Phasing Out Course Catalogs

From the September 2006 Issue of InFocus

Hofstra University's College for Continuing Education offers students two alternatives to traditional print catalogs through its home page—a downloadable PDF of the 68-page catalog and an HTML listing of courses with an online shopping-cart for registrations. Using the technologies has allowed Hofstra to cut ist print catalog run by 60 percent.

CE marketers operating under tight budgets are continually looking for ways to do more with less. And, as electronic marketing has made reaching target audiences easier, faster, and less costly, one traditional line of communication has come into the crosshairs of cost-cutting marketing departments—the print course catalog.

As an alternative to print catalogs, Portable Document Format (PDF) files offer flexibility and instant, easy dissemination while preserving formatting. CE marketers inching away from printing and mailing traditional course catalogs instead upload files onto their institution's Web sites, and students can download up-to-date, searchable documents and print only the pages they need to register for courses. Often in tandem, institutions also are using Web-based software that allows users to search for, read about, and register for courses through the Internet. The user experience is interactive and automated—students sign up for classes in much the same way that they make purchases through online shopping carts at retail sites.

"Over the last couple of years, we've migrated toward online registrations for courses," says Walter Ebe, Director of Marketing and External Relations at Hofstra University's College for Continuing Education. "The information contained within the Bulletin appears on our Web site as HTML, and users can put a course into a cart, and eventually register for it. We make the Bulletin available as a PDF as well, but it's more than just putting [a print catalog] online."

As other CE units adopt similar approaches, are print catalogs headed for extinction? Maybe not entirely—or at least, not right away. While Hofstra is trying hard to phase out its print catalog, getting rid of the Bulletin altogether, says Ebe, "is that last hard nut to crack."

CE Marketers Cut Press Runs, Mail Strategically

Several institutions report good results in cutting back—but not completely eliminating—their catalog production. In place of long press runs, CE marketing departments are using innovative methods to achieve greater enrollment results at a much lower cost, often by using funds once set aside for thousands of catalogs to print more attractive brochures or postcards directing prospective students toward the appropriate Web sites.

At Texas Tech University, 15 percent of all mail sent by Outreach and Extended Studies is material for its K-12 Distance Learning and Academic Enrichment program—including, until recently, 130,000 course catalogs. Now, according to Marketing Director Michelle Moskos, Texas Tech has replaced nearly half of that total with enrollment pads—the forms for enrolling in courses, without the full catalogs.

Instead of sending catalogs directly to students, Texas Tech sends them to school counselors to hand out to those interested, and to use as desk reference pieces. Students receive the enrollment forms instead, which also instruct them on how to access course information online. The University's last print run of course catalogs was down to 70,000.

At Hofstra, Ebe reports that the College for Continuing Education used to print three Bulletins a year, with each requiring three to five months' lead-time. Now, the University prints two half-year versions, cutting down some of the drain on both the budget and the staff. But the tradition of printing and distributing course catalogs is engrained in both prospective students and University culture, so the shift toward the Internet is being implemented in stages.

"It's a phased approach—it's not here today, gone tomorrow," Ebe says. Hofstra has reduced its print run from 125,000 to 50,000, in part by cutting back on how deep into the database the department goes for mailing addresses. Instead of sending Bulletins to older contacts, the University has begun sending postcards. (A full, 68-page PDF of Hofstra's Fall Bulletin can be downloaded from a link off the College of Continuing Education's homepage, or prospective students can email a request to be mailed a printed catalog.) High-traffic locations once targeted for stacks of course catalogs now receive an eight-page, glossy marketing piece sending prospective students to the Web. "It's a smaller, less-dated piece," Ebe says.

Online Programs Conducive to Electronic Catalogs

When deciding whether to print course catalogs, institutions tend to treat online programs and courses differently from classroom-based instruction. At Kansas State University, the Division of Continuing Education once printed a Distance Education course catalog every semester. Over a six-year period, the piece was first pared down to a two-color, 50-page catalog, and now is produced as a two-sided, four-color tabloid piece that folds into thirds and lists only course names, numbers and reference numbers.

The catalog is used primarily as a marketing piece to be handed out at education fairs and other events, and is available to prospective students upon request through K-State's Web site. It also is mailed to prospective students in K-State's database for which the University does not have email contact information. Students enroll for courses online; those who still receive the brochure are directed to the Web.

"We used to send out about 3,000 emails and 20,000-25,000 print copies, which is pretty scary," says Melinda Sinn, Public Information Coordinator for K-State's Division of Continuing Education. By the last mailing, those numbers had reversed. Sinn estimates that the division saves $10,000 to $15,000 each semester on printing and mailing costs—the total press run is now 10,000, down from 30,000. Meantime, Distance Education has grown from some 3,000 students to more than 8,600. Response rates have been higher from the emails than the print catalogs. "It makes sense, because we're offering distance education, so students have to have access to a computer," says Sinn.

By that logic, the University of Montana does not print course catalogs at all for its online courses. Instead, it lists course logistics on its Web site. Professors have the option of uploading syllabi for prospective students to browse, and students register through an online system called CyberBear.

"The rationale is that 97 percent of our marketing is done through our Web site," says Ralph Johnson, UMOnline Program Manager. "We print a pocket guide with a list of our online courses to distribute here on campus, strictly as a convenience for our resident students, but it's a long way from a catalog."

Continuing Education at the University of Montana does print a catalog for its Summer Semester courses, which students can request through an online form. Course information for Montana's Summer Semester and its Winter Session also are available to download as tabbed PDF files.

At K-State, Sinn says the Division of Continuing Education will continue to print a small number of its tri-fold catalogs, in part to publicize its contingent of locally based, non-distance education courses, which can appeal to less technically savvy students. Still, her days of devoting more than 40 hours a semester to the production of a print catalog that was often out-of-date off the presses are happily behind her. "I don't think paper is going away, it's just that we're using it differently," she says.

—Doug Davala