This document summarizes a summit about higher education at Western Governors University. It discusses WGU's competency-based, online education model and the challenges of supporting self-paced students. It proposes using Salesforce to map the student journey, create personalized communities, and capture all university interactions to better understand student needs. Analytics would help identify at-risk students. The goal is improving graduation rates for WGU's non-traditional student population.

1. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Salesforce Higher Ed Summit
June 25, 2013
nnick@wgu.edu
Creating Campus Communities

2. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Agenda
TheWGU
Model
TheWGU
Goals
The Role of
Communities
The Role of
Analytics
The Big
Picture
IT’s
Operating
Model
Environment
Why
What
How

3. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
A Bit About WGU

4. Collaboration Model
100% Accredited

5. 100%
On-line
100%
Self-
paced

6. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
100% Non-profit
100%Tuition
Funded
Tuition has not
increased since
2008 and includes
all e-textbooks

7. Project Management
• Risk Management
100% Competency -
based

8. A bit more about WGU
Faculty who do not teach (and no faculty senate!)
#28 on 2013 Fast Company Most Innovative List
Currently at 40,000 students
Currently 16 years old
Average student is 37 years old
Target market = 37 million Americans with some
college but no degree

9. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Challenges of the
WGU Model

10. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
— Teams know HOW! Let them do it!
— Let them make mistakes.
— Build safety net
Self-paced: If a student has
done nothing for 2 weeks, on
vacation or dropping out?

11. Competency-
based: How can we
support learning
prior to exams?

12. Start Up
Exercise: Pick a project.
Self-paced:
Students are not
connected to each
other. What is their
support system?

13. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The WGU Goals

14. Six Year Graduation
Rate is around
40%.
Traditional Higher Ed
Graduation Rate is
around 50%.
We want to have
comparable
Graduation Rates

15. What must be true?

16. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Big Picture

17. Know what each student
needs and when they need it

18. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.

19. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Role of Communities

20. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Types of Communities:
Learning – Student to staff and student to student
Social – By college, by program, by interest
Professional – Careers
Informational – During enrollment

21. Our
approach:
map the
student
journey

22.
Iden&fy
the
touch
points.
Brainstorm
the
community
op&ons.
Validate.
Implement.

23.
Collabora'on
Model
Our
epiphany?
Students
self-­‐select
communi'es
and
interac'ons.

24. and, cover the entire lifecycle
(prospect to enrolled, enrolled to
graduate, alumnus)

25. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Approach
Me
Profile: My State,
My Program, My
Background
Social:
My Interests,
My Pressures,
My Life
Academic:
My Courses,
My Gatherings,
My Discussions
Faculty: My Mentors,
MyWebinars,
My KB
Support: My Career,
My Student Services,
My Financial Aid,
Et cetera
Ad hoc

26. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Rationale
— In a competency-based, self-paced model:
— Interaction is voluntary and on-demand.
— Needs are very diverse.
— We must provide support in real-time and at
anytime.
— Many interactions will be asynchronous.
— Most learning will be asynchronous.

27. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Example – Knowledge Base

28. Knowledge
Base
Search
Results

29. Student
View
of
Ar'cle

30. Ar'cle
Crea'on
Features

31. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Role of Analytics

32.
If
we
want
to
know
what
a
student
needs
and
when
they
need
it
We
need
data!

33. Project
Management
How
Do
We
Deliver?
Pre-­‐enrollment
University
interac'on
Course
consump'on
Student-­‐to-­‐student
Pre-­‐assessment
Social
interac'on
Assessment
Fric'on
points
Knowledge
checks
Resilience
Text
consump'on
Engagement

34. And, this must be
dynamic

35. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Advanced Analytics in SalesForce

36. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
A Different View

37. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
IT’s Operating Model

38. First,
Trust
and
Ownership

39. Trust
Ownership
Model

40.
But
ownership
of
what?
Decision-­‐making

41. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
But how do I set them
up for success?

42. Market
Differentiating
High
Low
Mission Critical
Low High
Differentiate
Parity
Partner?
Who
cares?
Purpose Based Alignment Model

43. 4 important questions:
1. Who do we serve?
2. What do they want and need most?
3. What do we do – better than anyone else –
to meet these wants and needs?
4. What is the best way to provide this?

44. The Differentiating Rules
Rules How?
Always Be the
Market Leader
Innovate now and forever
Focus Have 1-3 specific things you
do better than anyone else
Own Differentiating You cannot outsource your
innovation

45. The Parity Rules
Rules How?
Fill Any Gaps
Because Gaps Kill
Adopt Best Practices –
embrace the innovation of
market leaders
Eliminate Risks
Because Risks Kill
Simplify – complexity
increases risks and reduces
agility
Create Capacity To
Focus Resources
on Innovation
Standardize – there is only
downside to exception
handling of Parity activities.
1st version is always vanilla.

46. Market
Differentiating
High
Low
Mission Critical
Low High
Self-paced,
Competency-
based
Everything Else
FA, Records,
Email, Network,
Security, Etc
Example - WGU

47. Project Purpose What To Do
Student Profile Parity Kill Current Custom
Project, Configure in
Salesforce
Student
Relationship
Management
Parity Select and Implement
(Vanilla) and Market-
Leading Solution - SF
Analytics For
Student
Engagement
Differentiating Pilot “Edge” Options To
Capture and Analyze
Data
Community
Platform
Parity Use SF Unless It Is
Below Parity
Rationalizing The Portfolio And The Projects

48. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Where We Are

49. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
By June 30, nearly every
student / university interaction
is captured in SF (this has taken
about 18 months and involves
1800 SF users).

50. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Currently
piloting
learning
communities in
SF

51. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Currently piloting “personal pages” in
SF that are the community hub for
each student and map to each
student’s journey

52. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
Currently piloting Red /Yellow /
Green risk profiles that are presented
in SF.

53. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
What Is Next?

54. HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT ’13:
ENGAGE.TRANSFORM. SUCCEED.
The Salesforce-enabled enterprise
Contact center technology (inside of Salesforce)
High levels of personalization (rules sets,
Interactions, self-direction)
Communities that amaze (including mobile)

55. nnick@wgu.edu