• Support monitoring and reporting. They track activities to completion using Wiley’s proprietary student management system, providing regular activity and audit reports, and maintaining documentation of outreach services and other reporting tools.

As well as being trained and measured on the proactive customer service they provide, all SSC activities and communications are tracked using Wiley’s Student Relationship PlatformTM (SRP) to ensure high performance.

Wiley will provide a variety of reports and metrics to NIU that will be agreed upon as part of a shared governance structure to support the ongoing success of the relationship. Wiley will work with NIU to identify appropriate reporting tools and analytics, as well as establish the frequency of sharing information. Wiley’s standard reporting protocol is as follows:

Post-Start Performance Evaluation
Frequency: 30-45 days following each start

Description: This business intelligence report includes comprehensive post-start analysis, identifying key insights for a given enrollment intake (start/term). The findings in this document will be used as the foundation for future marketing and recruiting initiatives. Subject matter is based on the services of an institution-specific engagement and typically includes:

• Overview
• Marketing
• Recruitment
• Student Services/Retention
• Personal Support Center
• Recommendations

Production Report
Frequency: Weekly

Description: This business intelligence includes key recruiting metrics leading up to the start, including the number of students in each funnel category:

• Inquiries in period
• Active files
• Files at committee
• Accepted but not registered
• Registered
• Applicants who have been awaiting a decision for 2+ weeks
• Applicants who have been waiting (with a complete file) to be sent to committee for 48+ hours

Enrollment Report
Frequency: Weekly

Description: NIU to provide Wiley with a business intelligence report, which includes key recruiting metrics leading up to the start, including number of students in each funnel category:

• Active files
• Submitted applications
• Admits
• Committee
• Complete
• Incomplete
• New headcount
• New registrations
• Continuing students

Personal Support Center (PSC) Report
Frequency: Weekly

Description: This report documents the PSC (helpdesk) case activity for a given time frame

• Number of student cases
• Number of faculty cases
• Case origins (i.e., email, chat, phone)

Ongoing communication and reporting will occur between the Wiley partnership director and NIU’s designated contact regarding the projected goals, performance tracking, status of potential issues, and team dynamics. Paired with the proposed reports and frequency outlined above, Wiley ensures their efforts are continuously aligned and positioned to meet NIU’s goals.

Wiley commonly sets a retention rate of 82 percent for term one through to term two, but can work with NIU to agree on an appropriate rate. Following retention, Wiley focuses on persistence rates, setting a goal of at least 80 percent.

Wiley’s goal achievement will be measured based on still to-be-finalized terms. NIU will adjust cost to Wiley based on achievement of agreed enrollment goals. Wiley has a proven history of working with partner institutions to hit strategic growth enrollment targets and looks forward to working with NIU to align final targets to measure the performance.

While Wiley doesn’t share their complete list of clients, a few of the 35+ universities that Wiley currently supports includes:

• Purdue University
• Indiana University
• Seton Hall University
• Benedictine University
• The State University of New York (Open SUNY)
• St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
• University of Delaware
• University of Scranton
• Utica College