Can Assessment Be A Marketing Tool For Your Program? The Roles Of Assessment, Student Success And Faculty In Program Success

The growth of technology in the last fifteen years has not only restructured existing degree options but has also created new avenues for a quality education. Institutions have recognized the need for marketing and promoting, but typically do not address the marketing of all individual degrees or programs within the institution. This can leave a degree or program struggling to justify not only its bid for institutional funding but its continued existence. What can busy faculty do to promote student success, promote their programs within the scope of their existing responsibilities, and keep in mind quality education? This paper will explore how a degree or program can be marketed, and what tools are available to busy faculty who have educational quality and student success in mind. This paper will investigate how to identify and employ elements within a degree program that will market themselves to existing and prospective students. Authors of this paper have surveyed existing and potential students to find out what the essential components of a degree are of interest to the students’ decision-making. Marketing a program includes addressing such things as course description, course content and the importance of an assessment plan and what role assessment plays in the process. Course consistency and course relevancy in the scope of the degree-seeking student are also essential considerations. Faculty within a program are key resources to the marketing success of their program within the institution. This paper will also discuss how busy professors can use elements of their existing assessment tools within the ABET accreditation process to help them preserve and expand their programs.