Report on IT Management Issues in the World University Concept

This report delves into the concept of 'World University,' a global online education platform, and examines the IT management challenges associated with its implementation. It explores business processes, including a 'StudyTogether loyalty' program, aimed at attracting students and fostering growth. The report emphasizes the crucial role of social media in boosting sales, highlighting digital advertising strategies and the importance of real-time performance analysis. Key issues, such as IT infrastructure setup and student engagement, are discussed, along with recommendations to ensure the successful operation and expansion of the World University model. The report emphasizes the importance of cost-effective measures, such as bulk orders for laptops and e-books, to provide students with affordable access to education.

Running head: IT MANAGEMENT ISSUSES
IT management issues
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary:
The report will introduce the term ’world university’. It’s a concept where lecturers
from around the globe will be able to teach. The report will discuss business
processes that revolve around online university. There are several initiatives that can
be taken to promote the model and will be discussed. Issues that arise out of this will
also be discussed and solutions will also be provided.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:..............................................................................................................3
2. The main idea behind online university:...................................................................3
3. Business initiatives to make the model interesting...................................................4
4. Role of social media to boost sales..........................................................................6
5. Conclusion:...............................................................................................................8
6. Resolving issues (recommendation)........................................................................9
7. References:............................................................................................................10

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1. Introduction:
The main motto of World University is about universal education. Education is
not a privilege but should be accessible to all. Here, professors from different
campuses around the world will be able to cater to the needs of students based
worldwide and provide services to them. Courses that would be taught would be
diverse. A student will be able to sign in from anywhere and study. Since it is online
university, interaction between students and professors would be online. The main
advantage of online university would be that a student residing in New Zealand
would be able to obtain a degree from a prestigious university situated in England.
Geographic constraints will be removed completely. The report will focus on the
successful implementation of this model. Business processes will be studied
thoroughly. Additionally, some issues may arise because of implementation which
will be discussed in the report.
2. The main idea behind online university:
Online learning is a growing field nowadays. To take the case of America, in
the year 1986, the first online degree was offered by a university in California and
after that the growth of online learning has been fairly exponential. It has been
established that one-third out of twenty one million Americans students has been
taking online courses. A worldwide research study has stated that there is no
significant difference in learning outcomes which actually means there is no definitive
proof out there that shows online learning/teaching is inferior to classroom study
("Forbes Welcome", 2018). It is also not true that online learning is fairly easy. There
are many online courses that are more rigorous than traditional classroom study and
it mainly depends upon instructor and the course. Additionally, with the help of

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innovative tools in information science, learning has been made much easier. There
are many applications based on mobile which has business related to online
teaching. The ‘anytime and anywhere’ feature also increases the readiness of
student to learn as opposed to older classroom formats. A student will be able to
learn from the comfort of his/her home. The main idea behind the World University is
also to provide increased flexibility to the student which will not only ease tension but
also increase concentration among students. The world university takes inspiration
from other universities such as University of California, University of Chicago and
Harvard University among other universities that have enabled online access for
students. Additionally, World University will also change learning formats. There
would not be only text only format, multimedia rich format would enable high degree
of interactivity, high quality simulations and animations. The main idea would be
increase the concentration power of students. The main fact behind the creation of
World University is institutional cost savings is much less than traditional university.
There is no cost for institutional set up since physical classrooms are not required
however setting up of Information technology department would require some
investment and this is the reason why the cost of obtaining degree from World
University would be much less from other universities. These entire factors greatly
motivate the fact that the creation of World University would help millions of student.
3. Business initiatives to make the model interesting.
Certain steps have been taken with the help of senior management to make
World University an attractive place for student to study. The upper management
along with the senior management has decided to introduce a scheme called
“StudyTogether loyalty”. This is a scheme that is mainly aimed at promoting growth.

