FAQs:

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. What services does Embanet offer?

Founded in 1995, Embanet is an integrated, full service provider of online program design, development, marketing, enrollment and technology support services for postsecondary educational institutions. We provide mission critical services that enable our clients to generate new revenue streams through the launch of online programs and to effectively deliver technology support services that maximize student satisfaction and retention. Embanet's services allow its clients to expand their educational mission by including students who require classroom instruction but are poorly served by traditional academic programs. With over 200 employees, Embanet supports the program development and expansion of more than 50 colleges and universities.

Student Recruitment - Enrollment management is the most critical component of a successful program. Finding your future students in an increasingly competitive marketplace requires experience. Our clients rely on our expertise and our proven results in Marketing and Admissions to ensure the development, growth and long-term success of their online education programs.

Identifying, targeting and reaching qualified prospective students with a meaningful, effective message has become a sophisticated endeavor. Recruiting qualified online students is extremely competitive, and winning the hearts and minds of prospective scholars requires state-of-the-art initiatives. Embanet's innovative lead-generation model is constantly being refined to reflect the most advanced techniques in direct response marketing, search engine optimization, advertising, database marketing and targeted education partnerships with leading employers around the world.

With your guidance, Embanet's Admissions Advisors (AA's) become an extension of your institution's administration. Our rigorous AA training program demands professionalism and integrity, creating a team of knowledgeable professionals. Our AA's work diligently to meet the goals of your institution by enrolling students, prescreening admissions applications and discussing tuition payment options such as financial aid. Our Admissions Center's objective is to develop a student acquisition program that produces a scalable and profitable online learning initiative for each University.

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Student Services - Embanet has a proven track record of increasing the profitability of universities through our student services solutions which provide enhanced service and attention to all prospective and enrolled students. Embanet assigns students to a dedicated Student Services Advisors with industry knowledge of online learning, student administration and management as well as counseling and facilitator training. By acting as an extension of your staff and faculty, Student Service Advisors bridge the gap between learners and your university's administration. Each Student Services Advisor will internalize your policies and procedures, guaranteeing a consistent experience for all students. Embanet's Student Service Advisors are trained to develop relationships with students and help them interact within the learning community. Student Services Advisors provide the following services:

• Ensure students are registered and have necessary login information prior to commencing class.
• Build personal relationships with each student.
• Identify and coach at-risk students to maximize student success.
• Contact students regarding course/program evaluations and feedback.
• Ensure all textbooks are delivered and received by students.
• Ensure any financial aid questions are directed to the appropriate University contact.
• Recruit facilitators to assist in course instruction within small group settings.
• Train facilitators on the relevant learning management system platform.

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Course Development - Embanet's process for industry leading online course design and development has been created and defined by years of successful program launches and thousands of outstanding student outcomes. Our experienced team of instructional designers and course developers work hand-in-hand with our partnering universities' faculty and staff to ensure a fruitful collaboration and an end product that accurately reflects the institution's academic integrity and institutional requirements. The institution retains full control of all academic issues and the courses now have the potential to reach an entirely new, and virtually limitless, student population. Our collaborative approach characterizes all three stages of our instructional design and course development process:

• Pre-design - From ensuring that our developers understand course objectives as defined by faculty to assuring that the online student experience preserves the reputation of the institution, Embanet seeks and values our partner's participation in every step of the process. We begin by setting expectations for course instructional flow and design methodology, setting up standardized project management processes and assisting with accreditation applications. We will also provide faculty training in online instructional design/development processes and tools including the ACE Project Management tool, content authoring tools and course development templates.
• Design & Development – On-campus faculty members are often placed in the daunting position of being the sole developers of online courses with requirements that range from content and online pedagogy to graphics and multimedia. With Embanet as the institution's online education partner, faculty will immediately benefit by having a dedicated instructional designer and project manager assigned to oversee every facet of the project. Our web-based course development and workflow tracking tools allow faculty to easily submit content to our instructional designers and track the routing of each project through to its completion. Courses are developed in weekly modules and each week's content is immediately and automatically made available for faculty review and approval. Throughout the course development process, the institution has access to professional flash/multimedia developers and graphic artists, our expansive database of royalty-free images and a suite of pre-developed interactive templates for online exercises.
• Course Evaluation - Once an online course has been launched, Embanet provides a 360-degree evaluation and assessment of all available data for the online learning environment. This "report card" is issued at the end of each session, with action items identified for improvement of the overall learning experience. Such data has proven invaluable to our clients in their accreditation reports. By constantly evaluating the efficacy and success of every course we develop, Embanet continuously improves and refines our capabilities in developing high-quality online courses that enhance the reputation of our partnering institutions.

