Best Practices

Your arts education program thrives most when it’s profitable and fully integrated into your nonprofit’s offerings. Of course, achieving profitability and integration isn’t easy, especially when your organization is under pressure from funders, partners, and community members to prove your impact. Yet, the consensus from the panel of experts at our recent webinar is that education programs can be more than profitable: They can be the key to growth and stability for your arts nonprofit in 2025. 

Our own Brian Rahill, CEO of CourseStorm, joined with Laura Wong, partnerships manager for technology ecosystems at Fundraise Up and Samantha Bagwell, client relations lead for the US and Canada at Spektrix, to dig into the challenges and opportunities that arts nonprofits are facing in 2025. They shared their expert insights on why education programs are critical, and how they can thrive in the coming year.

Read on for highlights from the webinar, or access the recording to hear directly from our education and fundraising experts.

Arts organizations face challenges and opportunities in 2025

Arts organizations face challenges and opportunities heading into 2025. The speakers on our panel talk to these types of organizations daily, and are noticing some trends: shifting audiences, fewer funding sources, and smaller donations.

For example, one CourseStorm customer, American Stage in St. Petersburg, FL, saw an influx of young families during the pandemic. While previously their offerings were focused on retirees, there was suddenly a real community need to serve young people. This created a challenge, but also an opportunity.

“Organizations are feeling pressure from all sides – financially (certainly), but also from their local community, patrons, and board,” shared Brian Rahill, CEO at CourseStorm.

Under these conditions, growing and maintaining interest in the arts to increase donations and impact becomes a top priority. That’s where education programs really shine. 

Why education programs are critical for arts organizations

According to Samantha and the Spektrix team, 54% of all audiences were first-time ticket buyers in 2023. They anticipate the numbers will be similar as they come in for 2024. This has prompted many arts and theatre organizations to find ever more innovative ways to connect with new audiences and turn them into repeat patrons. 

“Education programs are critical for their own sake … But in terms of revenue, they’re also a critical way to connect with new audiences and build their loyalty to your programming,” Samantha explained.

Samantha pointed out that this opportunity makes it even more important to integrate data from your education programs with your central CRM, marketing, and ticketing platform. Teams working with CourseStorm and Spektrix can instantly invite participants along to their mainstage shows, building a multilayered relationship across their organization.

Brian seconded Samatha’s point, saying, “A thriving education program is a unique opportunity to connect in a new way with the community.”

This is particularly evident in the story of one Fundraise Up client, Bric Brooklyn. This cultural organization has built education programs to address the limited representation of marginalized voices in mainstream media and remove barriers to entry for aspiring artists and creators. Toward this end, they have developed workshops, courses and mentorship opportunities for different skill levels, all in collaboration with local schools, organizations and artists.

Programs like these represent a major opportunity to increase organizational impact. It takes both vision and dedication to build them.

How arts education programs thrive

Most arts organizations are focused on making art and theatre more available to more people. Arts organizations can fill the gap left by a lack of arts resources in school systems and poor accessibility within communities. But they only thrive when they have the right technology to streamline administration and operations.

Garrison Art Center in NY is a great example of an education program thriving with support from CourseStorm. With 85 classes on offer, they were using a shopping cart that was designed for physical products. Students had to fill in shipping info to register for a class, which just didn’t make sense. Staff were wrangling multiple spreadsheets for class rosters which led to mistakes and canceled classes. There were so many manual processes, it limited their growth. With CourseStorm, they saved time and effort. 

Other examples of thriving programs include Sacramento Philharmonic in California which uses pipeline tools in Spektrix to map engagement with school districts. Wolverhampton Grand in England is building long-term relationships through community ambassador programs and creative projects. Their work pays off with larger, more diverse audiences at their events. 

Increasing registrations and ticket sales is just one piece of the puzzle. To thrive in 2025 and beyond, your arts education program also needs to support fundraising efforts.

Fundraising is storytelling: Craft a narrative that moves donors to action

Fundraising is always top of mind for nonprofit organizations in the arts. Our experts offered key insights to put forward your most compelling fundraising story in 2025 and beyond.

Laura from Fundraise Up put it succinctly: “Ultimately, people give to people.Fundraising is an emotional process.” 