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A student will be rewarded with fee credit when the student successfully refers
another student to study at the university. The fee credit will depend on which course
is picked by the student. Additionally, the university will hire agents to promote
certain offers and to increase the reach of the loyalty program. Once a product of the
World University is sold, applications would take less than five minutes to process.
Payment would be done online with the use of debit and credit cards. PayPal would
also be used making transaction since PayPal as a payment processor is accepted
worldwide. Fees would be non-refundable. Additionally, laptops and e-books will be
part of the course and this will also be available online. Purchases of laptops or e-
books are necessary. Students will be given the freedom of choosing the laptop
models. Staffs would be hired for configuring those laptops with required software. It
will then be handed over to the student. The management will invest time and
resources for the successful implementation of these business models. First of all,
before the beginning of any course, a student will be informed about the
StudyTogether loyalty program. A short introductory video presentation about the
loyalty program would be given to the student. The video will inform the student
about how much discount will be provided for each refers. A model will be developed
that will teach the student about referring two friends, three friends and more. They
will also be informed that if they are able to refer 10 students then they will be given
100 per cent concession on a course. A successful implementation of this model will
spur enormous growth for the World University. The basic mantra behind a loyalty
program is simple which is customers are rewarded and this in turn will help the
online business to increase sales (Lee, Hsieh & Chen, 2013). It may sound trivial but
this is a very powerful strategy. Customer loyalty programs are mandatory for large
organizations, as the goal is to jumpstart sluggish revenue or to continuously

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increase sales (Swanciger, 2018). For a start-up online venture like World University,
loyalty programs are not only about saying thank you to a student but also making
them brand ambassadors. It would not be long before this idea is copied and
replicated by large organizations having the means and resources to create a giant.
However, if a loyalty program is good then World University will be able to stay
competitive and innovative in the current market (Al-Adwan, Al-Adwan & Smedley,
2013). It is also a myth that customers’ loyalty programs costs a fortune. Although, it
requires some resources but it does not drain the entire budget. The World
University will give bulk orders to a wholesale distributor for laptops. This will help in
reduction of cost for the university in the procurement of laptops and e-books.
Additionally, the World University would higher delivery boys in select parts of the
world. Payment would be based on how many shipments they will deliver. This move
would reduce the reluctance of courier services and will help the company save a
significant amount. Additionally, laptops would be delivered to the students enrolled
for a course in their locations for free. This move would ensure more trust building
and this will further boost the sales for the World University.
4. Role of social media to boost sales.
Social media is growing at a fast pace and it is important for any business to
utilize social media to boost up sales. With such growth is social media sites, World
University should in the best possible way leverage proper social media channels.
This is because that target audience hangs around popular social networking sites.
Social networking sites include twitter, Facebook and Google plus. The target
audience engages with different brands and connects with them on different levels.
The World University by incorporating social media will not only generate more

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business but will also be able to engage with students on a deeper level and will be
able to serve them on a higher level. This makes online marketing easier. According
to a research, customers are more likely to recommend a brand if they are able to
have a positive experience with that brand on social media. The first and foremost
thing that World University should do is that it should leverage social advertising for
their loyalty programs and courses that are offered by them. To take the example of
Facebook ads, the campaign was launched by Facebook in the year 2015 and in just
12 years it managed to reach 9.16 billion in revenue (Stelzner, 2014). This just
proves that social media advertising will stay for a long time. Some reasons should
be listed why digital advertising should be undertaken by World University.
Advertising costs is lower (Cheung & Vogel, 2013). Traditional advertising methods
such as radio advertising, TV and print media are not always dependable whereas
social media ads are more dependable and the main thing is that they are cheaper.
Additionally, there are social media channels that allow posting ads for free to a
certain level. World University should experiment with these channels on a trial basis
before paying up for ads on social media. Social media also allows growing at own
pace. The second reason why digital advertising should be considered is because of
targeted reach (Shojaee & Azman, 2013). The way social media allows businesses
to reach target audience; traditional advertising methods do not allow such facilities.
World University would be able to target their ads to students wishing to enroll in
courses. This would ultimately lead to higher return on investments and will also
increase conversion rate for the World University. The third benefit of deploying
social media is real time performance analysis (Dominici & Palumbo, 2013). Any
businesses needs to know whether their ads are performing or not. The main
limitation of offline campaign is the non availability of performance matrix which

