The University’s fully accredited online program, Global Campus, began classes Jan. 2, offering certificates, master’s degrees and bachelor’s degrees.

Student turnout for this first session, however, is lower than projected, with only 15 students enrolled, as opposed to the expected 75, said Chet Gardner, special assistant to the president of the University.

Gardner said he believed part of the reason for the lower turnout is due to the short time frame they had to market the program.

“One of the challenges we had was getting the Global Campus site in place in a relatively short period of time,” Gardner said. “We had six to seven weeks to launch the program and that’s not a lot of time.”

The marketing for the online program had to wait until the Global Campus site was up and running. The program was launched in March and the current Web Site was launched in October, Gardner said.

Although numbers are low for the first session, Gardner said the quality of education will not be lowered. There were enough students to successfully begin programs in nursing and e-learning, he added.

“The one thing we would never compromise is the quality of the academic programs,” Garner said. “These are University of Illinois degrees and we have to adhere to the standards.”

The online admission standards are identical to those in the actual colleges, he said.

However, the method of marketing Global Campus to increase applicants will not radically change from what it had been previously, said Lee Kantz, chief marketing officer for Global Campus.

“Until now we’ve relied primarily on web based marketing,” Gardner said. “Now we’re beginning to broaden our marketing activities into more conventional ways. We are going to begin now to market in print.”

The previous marketing strategy was a mix of consumer marketing and organizational outreach to corporations and hospitals, and this will be continued with an increased focus on organizational marketing, Kantz said.

“A lot of the online marketing efforts are broad-based but our organizational efforts are more localized within Illinois,” Kantz said. “That requires more relationship building.”

Partly because of this, 14 out of the 15 students currently enrolled in the program are from Illinois, Gardner said. The 15th is from Canada, according to Charles Evans, dean of academic affairs for Global Campus.

Future sessions are looking more promising with 75 applicants for admissions in May, Gardner said. There will also be a sufficient amount of time to advertise for new programs that are coming out, he added.

“We have three certificate programs coming on in May and five degree programs in September,” Gardner said. “We’ll have plenty of time to market those programs.”

Other possible new developments with the program include a discounted rate for alumni wishing to receive a degree from Global Campus.

“We’re requesting to the board that they establish a special tuition rate for alumni,” Gardner said. “That tuition rate would be 10 percent less. It’s a way for us to acknowledge the support that the University of Illinois graduates have given through (their) tuition and donations.”

Some students have acknowledged they were thrilled and impressed with the program though the course load keeps them busy, Evans said. He received feedback from one student who said they were very happy with the interaction of the course and with the learning platform.

“The important thing to recognize here is one has to start somewhere,” Gardner said. “What’s important now is that it’s launched.” Though ultimately the Global Campus has to pay all its expenses, Gardner said he believes they will break even in three years.

“We’re very excited about the future of Global Campus,” Kantz said. “It’s going to be huge.”