artinM otion

SOLUTIONS FOR HIGHER

EDU CATION MANAGEMENT

Univer$ityBu$iness

E D I T O R I A L

Earlier this year work began on a

document that, at the very least,

formalizes expectations and minimum

standards for schools and students

venturing into online learning. With the

growth of MOOCs and distance learn-

ing, we are entering a time when these

alternate forms of learning will supple-

ment and in some cases supplant

traditional education models. Universi-

ties recognize that they need to find

ways to provide cost-effective, quality

education to an expanding base, even

as their own funding gets slashed.Ef-

forts sush as Courseera, edx, Universi-

ty Now, and others represent one

approach that may radically change

how learning takes place around the

world. It’s an exciting time, and these

are largely uncharted waters.

Getting it Right, Now

Write to Tim Goral at

tgoral@universitybusiness.com

13213444485263

TABLE of contents

After a successful pilot

program where

students could use

their smartphones for

door access, Arizona

State is exploring the

use of NFC-enabled

devises for way�nding

and other applications.

Univer$ityBu$iness

OPERATIONSHOLD THE PHONEMONEYMAKING MEALSINVESTMENT MISTAKESONLINE TESTINGWEB DESIGNART IN MOTION

A rash of high-pro�le �rings lessons in starting out By Ron Schachter

Near �eld communication technology may make campus cards obsolete By David Geer

Campus dining program strategies for giving revenue a boost By Sonya Stinson

The future of marketing for campus retail By Daniel W. Rasmus

Aid administrators support loan repayment relief proposal By Brittany Hackett

A broader look at liberal arts graduates’ futures By Nancy Oliver Gray

Three steps to data driven decisions with web analytics By Jo Ann M. Gora

the

Phone

By David Geer

While colleges and universi-ties run trials supporting

NFC-enabled smartphones,

which could all but replace

campus cards for applications

old and new, card reader ven-

dors see more smartphones

equipped with the technology

just over the horizon. With the

number of new NFC-ready

phones that phone vendors

could release this year, a load

of campus NFC rollouts

could follow.

NFC Smartphone Applications

I

In the second stage, the school

added laundry vending and

POS (point-of-sale) registers in

dining areas. “With their NFC

smartphone and application

open, [participants] can tap the

phone on a reader instead of

swiping a card to pay,” says

Gallagher of the POS applica-

2 1

Arizona State University, which

previously trialed NFC smart-

phone door access through a

collaboration with HID Global,

is now looking at NFC-capable

wayfinding applications. Offi-

cials are purchasing wayfinding

technology and putting

emblems on LCD panels to

identify NFC-enabled digital

signage. Students simply need

to tap the emblem with an

NFC-equipped smartphone to

get started, says Laura S.

Ploughe, director of business

applications and fiscal control.

“This gives the students a more

rounded, robust feel of what

NFC is. It’s not just for access to

dormitories or for staff mem-

bers to get into an administra-

tive building. They can use it

for more of their experience

around campus,” Gallagher

explains.

NFC-enabled Wayfinding Besides wayfinding, the tech-

nology may be used for point-

ing the campus community to

athletic or other events going

on. The content would be seg-

mented by the area on campus

where the event and the

signage are located. “Where

we have lots of wayfinding

needs, we will have a lot of way-

finding content,” says Ploughe.

The information could include

the hours and exact location for

an event and a URL the phone

can bring up via NFC that links

to more information.

“We are also looking at

how we can incorporate it

into other areas on

campus. In the future, we

plan to have LCD panels

ready for students who

walk up to any classroom

or office so they can get

information about current

class availability via NFC,”

shares Ploughe.

2 2

tion. To do laundry, a student

enters the laundry room and

presents the NFC-enabled

smartphone to a reader as

their credential. Smartphones

also provide vending machine

access.

2 3

NFC will help put decision-mak-

ing into students’ hands.

