Ah, the conundrum of pricing education programs – a labyrinth of decisions fraught with the peril of deterring learners with exorbitant fees or leaving revenue potential untapped with undervalued offerings. It’s a quandary that keeps educators and program administrators up at night, pondering the delicate balance between attracting eager learners and sustaining financial viability.

Diving into the Dilemma

In a room brimming with seasoned professionals, we posed a crucial question to the attendees: How do you currently determine the pricing of your programs? The responses painted a vivid picture of the challenges plaguing the pricing landscape:

• 60% attempt to gauge the perceived value of their offerings.
• 57% take a peek at what competitors are charging and adjust accordingly.
• 45% base their pricing on the cost of the program, adding a markup for good measure.
• Only 19% have the courage to directly ask their customers what they’re willing to shell out.

Navigating the Choppy Waters

Yet, beneath the surface lies a myriad of challenges that can shake even the most confident pricers to their core:

• Members, accustomed to shelling out dues, often expect educational programs, like webinars, to be freebies.
• Fierce competition, including from entities offering similar programs for free or at lower prices, casts a shadow over pricing decisions.
• Economic realities, such as stagnant salaries and dwindling professional development budgets, constrict the purse strings of potential learners.
• The emergence of a culture of freely shared knowledge in certain professions poses a formidable barrier to charging for educational offerings.

Deconstructing the Pricing Paradigm

#1: Value

Value serves as the bedrock upon which pricing strategies are built. By discerning what learners truly value, educators can tailor their programs to meet those needs and effectively communicate their worth. Considerations include:

• The allure of continuing education credits.
• The esteemed reputation of subject matter experts.
• Tangible proof, such as glowing testimonials, of knowledge or performance enhancement.
• Access to influential figures or peer networks.
• Opportunities for practical application and skill refinement.
• Ancillary benefits like supporting materials or discounted travel arrangements.

#2 Price

Price, the tangible expression of value, demands careful calibration. Engaging in thorough portfolio analysis and competitor research helps establish appropriate pricing structures. Strategies include:

• Offering a spectrum of products across various price points to cater to diverse audiences.
• Understanding consumers’ reference price range and anchoring pricing accordingly.
• Employing methodologies like the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter or the Gabor-Granger Method to gauge consumer price perceptions and demand elasticity.

#3: Communication

Effective communication is the linchpin that binds value propositions to consumer perceptions. Strategic branding and messaging can reshape how programs are perceived and elevate their desirability. Considerations include:

• Crafting compelling narratives that differentiate offerings from competitors.
• Reimagining product categories and formats to shed any negative connotations.
• Introducing elite programs with prestige pricing to elevate the perceived value of other offerings.

In Conclusion

Navigating the labyrinth of pricing educational programs demands a strategic blend of insight, intuition, and innovation. By anchoring pricing decisions in the pillars of value, price, and communication, educators can chart a course toward sustainable growth and learner satisfaction. So, let’s embark on this journey together, unlocking the true potential of educational programs while ensuring they remain accessible and impactful for all. Give the experts at InReach a call today!

The post Navigating Pricing for Educational Programs appeared first on InReach Continuing Education Management System.

More often than not, when asked why they’re considering changing up their continuing education program to offer more online options, association leaders cite the need to keep up with the changing times, technologically speaking. They also mention the fact that the fast paced lives of their members demands greater flexibility and availability when it comes to meeting their continuing education requirements and goals. As the presence of Millennials becomes more abundant in today’s workforce it becomes even more obvious that going online is not so much the way of the future anymore, but very much an integral part of our present.

Many of us know and understand that change can be scary, but it’s typically one’s thinking about those changes that end up being the real monster under the bed. Often the changes themselves times are revealed as being not only necessary, but long overdue. It’s important that your association remains relevant and useful to its members. To do this, it’s important for your association’s leaders to collect well-informed observations on developing trends, such as learner preferences. Research shows that many learners not only desire quality content, but they also want that quality content to be accessible online and in a variety of ways from webinars to podcasts to on-demand content. Check out this Learner Preferences Infographic to learn more.

To remain relevant to your members, and keep attracting new ones, it is vital to not let your organization linger in that uber-comfy space where what was once considered dependable has quickly turned into the un-imaginative and outdated. Embracing the change! It will ensure the heath and success of your organization. Our “Ten Critical Areas of Success” tip sheet goes into detail about how great content in a convenient, user-friendly platform can help you help your learners. See the tip sheet here.

