WHAT ARE THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE MARKET(S) YOU ARE TARGETING
FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION?
Adult working professionals was the most common refrain
here. Secondly, and logically, the folks in their regional
backyard is a representative primary target market because
of brand recognition and the local reputation that typically
drive students to their higher education choices. Plus,
there is an increasing market of online learning students
today who prefer to be within driving range of the
institution they are learning from at a distance. Another
targeted market demographic that can apply to all distance
education providers is "individuals who are geographically
dispersed and have time and place considerations high on
their list when it comes to choosing a continuing education
provider," noted Matkin.
Almeda:
In terms of who we are targeting for our market, we really
are looking regionally, nationally and internationally.
These are areas that we are programming into our
face-to-face programs already — ages 25 to 45 working
adults, largely already college educated with degrees who
are looking for professional development. We are also doing
something interesting for high school students. Through the
University of California Office of the President, we have a
program for students who need Advanced Placement-level
courses that might not be available in their local area.
(Also related to successful marketing strategies, UC
Berkeley Extension has successfully increased its national
reputation through an arrangement they have had with America
Online. However, about 70 percent of extension students,
both online and face-to-face are from the state of
California.)
Magid:
Our primary market among working professionals would be
those who have completed an undergraduate degree and have
five to seven years working experience and are looking for
graduate-level learning experiences, either master’s
degrees, for-credit certificates or professional
development. We also define working professionals in a much
broader sense, so that it could also be people who are out
in the workforce seeking to obtain their undergraduate
degree. [For example] we are looking to develop an online
undergraduate degree program in nursing.
Oaks:
We started distance education because in our state there
were a lot of options for students to begin higher education
at a community college, but only six state-supported,
four-year institutions. So there were a lot of areas of the
state - even with the branch campuses of those institutions
- where people could get started with a four-year degree and
not finish. So we started it [distance education] to meet a
state-wide need for degree completion. But obviously once
you develop an asynchronous program, it can be made
available to others as well, so we have always had, since we
started the program in 1991-92, about 25 percent of our
enrollments from out of state. So we do market on the
Internet. We get people from out of state and some
international students as well. |
