The following is part of a memorandum from the president of Humana University.
"Last year the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs offered by nearby Omni University increased by 50 percent. During the same year, Omni showed a significant decrease from prior years in expenditures for dormitory and classroom space, most likely because instruction in the online programs takes place via the Internet. In contrast, over the past three years, enrollment at Humana University has failed to grow, and the cost of maintaining buildings has increased along with our budget deficit. To address these problems, Humana University will begin immediately to create and actively promote online degree programs like those at Omni. We predict that instituting these online degree programs will help Humana both increase its total enrollment and solve its budget problems."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the prediction.
In the above memorandum from the president of Humana University, he states that the number of students who enrolled in online degree programs increased by 50 percent which has lead to a significant decrease in the expenditures for dormitories and classroom space. The president of Humana University predicts that instituting these online programs in Humana University will lead to an increase in enrollment as well as decrease the cost required for maintaining the buildings in view of the budget deficit. The president of Humana University has based his prediction on the observation that these programs have been a success in Omni University and are likely to change the current situation of Humana University. However, before this prediction can be properly evaluated three questions need to be answered.
First of all, are the Omni University and Humana University comparable? In other words, will the implementation of the online degree programs in one University be viable and applicable to another University? It might be possible that Omni University is more renowned and has a well-established reputation which attracts the students and they look at it as a prestigious opportunity to study at a renowned University without having to pay accommodation and housing expenses. It might be possible that professors at Omni University are more skilled and adept at teaching as compared to Humana University. Thus students will be willing to pursue an online degree program at this University to have a concise understanding of fundamental concepts related to a particular course without feeling shy or fear of being left behind. If either of these scenarios has merit then it would weaken the prediction which has been made.
Secondly, has the Humana University failed to grow collectively, or just in a particular area or field? It might be possible that Humana University has been growing in academics but has a weak literature or sports program due to which there have been no notable alumni from the university in that field. If this is true, then starting an online degree program to improve enrollment might m=not be a feasible option. The University should look at other plausible alternatives like hiring better professors or encouraging students to take part in these extracurricular activities, promote literary and sports clubs, etc. These alternatives will reduce the expenditure for the University, in the sense that they would not have to purchase high-speed internet with a large bandwidth, training costs for the professor to get them acquainted with the technology, etc. If the above scenario is true, then the prediction would be weakened.
Thirdly, if the online degree program is implemented, then how would it help to increase enrollment and solve the budget problems? It might be possible that in the online degree program market there are other competitors, i.e other Universities which have been involved in this market for a significant amount of time and have a plethora of courses each having a higher educational quality as compared to Humana University. There is no information provided on the existing competitors in this market and no surveys or numbers regarding the likely increase in enrollment that would occur. There is no information provided about research being done on the viability of implementing this program, no statistical information or time period within which the enrollment would start to increase nor the percentage decrease in maintenance cost of buildings. Since there is no information provided on the above question it would weaken the prediction.
The president of Humana University has based his prediction on a number of assumptions which if unwarranted are likely to make the prediction wrong. In order to predict more information is needed in the form of bar graphs, statistics, surveys which will estimate the probability of the prediction being right so as to give clarity on whether the online degree program should be implemented. If this information is provided then it will be possible to estimate the likelihood of this prediction being true and on basis of that, a suitable plan of action can be taken in favor of the Humana University.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 11 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 5 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 677 350
No. of Characters: 3485 1500
No. of Different Words: 270 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.101 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.148 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.992 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 264 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 198 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 164 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 109 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 29.435 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 15.251 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.696 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.528 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.135 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 604, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Thus,
...ching as compared to Humana University. Thus students will be willing to pursue an o...
^^^^
Line 3, column 825, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “If” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...eling shy or fear of being left behind. If either of these scenarios has merit the...
^^
Line 6, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...then the prediction would be weakened. Thirdly, if the online degree program is...
^^^
Line 9, column 94, Rule ID: IF_IS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'is'?
Suggestion: is
...iction on a number of assumptions which if unwarranted are likely to make the pred...
^^
Line 9, column 310, Rule ID: SO_AS_TO[1]
Message: Use simply 'to'
Suggestion: to
...obability of the prediction being right so as to give clarity on whether the online degr...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, look, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, thus, well, as to, of course, as well as, first of all, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 36.0 19.6327345309 183% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 22.0 11.1786427146 197% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 13.6137724551 147% => OK
Pronoun: 39.0 28.8173652695 135% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 99.0 55.5748502994 178% => OK
Nominalization: 27.0 16.3942115768 165% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3545.0 2260.96107784 157% => OK
No of words: 675.0 441.139720559 153% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.25185185185 5.12650576532 102% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.09713273454 4.56307096286 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.04554688519 2.78398813304 109% => OK
Unique words: 273.0 204.123752495 134% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.404444444444 0.468620217663 86% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1158.3 705.55239521 164% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 7.0 2.70958083832 258% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 6.0 4.22255489022 142% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 68.7535857651 57.8364921388 119% => OK
Chars per sentence: 147.708333333 119.503703932 124% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.125 23.324526521 121% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.5 5.70786347227 114% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 5.25449101796 95% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 11.0 8.20758483034 134% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.280886826254 0.218282227539 129% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.102360792999 0.0743258471296 138% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0858894638801 0.0701772020484 122% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.183753753992 0.128457276422 143% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0957627490893 0.0628817314937 152% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.4 14.3799401198 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 34.6 48.3550499002 72% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 15.4 12.197005988 126% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.47 12.5979740519 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.42 8.32208582834 101% => OK
difficult_words: 145.0 98.500998004 147% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 20.5 12.3882235529 165% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 21.0 11.9071856287 176% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.