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means business cannot analyze the performance. Social media ads will allow the
World University to keep a track of ads and analyze how well the ads are performing.
World University would also be able to instantaneously see the results and then
change the ads on the fly or as and when required. The fourth point would talk about
brand awareness. This is one the things that social media ad campaign does. It is a
powerful tool when it comes to awareness. The world University should be able to
find its target audience to increase brand awareness (Hutter et al., 2013). Next the
university should with the help of visual aids attract the attention of target audience.
On a social media channel, to grow brand awareness a business needs to use
images and videos as opposed to primary text format (Rennie & Morrison, 2013).
This will not only increase engagement but will also boost social shares. The next
thing that the World University can do is to create conversations for increasing the
brand awareness. A social media platform is all about building conversations
(Montalvo, 2016). By grabbing one to one conversations, the university will be able
to gather much needed attention. This does not stop here. To maintain the entire
requirement the University needs to track performance regularly. Tracking tools such
as Facebook page insights, Google Analytics and URL shorteners, and social media
activity can be measured (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). The organization should use
the insights to gain a deeper understanding and what can be done from its end to
improve that and hence build a stronger brand.
5. Conclusion:
From the above report it can be concluded that for an online business such
as World University to thrive it must implement few business models which would
help them gain a competitive advantage over others. The loyalty programs are a first

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step towards successful implementation of business models which would ensure
trust building and will increase brand awareness. The loyalty programs need few
tweaks otherwise it is perfect. Secondly, it was established that by incorporating
social media the business would gain considerably in terms of cost reduction,
increase in brand awareness and more importantly will result in increase in sales.
6. Resolving issues (recommendation).
Few issues are detected and will be discussed in this paragraph. Firstly, a
flaw has been detected in the StudyTogether loyalty program. Reward is given to the
student as soon as he/she refers someone. Fee credit should be given only when
the referred student selects a course and pays for that. Nobody will be able to game
the system by getting fee credit for fake references. Additionally, in few cases where
the student has doubts, payments should be refundable. Also, there will be students
who would not be able to afford laptops because of their financial background. For
that situation the university should adopt scholarship or concession program ( Brown
& Charlier, 2013). This program would help the student acquire e-books or laptops at
a nominal fee. This will ensure trust building. Additionally, meritorious student should
be granted scholarship which would halve the fees required for a particular course.
Additionally, since the business is entirely based online it should have a proper
Information technology infrastructure (Bora & Ahmed, 2013). Majority of resources
are online and that needs to be protected at all cost. Cyber crime has gained a
significant foothold nowadays. The university must have mechanism in place to deal
with situations involving cyber crime (Alsabawy, Cater-Steel & Soar, 2013).

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7. References:
Al-Adwan, A., Al-Adwan, A., & Smedley, J. (2013). Exploring students acceptance of
e-learning using Technology Acceptance Model in Jordanian
universities. International Journal of Education and Development using
Information and Communication Technology, 9(2), 4.
Alsabawy, A. Y., Cater-Steel, A., & Soar, J. (2013). IT infrastructure services as a
requirement for e-learning system success. Computers & Education, 69, 431-
451.
Bora, U. J., & Ahmed, M. (2013). E-learning using cloud computing. International
Journal of Science and Modern Engineering, 1(2), 9-12.
Brown, K. G., & Charlier, S. D. (2013). An integrative model of e-learning use:
Leveraging theory to understand and increase usage. Human Resource
Management Review, 23(1), 37-49.
Cheung, R., & Vogel, D. (2013). Predicting user acceptance of collaborative
technologies: An extension of the technology acceptance model for e-
learning. Computers & Education, 63, 160-175.
Dominici, G., & Palumbo, F. (2013). How to build an e-learning product: Factors for
student/customer satisfaction. Business Horizons, 56(1), 87-96.
Forbes Welcome. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2014/10/08/the-top-eight-things-you-
need-to-know-about-online-education/#d21a62a6fd47

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Hutter, K., Hautz, J., Dennhardt, S., & Füller, J. (2013). The impact of user
interactions in social media on brand awareness and purchase intention: the
case of MINI on Facebook. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(5/6),
342-351.
Lee, Y. H., Hsieh, Y. C., & Chen, Y. H. (2013). An investigation of employees' use of
e-learning systems: applying the technology acceptance model. Behaviour &
Information Technology, 32(2), 173-189.
Montalvo, R. E. (2016). Social media management. International Journal of
Management & Information Systems (Online), 20(2), 45.
Rennie, F., & Morrison, T. (2013). E-learning and social networking handbook:
Resources for higher education. Routledge.
Shojaee, S., & bin Azman, A. (2013). An evaluation of factors affecting brand
awareness in the context of social media in Malaysia. Asian social
science, 9(17), 72.
Stelzner, M. (2014). 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Social media
examiner, 1-52.
Swanciger, J. (2018). Why Small Businesses Should Be Utilizing Customer-Loyalty
Programs. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233362
Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social
media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

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