Organizations need to capture a donor in that emotional moment. Fundraise Up makes this easy, by automating the daily tasks that don’t require a human touch so you can focus on nurturing relationships with storytelling. But what does it take to emotionally compel people to make the donation? 

“Be transparent – tell your audiences exactly what their donations fund.” – Samantha Bagwell

Bridport Arts Centre does a fantastic job of this on their support page. At each membership level, instead of listing benefits, they list what that gift amount funds – like providing a free ticket for a carer to accompany an audience member with a disability to an event or subsidizing a full term in their Youth Theatre for a local young person. 

One CourseStorm customer, Karamu House in Cleveland, OH offers all their classes on a sliding scale based on income so they can be sure to keep education accessible for a broad audience. This decision is an impact story generator.

Importantly, these organizations also collect demographic information in their checkout process so they can report back to funders the impact of their donations. Highlighting those impacts and telling stories will create a powerful message that inspires donors.

Ways to integrate your education program within your organization

“To make education programs work for growth, nonprofits really need to tie them closely to their mission so it feels like a natural part of what they do, making the impact clearer for supporters.” – Laura Wong

Education programs enable organizations to round out their offerings and provide a rich and complete experience for their community. None of this happens in a vacuum. 

Our experts offered some ways to integrate your education program as a core part of your organization:

• Collaborate with fundraising and marketing to tell stories
• Partner with schools, business and groups to expand your reach
• Engage the community with events and workshops 
• Use customer engagement data to make relevant, tailored donation asks

For an example of this integration in action, we look to Spectrix client Z-arts. This arts centre in the UK, runs a membership model that gives access to classes, school holiday activities and discounted tickets. This creates a holistic experience for the whole family, which drives revenue and attendance. 

It’s critical to see the complete picture of any engaged community member. Spektrix, FundraiseUp, and CourseStorm are working together to integrate and share data so that organizations can use the best technology for their needs and have a single system to see a complete view of a patron’s participation.

Key takeaways to start planning for 2025 today

Each expert panelist had key takeaways to offer for arts organizations that want to build their most effective education programs in 2025:

“Focus on the whole person. People want to be entertained, they want to support and they really want to connect and participate,” Brian offered. “A thriving education program helps round out the ways people can engage with your organization as a ticket holder, supporter, and participant in an arts community.” 

Laura added, “Right now is prime time for planning holiday appeals or end-of-year fundraising campaigns. Use the success of your education programs to tell compelling stories and show donors how their contributions can make a lasting impact next year.”

Finally, Sam summed it up with “Stay connected.” Connect your education teams with fundraisers, marketing and box office. Connect your education program participants with your mainstage productions. And, connect your registration software with your central customer relationship management tools, to keep that conversation going in real time, capture powerful stories and statistics, and build lasting links with some of your most enthusiastic patrons.

Want more? Watch the full on-demand webinar to get all of the juicy insights and takeaways from our panel of experts.

Creating standard operating procedures may not sound like the most fun ever, but good SOPs can revolutionize your administrative process. While there’s plenty of room for creativity in education, creativity can only happen if you have a strong operational foundation. It’s easy to put off establishing and documenting processes when there’s so much to do, but you can save staff so much time and frustration with this simple step.

Whether you’re depending on paid staff or volunteers, SOPs make every member of your team a little bit more independent and potentially a lot less frustrated. This simple guide to creating SOPs gives you everything you need to standardize procedures across your education program.

What is a Standard Operating Procedure for an ed program?

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a document that describes a process step-by-step so everyone on your team knows how to do it. They may include screenshots, photos, or links to help any staff member follow a process. Education programs use SOPs to make sure the people on their administrative and instructor teams can figure out how to complete everyday processes like registering students, or occasional tasks like issuing a refund. 

SOPs are often stored online or in a shared folder where all members of the team can access them. Some programs also choose to create a printed copy, but keep in mind that SOPs are living documents. They can change with technology, as needs change, and when someone discovers a more efficient way to do things.

Why education programs need SOPs

Every organization can benefit from SOPs, but they’re especially important if you have a small staff, or work with volunteers who may come and go. Nonprofit burnout is a real threat, and you want people to be able to take vacation without fielding dozens of phone calls or leaving the office unable to function. 