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The last blog explored how SCORM was developed out of the training needs of various Federal agencies. Originally the content for this training was text-based, which meant that as the online version of the training was developed, the aim was to translate a textbook into an online format. Translating a textbook into an online format is what led to SCORM’s flexibility and more modular approach to distributing on-line learning content. Just as a professor teaching a class might choose to skip around a textbook and cover chapters in a different order than the textbook’s author, a SCORM learner can move through their SCORM course at their own pace and cover sections in any order they please.

Continuing education, on the other hand, has its roots in the world of live events. Many CE providers originally started (and many continue to this day) by recording a live event and making it available online. The typical format is a well-known, highly knowledgeable individual speaking on a specific topic. With these subject-matter experts expounding on a particular topic, there has not been much need for a learner to “jump-around” within a particular course, which helps explain why the format has not changed significantly.

Now, the two worlds are converging. General education content producers, who are well-versed in SCORM, are looking for new horizons. And more and more, they are looking to the world of CE. Meanwhile, the more traditional CE providers are looking to increase learner interaction, something for which SCORM is ideally suited. Take all this into consideration, and the increased discussion and implementation of SCORM in the realm of CE becomes much clearer.

The post SCORM: Why Now? appeared first on InReach Continuing Education Management System.

SCORM stands for “Sharable Content Object Reference Model” and is a set of technical standards that define how learning content is made for on-line consumption. The value in having a standard means that the content is “playable” by numerous learning management systems (LMSs).

A good analogy is a JPEG. You can view a picture saved as a JPEG on many devices (computer, tablet, iPhone, Android phone, or Kindle) using many different programs. However, a picture saved as a .psd file can only be viewed using Photoshop, which creates a lot of restrictions. A JPEG is what we, in the technical world, call “platform independent”. A SCORM compliant course is similarly “independent” since it can be accessed by any continuing education management system or learning management system that is also SCORM compliant.

If this is still a bit confusing, looking at the origins of SCORM might help. Back in the 90’s online training was very popular in numerous departments of the Federal government. Unfortunately, there was no uniformity. Each department developed its own content, and used a different CEMS or LMS system to deliver the content. So, even if one department had a great training program, it literally couldn’t be accessed by another department. Sick of all the redundancy and inefficiency, the President ordered that a set of standards be created and used so that content could be shared among departments. This Executive Order was the genesis of SCORM and its focus on interoperability.

So given that SCORM has been in existence for a while, why is it only now impacting the world of continuing education? That will be the topic of the next blog.

The post SCORM: An Acronym Demystified appeared first on InReach Continuing Education Management System.

Ryan: “As an accountant in the state of Texas, I have to take 40 hours of CPE each year. Naturally, I try to find courses that directly relate to my day-to-day responsibilities and meet my CPE requirements. I’ve been a practicing accountant for 7 years, so I’ve taken a lot of CPE in my time. What I find the most useful is educational material that is not only relevant, but engaging and well organized.

I’ve come to appreciate CPE providers who make the effort to provide mandatory topics, like Ethics, in an interesting manner. I’ve struggled to stay awake through many an ethics course, and was bracing myself for the same boring experience last year, but was pleasantly surprised. I stumbled upon an ethics course that engaged me by using real world examples relevant to my work environment and provided the information in simple, jargon free language. Even better, they used frequent mini-quizzes to check my comprehension and this helped break the learning into easy to remember chunks—and kept me focused and engaged.

This year, I plan to take more courses from this provider, even though my membership association provides me with discounted CPE. Forty hours is an appreciable amount of time, too long to spend dozing through poorly executed, rambling presentations.

Working at InReach, I’m aware of all the latest technological developments in CE, and how our customers are utilizing them. So, you could argue that my standards are very high, but I would say that what really matters in CE is well organized, relevant content delivered in an engaging manner.”

Do you know what your learners want in their CE? For more insight into what learners are looking for in CE,check out our infographic!

The post Get the Inside scoop- What One Learner Wants in CE appeared first on InReach Continuing Education Management System.

Part of that commitment to the best learner experience involves looking ahead and identifying the changes and trends in the industry that you need to consider incorporating in your CEMS. For instance, currently SCORM-compliant educational content and the ability to serve content on mobile devices are two hot topics in the world of CE. However, in order to stay current, you can’t wait for a topic to become “hot” before you build it into your product. Remember in previous blogs when we talked about the delays in production time you should expect when building your CEMS. Well, those same delays exist for updating your CEMS. So, any major overhauls, like enabling your system to support SCORM-compliant content requires months of planning and work before it can actually be deployed and used.

In a company, there is usually a team of people dedicated to just this—identifying ways the software needs to develop and grow, and coming up with plans to execute those changes in the quickest way possible. This is the essence of maintaining a competitive edge, and requires dedicated staff and time. In a non-corporate environment, it might be harder to justify this expense.

