Evaluation of Inquiries about the UIS Environmental Studies Online Master s Degree Program Lenore Killam Hung-Lung Wei Dennis R. Ruez, Jr. University of Illinois at Springfield Introduction The Department of Environmental Studies has maintained information about inquiries concerning the ENS MA Online Degree program since its inception in 2006. The inquiries include those submitted from the University of Illinois Online Web site, Illinois Virtual Campus Web site, various academic search engine inquiries, independent e-mail inquiries, and telephone inquiries. The database includes six categories of information: name e-mail address home address telephone number date of response comments such as preferred term of entry or current education level The information was analyzed to develop the following: the total number of inquiries since 2006 the number of inquiries per month the number of inquiries annually identified by state and country the number of persons requesting information who ultimately apply Number of Inquiries During the four years of 2006-2009, the online coordinator has responded to 1269 requests for information. The total number of inquiries is slightly higher, but does not include informal telephone and school fair inquiries where identifying information was not collected. The highest monthly total is 52 in January 2008. The lowest monthly total is 9 in June 2006. The average number is 26 inquiries per month. The average monthly totals reveal that the peak month for inquiries is January, with an average of 38 inquiries. June has the lowest average total with 21 inquiries per month. (Appendix A). Inquiries Identified by Location Of the 1269 inquires, 900 (70.9%) provide address information. This information shows that 821 of these addresses (91.2%) are within the USA. Nearly half of the inquiries with US addresses (49.6%) were from 6 states: Illinois (24.4%), California (9.4%), Florida (4.6%), Pennsylvania (3.9%), New York (3.7%) and Texas (3.7%). There are three states from which no inquiries were made: Delaware, North Dakota, and South Dakota, (Appendix B). There are a few notable findings from the tables. Illinois showed an unusual spike in inquiries during 2008. Florida, Indiana, and New Mexico showed increases in 2009. Two states to show a trend decline are Missouri and Mississippi. However, these trends may be an artifact of the small number of inquiries from each state. Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 1
There are 79 international inquiries identified by address, representing 6.2% of the total inquiries. No one country dominates the international inquiry total. There are 6 each from Canada and India, and Nigeria, 4 each from Germany and UAE, and 3 each from China, Greece, Pakistan and Puerto Rico (Appendix C). Inquirers Who Become Applicants Of the 146 applicants for academic years 2006-2010, 88 (60.3%) had requested information prior to filing their application. These 88 applicants represent 7.1% of the total number of inquiries (Appendix D). Summary These data suggest that most of our applicants contact us before filing their application, and online inquiries are more closely related to state population than proximity to Illinois. These states are good candidates for future marketing efforts. Appendix A The Number of Inquiries per Month Month 2006 2007 2008 2009 Average Jan 21 33 52 44 38 Feb 33 19 32 25 27 Mar 14 22 31 22 22 Apr 17 37 26 21 25 May 9 29 45 28 28 June 17 22 32 12 21 July 26 31 22 24 26 Aug 30 35 34 20 30 Sep 31 33 23 26 28 Oct 29 34 25 29 29 Nov 25 27 18 17 22 Dec 24 13 30 20 22 Cumulative Total 1269 276 335 370 288 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 2
Appendix B Inquiries by State Ranked By Frequency State 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total IL 46 45 63 46 200 CA 21 20 16 20 77 FL 10 6 6 16 38 PA 6 14 6 6 32 NY 3 11 7 9 30 TX 9 6 7 8 30 VA 6 10 5 6 27 MO 10 6 5 4 25 MI 6 6 7 5 24 NC 4 5 6 6 21 CO 5 6 3 5 19 GA 6 4 5 3 18 NJ 2 3 9 4 18 AZ 4 2 4 7 17 IN 5 2 2 8 17 OH 2 5 5 5 17 MA 3 7 3 1 14 WI 4 5 3 1 13 NM 2 3 7 12 AL 3 5 2 1 11 KS 2 4 4 1 11 WA 3 6 2 11 IA 2 1 5 2 10 LA 4 3 1 2 10 MD 3 5 2 10 NV 2 2 4 2 10 TN 3 4 3 10 KY 2 2 2 3 9 MN 3 5 1 9 MS 6 1 1 8 AR 1 3 1 2 7 SC 3 1 3 7 AK 3 1 2 6 HI 1 2 2 5 MT 1 1 3 5 OR 2 1 1 1 5 UT 1 2 1 4 CT 2 1 3 ME 1 2 3 NE 2 1 3 Washington D.C. 1 2 3 WY 1 1 1 3 NH 1 1 2 OK 2 2 RI 2 2 ID 1 1 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 3
VT 1 1 WV 1 1 Totals 197 209 214 201 821 Appendix C International Inquiries Ranked By Frequency Country 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total Canada 3 3 6 India 2 1 3 6 Nigeria 2 2 2 6 Germany 2 2 4 UAE 2 2 4 China 1 2 3 Greece 1 2 3 Pakistan 2 1 3 Puerto Rico 2 1 3 Chile 1 1 2 Columbia 1 1 2 Korea (R.O.) 1 1 2 Malaysia 1 1 2 UK 1 1 2 Afghanistan 1 1 Barbados 1 1 Bermuda 1 1 Bosnia-Hercegovina 1 1 Brazil 1 1 Burundi 1 1 Costa Rica 1 1 Denmark 1 1 Ecuador 1 1 Egypt 1 1 Ethiopia 1 1 France 1 1 Gabon 1 1 Ghana 1 1 Guyana 1 1 Italy 1 1 Jamaica 1 1 Japan 1 1 Jordan 1 1 Kenya 1 1 Mexico 1 1 Namibia 1 1 Oman 1 1 Panama 1 1 Peru 1 1 Philippines 1 1 Russia 1 1 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 4
Saudi Arabia 1 1 Senegal 1 1 Switzerland 1 1 Uganda 1 1 Total 79 Appendix D Number of Applicants Who Had Previously Filed Inquiries Academic Year Applicant Status Applicant Total Applicants Who Inquired Before Submittal 2006 Admitted 25 16 2007 Admitted 26 18 Denied 2 2 2008 Admitted 26 17 Denied 28 14 2009 Admitted 27 16 Denied 9 5 2010 Pending 3 0 Totals 146 88 Percentage of applicants who filed inquiries 60.3% Percentage of total inquiries (from Appendix A) converted to applicants 7.1% Note. These data include only those applicants denied by the program. It does not include the applicants denied by the Office of Admissions before notification to the program. About the Presenter Lenore Killam is an Online Coordinator for the University of Illinois at Springfield, College of Public Affairs and Administration. She is the first point of contact for students interested in admission to the Department of Environmental Studies online degree program. She earned a Bachelor's degree in biology and a Master's degree in Environmental Studies from Sangamon State University, which is now UIS. In addition to her position at the University, she is a student in the UIS Doctor of Public Administration program. Address: 1 University Plaza, PAC 308 Springfield, IL 62703 Phone: 217-206-6083 Email: lkill2@uis.edu Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 5