Part 1
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is the technique for strategic planning that is utilized for identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for any particular organization or enterprise (Brooks, Heffner and Henderson 2014). A university have started to offer a series of courses at the PG as well as UG level for recruiting the students from various countries.
They further have decided to increment in the number of the International students for selecting to study at the University and also to increment in the total number of countries, where they can market the courses.
The SWOT diagram for this particular University is given below:
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Strengths
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Weaknesses
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1. Flexibility.
2. Access from all over the world with Internet connection.
3. Convenience (Bull et al. 2016).
4. Cost Effective as do not have to travel.
5. Ability to work as well to attend classes.
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1. Limited Technology.
2. Continuous Internet access.
3. Inaccessibility to library or any learning materials.
4. High chance of fraud and plagiarism (Yuan 2013).
5. Constant cost of systems or computers.
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Opportunities
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Threats
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1. Innovative technologies can be incorporated and thus learning environment could be enhanced.
2. Incrementing diversity and equality in the arena of education (Ayub et al. 2013).
3. Ability in reaching wider range of students.
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1. Difficulty in recruiting as well as keeping good supervisors.
2. Increment in the costs for creating and maintaining complicated databases.
3. Difficulty in engaging the students in learning manner.
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As per the SWOT analysis, there are five distinct strengths. The first and the foremost strength of this distance learning course is that it is extremely flexible and can be taken from anywhere that has Internet access (Brooks, Heffner and Henderson 2014). Moreover, it is extremely convenient and cost effective for every student as they do not have to travel for going to colleges. Furthermore, the students can work and at the same time, they can study.
The weaknesses of this case study mainly include the access to limited technology, continuous access to Internet, higher chance of fraud and plagiarism, fixed cost of computers, inaccessibility to the library or any other learning materials.
The threats to this course of distance learning are problems in recruiting and keeping good and qualified supervisors, increment in the expenses of creation and maintenance of complicated and complex databases and difficulty in engaging students in learning manner (Ayub et al. 2013).
The opportunities to the course of distance learning are the incorporation of new and innovative technologies, incrementing the diversity and equality in the arena of education and ability in reaching wide range of students.
The recommendation for this particular case study is that they should start this distance learning course in their university. This is because this type of learning is extremely flexible in terms of other courses as the students do not have to visit to the university and their time would be saved. There are few threats and weaknesses as well. The most significant weakness as per the SWOT analysis that it has the access of limited technology. This could be overcome by involving other technical persons within the organizational system. The major threat to this distance learning is the difficulty in recruiting and keeping quality supervisors. This could be overcome by keeping the teachers on contract.
Part 2
Set of Objectives, Critical Success Factors and KPIs
After the SWOT analysis on the distance learning course of the University, by utilizing an external situation analysis model for the e-commerce, a set of objectives could be provided (Parmenter 2015). Porter’s Five Forces model can be utilized in this scenario.
The five forces are as follows:
- i) Threat of New Entrants: This is the first force of the Porter’s five forces model relevant to this case study. Since, the university is a new entrant in the industry of distance learning, there is a high chance that they might not be getting profits in the beginning.
- ii) Threat of Substitutes: The second force of the Porter’s five forces model (Nicoletti 2017). There is always a threat of the substitutes in every business.
iii) Bargaining Power of Customers: The third force of the Porter’s five forces model. The bargaining power of the customers or the students refers to the market outputs.
- iv) Bargaining Power of the Suppliers: The suppliers in this particular case study are the managing bodies of the university. The bargaining power of the suppliers refers to the market inputs (Parmenter 2015).
- v) Industry Rivalry: The competition of the industry with other industries is known as industry rivalry.
The set of objectives, critical success factors and the key performance indicators of the university are given below:
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Set of Objectives
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Critical Success Factors
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Key Performance Indicators
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1. This university should check for its competition in the field of distance learning.
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1. The first critical success factor is to increase their competitiveness and attract new customers or students (Parmenter 2015).
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1. The first KPI of the university is the marketing strategy.
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2. The second objective of this university should be check for the substitute of their course.
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2. The second critical success factor is to sustain good relationships with the students.
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2. The second KPI is the sales growth metrics. This would affect in profit and cost effectiveness.
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3. The third objective is that since they are the new entrants in the market, they should be careful enough for understanding the market scenario.
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3. The third critical success factor is to manage in any type of disruption since they are the new entrants in this market (Nicoletti 2017).
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3. The third KPI is the satisfaction of the students.
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For all the objectives or competencies that are needed, the main competition is the existing distance learning course that are already popular worldwide. The demand is very high in this sector and for addressing all these competencies, some of the major organizational changes are required like keeping quality teachers on contract basis and reducing the expenses of the courses as much as possible.
Part 3
Addressing Issues in University Websites
Distance learning courses offered by the university are the first step towards removing cultural diversities. Moreover, often the students could not trust the quality of the university since they are not being able to visit to the university and check it by themselves. This university is the new entrant in the market of distance education and thus there is a high chance that they might face various trust issues as well as cultural diversities within their business (Salmon 2013). For addressing these types of issues within the business, they should manage the problems in their website. This could be done by utilizing the on line communication tools for reaching out to their potential target audience. The issue related to culture could be easily solved by bringing out more teachers from all over the world. When the teachers would be from different backgrounds, it is obvious that the students would understand the importance of cultural diversification and they would be interested in connecting with the university. This could be done by taking interviews of those culturally diversified teachers and putting them on their official website (Simpson 2013). By watching these interviews, the students from the different backgrounds would easily trust the university and thus enrol themselves for the distance learning courses. Moreover, the advertisement of the university should be done in all the national languages so that the students are able to understand that each and every country is having their students in the university. They could utilize the online communication tools for communicating with the students and thus reaching out to them.
References
Ayub, A., Adeel, R., Muhammad, S.A. and Hanan, I., 2013. A conceptual framework on evaluating SWOT analysis as the mediator in strategic marketing planning through marketing intelligence. European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 2(1), pp.91-98.
Brooks, G., Heffner, A. and Henderson, D., 2014. A SWOT analysis of competitive knowledge from social media for a small start-up business. The Review of Business Information Systems (Online), 18(1), p.23.
Bull, J.W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb, C., Lambini, C.K., Rawlins, M., Baral, H., Zähringer, J. and Carter-Silk, E., 2016. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services, 17, pp.99-111.
Nicoletti, B., 2017. Critical Success Factors. In The Future of FinTech (pp. 161-175). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Parmenter, D., 2015. Key performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs. John Wiley & Sons.
Salmon, G., 2013. E-tivities: The key to active online learning. Routledge.
Simpson, O., 2013. Supporting students in online open and distance learning. Routledge.
Yuan, H., 2013. A SWOT analysis of successful construction waste management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 39, pp.1-8.