Another area that might prove a challenge if you go the build route is partnerships. The best companies use partnerships to find synergies and save themselves from reinventing the wheel. However, few organizations that build their own solution command a large enough customer base to be considered a valuable “partner” by companies. For instance, to your Association Management System, you are just one customer, a large one perhaps, but still just one customer. On the other hand, an online continuing education management system company, such as InReach, represents hundreds of customers, and is more likely to be considered a valuable partner by other companies.

Taking InReach as an example, we’ve worked hard to create partnerships that will enable us to deliver the best learner experience, and help our customers meet revenue goals. Ranging from seamless integrations with GoToMeeting that maintain a completely branded learning experience, to our exclusive agreement with proSHARE to generate non-dues revenue via online advertising, all our partnerships are designed to quickly generate the incremental benefits our customers and their learners demand and deserve.

At the end of the day, I hope you’ve found this series informative and have a better idea of the true costs and responsibilities involved in building your own continuing education management solution. Taking your continuing education program online requires an investment of funds and staff resources, as well as the certainty that the choices you make are the best for your members. Ultimately, my goal is to ensure that whatever investment you choose—build or buy—that you make an informed decision.

The post Build vs Buy – Strategic Planning and Product Roadmaps appeared first on InReach Continuing Education Management System.

Jump-start the process by following these three steps:

1. Sell the value
In order to change people have to be convinced that it is in their best interests. By helping your managers see the benefits on online learning, you are one step closer to getting the project approved. This is probably one of the easier parts of the process since the benefits online learning brings to an organization range from increased productivity to cost savings and enhanced revenues. In fact, the benefits of online learning are so numerous that we’ll cover them separately in next week’s post.

2. Build a compelling case
To motivate change it’s not enough to spout facts about the benefits of online education and training. You have to show why your existing systems or processes are unsatisfactory, and how the changes you propose can solve that. Here’s one way you can structure your arguments:

• Describe the problem & provide background: In a short paragraph or two outline the issues or problems that need to be solved.
• Explain the solution: Present your objectives or proposed solutions in short bullet points.
• Define the scope: Identify organizational processes that may be affected. In addition to your department, there might be other departments or outside partners that may be involved or affected once the project starts. Succinctly describe how these other departments will be impacted.
• List requirements: List all the resources, from staff to software, needed to complete the project.
• Provide alternatives: If you don’t mention them, someone will. List out a couple of alternatives to your plans, and briefly compare and contrast each option.
• Identify the success factors: Explain how your proposal promotes the success factors your organization values. This where you would provide ROI metrics and additional supporting information.

3. Present your case strategically
What you say is as important as how you say it. When making your case to different individuals it pays to consider the following.

• Keep it simple. Try to make your case without descending into the alphabet soup and technical jargon that can confuse first time listeners.
• Know your audience and understand what motivates them. While you all have the joint goal of growing the business, each department goes about that in a different way. Consider their responsibilities and pain points. By understanding what your audience really cares about, and aligning your case to their goals you will find them to be much more supportive.
• Expect a series of conversations, and use them to solidify your case. People will have questions that you can’t answer on the spot, others may want you to gather more facts or may have questions about system features. Think of each interaction as another chance to highlight the value of the changes you are recommending.

Ultimately, your goal is to get everyone excited about and committed to the changes you are advocating.

The post Getting Management Buy-In appeared first on InReach Continuing Education Management System.

The alphabet soup of TMS (Talent Management System), LMS (Learning Management System) and CEMS (Continuing Education Management System), and the differences between the three can seem like you’re reading hieroglyphics.

The trick is in the names, so here’s your Rosetta Stone when it comes to deciphering online learning tools.

A Talent Management System does just that, manage talent. And while it may have all the bells and whistles you want for a smooth employee onboarding process, it probably won’t have the ability to webcast live events or reformat live events for online delivery, testing and certification.

It’s at this point that discerning the differences between types of systems can become more confusing. A Learning Management System can have many of the features and functionalities you desire, but it may be missing the rigorous testing and certification capabilities you need to meet your employees’ mandatory continuing education requirements. While there are many companies that use an LMS to deliver education and training, it is not the optimal system for delivering accredited continuing education.

A Continuing Education Management System includes all the functions unique to continuing professional education and the rules applicable to maintaining compliance. Only a CEMS will enable you to create accredited content, deliver it in a variety of formats, meet testing requirements, and report on course completion and continuing education compliance. In short, it is the system of choice for any business whose employees have mandatory continuing education requirements.

For a deeper comparison between and LMS and a CEMS download this tipsheet.

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