Instead of having to find a

different device or computer to

log in to and go into their class

schedule, they can use their

phones and an LCD panel to

get specific information about

that class then and there. “The

student receives immediate

gratification, making a decision

about the class right away,”

says Ploughe. This could also

free up some time for staff that

assist students in these mat-

ters. ASU is still exploring proto-

types for embedding NFC

capabilities into digital signage,

so there are not many installs

on campus. It’s too soon to talk

about the costs of ramping up

to NFC-enabled digital signage

applications or what vendor

Arizona State University is

using, Ploughe says. But with

the installation of prototypes,

it’s safe to say deployment is

not cost prohibitive. “Putting in

digital signage is a cost we

have anyway.” Why not put the

additional information in and

make it available via NFC on

smartphones?”.asks Ploughe.

It could drive down costs by

reducing printing, office time,

and web development, she

explains.

Benefits of NFC Smartphone Applications

Security is an inherited benefit

of NFC smartphones. “Most

students use a passcode

(password) on their phone. If

they do lose it, no one can just

pick it up and start using their

credential.

2 3

If the student loses a card,

however, that card is active

until the student reports it,”

says Jon Bonass, systems

manager for the Wildcard ID

card program at Villanova. And

a student always knows where

his or her phone is. “We have

fewer lockouts, fewer students

calling public safety saying

they can’t find their creden-

tials,” says Bonass. In other

words, time and person hours

are saved.

Applications for NFC smart-

phones are possible anywhere

people swipe a card on

campus. “You will be able to

use it for age verification and

sporting events because the

students will always have their

phones on them,”

says Gallagher

Class attendance is another

option. Hypothetically, students

could walk in and present their

phones and the teacher could

record their attendance,

explains Gallagher. “I think it

would be a great benefit for

faculty members.”

.

NFC smartphones could also

ease the recruiting process.

“The students could potentially

put some information on the

phones to pass to recruiters at

career fairs—something like a

link to a resume,” says Bonass.

Application Adoption Challenges

the

Phone

Despite all the hype, schools

are not moving forward with

NFC smartphone applications

until more phones arrive with

the technology built in. Villano-

va could have expanded its

trial to all POS registers on

campus, but didn’t. Why?

“Apple did not add NFC tech-

nology in the iPhone 5. We are

praying it comes out in the

iPhone 6. We are hoping some

of the other phone manufactur-

ers will have NFC built in, as

well,” says Gallagher. Villanova

now enables NFC through a

special phone case that users

must install on the iPhone 4 or

4S.

artinM o t i o n

In today's competitive higher education environment, a college or a university cannot be seen as just another good institution in a landscape filled with many other similar entities-some a little stron-ger, others a bit weaker. Today, as brand-ing experts will tell us, it's all about differ-entiation. But at Ball State University, we think it goes much deeper than that for very compelling, even urgent reasons.

At Ball State, we are redefining educa-tion by creating a high tech and high-touch--immersive learning environ-ment that allows students to engage with learning in a new way: intense, creative, collaborative, personal, and, at times, even in ways that mirror the risk and reward of real-life ventures. We believe this is an essential way to help shape our students for leadership in the 21st century and to orient education toward the needs of knowledge economics in the future.

By immersing themselves in a project, students achieve much more than simply a grade. In most cases, they become so engrossed in the projects that they quickly race past traditional grading scales and achieve an unprecedented level of learning, establish deeper connections to their areas of study, build a greater understanding of the relation-ships between their disciplines and others, glean key insights into their career choices, and develop stronger ties to the communities and industries in which they've worked.

Ball State is dedicated to offering in-depth immersive experiences in each of the universi-ty's seven colleges through a number of special programs, courses, and institutes. We define immersive experiences as typically worth more than three credits. These experi-ences engage a group of students (frequently an interdisciplinary one) in collaborative work, are mentored by a faculty member, usually establish partnerships with one or more com-munity entities, and result in an end product, such as a book, play, film, business plan, product prototype, or report.

