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 passage, the president of Humana University predicts that instituting online degree programs will help Humana both increase its total enrollment and solve its budget problems. This argument is based on the success of nearby Omni University that provides online programs whose enrollment rates increased while expenditures for dormitory and classrooms decreased. However, more questions regarding the draw of online programs for potential students of Humana University, costs for offering online programs, and other reasons why enrollment of Humana University has reduced must be answered to assess the robustness of the president's prediction.
The first question we need to answer is the draw of online programs for potential students. Since the nearby Omni University is already providing online courses, the benefits of Humana also adopting a similar measure could be overestimated. For example, students who want to enroll in online programs might simply choose to enroll at Omni's University. Also, if Humana University is well-known for its beautiful campus, the inclination for students to enroll in Humana might decrease if they choose to adopt an online degree measure.
Secondly, we need to know about the cost of Humana University to offer online degree programs. Adopting a whole new measure entails many kinds of costs. For example, virtual lectures and classrooms are an important factor in online degree programs. Hence, schools need to provide training for professors and teaching assistants so that they know how to use online meeting software and interact with students online. Schools may also need to hire additional technical support to solve problems such as online traffic and web security issues. Furthermore, new computers and tablets that aid online programs might also need to be bought. If these costs greatly outstrip the revenue generated from increased enrollment, then adopting an online program might not be beneficial.
Finally, it is crucial that we investigate the actual reasons why the enrollment rate at Humana University is falling. The president claims that Humana can replicate the success of Omni University and increase its enrollment rate. However, if the main reason for the drop in enrollment rate is due to the low quality of courses and abysmal teaching of professors, converting these into a virtual format might contribute little to improving the current status. Furthermore, if students are less inclined to enroll in Humana because of their unkempt environment and sordid buildings, Humana should instead focus on improving the learning environment. Hence, the underlying reasons for the declining enrollment rate in Humana must be evaluated to corroborate the president's prediction.
In conclusion, the aforementioned questions must be evaluated to substantiate the president's prediction that offering online programs has positive effects on the schools' enrollment rate and budget.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 20 15
No. of Words: 447 350
No. of Characters: 2454 1500
No. of Different Words: 207 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.598 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.49 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.779 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 219 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 160 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 118 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 74 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.35 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 7.637 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.85 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.367 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.566 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.168 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 628, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...nswered to assess the robustness of the presidents prediction. The first question we ne...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 7, column 761, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...na must be evaluated to corroborate the presidents prediction. In conclusion, the afor...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 83, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'presidents'' or 'president's'?
Suggestion: presidents'; president's
...s must be evaluated to substantiate the presidents prediction that offering online program...
^^^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 163, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[1]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'schools'' or 'school's'?
Suggestion: schools'; school's
...ne programs has positive effects on the schools enrollment rate and budget.
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, regarding, second, secondly, so, then, well, while, for example, in conclusion, of course, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 19.6327345309 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 18.0 12.9520958084 139% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 13.6137724551 66% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 21.0 28.8173652695 73% => OK
Preposition: 51.0 55.5748502994 92% => OK
Nominalization: 17.0 16.3942115768 104% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2506.0 2260.96107784 111% => OK
No of words: 447.0 441.139720559 101% => OK
Chars per words: 5.6062639821 5.12650576532 109% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.59808378696 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85657536603 2.78398813304 103% => OK
Unique words: 217.0 204.123752495 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.485458612975 0.468620217663 104% => OK
syllable_count: 791.1 705.55239521 112% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.8 1.59920159681 113% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 19.7664670659 101% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 53.1603940918 57.8364921388 92% => OK
Chars per sentence: 125.3 119.503703932 105% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.35 23.324526521 96% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.15 5.70786347227 143% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 4.0 5.25449101796 76% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.308971149269 0.218282227539 142% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.11353263553 0.0743258471296 153% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0741659327028 0.0701772020484 106% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.197450615229 0.128457276422 154% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0749609614675 0.0628817314937 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.2 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 32.22 48.3550499002 67% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.55 12.5979740519 123% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.14 8.32208582834 110% => OK
difficult_words: 125.0 98.500998004 127% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 16.0 11.9071856287 134% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
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.