Making the Case: COE Outcomes Communications Resource Center

1. What are some basic resources I can use to help outline and plan our annual report drafting process?

2. How should we organize our annual report to get the attention of senior leaders on campus like the president and provost?

3. Where can I look for examples of strategic design and formatting in annual reports?

4. What are the types of key performance indicators that my university might be interested in tracking?

1. Focus on the major achievements most likely to interest senior university leaders and other external stakeholders; in particular, note that these readers are less interested in operational accomplishments.While, for example, a COE unit’s impressive enrollments and financial successes would not be possible without the accomplishments of the marketing staff (e.g., number of projects, year-long multimedia calendar), these details are too operational and “in the weeds” for the provost’s office. We suggest discussing only major administrative accomplishments that are likely to interest a provost or senior university stakeholders (such as distance education in-sourcing). Other administrative accomplishments might be subsumed under a more over-arching mention about cost-savings or increased operational efficiency.

For an example of a COE annual report organized around key accomplishments matched to broader institutional objectives, we suggest looking at the California State University-Chico Center for Regional and Continuing Education’s 2009-2010 report.

2. Create a separate section that more clearly showcases the COE unit’s financial successes with headings/titles that especially “call out” how those successes benefit the university as a whole. Provosts and chief business officers routinely tell us they would like more data from colleges and schools on campus, and many COE units have the numbers to demonstrate significant contributions to the overall university. However, in many annual reports, these numbers are not highlighted as effectively as they could be. We suggest greater usage of bullet points, shading, graphs and charts, along with more headings/titling to demonstrate that this financial success has had a positive effect on the university as a whole (and particularly if your unit has managed to reduce its costs).

For an example of how to highlight financial information—while also calling out contribution to the university and effective stewardship of resources—we suggest looking at pages 6-7 of Colorado State University OnlinePlus’s 2011-2012 Annual Report.

3. Additionally, either in the financial section or elsewhere, move to the foreground some of the key drivers for growth in your COE unit’s contribution margin, such as insourcing, online delivery, corporate support, and increased operational efficiency. While drivers like these might be included in financial section text, highlighting these different “themes” (either through font style/size, titling, or bullets) will help the reader better see how your unit’s smart and strategic thinking in these areas has led to growth and will continue to do so into the future.

4. Overall, increase use of photos, captions, graphs and charts, boxes, bullet points, pull-out quotes, and other design elements (headings, larger font sizes, etc.) to assist readers with limited time who may be looking at the report quickly. We also suggest some variety in how content is presented, such as including a few “profiles” or “mini-articles” to describe particularly significant accomplishments or successful students/faculty. We make this recommendation with a caveat because many institutions lean too far in the opposite direction and rely on design elements and anecdotes to tell their story at the expense of hard data, succinct information, and economical use of space. However, for readers who are not familiar with your unit or continuing/professional/online education more broadly, pairing data with short profiles may help humanize the numbers in a memorable way. For example, this might be accomplished in a short section discussing your unit’s student profile, as well as a short section discussing faculty accomplishments. Each section would include data (in both visual and text form), as well as a mini-profile of a student and faculty member, respectively.

These publicly-available reports may help inspire design and formatting ideas:

• UW Colleges and UW-Extension 2010 Annual Report
• IPFW Division of Continuing Studies Annual Report 2010
• GA Tech Distance Learning and Professional Education 2010 Annual Report
• Kansas State Division of Continuing Education 2010 Annual Report

5. When presenting quantitative figures, always strive to help the reader understand the implications behind the data. For example, in a section about a shift in enrollments from undergraduate to graduate students, a reader unfamiliar with extended education may not understand why this is important. To make the point clear, explain how this shift positions your unit for greater growth in the future or enables your unit to meet the needs of different constituencies, or attract more faculty, etc. Consider, for example, why it is important, that students can now take a higher annual course load (e.g., implications for retention, recruitment, global reach, etc.)?