Imagine a big storm is expected in your area and you need to reschedule all of Thursday’s classes. You shouldn’t have to call Betsy, who happens to be at her daughter’s wedding in California, to figure out the process for doing that. Instead, you can just open up your SOP document and be guided step-by-step through the process.

Then, of course, there’s staff turnover to consider. You shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time someone leaves your team. And productivity is lost if new employees need to be taught step-by-step how to handle each task, or worse, are left to muddle through and hope they did it right.

Education program procedures that need SOPs

You can create SOPs for almost any process that happens in your office. The need for specific ones varies depending on your program and its procedures. However, there are several processes that every program should standardize.

1. Posting classes to your course catalog
2. Registering students over the phone
3. Canceling a class
4. Rescheduling a class
5. Issuing a refund
6. Waiting list administration
7. Creating a new student profile
8. Emergency response plans

The good news is that if you already use a quality class registration software like CourseStorm, some of these procedures may already exist. Just visit our knowledge library to get step-by-step instructions for many of these processes.

How to write a Standard Operating Procedure

The process of creating SOPs will require some upfront effort, but you’ll save tons of time and headaches in the long run. Having a standard procedure means there’s no guesswork and tasks get done right the first time. Here’s our SOP for how to create an SOP. 

1. Title your SOP with the name of the task
   ex. Add A Class to The Course Catalog

2. Include the scope and purpose. In other words, what is the goal of this SOP? Are there other SOPs that might be similar? Make sure your team understands when they should use this one.
   Ex. Add a single course to the course catalog. Procedure for adding multiple courses at once can be found here.

3. Work step-by-step through the process, noting each step as you go. Make sure you list all parts of every step and include enough detail for someone who has never done it before. Don’t assume the reader knows what library you use for stock photos or how to set kids class age restrictions. Include any images, screenshots, or links that help clarify each step.

4. Share it with the team to make sure you’ve covered all of the essential steps. Ideally, you should get feedback from someone who does the process regularly, and from someone new to it.

5. Include a revision date. Everytime you update the procedure, change this date. That way people know they have the most recent version.

6. Share the SOP with your team. An SOP only works if everyone knows where to find it, so make sure each member of your team has access to the place where SOPs are stored.

Following these steps will help you make useful SOPs that save time and improve the quality of customer service that students can expect from you.

What to do if your procedures are too complicated

Sometimes writing out a procedure can help you realize that the processes you have in place are just too complicated. When that happens, look for opportunities to simplify. You may be able to automate some steps: like waiting list management or introduce the right technology to simplify your process. 

Learn how the right enrollment tool can save you time and effort.

Do your kids’ classes always have waiting lists, but you struggle to fill the adult rosters? Or maybe you’re offering classes to adults of all ages, but only seniors are signing up. What’s going on? 

If your kids’ classes fill up but your senior and teen classes don’t, you may want to consider your marketing approach. Generational differences could be a factor.

It may be that your marketing only resonates with audiences of a certain age. If you want to reach more age-diverse markets and grow your enrollments, you may want to consider generational marketing.

Generational marketing is a marketing strategy that considers the preferences and needs of audiences based on their age. While it is possible to over focus on generational differences, this approach can help ensure that your marketing appeals across age groups. 

Some Context for Generational Marketing

Generational marketing relies on a handful of categories broken up by birth years: 

• Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
• Generation X: 1965-1980
• Millennials: 1981-1996
• Generation Z: 1997-2012
• Generation Alpha: 2012-Present

Generational marketing focuses on the age of the intended audience to make generalizations about what that audience might want. For example, a Boomer might prefer to call your administrative staff to get information, while a Millennial might prefer to go online. But keep in mind that these generalizations do not perfectly describe every member of that age group. 

Age is a continuum but the categories have start and end dates. So a person born in 1997 may not technically be a millennial, but might have more in common with that group than with someone in their own generation who was born in 2012.  

The dates above come from the Pew Research Center, but other groups and organizations may use different cut-offs. Generational categories are not standardized. They are loose characterizations generally agreed upon. 

The two most important generational differences to keep in mind are consumer behavior and technology use by age group.

With that being said, there are some generational differences that are useful to keep in mind. The two most important are consumer behavior and technology use by age group.