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Technical Services - Institutions choose Embanet because of our unparalleled familiarity and expertise with the top eight most widely used learning management systems in addition to our capacity to design, develop and maintain unique programs that match the academic standards of the institutions we serve. Embanet brings together a team of full-time, online learning IT experts whose sole priority is to ensure a reliable and scalable infrastructure of your online courses. Our industry-leading technical services can address all of our partners' specific program needs.

Our technical services include:

• Course Migration - The addition of newer user-friendly platforms may require course migration from legacy systems. Embanet is platform agnostic and can migrate existing programs from any platform to another. Institutions choose Embanet because of our extensive familiarity with the top eight most widely used learning management systems. Embanet ensures that all of your course content is properly migrated to the new learning management system through a well-tested project management process. We have successfully migrated thousands of courses to and from various versions of Angel, Intralearn, Moodle, Sakai and others.
• Managed Hosting Services - Because we helped develop online learning virtually from its inception, we recognize that any downtime is frustrating and detrimental to the end user. Embanet supports all of our clients systems with a solid state-of-the-art infrastructure because uptime is the key for mission-critical applications. We have invested heavily in the people and the network infrastructure required to provide maximum performance and reliability for online learning applications. Embanet guarantees full redundancy, scalable infrastructure and 99.9% uptime. In addition, we understand the importance of our customer's data. Embanet employs VERITAS data protection services as well as VERITAS backup solutions to protect your critical data, simplify the management of data backup and recovery and to provide consistent, reliable data protection. Our secure servers are located in both Chicago and Toronto and our Internet data centers provide the physical environments necessary to keep servers up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• 24/7 Help Desk Support - Embanet's dedicated 24/7/365 live help desk support team takes pride in quality services which enhance the online learning experience and result in higher completion rates. We are committed to providing you with customer-focused, world-class support services. Our flexible and accommodating approach to each style of end-user allows administrators, faculty and students to feel confident knowing that help is available at their convenience. Embanet's client service level agreement assures delivery of excellent service through guaranteed metrics including response time, first call resolution, call abandonment rate and average speed to answer. Our services are easily accessible through our online support portals and include:
• Live toll-free telephone support
• Live online chat support
• Web-form with e-mail capabilities
• Self-help/FAQ area
• Online audio tutorials

In an effort to enhance the overall end-user experience, the help desk support services team continuously seeks feedback through surveys on every interaction with a help desk support specialist.

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2. Which institutions currently partner with Embanet?

Embanet is proud to have partnered with many prominent colleges and universities since our inception in 1995. Located across North America, these institutions recognize our passion for providing quality education and trust us to provide them with unparalleled online education solutions. Our expertise with the top eight learning platforms is unparalleled as is our ability to match the look and feel of online programs to the intrinsic nature and standards of our partnering institutions. Our clients have expressed their appreciation for the excellence we have demonstrated while serving their students, administration and educators so diligently over the years.

To view a full list of our clients; Click here.

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3. What makes Embanet unique?

Embanet is uniquely positioned to address the needs of higher education institutions because we alone offer universities the security and flexibility of a partnership that can include investment as well as effective nation-wide recruiting to secure the most capable students for your programs and enhance your reputation.

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4. How does Embanet's revenue-sharing partnership work?

Embanet has a unique revenue-sharing model that allows our partnering universities to benefit from increased exposure, brand strengthening and first-rate online programs that expand their offerings with no initial investment on their behalf. Please contact us to find out more.

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5. Can an institution select from the services Embanet offers to create a partnership?

Yes, Embanet offers a vast menu of services from which our clients may choose. Our level of involvement depends on what our individual client requires at a given point in time.

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