Politécnico Grancolombiano

  • Quality virtual education as a growth driver.

Case Study
Down
IMPLEMENTING
A VIRTUAL MODEL
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  • Politécnico Grancolombiano, a highly prestigious institution with several campus in Colombia, transformed itself and became the virtual market leader. How did this happen?

    Being a “universal university” has been part of the philosophy of Politécnico Grancolombiano since it was founded in 1981. However the institution prestige was strongly linked to the camus based education provided in Bogota. The institution’s classrooms were full but the vision of becoming universal was always present. Nevertheless, becoming a leader in quality virtual education involved transformation.

    What were the keys to the institution’s transformation?

    With the ILUMNO model, the quality of the virtual education matches the quality of campus based education

    Jurgen Chiari Escobar
    Provost of Politécnico Grancolombiano
  • The challenge

    Politecnico Grancolombiano goal was to expand access to quality higher education by offering virtual learning opportunities. Using the ILUMNO model and its support, Politécnico Grancolombiano increased its overall enrollment from 8,700 students in 2008 to 30,000 students in 2015.

    Around 2005, with the emergence of the Web 2.0, the Internet became more interactive, offering new ways to consume information. Virtual education was starting in Latin America, but in Colombia the academic community was not deeply engaged with the modality.

    At that time, Politécnico Grancolombiano had a platform for creating and managing online content, known as the Technological Student Support program, where faculty could  upload supplemental materials for their camous based classes.
  • Moving towards internationalization: partnering with Ilumno

    ILUMNO offered the solutions that Politécnico Grancolombiano needed. At that time, ILUMNO was developing ways to help universities in Latin America implement virtual operations, and the outlook was good.
  • Big successes in a short time

    Since partnering with ILUMNO in 2007, Politécnico Grancolombiano achieved numerous milestones:

    • Growing from 8,700 students in 2008 to 30,000 students in 2015.
    • Expanding its portfolio to include almost 100 academic programs, with both campus based and virtual programs.
    • Building a staff of around 600 faculty and tutors and almost 1,000 administrative staff
    • Improving its efficiency through a series of administrative strategies.
    • Developing a student relationship management system (CRM) that tracks students from enrollment to graduation, which has significantly reduced the number of students who drop out.
    • Working jointly with other universities using the ILUMNO “centers of excellence,” which address such issues as:
      • social responsibility,
      • leadership,
      • research,
      • and language learning

    By sharing best practices and learning from each other’s successes, Politecnico Grancolombiano has been able to evolve faster.The institution has been taking advantage of many other services available ILUMNO affiliated institutions:

    • Updating its digital image using the ILUMNO web content management system.
    • Improving its branding and social media presence.
    • Implementing SAP for more efficient and productive processes.
    • Reaching important agreements to offer international certificates  from prestigious universities in the United States of America and Europe.
  • LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

    The concept of a “universal university” is now a reality: Students can access the classroom 24 hours a day, every day of the year, from anywhere in the world.

    Nevertheless, with the pace of change in the world today, new challenges are comings. In the future, one of the biggest challenge will be to keep up with new innovations, by developing services, content, and tracking processes that are custom made to each student. The ultimate aim, however, will remain the same: expanding access to quality higher education.
  • THE SERVICES THAT ARE HELPING
    politécnico grancolombiano

    ILUMNO gives universities the support they need to meet the challenges they face now and in the future. We do this by focusing on four key areas to help institutions evolve successfully.

MORE SERVICES
ILUMNO OFFERS

Performance
GROWTH

 

This portfolio contains tools and best practices to optimize marketing, branding, enrollment and retention. It promotes the development of online learning programs for both virtual and on-campus education.

TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY

 

This set of solutions contains tools to amplify reach, maximize assets, visualize data and automate processes.

The Ilumno Cube, our patented cloud based platform, provides virtual and highly-rated academic programs to students everywhere.

CONTENT
CONTENT

 

We have developed the most advanced content platform on the market with the backing of well-known and respected brands.

This suite includes a digital repository, digital library and continuing education platform.

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