About the department
NTI’s academic department specializes in developing and serving online academic programs in collaboration with accredited academic institutions. Online academic education and the way it is leveraged by different university departments today, will influence the impact of these departments in the next decade, and beyond.

NTI is focused on assisting academic departments who wish to strategically mobilize online education to reach ambitious departmental goals. These goals can be to raise the number and the quality of enrolments, to extend the department’s reach, or to increase the department’s impact.

NTI works both with departments who have no experience with online academic education, as well as with departments who feel that their investment in online education has not yet lead to the expected outcomes. NTI’s services focus on optimizing the three R’s of any academic program: Recruitment, Retention and Recommendation.

The three R’s
Recruitment: increase student recruitment, while ensuring that students who are recruited meet the quality standards of the department, are motivated to succeed in the program, and have the time to devote to their studies. If correctly implemented, online education can be an ideal tool to increase recruitment, by targeting Swedish students who live far from the campus, as well as international students. Moreover, online education allows departments to offer their programs to ambitious professionals who wish to advance their academic education while remaining employed, through the development of high quality, industry-oriented part-time online programs.

Retention: increase student retention, while maintaining the academic standards of the department. Distant students are notorious for their low retention rates. Nevertheless, it has been shown that by improving the recruitment process, and by training academic and non-academic staff, online retention rates can be significantly improved, to a level comparable with on campus retention rates. By properly selecting and advising students before they join the program, and by treating them appropriately once they are on board, as well as by making sure the course materials are appropriately challenging and engaging, it is possible to create high student satisfaction, leading to high retention rates.

Recommendation: a satisfied student will recommend the course and the program to relevant colleagues and friends, who will, consequently, be more likely to apply to the program. Positive word-of-mouth is not only the best evidence for the success of the program. It is also the best tool to close the loop and recruit additional students who are likely to remain in the program, become satisfied students, and further propagate the positive word-of-mouth.

The pitfalls of online academic education
Our experience has taught us that in too many cases, academic departments fail to leverage the power of online education. Recruitment efforts either lead to no significant increase in enrolment, or lead to an influx of a large number of students who are not prepared for the challenge they are about to face. Teaching staff and non-academic support staff are not prepared nor trained to deal with the unique needs of online students, and often online courses receive even less resources than on campus ones, resulting in low retention rates and demoralized teaching staff. Consequently, the reputation of the online program on-campus, as well off-campus, quickly deteriorates, and enrolment remains low. The online program remains small and unattractive. This cycle can be reversed through the correct combination of marketing efforts, training and technology.

Turn-key solutions
NTI knows that developing a quality online version of a good on-campus program is not a simple task. It requires resources, a concerted effort, and commitment. The reality of academic departments is that there are always more urgent issues on the agenda, and the true potential of online academic education is rarely reached. NTI offers interested departments who meet certain criteria, the option to develop an online program with no upfront financial investment, and with a minimal investment of internal resources. The key investment that does need to be made by the department is a commitment to devote the academic personnel to take part in the quality assurance processes that ensures that the transition to online teaching is performed in accordance with the academic standards of the department.

People
The academic department brings together NTI’s 40 years of expertise in the development of distance learning materials, and that of serving and supporting large numbers of distant students. The department is headed by Yoram Kalman, a veteran executive in the field of online higher education. In the late 90’s, Yoram initiated and co-founded Amsterdam-based Laureate Online Education BV, leading the company’s academic department to its prominent position in international online academic education, with over 2000 online graduate students from over 100 countries. See Kalman’s blog on online international academic education.