In these experiences, the students drive the learn-ing process and play a critical role in defining the end product. It is "active learning" at its best, and the experiences connect students to the indus-tries in which they want to establish their careers. Chin-Sook Pak, who left the setting of her tradi-tional classroom for one semes-ter to coordinate an immersive course at our Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry, acknowledged that it is a differ-ent way of teaching. "I wasn't the expert anymore, and that was difficult," she admits. "The students had tremendous auton-omy. They were the instigators of action, and actually in some parts, they were braver than I because I'm always calculating the risks."

B y J o A n n M . G o r a

6 3

These experiences are well beyond the p ilot program phase. Throughout the university, we have woven a rich tapestry of immersive learn-ing, from dedicated centers to capstone cours-es, from c ommunity-based projects t o inten-sive study a broad opportunities. We are successfully forging many models--all adapted

to f it our v arious c olleges' and communities' needs. The f ocus o n immersive learning is central to the way in which Ball State conceptu-alizes i ts m ission. While w e have a h istory o f providing personal attention and exceptional access to profes-sors who are outstanding in their fields, through immer-

sive experiences we are fostering collab-oration between f aculty and students. We are creating ways for all students--in-cluding freshmen--to participate in these experiences, putting the latest technolo-gy i nto their hands, and encouraging

them to take creative risks."I t hink B all State i s a wonderful place because the resources and the constant support a nd nourishment I r eceived were j ust unparalleled--it helped m e evolve into a much stronger storyteller," says Jaron Henrie-McCrea, recent gradu-ate and winner of a 2005 Gold Student Academy Award. "I c ould also g et m y hands o n the best equipment l ike high-definition cameras o r work i n state-of-the-art editing bays at any time.".

We are r edefining academic excel-

lence by building a culture of innova-

tion and creativity. Through the devel-

opment of experiential learning across

our university, w e are e nvisioning a

future in which at least one immersive

experience is a vailable t o every Ball

State student, making this our hallmark

of education redefined.

It's a formula that i s working, too. The creativ-ity and passion for these experiences are prompt-ing our students to develop their skills outside of the classroom while still using university technology and receiving university support. Hen-rie-McCrea was the f irst student at Ball S tate--or any university in Indiana--to win a Student Academy Award. This summer, P erspective, a short film by telecommu-nications m ajors Travis Hatfield and Samuel Day, also won the gold medal in the alternative catego-ry. Both of these projects involved i nterdisciplinary teams of students--direc-tors, actors, writers, a nd technical crews--who brought t heir creative visions t o life i n their

spare time.

65

Completely c ommitting t hemselves t o

creating these films, being able to collabo-

rate w ith telecommunications a nd t heatre

students--all while being supported by Ball

State's C enter f or M edia Design ( CM-

D)--gave the students a "film school" experi-

ence without the university having an official

film school."Without a doubt, winning gold

medals at the Student Academy Awards in

two consecutive years is an example of the

strength o f our d igital c inema program,

which says a great deal about us since we

don't have a film school," says Rodger Smith,

associate d irector of t he CMD a nd t he

film's executive producer.

One of t he m odels we've created is t he

Virginia B . Ball Center for Creative I nquiry.

Each year, three or four faculty members are

selected to participate by proposing a topic

to b e explored, and they, in t urn, e ach

recruit an i nterdisciplinary team o f 15

students to be in their seminar. In these sem-

inars, t he p rofessors a nd students work

side-by-side for one semester to investigate

a subject in o rder t o create s omething

new--a book, a play, a radio program, a DVD,

or a m useum exhibit--that can b e shared

with the community to stimulate dialog and

awareness, s ays Joe Trimmer, t he c enter's

director

Money Making Meal$

Campus dining progr am str ategies for giving revenue a boost

By Son ya Stinson

In the summer of 2012, the

University of Pennsylvania

completed a sweeping

renovation of one of its largest

dining facilities—a three-story

space that now includes a

traditional dining hall, retail

operations, and specialty dining

concepts like a pizza oven and

global cuisine.

