Measurement is Everywhere

In Chapter 14 of Paine’s book “Measure What Matters” she talks about what measurement looks like in the world of higher education. I found this chapter to be particularly meaningful because I am considering working in some aspect of higher education when I graduate. Recently I sat down with Sara Ambroza who is the associate director of enrollment and the director of admissions communication at Ohio Northern and I learned a few things about measurement in higher education. 

Paine talks about how a university must identify and prioritize its audiences because there are so many different audiences involved in higher education. Ambroza told me because of the many different audiences in the realm of higher education, ONU has set up a categorizing system to determine how each target audience is addressed. 

For example, she said in terms of admission there are several different kinds of students and each category of student is defined in a specific way. The categories of students include: perspectives, potential, applied, accepted and enrolled.  Depending on what a student is categorized as determines how admissions reaches out to them. A perspective student might receive an email from admissions where as a potential student might receive a print piece in the mail. 

 

Paine also talks about how universities must measure people’s behavior by using analytics to judge engagement and participation. Ambroza explained to me that ONU is trying to figure out a better way to use video footage. Analytics show when people read stories posted by ONU communications and marketing, they rarely click on the video link included in the article or watch it all the way through. However, analytics have shown that people click on the virtual tour video, and watch it for an average of seven to eight minutes. ONU’s communications and marketing team have been trying to figure out how it can get people to watch video clips imbedded in articles for as long as people watch the virtual tour. 

These serve as a few examples of the importance of Paine’s concepts for measuring higher education, and, for me, these ideas are especially interesting because of my interest in working in admissions or marketing for a university after graduation.