Technology Use by Age Group

People of all ages are using mobile devices more often. Nearly half of all web traffic in North America comes from mobile devices. As of 2019, about 17% of Gen Xers primarily use their smartphone to access the internet. However, the number of Boomers who have smartphones has been rising steadily since 2011. About 11% of Boomers say a smartphone is their primary internet device. These percentages have almost certainly increased in the last five years. 

• Make sure both your website and your registration forms are mobile-friendly.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha are shifting away from traditional search engines. Rather than directly searching for a product or service, they’re more likely to passively discover it on social media. Discovery can happen through ads, influencers, or sharing posts with friends.

• Consistent and engaging social media posts and ads are an effective way to reach younger audiences.

But keep in mind that Boomers tend to be much less social media-focused. Only a small minority of Boomers use social media to shop. These audiences are more likely to use search or even television ads to discover products and services. 

• Don’t rely solely on social media for marketing. Good search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search ads can help you reach Boomer audiences.

Younger audiences also don’t use email the same way their parents and grandparents do. They may have a school or work email, but their personal life happens through text and social media. 

• SMS-based marketing and text reminders for classes can help keep younger audiences engaged. 

Consumer Behavior by Age Group

The pandemic pushed many people to embrace online shopping. Boomers in particular appreciated the simplicity and ease of shopping from home. When pandemic restrictions were lifted, that habit held on. Millennials were the first generation to fully embrace online shopping, and younger groups have followed that trend. 

• Create a fully online class registration and payment system and streamline it so it’s easy for all ages to use.

When it comes to disposable income, Boomers have the clear advantage. Older consumers have a higher median net worth than their younger counterparts. Many are also more willing to spend on discretionary items, like travel or enrichment classes. 

• Big-ticket, high-value classes can attract older audiences. Payment plans can make these classes accessible to younger, more budget-conscious learners.

Keep in mind that while all groups may enroll themselves, Millennials may be looking for classes for their children. Boomers may be registering their grandchildren and Gen Xers could be doing either or both. 

• Group registration makes it easy for adults to enroll the whole family. And don’t forget that marketing for kids’ classes should appeal to parents as well. 

Meet Potential Students Where They Are

It’s possible to get too focused on generational differences and stray into the realm of stereotypes. Remember, there tend to be more differences within a group than there are between groups. Some Gen Xers love email. Plenty of Boomers are tech savvy. And Millennials may be child-free.

The best way to use generational marketing is as a troubleshooting checklist. Does your program marketing account for the range of preferences that may affect your audience? 

For example, at CourseStorm, we know that some audiences prefer to register for classes by phone while others prefer to complete the transaction online. Generally, this preference tends to be tied to age, but not always. To serve both groups, we encourage customers to use the full online registration system, but also provide a phone number so their in-house staff can complete a registration for someone who is uncomfortable with technology.

Your marketing can take a similar approach by offering variations and options that appeal to different groups. 

Dig Below the Surface to Get to Know Your Audience

One powerful way to make sure you’re marketing to every generation is to create student personas, representations of each type of student based on what you know about them. Using student personas can help you better understand your students so you can create classes and marketing materials that resonate with them. Learn how to create student personas that can increase class registrations. 

Want to grow your arts education program? You need quality instructors. Skilled teaching artists help create the best possible student experience. As a result, learners feel like they’ve gained something valuable, and are more likely to recommend your classes to others. They might even follow their favorite instructors to whichever class they happen to teach. 

A CourseStorm customer shared that their popular watercolor classes attract some new students, but most seats are filled by returning students “who are absolutely in love with the teacher and will take any class that she teaches.” In short, when you retain teachers, you retain students and grow your program. 

Of course, retaining teachers is easier said than done. That’s why we’re offering some powerful teacher retention strategies to help keep your teaching artists — and by extension, your students — happy. 

5 Useful Teacher Retention Strategies

1. Promote Their Artistic Work

Your artist teachers are not just instructors, they’re also artists with their own creative practice and body of work. Promoting their artistic careers is a win-win strategy. As their prestige as artists grows, so does their desirability as teachers. 

How to promote the artists who teach for you:

• Host a show or event featuring their work
• Sing their praises on your social media channels
• Send them to classes and conferences to support their development
• Bring in guest artists to run special workshops for your instructors

You probably have some valuable connections in your local arts community. Wherever possible, look for ways to help your teaching artists connect with people who can help their careers thrive. Happy instructors stay with your organization and help attract more students.

