http://vco-edusa.net

Advising Without Borders!

VCO: New tool for advisers and prospective students

• Not a substitute for individual advising

• Cover regions without EACs

• Oriented for new audience

• Training model for beginning level advisers

VCO project now

• Team of 36 advisers from 21 country

• Seven templates

• 1000 IP`s daily

• 7800 incoming questions

• 5219 subscribers

• One hit per second

• Extension to the two new language versions

• The VCO on-line consulting technique

• Supported by one tech specialist

VCO: How it works

• Team-based operation

• Dynamic multilingual content

• Simple and unified structure

• Web template method

• VCO on-line consulting technique (2008)

EnglishCC

RussianCC

ArabicCC

SpanishCC

ChineseCC

Virtual Consulting Service: Challenges

• Many general questions• Takes too much time• Repeating • Inappropriate• Provocative• Advertisements• SPAM

Objectives:

To develop a classification of incoming questions and, accordingly, to prepare a set

of concrete recommendations.

Expected results

• Saving time for VCO team members

• Increase of professionalism in consulting service

• Use this methodology for training of new VCO team members

• Try to implement this consulting technique for telephone and e-mail consultations

Classification of incoming questions

• Very basic

• Labor-intensive

• Concrete

• Miscellaneous

Very basic questions

• 75% of all incoming questions

• Student never been to EAC

• New and underserved category of our potential clients

• Just curious about education in the USA

Example of incoming questions:very basic

Location: Uzbekistan.

E-mail: Yulabr_1987@mail.ru.

I want to study In USA. What I should do about this ?

Very basic questions: recommendations

• Inspirational sentence

• Simple and brief explanation of the application process

• Use of template answers

• Referring to the nearest EducationUSA center

Labor-intensive questions

• 15% of total questions

• A prospective student who finally decided to take the first step in the application process

• A prospective student who somewhere heard about this opportunity and is wondering where to begin

Example of incoming questions:labor-intensive

Location: Mongolia.

E-mail: jalair_bayasgalan@yahoo.com.

Please give me information about top universities in computer science in California and amount of financial aid in them

Labor-intensive questions: recommendations

• Avoid “digging too deep” when answering

question

• Instead of doing search for student show only direction where to find the answer (directing answer)

• Present direct link or contact information

Concrete questions

• 5% of total questions • Coming from students who are in the active

phase of the application process • Requires a “tailored” answer• Allow advisers to demonstrate expertise in a

certain field• Doesn't require too much time• A collection of concrete questions is the most

valuable part of the question archive of the project.

Example of incoming questions:concrete

Country: United Arab Emirates E-mail: OSA93@yahoo.com

Question:What is the difference between online studies and distance studies?

Thanks

Miscellaneous questions

• 5% of total questions

• Is a typical side effect of all online interactive tools

• Can be divided into three types: advertisements, inappropriate, provocative

• Must be deleted from the Administrative Center without answering

VCO Consulting Service: Summary of the Structure of Answers

1. Inspirational sentence

2. Body of the answer:

• template for “very basic” questions

• directing for “labor-intensive” questions

• tailored for “concrete” questions

3. Call to action sentence (invitation)

Expected results

• Saving time for VCO team members

• Increase of professionalism in consulting service

• Use this methodology for training of new VCO team members

• Try to implement this consulting technique for telephone and e-mail consultations

VCO and US educational institutions

• Refer interested applicants with questions not specific to US institution to the VCO web portal

• Let your current students and alumni know that they are welcome to participate in the "forum" and other sections of the VCO project

• Locate the VCO banner on your website

Advising Without Borders!