6. Standardize reporting format from individual units. We recommend organizing the report thematically—according to a few broader goals and accomplishments—rather than by programs/departments within your unit. However, in cases where it makes sense to organize according to different programs (such as to discuss and show the broad range of academic offerings in your portfolio), we suggest a more templatized reporting format for each program (perhaps in bullet format). As an example, each program description could include a bullet on new programs or courses introduced (or in the works), a bullet on enrollment trends, a bullet on key challenges for the next year and how they will be addressed, etc. No matter what the bullets are, we recommend a standardized set of topics and sequence (perhaps with a uniform heading for each one). Some COE units also (or instead) include a summary page, graphic, or table by which a reader can get a sense of the entire portfolio at once—for example, through a chart comparing enrollments or growth in different degree programs or academic units.

7. Include an executive summary for the entire annual report at the beginning.  Anecdotally, provosts have mentioned to us a desire for more executive summaries in the reports they receive from colleges, schools, and divisions that report to them. We suggest an executive summary (no more than two pages, preferably one page) at the beginning of the report that succinctly describes the key findings; the summary should be able to stand on its own as well as serve as a roadmap for the rest of the report.

• This annual report from CSU Long Beach provides an example of an executive summary in an annual report
• Northern Illinois University’s Division of Outreach, Engagement, and Information Technologies developed this standalone executive summary

8. In general, COE units may want to consider having different documents for external reporting and public relations purposes vs. internal planning and reflection purposes. For audiences outside the COE unit, we’d suggest a shorter report focused on larger accomplishments because this is more likely to be read and with more care. For internal COE staff audiences, detailed reporting on annual accomplishments can be valuable for reflection and celebratory purposes as well as for stimulating strategic thinking about the challenges that the staff team will face in the years ahead. Additionally, for larger or siloed COE units, we understand the utility of more detailed information for programs and departments within the COE unit to learn more about the work of their COE colleagues. To achieve strategic communications goals for both external and internal audiences, your COE unit might want to consider a dual process, creating an internal document for planning purposes (this might be thought of as a college-level “check in” on progress towards strategic objectives), as well as an external Annual Report designed to communicate your unit’s successes to others.

1. Preparing Your Annual Report: A Practical Guide, Emperor Design Company

This document is oriented toward corporate audiences in the United Kingdom, meaning specific references to legal reporting obligations will not apply to higher education and American institutions. Nevertheless, the guide offers a concise review of considerations for annual report organization, drafting, design, and distribution that transfer well to the COE landscape.

2. Case Studies: Corporate Reports Inc., Blue Chip Communication

Corporate Reports Inc. provides an overview of case studies on annual reports, social responsibility reports, interactive media, and corporate communications for a variety of clients. The case study pages offer insight into the objectives and motivations for each type of publication and the corresponding text, design, and formatting strategies used to achieve the results. This is an opportunity to borrow some lessons from the private sector for aligning reporting strategy with COE unit objectives.

3. Best bits: How to write the best annual report, The Guardian Voluntary Sector Network

This tips page provides an at-a-glance review of key tips and considerations for non-profit annual report production. Recommendations run the gamut from emphasizing font variation to urging a “call to action” at the end of the document. This is a quick way to get up to speed on a wide variety of variables that COE units should evaluate in the production of the annual report.

4. Key Performance Indicators Compendium, Education Advisory Board

For those wondering what they should be measuring—or trying to find ways to frame data that’s already been collected in a haphazard manner—this document provides an exhaustive overview of key performance metrics for higher education institutions. This compendium focuses on KPI considerations for the entire university, not only the COE unit, so many items in the compendium fall outside the purview of a typical COE unit. Nevertheless, the organization of metrics provides insight into how to collect, categorize, and organize essential data for reporting and performance analysis

1. Do any universities publicly display their balanced scorecard dashboard? If so, how do they present the performance data?

2. How are other institutions adapting the traditional “Balanced Scorecard” for performance evaluation in higher education?

