3 Upcoming Explorations of Graduate and Online Enrollment Trends

If you haven’t registered for the RNL National Conference in Dallas (July 23-25), do so now! We have just finalized our graduate and online track, and it is chock full of sessions that will help you maintain your momentum and keep up with the latest trends and tactics regarding: student preferences and their impact on institutional success; the application of AI to processes and policies; best practices in enrollment expansion and optimization and much more.

We have 25 sessions planned for the Graduate and Online Enrollment track, one of seven conference tracks (featuring well over 100 sessions overall). Among the highlights focused on online education are:

Phil Hill, publisher of the widely circulated On EdTech blog, will lead a wide-ranging conversation with up-to-the-minute updates focused on the meeting point of AI, OPMs, third-party servicers (TPS), and other online education issues, institutions, and today’s regulatory environment. In “The Hottest Topics in Higher Ed: A Conversation with Phil Hill,” we will talk through the impact of proposed new rules on:

• State authorization
• The use of third-party servicers (OPMs particularly)
• AI for higher education in general and online education specifically.

Phil will also focus on how the increasingly competitive and complicated higher education landscape makes the case for increasingly centralized operations in which institutions can have the greatest impact in the online education space.

Rolin Moe, executive director of University of California’s online education initiative, will lead a discussion “Online Champions: Overcoming Resistance to Online Learning.” Rolin is at the center of one of the most public debates about online learning, scholarship, and access, and he will talk about his efforts to fight the good fight on behalf of students who want to learn online. The session will focus on how you can effectively build the case for online learning, manage internal resistance, apply market data, position online learning as an “access” issue, and be a real champion for students whose only (or preferred) option for learning is online.

I (Scott Jeffe) will be presenting key findings from RNL’s brand new 2024 Online Student Recruitment Report—with a focus on “10 Things You Need to Know About Online Student, Motivations and Decision Making.” The session will showcase data from RNL’s 2024 survey of 1,500 prospective and online students and will focus on:

• AI use and preferences among students in the recruitment and enrollment process (and in their online courses)
• How overall motivations and specifically those for online study should be built into messaging
• How the most prevalent concerns about online study can be addressed in marketing and positioning

Find dozens of sessions on AI and innovations, enrollment trends, and key strategies at RNLNC

If you haven’t been to the RNL National Conference in the past, you should really consider doing so this year. I am now six years into presenting at it, and this really is a conference like no other. While you will be able to network and see old friends and make new ones among our 1,600 attendees, you will also have the opportunity to dig into topics and issues and learn in an almost seminar-like format. Finally, by offering unparalleled discounts for multiple registrations, you can bring your team and fan out across the seven different tracks and then come together at the end of the day to process all that you have learned. Learn more about key topics we’ll cover and register now for the biggest savings.