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USF Department of Child and Family Studies

University adds Acteva to Increase Online Class Registrations

Challenge     Need solution for managing online class registrations and payments

Solution        Acteva LRMS allows students to pay online

Results         Efficient payment collection; increased online class registrations

Customer Profile

Location                       Tampa, FL

Primary Event             Online Continuing Education Classes

Industry                        Higher Education

Products Used           Acteva LRMS

Attendee Focus          Mental Health Professionals; Students

Background

Based in Tampa, Florida, the Department of Child and Family Studies (CFS) at the University of South Florida is a 190 person department consisting of faculty, volunteers and administrative staff. As part of a university system with more than 39,000 students, the department is committed to improving the well-being of individuals, children, and families within communities across the country through promoting respect, inclusion, development, achievement, mental health, and an optimum quality of life.

CFS holds a number of online learning classes, professional conferences and training events each quarter as well as annual policy conference in March attended by over 500 participants.

Vicki Hummer, Educational Director of Online Learning and Children's Mental Health at CFS, says the department has a target audience for their classes and events. "Our main audience is students who wish to take courses online in order to advance their skills within the workforce, increase their marketability, and in some cases, pursue certifications or CEU's for professional licensure."

Business Challenge: Online payments, reporting, support

Prior to the expansion of the Online Learning (OLL) in Children's Mental Health project at CFS in 2009, the department had used another organizations' website and other less efficient means for their online classes including traditional paper and mail-in registrations. The Online Learning in Children's Mental Health project was still in the early stages of development but expanding quickly. "A major challenge was that we did not have an existing mechanism for students to pay online," she says. "Adding Acteva as our e-commerce and class management system was a big step for us, but definitely a must."

She adds that the department had significant deadlines to meet as well as a small staff initially. "Trying to create an online catalog on our own would have been very cumbersome and time-consuming." What CFS needed was a solution to help determine whether individuals have registered or paid and to generate detailed reports for tracking purposes. Having key customer service contacts at Acteva to help the implementation run as smoothly as possible was also essential.

Acteva Solution

Acteva LRMS integrates with their learning management system

After much research, CFS – with the help of a strong referral from a university colleague – determined that Acteva Learning Registration Management Solutions (LRMS) was the best suited and logical choice for their online class registrations. "We considered Paypal but wanted to form a relationship over time with individuals within the corporation. Acteva came highly recommended as an organization that gets the job done efficiently and effectively. In addition, the cost was competitive and the people we spoke with were genuinely interested in forming a partnership with us to meet our goals as Project Managers."

Another concern was ensuring that the OLL project could merge the current open source learning management system - Moodle - with the Acteva LRMS platform. "Acteva worked closely with our team to integrate the two platforms even thought it required some customizations on their part. The process was well managed and the deliverables were met as promised."

With the ability to handle both basic and advanced registrations requirements, Acteva LRMS helped OLL staff to easily publish their online course catalog to the Web and start accepting credit card payments. "Acteva was able to integrate their solution quickly with proficiency and professionalism. And the integration was essential or we would have had a difficult time moving forward." adds Ms. Hummer.

Results

Efficient online payments, course schedules, accurate reports

Though it's difficult to determine quantifiable cost savings after a few months of use, Ms. Hummer realized there would be tremendous benefits from the start in terms of time savings and overall efficiency. "The reports were an essential feature for us. They're easily generated, and our ability to edit the online catalog was another additional benefit."

Perhaps the most positive experience has been her ongoing relationship with the Acteva Service Team. In adding a new solution, she had her concerns about a smooth transition and getting up to speed quickly. "I had not expected the staff to extend themselves to accommodate our unique needs to the extent they did, and to be as available and responsive. The demonstrations were very helpful to the team as well. Acteva's team was very patient with our team when we were in the early stages of trying to make sense of the technology and products. "

The department has seen online enrollment immediately impact efficiencies over the previous process. Through the first few months of being online, CFS online classes have shown an immediate increase of over the previous year.

Experience that counts

Acteva is the trusted leader in Online Event Management, including Event Registration and Payment Services, Private Social Networks and Learning Registration & Management Services. Since 1998, over 16,500 customers have used Acteva to manage more than 300,000 events and process more than 5.1 million registrations. Acteva's customers include Bausch & Lomb, Pfizer, SAP, Girl Scouts of America, Whole Foods, BMW/MINI, NASA, VMware, Apple, Green Bay Diocese, DHL, PG&E and thousands of small to large-sized businesses and organizations.