3. What are good examples of performance dashboards used by other COE units?

4. We’re considering purchasing Balanced Scorecard software, is there a university that has already done this? If so, what do their dashboards look like?

5. I’d like to help show the rest of the campus how many students and faculty interact with our COE unit. What is an example of an interactive dashboard of enrollment data that campus constituents can use?

1. Six-step balanced scorecard building process promotes development of standard performance evaluation deliverables across different units. Ferris State University used the balanced scorecard method to implement the university’s strategic plan. In their model, each university unit created their own balanced scorecard based on their unique perspectives and objectives. Staff used a six-step process for developing the balanced scorecard deliverables in each:

• Create a strategy map connecting perspectives to objectives via strategies. (Contacts at Ferris State noted that this interactive mapping process—always done face-to-face with teams—was essential to achieve buy-in to the concept)
• Identify the metrics necessary to evaluate progress toward objectives via strategies.
• Create a scorecard assigning proper weight to each indicators measuring progress on the implementation of those strategies.
• Create an “Executive View” scorecard that highlights only top-line indicators (for each perspective, not for each strategy).
• Create a dashboard that provides an appealing visual overview of all key performance indicators.
• Draft a performance measure report.

2. “Click-through” PowerPoint slide decks are a low-cost way to allow constituents to navigate all parts of the unit’s performance dashboard without getting lost in other information. University of Wyoming’s Outreach School uses an interactive click-through PowerPoint slide deck to facilitate access to its performance dashboard. The dashboard is organized so constituents can clearly access the information that interests them:

• Credit hour enrollments
• Degree and certificate programs and instruction
• Demographics
• Tuition and fees
• Statewide and nationwide activities
• Research and partners
• Glossary
• Outreach home page

3. Interactive dashboards that allow campus and community constituents to filter enrollment and other data facilitate understanding of the impact of COE programs on their work. The University of Kentucky’s International Center made their study abroad participation data available publicly through their Education Abroad Enrollment Dashboard. On that page, users can filter data to easily see longitudinal changes in enrollments, break down enrollments down by the home college/school from which they came to study abroad, and break down the residency of those students to see if students from Kentucky are being significantly impacted by the education abroad efforts. While this is not a COE unit example, the interactive database concept could translate well into the COE sphere. COE units serve many other parts of campus and many areas of the community—an interactive database with filter options and instantaneous graphical displays invites unit constituencies to engage with the unit’s numbers to see how they and their colleagues are impacted by the unit’s work.

4. “At-A-Glance” graphical dashboard informs constituents and staff about key enrollment and financial data points. The University of Delaware’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies combines registration, overhead cost, and student diversity into one KPI dashboard page of visually appealing graphics and tables. This type of reporting condenses what could be spread across pages and pages of a full report into one concise page, allowing PCS staff and UD administrators and campus collaborators to quickly grasp the unit’s enrollment composition and programmatic strengths.

Excelsior College’s Enrollment Management Dashboard tracks data on inquiries, applications, bypassed applications, completed applications, and even specific data on social media marketing to track return on investment from these activities. They export graphical displays to a PDF document for quick review by others on campus.

5. Public access to information on key indicators encourages constituents to be engaged in performance monitoring. Colorado Mountain College provides full access to its complete balanced scorecard dashboard. The dashboard provides visibility into how CMC adapted the balanced scorecard perspectives to meet their own constituent needs (students, employees, communities and businesses, etc.), while also building trust with these groups by granting full access to the same indicators analyzed by the institution’s administrators.

1. What are strategies for using the newsletter to highlight student and alumni career advancement?

2. We’d like to use student and alumni testimonials to demonstrate value to various stakeholders. What are examples of other COE units doing this?

1. Student and alumni success updates are strategic content for newsletters because they humanize the value of COE programs.CUNY Lehman’s SCPS newsletter, Options, focuses on a range of anecdotal information through a number of delivery formats, such as short bullet points about alumni promotions to full feature stories on the challenges that individual alumni have overcome to complete their degrees.

