When I talked to my friends at Open LMS about facilitating a webinar series, they gave me a lot of latitude to explore the aspects of their business that I find interesting, unusual, and valuable. The angle that caught my attention immediately is that, due to their Moodle heritage, they bridge a lot of silos. Which means that their user community bridges a lot of silos. Which, in turn, means that their user conferences, the first of which they are planning right now, present unusual opportunities to foster conversations among folks that normally aren’t in the same room together. What should those conversations be about? The first webinar was about bridging between universities and employers. The next webinar will be on international students.
It turns out that only top-tier universities take advantage of the opportunity to recruit international students at a time when more of the world is looking for a US college degree. For example, the Institute for International Education (IEE) reports that community colleges are potentially missing an opportunity to boost their international enrollments by focusing on retention of those students.
They can also partner with their four-year universities that have budgets to build recruitment engines. And there are potential opportunities for colleges and universities to partner with their overseas counterparts as well.
In the upcoming webinar, I’ll be chatting with Dr. Lisa Avery, President of Linn-Benton Community College and Jon Boeckenstedt, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Oregon State University in Corvallis, who work together on just such efforts. We’ll be joined by my old friend Richard Garrett, Chief Research Officer at Eduventures and former Director of the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. And I’ll be supported by my friend and fellow interlocutor Phill Miller, CEO of Open LMS.
Up until now, international student recruitment has often been handled by a discrete office in certain types of universities. But as enrollment patterns change, it will increasingly become part of the whole campus—and inter-campus—tapestry that a wide range of US college and university stakeholders will become directly involved with in one way or another.
It should be a fun conversation. Again, the session is Wednesday, December 7th, at 1 PM Eastern Time.
Register here.
