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.
The statement from Humana University that following the path of success shown by Omni University seems plausible and great at first. Omni University has been successfully conducting and growing their online degrees and decreasing their expenditures at the same time. However, Humana University must carefully examine Omni University before making the conclusion. Various factors can be the cause of the decrease in spending, and the differences in the characteristics among these two different univerisities must be examined. If the proper assumptions are not well established, the result of the effort from Humana could be worse than the previous condition and it might hurts Humana University in the long run.
The author’s assumes that the decrease of the expenditure of Omni University is a direct result of the growth of its online programs. Higher enrollments willl produce more income for the university seems possible, yet it does not guarantee that the spending will decrease also. Omni University might have existing offline programs that still operate, and the number of these programs might be the same for some years. Perhaps, Omni University does a very good job in improving the efficiency of those programs, or the Omni authority tries to cut several budget that can reduce the spending without any detrimental effect to the university. If this is the case, then Humana must seek the answer of what are the factors that cause th reduction in Omni University spending. How can they reduce the cost if it is true that the online classes stay the same all this time? It is also possible that the dormitory capacity and classrooms usage are still the same, and it is a direct result of the same condition of the offline classes. Or, Omni University might achieve the extreme; it is possible that they open more offline classes while also grow their online programs. The question of what factors that cause the decline in spending at Omni University must be answered before Humana take the same strategy to reduce spending in the time of difficulty that they are facing at the moment.
After talking about the role model, we can further analyze the variables inside Humana University itself. The president of the Humana University must first confirm the underlying cause of the building maintenance costs before making the same strategy from other university. From the analysis given, the president presumes that the cost of building maintenance correlates with the inception of online programs. What if these two problems do not connnect with each other? The cost of maintenance must be carefully broken into its components, and the president must find one or more variables that cause the increase in spending. It is plausible that the budget deficit is caused by increasing spending in facilities that are needed by the existing offline programs. These offline programs might be, in some ways, crucial to the university. What if some of offline programs could be the main programs offered by the university attract most of the new students annually? Before making the same strategy with Omni University, Humana University must answer this question regarding their existing structure of budget in spending and the condition of their offline classes. It is also possible that with improving these existing major offline classes would be better option and more effective one for the university in the future.
Many factors, both internally and externally from the examples from other university, must be examined by Humana University before deciding on which action is the best for them. The right assumptions and with sufficient actual data can bring the best strategy for the university. From now, the current stance of Humana University is not compelling enough and need to be evaluated further.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 8 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 6 2
No. of Sentences: 27 15
No. of Words: 617 350
No. of Characters: 3143 1500
No. of Different Words: 242 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.984 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.094 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.619 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 234 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 176 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 134 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 81 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.852 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 6.525 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.556 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.35 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.471 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.12 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 4 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 273, Rule ID: ALSO_SENT_END[1]
Message: 'Also' is not used at the end of the sentence. Use 'as well' instead.
Suggestion: as well
...arantee that the spending will decrease also. Omni University might have existing of...
^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, regarding, so, still, then, well, while, talking about, it is true
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 28.0 19.6327345309 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 24.0 12.9520958084 185% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 13.6137724551 125% => OK
Pronoun: 46.0 28.8173652695 160% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 75.0 55.5748502994 135% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3206.0 2260.96107784 142% => OK
No of words: 617.0 441.139720559 140% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.1961102107 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.98392262146 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.68389883201 2.78398813304 96% => OK
Unique words: 252.0 204.123752495 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.408427876823 0.468620217663 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1045.8 705.55239521 148% => 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: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 6.0 1.67365269461 358% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 5.0 4.22255489022 118% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 27.0 19.7664670659 137% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.8214582949 57.8364921388 67% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.740740741 119.503703932 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.8518518519 23.324526521 98% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.40740740741 5.70786347227 60% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 4.0 5.15768463074 78% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 6.88822355289 174% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.286776664193 0.218282227539 131% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0939730676219 0.0743258471296 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0606841418921 0.0701772020484 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.193233812215 0.128457276422 150% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0568932468556 0.0628817314937 90% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 14.5 14.3799401198 101% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.95 8.32208582834 96% => OK
difficult_words: 126.0 98.500998004 128% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 12.5 12.3882235529 101% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.9071856287 109% => 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.