Staying Relevant and Current with Online Learning in an Increasingly Global and Competitive Environment

This paper outlines the success of online learning in the workplace with corporate partners through Open Universities Australia (OUA). OUA is recognized as the national leader in online higher education in Australia with over 200,000 students studying with OUA since 1993. The corporate program helps employees formalize or extend their current skills, reach the next level in their organization or pursue relevant interests through tertiary studies. The business sector sees OUA as a highly attractive solution to fostering a culture of professional development, engagement and inclusiveness

Customer Relationship Management Strategies at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Historically Black colleges and university managers lack sufficient understanding of customer-relationship management strategies to create high enrollment rates leading to increased financial stability. The focus of this qualitative single case study was to explore customer-relationship management strategies managers use to improve financial performance from historically Black colleges and universities located within the state of Georgia with a student enrollment that exceeds 2,000 students. The conceptual framework for this study was the general system theory. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and employee handbooks. The data analysis consisted of compiling the data, disassembling the data into common codes, reassembling the data into themes, interpreting the meaning, and reporting the themes. The use of member checking and methodological triangulation increased the trustworthiness of the study. Themes that emerged were efficiencies with technology, student retention, and financial performance. Using up to date and effective technology including customer relationship management, and creating strategies to focus on student retention can help educational organizations improve their financial performance. The potential for social change includes the opportunity to increase the graduation and student retention rates to provide more opportunities for local business leaders and enhance the economic sustainability of local communities

The Relationship of Organizational Identity and Alumni Participation Interest Among Online, Non-Traditional, Undergraduate Students at a Southeastern Private Religious University

Colleges and universities depend heavily on alumni participation in the areas of financial contributions, positive advertising, and student recruitment. As higher education institutions increase the number of fully online programs, it is important to ensure that students feel a sense of connectedness to the university. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between non-traditional, online, undergraduate students’ sense of connectedness to their college and their subsequent interest in alumni participation after graduation. This research provides information that would fill a gap in the literature on the correlation between perceptions of identity when related to a university that they attended completely online as a non-traditional student and its impact on their interest in alumni participation. The non-traditional graduate sample (N=110) provided a population from which to collect data by the use of two online surveys, the Organizational Identity, Distinctiveness, and Prestige Scale (OIDPS) and the Alumni Interest Survey (AIS), sent out by email through the university alumni association. Pearson Product-Moment was conducted to determine if a correlation existed between online graduates’ sense of connectedness to their institution and their subsequent interest in alumni participation. Further, the sample was then looked at from a gender perspective to determine if there was a difference between males and females. All three hypotheses were found to have a statistically significant correlation. Recommendations for future research are to determine if the same results are true at non-religious based universities who also offer completely online degree programs, as well as conducting a qualitative study to determine what non-traditional online students are looking for from their university alumni association participation

Relating Training to Job Satisfaction: A Survey of Online Faculty Members

As the online education market continues to mature, institutions of higher education will respond to student demand by employing quality faculty members. Faculty members need unique training to successfully teach online. While the effect of training on job satisfaction has been investigated in the realm of business, it has not been tested extensively in the realm of online higher education. A convenience sample of 497 Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC) faculty members was invited to participate, and 148 responded. A quantitative study utilizing regression analysis investigated the relationship between the training methodology of online course module completion and job satisfaction and the amount of training received and job satisfaction reported for faculty members who teach online, while controlling for the factors of gender and age. A survey methodology was used, whereby faculty members self-reported the training individual faculty members received, as well as the amount of training received. Overall job satisfaction was operationalized to assess current overall faculty job satisfaction through the use of the Index of Job Satisfaction (IJS) created and tested by Brayfield and Rothe (1951). Specifically, this study surveyed faculty members who teach for the ICCOC. The study was unable to find a statistically significant relationship for either training as a yes/no variable and overall job satisfaction (p=.463\u3e.05) or a relationship between training as a continuous variable and overall job satisfaction (p=.330\u3e.05), controlling for age and gender. There was also not enough evidence for a relationship between gender and job satisfaction (RQ1 p=.557\u3e.05 and RQ2 p= .542\u3e.05) for either research question. There is evidence in this study to support the literature review, of a linear relationship between age and overall job satisfaction (RQ1 p=.023\u3c.05 iii and RQ2 p=.028\u3c.05). The results of this study will be useful for school administrators as they seek cost conscious ways to improve faculty job satisfaction in a changing online environment

Disrupting neoliberal narratives : millennial experiences of work in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Young New Zealanders today face a rapidly changing world of work. The continuity of capitalism and its reinvention through political-economic neoliberal reform, the introduction of the gig economy and the Fourth Industrial Revolution shape contemporary work. Situated within those shifts has been an upsurge in non-standard employment, rapid developments in technology, a globalised approach to work and an increasing onus on individuals to take sole responsibility for crafting their career and working future. For young people entering the workforce, this means they are now faced with pressures to adapt to increasingly changing contexts. This research inserts itself amongst arguments that ask how changes to the world of work have impacted young people’s experiences of employment. Growing bodies of scholarship suggest millennials (born in the 1980s and 1990s) are more likely to experience uncertain employment outcomes and that New Zealand millennials have ‘grown up neoliberal’. This research builds on a relatively underexplored area: millennial experiences of work in the New Zealand labour market. It contributes to discussions on how millennials locate themselves within – and navigate – uncertain neoliberal times. Using a multi-method approach, this research interviewed twelve Auckland-based working millennials, six of whom also attended a focus group. Despite engaging with different occupations and contract types, participants in this study had clear desires for self-development, growth and career progression. However, this was clouded by a general anxiety about stagnating or being ‘static’ in their careers. This research confirms that young people’s experiences and decisions are shaped, to an extent, by neoliberal norms and ideals. However, whilst neoliberalism depicts individuals as free and equal to access opportunities and shape their own success, my research showed a complexity within the individual experience of work. Participants often recognised the external structures that influenced their environments. Rather than internalising and individualising their experiences of work, participants used markers of identity (age, ethnicity, gender) to understand their employment experiences, indicating a tendency to both conform to and resist aspects of neoliberal governmentality