Catalog Decisions

Written by Jordan Kivley | May 23, 2018 5:28:25 AM

Q: Wanted to get your feedback on some catalog decisions we are considering. As you probably know, we produce four catalogs each year. One of the four “terms” is much longer than the others (Spring/Summer). Here are our four terms for FY14:

Fall I: 9/9/13-10/10/13 (9 weeks)
Fall II: 11/11/13-1/19/14 (10 weeks)
Winter: 1/20/14-3/23/14 (9 weeks)
Spring/Summer: 3/24/14-9/7/14 (24 weeks)

Our thinking is to maintain the four catalogs, but to go to more balanced terms of perhaps 12-13 weeks each. This would create more balanced distribution timeframes (perhaps going with a Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer edition), help create a sense of consistency (from a learner standpoint) while leveraging marketing opportunities. Of course, the ultimate intent is to maximize enrollments, increase repeat rate and generate additional revenue.

What types of data should we be analyzing to help with the decision-making process? At the very least, I’m sure we’d want to look at enrollments by term, financials by term, workflow schedules, etc.

Let me know your initial thoughts or if you want to visit via phone conversation. It sounds like Kim is scheduling time with you for a visit in November. Hope to be able to do some preliminary work before then.

A: "should we also look at how many classes were offered in each given week? In other words, review the number of classes offered and the subsequent number of enrollments for those classes throughout each catalog term?"

You should look at classes throughout the term. Our experience has been that courses offered earlier in the term are less likely to be cancelled for low enrollments than courses offered eight or more weeks into the term. Thus, our hypothesis would be that courses offered in the beginning of the term might have a cancellation rate of 10% and enrollments might exceed your target numbers. Those offered in say, week 11, would have a greater number of cancellations, say 30% and participation would be nearer to the minimum required to run, rather than exceeding it.

These percentages are hypothetical, but you get the idea. I will be interested to see the pattern of your enrollments.

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