University course ad written by AI

In its latest social media promotion Torrens University has boasted "Think this ad was written by an AI expert? You'd be right. Apply now to graduate with a Graduate Certificate of Software Engineering". It is a bold move, but a little confusing as there is a lot more to software engineering than AI. Also a graduate certificate is only six months full time study. That would make a good start, but a lot more training & study is needed to be a software engineer.

At this time of year universities promote alternate forms of education and entry, for those students unable to enter via high school results. UNSW is promoting their diploma entry: "Missed the ATAR for your dream UNSW degree? Don’t let that stand in your way. A UNSW College Diploma is your seamless pathway to your preferred degree – without losing time".

Silly Experience Swinburne Online TV Advertisment

Swinburne University wins the Higher Education Whisperer award for the silliest TV ad, for the third successive year with "Experience Swinburne Online". Last year it was online learning like a Zoomba class, this year it is students from other unis doing an interactive learning taste test (like the Pepsi Challenge). The ad doesn't quite work, with the pixeliated faces looking more like criminals than students. Of course prisoners have always been clients for distance education, but I don't think that is what Swinburne has in mind here.

Swinburne University must be feeling a little aggrieved. They have been providing online education for more than a decade, along with Australia's other teaching orientated universities. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, every university is suddenly offering online education. So Swinburne is trying to point out it is doing this better. That may well be the case, but this may not be an effective marketing strategy. 

The research orientated universities discovered long ago that students don't select a university based on the quality of the education. They select a university based on reputation, which is mostly about research prestige, and a campus with social activities, neither of which have anything to do with education. 

Despite Swinburne's slogan "Not All Online Universities Are The Same", they pretty much are. Swinburne might do better to either adopt the marketing techniques of the major universities, or attack them with humor. 

Swinburne could show people in lab coats doing science stuff, and students relaxing in the bar, then briefly mention at the end there is an online option. Or they could show a mock ad for an sandstone university with labs students are turned away from (because they are not PhDs)  and sports fields they can't use (because they are not in the elite team), then show Swinburne students happily engaging online.

How to sell a quality online course remains an unsolved problem. Students assume online courses are second best, despite research showing the learning outcomes are just as good. But facts have never been much use for selling anything. A better approach is Holly Hapke's 3-in-1 Hybrid Learning, where the distinction between on and off campus learning is blurred, with students not forced to make a choice in advance. The university can then continue to market a campus, as a symbol, if not a place where actually go very often.

Lets Do Online Learning for Social Distancing

Swinburne University's "Let's Do This" TV advertisement for e-learning has been slightly modified from previous years, to allow for social distancing (I can find the modified version online). This was originally produced by the creative team of director Curtis Hill, DP Joel Betts and Producer Elise Trenorden. In past years Swinburne have had the less silly TV ads for online courses. It will be interesting to see how the universities which have offered online courses in the past, and marketed them on TV, handle the current situation, where just about all students at all universities are studying online. This raises some difficult quesitons for the universities which are members of the Open Universities Australia consortium: if they have been able to provide most courses for most students online, why not keep doing that?

University Advertising Failing to Make the Grade

Australian universities are currently using TV advertisements to attract on-line students.

In 2016 Swinburne University's "We're here for you" campaign,  had a tutor appear in person, seemingly out of nowhere, to help an on-line student in a cafe. This year their "Let's Do This" is less silly, apart from having a cat in it. One annoying point was when the narrator says "... lets make the grade ..." the screen shows the word "Distinction" and a tick. Universities should, I suggest, avoid giving students unrealistic expectations of how easy study is and in particular distance eduction. Students should not be given the idea that making the grade means getting a distinction. This may contribute to the high levels of stress and mental illness experienced by students.

In contrast, Open Universities Australia's 'Stop asking "What if?" and find out "What now?"' campaign focuses on ease of enrollment. This is much more low key (perhaps too low key) and doesn't set too many unrealistic expectations. While I found being an on-line student very stressful, enrolling proved relatively simple. One difficulty OUA have is explaining exactly what it is: not a university, but a consortia of universalities, offering on-line courses.

Deakin University Cloud Campus

One of the more entertaining parts of higher education are the advertisements universities use to attract students. Each year brings a crop of silly video promotions. This year "Deakin University's Cloud Campus is your campus; without walls" is at least short, if somewhat mixing metaphors. 

An exception to the usual fluffy kitten approach to university marketing is the Australian Catholic University (ACU), with their "ACU I Impact through empathy" campaign.

Impact through empathy

One exception to the usual fluffy kitten approach to university marketing is the Australian Catholic University (ACU), with their "ACU I Impact through empathy" campaign. This depicts the ACU's graduates, in health and education, helping people. It still shows study in a positive light, but is much more serious and sober than some of the sillier advertisements of other Australian universities. One point ACU glosses over is its origins in religious education: although the Vatican is briefly shown.

One of the more entertaining parts of higher education are the advertisements universities use to attract students. However, students have high rates of mental health problems. Depicting study as something fun, social, and easy, with instructors always to hand, may contribute to the problem.

University study is not fun, easy or pleasant: it is hard work, frustrating and lonely. Instructors cannot be as available, or helpful, as students would wish, due to resource constraints and the need for students to learn though their own efforts. As a result students may think there is something wrong with them.

ACU's approach is not just a matter of marketing. When studying education I made use of ACU's Canberra campus library and sat in on some graduate student sessions (one day I accidentally also sat in on an undergraduate teacher training class). There is a sense of caring and sharing which pervades the campus and the approach of the staff, different from a typical university. This may be just a matter of size, with a small campus able to be more personal, or it may be due to the caring disciplines the institution teaches.

Australian universities TV advertising blitz

Australian universities are currently conducting a TV advertising blitz, with some extravagant claims made. Charles Darwin University (CDU), claims to be a ‘new world university’. This is a curious claim to make, as CDU is not in the new world (the Americas), but  Darwin (Australia). The video shows an animation of what looks like a desert canyon and an island with skyscrapers, neither of which are characteristic of the small mainland tropical city of Darwin.

CDU also claims to be ranked in the top 2 per cent of university’s worldwide. This is based on raking 251 in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, out of an estimated 23,000 universities world wide. However, there are 34 other Australian universities in the list, with the lowest at 601. This makes CDU a mid ranking Australian university, in a country which overall has very good universities.

CDU are not the only ones with creative ads , or the first. In the 2016 "We're here for you" campaign, Swinburne University had a tutor appear in person, seemingly out of nowhere, to help an on-line student in a cafe. It seems unlikely that Swinburne deploys tutors to cafes around Australia.  ;-)

Strange claims, are not confined to Australian universities. In answer to the question "What is Athabasca University's ranking in Canada?"
Athabasca replies: "Distance education institutions such as Athabasca University are not ranked in the same way as traditional universities.". This is clearly untrue: Athabasca is included on the Ranking Web of Universities alongside non-distance universities. Athabasca ranks quite well, at 40 out of 352 in Canada (1229 in the world).