A Starbucks in the building was

remodeled to include a study area

and conference room. It’s now

open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m., when

previously it opened later and

closed at 9:30 p.m. most days. The

changes paid off. In the first

semester after it reopened, the

coffee shop experienced a 3

percent revenue increase, says

Doug Berger, the university’s

executive director for

business services. Replacing a

small convenience store with

a gourmet market,

meanwhile, resulted in a 48

percent increase in sales and

a 24 percent increase in the

average check compared to

the previous year, he shares.

34

Much of the inspiration for

these changes came from the

success of a new dining space

added to the university’s

Wharton School of Business

a year earlier. Working with

Bon Appetit Management

Company, which operates all

dining facilities at UPenn,

university officials decided to

replace an outdated coffee

shop in a building that was

being renovated at the

business school. The new

shop is called Joe’s Café, after

school namesake Joseph

Wharton.

Designed by Voith &

Mactavish Architects of

Philadelphia, Joe’s Café

earned LEED Gold

certification for commercial

interiors. A local coffee

roaster created a Wharton

Blend just for the café, and

the food menu boasts fresh,

local fare. In the two years

since Joe’s opened,

university dining managers

have exported some of its

most successful ideas to

other dining facilities.

35

“We’ve kind of used Wharton as our laboratory to

see how things would work,” Berger says.

Boosting the revenue of university dining programs

usually boils down to finding ways to attract more

customers, but the methods can be as varied as the

menus at a mall food court .

“Everybody’s interested in different ideas and newer

concepts that are outside the box,” says Bob

Sempek, regional director for Treat America Food

Services in Omaha, Neb., who notes that it’s typical

for meal plan participation to drop off as students

go off campus in search of more variety and more

convenient dining times. “Colleges are looking at

ways for vendors to reduce that missed meal factor

and to increase participation.”

Mor

e O ptionsFor some institutions, a strategy

for raising dining services

revenue has been to build

more flexibility into their meal

plans so more students are

inclined to participate.

A few years ago, surveys rating

dining services at the University

of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

showed students weren’t

happy, says Jeff Augustine,

director of auxiliary services.

They wanted more choices

about when and where they

could dine on the university’s

meal plan.

Deciding that a major change

was in order, Augustine put the

dining services contract out to

bid. Under new management

from Chartwells, in September

2011 UMass, Dartmouth began

offering a meal equivalency

feature that allowed students

on the board plan to eat a

limited number of meals

outside the campus dining hall.

Since then, students’

satisfaction levels and

perception of the quality of

the food service program

have increased, Augustine

says. There has been an

increase in meal plan

participation among the

2,000 or so students not

required to sign up, and those

who choose declining

balance plans over the

traditional model with a set

number of meals are picking

the more expensive plans.

Along with the residential

dining halls, nearly all of the

retail dining outlets on

campus accept equivalency

payments, says Ed Gilmore,

resident district manager for

Chartwells.

“Students between classes

who can’t make it back to the

dining hall can go into one of

those retail outlets and swipe

off their meal and get a

sandwich or salad, a

beverage, and a bag of

chips,” Gilmore says.

In fall 2012, the University

of California, Irvine and its

food service contractor,

Aramark, introduced an

all-access option, providing

unlimited meals in either

the residential or retail

dining facilities. Since the

change, the participation

rate counting the number of

students going through the

doors of campus dining

facilities more than doubled,

according to Jack McManus,

director of hospitality and

dining services at UC, Irvine.

The all-access meal plan,

which costs about $300

more than the conventional

plan, has brought more than

$500,000 in additional

dining revenue for the

university, McManus says..

Southwestern Community

College (Iowa) recently

switched to an all-retail

dining program, introducing

Treat America branded

concepts such as a hot

entrée station called the

Comfort Zone, Sempek

shares. Students pay for

their food by swiping a card

carrying a declining balance.

Going retail enabled the

college to create an

additional revenue stream

by selling bottled drinks and

takeout food to both

resident and commuter

students, he says.

37

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