Greg has spent a decade analyzing business and marketing performance metrics of the companies he has worked with. He uses his analytical mind and investigative skills to find trends and simple answers from complicated data sets. Greg is also an amateur photographer who loves to capture nature from new perspectives.
Informal ed programs need a registration management solution that meets their needs and their budget. If you’re looking for a new registration management software solution, Learning Stream might be on your list of tools to check out. They promote themselves as your “registration management concierge.” Sounds fancy, right?
At first glance, Learning Stream has a lot to offer. While the platform includes plenty of features, it might be a more complex tool than most informal ed programs need. And complexity probably isn’t on your list of must-haves when it comes to choosing registration management software. There are several Learning Stream alternatives out there. To help you make an informed decision, we’re comparing Learning Stream head-to-head with CourseStorm’s simple registration management software.
Anyone who has been involved in organizing both classes and events knows that there’s a big difference between the two. If you’re using event registration software to manage class registrations, your system probably isn’t as efficient as it could be. Both tools offer payment processing and online registration but that’s often where the similarities end.
Registration management tools have features specifically designed for either classes or events. If your goal is to manage class registrations, you need some specialized tools. Let’s take a closer look at what you need from a registration platform to help you decide whether a class management solution or an event registration tool is right for your program.
As we move into the new year, we’re very excited to look ahead and get a jump on the new projects we have lined up. But at this time it’s also important to look back and reflect on the things we’ve learned leading up to this point. At CourseStorm, we’re all about growth and we think the content we publish will help any program grow in a successful way.
That’s why we’ve gathered the latest CourseStorm articles you don’t want to miss from 2022. We think these topics are important to review as you move forward into the new year. We hope these refine your strategy for success, or if they’re new subjects for you, we hope you learn important aspects to consider when running your program. Enjoy!
Your program couldn’t survive without its students. In fact, without students, there’s no reason for your program to exist at all. Their choice to register for classes literally keeps the lights on. With so many cheesy, difficult and expensive student appreciation ideas floating around the internet, what can you do to show students that you value their support?
You’re already off to a good start by offering quality classes that students need and want. But, if you want to do a little extra you don’t have to break the budget. The key to an effective appreciation campaign is to show students you care about them as individuals. So your efforts don’t have to be expensive or showy. Small, personalized acts can go a long way toward building student loyalty and helping to retain students. Here are six student appreciation ideas to show your students how much you value them.
You want to deliver on the promises you’ve made to students. That means offering quality classes and minimizing cancelations. Although weather or illness will sometimes result in last minute schedule changes, you try to keep your class cancelation rate as low as possible. No one likes to call off a class due to a lack of registrations.
Yet, sometimes it really is better to cut your losses and not hold a class so you can preserve resources and energy for something else. Your goal shouldn’t be to eradicate cancelations entirely. Focus instead on keeping your class cancelation rate at or below average. We’ll show you how.
Think back to the last big purchase you made. How did you decide what to buy and who to buy it from? If you’re like most people, you probably talked to friends or read reviews. These methods of social proof helped you feel confident that you were making a good purchase. You can give your potential students the same confidence by collecting and sharing student testimonials.
We’ve already done a whole series on feedback and why it’s important, but testimonials are a little different. A testimonial is a statement endorsing your program or class. While feedback may be positive, negative, constructive, or neutral, a testimonial is always positive. To put it another way, feedback is about improving your program, testimonials let you tell people how great it is.
We’ll show you how to collect student testimonials and how to share them to help promote your classes.
Your website is the hub of your program. Without it, attracting and registering students would be a lot harder. A secure website doesn’t just keep your program running, it also protects your students and your program’s reputation. Are you wondering, how do I secure my website and information? Fortunately, you don’t have to be an expert in website security to safeguard your site against bad actors. All you have to do is follow a few website security best practices.
When students register for classes, you take on a responsibility. They entrust you with their personally identifiable information. At very least, the student’s name and contact information will be stored in your online registration system. Most likely you’ll have payment information as well.
In short, there’s really no way to support learners without collecting some sensitive data. That’s why you should discuss these six best practices with your web host to make sure your website stays as secure as possible.
You have a course that’s underperforming. Maybe your whole program isn’t quite reaching its registration goals. Are learners not interested, or might the schedule be to blame? Inconvenient class scheduling can prevent even the most interested student from enrolling.
Most of the advice on class scheduling is written for colleges and universities. It assumes that students have to take certain classes and are enrolled either full or part time. But enrichment, arts and culture, and adult education programs manage course schedules, too.
Enrichment students are different. Most take classes for fun or personal development. If class sessions are inconvenient or hard to access, they just won’t attend. So, you need to attract learners by offering classes on days and times that work for them. Not sure how to optimize your class schedule for non-traditional students? We’ll show you how.
You know your program needs to be on social media. Apparently, that’s where course marketing is happening these days. But you’re not a professional social media marketer and it often feels like you’re posting into the void.
Social media metrics can help you track your social media impact to see what’s working. They can also give you the insight you need to make smart decisions about what, where, and how to post.
Are you wondering how would you measure the right social media metrics? We’ll show you the metrics that matter for course marketing. For each one, we’ll talk about what it is and how to track it. Plus we’ll show you how to troubleshoot if you notice your metrics aren’t where you’d like them to be.
You’ve heard people talking about TikTok. Maybe you’ve seen TikTok videos shared on other social media platforms. You might even be on the platform yourself. It seems like just about everyone is these days. From pre-teens offering each other dance challenges to colleges and universities employing TikTok influencers, everyone seems to be finding their niche on TikTok. All this has you wondering: Should your community education program use TikTok?
Would TikTok help you promote your classes, attract more students, or reach a wider audience? It might. But as with any form of social media, you need a good understanding of the platform and a solid strategy before you try to use TikTok for education programs.
Think of this blog post as a crash course in TikTok. We’ll explore what it is, how you might use it to promote your programs, and what you need to thrive on TikTok. Let’s get started.
