Higher
Education

Higher Education is at a pivotal point. The past few years have been challenging for colleges and universities across the United States. Change has been rapid and profound. But with this change comes opportunity. Opportunities to be boldly innovative and dynamically forward-thinking.

The Consultants at SIMMONS and SIMMONS GROUP collaborate with Higher Education institutions to help transform these opportunities into reality through targeted strategic planning.

Overview of Services

Colleges and Universities play a vital role in all facets of our life. They are at the forefront of medical research, social justice, economic development, environmental sustainability, and civic engagement.

In today's world, Higher Education leaders must be proficient in all areas of management, including academics, finances and financial aid, student life and services, advancement and development, athletics, marketing and security.

SIMMONS AND SIMMONS GROUP provides support services to facilitate

Resilient, forward-thinking financial planning
Innovative and Inclusive student recruitment and retention policies
Visionary and Strategic curricula development and implementation
Holistic Institutional and Curricula Assessment
Sophisticated and Dynamic capacity building

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Strategic Advising

The pace of change has increased exponentially over the past few years and is likely to continue. Yet educational institutions are still expected to meet their mission and vision goals, maintain enrollment, grow new programs to meet changing community and global demands, and ensure financial stability. The key to achieving these institutional goals and societal demands is the through the professional Strategic Planning offered by SIMMONS and SIMMONS GROUP.

STRATEGIC PLANNING is vital to an organization’s success. Strategic plans provide a map to where you want to move your organization in 5 or 10 years. At SIMMONS and SIMMONS GROUP, we can help you set priorities, focus energy and resources, identify needed capacities, strengthen operations, align stakeholders and employees on the organization’s goals, and ensure those goals are backed by data and sound reasoning.

We have developed a research-based strategic planning model, 4-SIGHT FINANCIAL MODEL that incorporates a variety of customizable inputs generate recommendations tailored to your organization to help you meet financial, enrollment, growth, and support targets.

And while Strategic Planning is vital for long-term health of colleges and universities, we also recognize that it is an on-going process. Things change -- Goals and measures of success, priorities, capacities and resources, academic and administrative programs are al subject to change.

We are committed to your long-term success and will continue to be a source of support over the years.

4-Sight Financial Model

University Presidents and Finance officers at most Universities are faced with the challenge of accurately and reliably predicting future revenue. With growing budgetary needs, annual changes in fees, market instabilities, and increasingly unpredictable student enrollment, developing enrollment and financial forecasts has become an endeavor fraught with uncertainty and frustration.

At SIMMONS AND SIMMONS GROUP, our patent-pending 4-SIGHT Financial Model reduces these uncertainties by generating a multi-year enrollment and financial projection using national trends and proprietary algorithms. It allows you to visualize long-term trends in recruitment, retention and revenue, run scenarios to determine the likely range of impacts, and make strategic decisions years ahead of critical decision points.

Increasingly, governing boards and accrediting agencies expect long-term plans that show financial sustainability and 3 to 5 year financial projections. However, these projections are challenging because many of the key variables, such as tuition, scholarships, retention, housing, and operating expenses, are intertwined in complex ways.

Our 4-SIGHT Financial Model helps you visualize and understand the complex and non-linear interactions in your institutional data and generates projections that are evidence-based and reliable. For example, you can find the operational “sweet spot” for your institution by optimizing enrollment, discount rate, and student retention.

A powerful feature of the 4-SIGHT Financial Model is the ability to quickly and easily run scenario tests. The user can change the value of any of the key inputs – like retention rate or number of first-year students – and instantly see the impact on model outputs. Read more in the Budget Projections for Strategic Financial Planning White paper.

Training

Employee training is essential to the overall health of Higher Education institutions. And in some cases, training is a requirement of state law or for licensing. SIMMONS AND SIMMONS GROUP offers core training courses as well as customized content.

When employees are properly trained, they work more effectively and efficiently. They have a better understanding of institutional procedures and practices. This, in turn, enhances their workplace performance. .

Regular employee training also reduce turnover by offering new skills, a strengthened sense of confidence, and more opportunities for advancement within the institution. This often results in an increase in job satisfaction. retention, and loyalty.