2. Photojournalism is effective at developing compelling current student profiles that showcase professional advancement. CSU Long Beach’s College of Continuing and Professional Education has a landing page dedicated to student stories. What’s notable is the screen space occupied by the images—they create portraits of professionals in development, with small captions that tell the story of the profiled students.

3. Alumni testimonials capitalize on the popularity of “people-like-me” recommendations to help showcase career advancement from COE programs. The University of Delaware’s Division of Professional and Continuing Studies website includes alumni testimonials that demonstrate the direct link between their educational experience and their career advancement. While it’s difficult and time-consuming to track large-scale data on career advancement among alumni, anecdotal stories are great ways for campus and community constituents to learn about the value of the programs without being labor-intensive.

1. How are the best COE websites organized and designed to highlight economic and workforce development impact?

2. What are strategies for highlighting regional impact in the COE newsletter?

3. How can we take campus and local business leaders to the scenes of our local partnerships by using videos on our website?

4. We make a significant impact on the local economy, but our work is complex. How can we present our economic contributions in a clear, digestible fashion?

1. COE website homepages can be organized to quickly orient constituents to the unit’s impact on economic and workforce development. The home page of Northern Illinois University’s Division of Outreach, Engagement, and Information Technologies focuses on three “tabs” of the unit’s portfolio that all link to information about the unit’s impact. These tabs direct users to graphics and short blurbs that summarize the unit’s accomplishments in specific areas—ranging from constructing the region’s broadband infrastructure to revitalizing local industry with new production processes to meeting the needs of adult learners.

2. Newsletters are optimal for the presentation of recent accomplishments and partnerships with local industry. The Professional & Adult Education Forum does recommend considering various options for the presentation of this type of content to be sure that it grabs the attention of the campus and industry leaders to whom it caters. For example, CUNY Lehman’s newsletter summarizes the impact of the COE unit on small business development in the Bronx with a concise title on the front page.

3. Videos can take constituents to the off-campus locations of the COE unit’s economic impact. CSU Long Beach has a strong relationship with the local port—a major player in the regional economy. This video on the marine terminal program demonstrates the value of the COE unit’s education of port employees which empowers local residents while strengthening the human capital of local industry leaders.

4. Impact documents should translate COE unit accomplishments into terms that constituents with little or no knowledge of the unit will understand. Northern Illinois University’s Division of Outreach, Engagement, and Information Technology is playing an important role in the expansion of broadband infrastructure in the local region. While much of the technical success of this program might be too “in the weeds” for an average university administrator or member of the local business community, this PowerPoint slide deck on the broadband program uses graphics and images to teach the key “takeaways.” For example, slide eight shows the impact of new broadband connections in terms of the reduction of the time it takes to download a movie—something most students, faculty, and administrators can relate to. Alternatively, slide 14 provides an overview of a complex topic—the Illinois Rural Health Network—by combining an image of the map of broadband connections throughout the network with key information, the slide leaves the audience with teachable points.

1. What are the best strategies for using the COE newsletter to tell stories about new international partnerships with institutions, companies, and students?

2. Our unit is a major gateway for our campus’s internationalization efforts. How do other COE units communicate their accomplishments regarding their global impact?

1. Make the global relevant to the local. CSU Long Beach’s Newslink places a heavy emphasis on its international connections with China, Brazil, and other emerging economies to illustrate the connection between these countries and local economic development. Just citing accounts of international connections only goes so far—one of the goals of strategic communications about the unit’s global impact should be to make the international connections relevant to the local constituencies that will evaluate the COE unit’s value.

2. Connect the COE unit’s campus services with its international reach. Miami University of Ohio’s Continuing Education and Global Initiatives unit used this PowerPoint slide deck to make the case for the value of an international emphasis on the institution’s priorities. Furthermore, the slide clearly shows the unit’s strategy to achieve greater internationalization through six focal areas—allowing all constituents of the COE’s campus community to find themselves in the plan for internationalization.