Trainers at SIMMONS AND SIMMONS are certified and experienced in developing and delivering training to Higher Education staff, faculty, leadership, and board members. We also convert (and update) existing training courses used by institutions into a variety of useful applications, including Instructor led group training, self-paced courses (both synchronous and asynchronous), and hybrid courses. These can be formatted for both in-person and remote. Training results are immediately available for supervisors and trainees.

We offer a variety training courses: onboarding, safety, compliance, workplace skills, DEI, anti-sexual harassment, leadership, and board. All courses can be tailored for specific groups and incorporate third-party content.

Courses can be SCORM packaged for upload on clients' LMS or delivered through SIMMONS AND SIMMONS GROUP's Moodle LMS.

Instructional Design & Outcomes Assessment

Creating and executing a successful academic instructional courses and programs can be challenging, especially when expectations for learner experiences and outcomes are high. SIMMONS and SIMMONS GROUP is experienced in developing academic content and designs that focus on learner success. We collaborate with Institutional designers and SMEs to ensure the content and design is customized and institution-unique.

We design custom courses that are multi-platform, scalable to various devices, and interface with a wide variety of Learning Management Systems. We customize content and designs for different presentation formats (Instructor led, Self--paced, and Hybrid; Synchronous and Asynchronous) and user friendly can be a complex process. SIMMONS and SIMMONS GROUP is experienced in designing curriculum that that engages learners, bolster’s enrollment encourages donor support, and enhances success.

Learner-Centered. Our learner-focused commitment is at the heart of all of our design platforms and configurations. We integrate modern instructional design frameworks and software (e.g. Captivate and Articulate) with established learning theories to create an interactive and engaging experiences. We build content with tractable student progress measures to better enable learners and faculty to access progress throughout our courses.

Curated Curriculum. Our instructional architecture leverages the advanced research skills of our consultants, all of whom have graduate degrees, to develop carefully curated, customized curriculum.

Aligned to Learning Objectives. All of our instructional designs incorporate alignment between learning materials and learning objectives. This helps ensure easy assessment and reporting for training requirements and accreditations.

DEI Sensitive. We develop content that is Diversity-focused and accessible to ensure inclusion and equity in curriculum content.

Scalable Format. We design learning materials that are scalable to a variety of learning formats, including E-Learning and In-Person, Hybrid, Self-Paced and Instructor-Led, Synchronous and Asynchronous, Modular Courses and Micro-Learning Lessons. We also ensure mobile compliance.

LMS integration. Our learning designs incorporates embedded SCORM content to ensure seamless integration with most Learning Management Systems (LMS).

ILT and Web Conversions. We can also help modernize and scale your existing curriculum and training programs by converting traditional content into E-Learning platforms for both synchronous and asynchronous formats. We work with Instructional Designers, academic executives, as well as individual faculty to develop E-Learning curricula. These can be converted from existing Instructor ed courses or our consultants, who hold PhDs, can help create well-curated courses using the most timely and level-appropriate information. We provide these curricula in upload-ready SCORM packages for your institutional IT personnel.

Outcomes Assessment
In order to maintain accreditations, meet state requirements, and satisfy governing board expectations, Colleges and Universities must engage in Outcomes Assessment, often at all institutional levels, from physical plant to academics.

The purpose of Outcomes Assessment and the accompanying Data Analysis is ensure that academic departments, programs, and individual courses, as well as support administrative support programs continue to improve and positively contribute to the mission of the Institution.

Key to this process is developing measurable objectives that align with specified goals, assessing objectives to determine if they are being met, and then making changes when needed.
SIMMONS and SIMMONS GROUP is experienced in providing a range of data analysis and assessment services specifically for Higher Education. Our Consultants are certified in Assessment and Data Analysis.

Outcomes Assessment can be undertaken as a stand alone service, part of a Strategic Plan, or a component of Instructional Design.

Simmons &
Simmons
Group, LLC

Higher
Education

Overview of Services

_______________
Strategic Advising

4-Sight Financial Model

Training

Instructional Design & Outcomes Assessment

Moving Colleges and Universities into the Future
with Innovative Designs and Intelligent Solutions

Higher Education

Overview of Services

4-Sight Financial Model​

Moving Colleges and Universities into the Future with Innovative Designs and Intelligent Solutions

Higher
Education

4-Sight Financial Model

Moving Colleges and Universities into the Future
with Innovative Designs and Intelligent Solutions