2. Listen to What Your Teachers Need

You might be great at listening for student feedback, but few programs are as tuned in to what teachers need. Too often, decisions about arts education programs are made from the top down. Just like your students, teachers appreciate being heard. They want a voice in the decisions that will affect them and their work. 

How to learn what teachers want and need:

• Offer an email address or suggestion box where they can share ideas
• Find occasions for informal conversations with teaching artists
• Send out a yearly or quarterly survey to all instructors
• Provide them with a supervisor or mentor who can answer questions

This might take some time. Some instructors may worry that you don’t really want to hear what they have to say or that their feedback will be held against them. Assure them that you are looking to improve their experience and your program. Follow up with instructors to let them know if and how their input was used. The more responsive and transparent you are, the more likely they are to trust you with their great ideas.

3. Communicate About Changes Before They Happen

As a director or executive, you make decisions for the good of the organization based on the information you have available. Often, those decisions will affect instructors, both directly and indirectly. 

Nobody likes feeling that their career is out of their control. Teaching artists are no exception. When you make changes that will affect them — especially if those changes affect workload or compensation — keep instructors informed. 

How to involve instructors in change management:

• Invite teachers to attend planning meetings
• Ask for their opinion before making big changes
• Explain the reasoning behind decisions
• Provide training or guidance to facilitate change

This kind of change management shows teachers that you respect them and their work. It helps them feel more empowered, even if the change is ultimately out of their control. Teachers who feel empowered are more able to show up for their students. 

4. Get Creative With Compensation

Compensation is a sticky problem for many nonprofits. You’re likely under pressure to keep payroll costs low. But you also want to keep teachers happy and support their wellbeing. If pay is an immovable point, you may be able some valuable non-monetary compensation in lieu of raises. Whatever you do, publish pay scales on your job postings so instructors know what they’re getting into.

How to creatively compensate teachers:

• Pay for prep and administrative time
• Offer free studio space
• Develop multi-year contracts
• Equip them with supplies (including snacks and coffee!)

Remember, teaching artists have at least two careers. They’re making art and they’re teaching students. Many also pick up other jobs to make ends meet. That can leave them fragmented and overwhelmed. When you increase a teacher’s wages, you’re not just giving them more money, you’re helping them stay focused on their art and their students.

5. Make Class Administration Simple With CourseStorm

Teaching artists have plenty to do already. They don’t want to waste time and energy using complicated class administration tools. When you choose CourseStorm for class registration and payment processing, you also get a set of valuable resources for instructors. They can view classes, print and export rosters, view individual student info, email students, and view cancellations or waiting lists. 

How CourseStorm helps keep teachers happy:

• Empowers teaching artists to manage their own classes with administrative oversight
• Simplifies communication between teachers and students
• Helps instructors monitor enrollments in their classes
• Offers tools to help instructors promote classes on social media

Find out more about how CourseStorm empowers instructors.

With built-in mobile access, your teachers can manage classes anytime, anywhere. Whether they’re taking a break in the studio, or riding the bus home after a long day — mobile access connects them with their students. 

Resources to Share With Teaching Artists

Sharing resources with your teaching artists helps them grow and shows them you care about both their artistic and instructional careers. Here are a few useful resources worth sharing with your instructors: 

• 5 Ways Art Teachers Can Balance Teaching and Creating Art
• Keeping it Fresh: Career Sustainability for Veteran Teaching Artists
• 6 Places to Find Art Teacher Professional Development Opportunities

You can give instructors more time to focus on their students and their art. Start your free trial of CourseStorm to test out all of its time-saving features.

Every registration season delivers lessons for how to improve the registration process for your classes. The trick is recognizing those lessons when they come along. Education program directors may not realize that they already have a wealth of information that could help them make informed decisions about the next enrollment season. 

We’ve compiled a 6-step checklist to help you reflect on your most recent enrollment season to learn from it and apply the lessons next season. 

We’ve drawn on our years of experience supporting arts and nonprofit programs with class registration and payment processing to develop a seasonal registration audit checklist that brings these lessons to the surface. We’ll show you where to look for information about your most recent enrollment season and how to collect even more data so you can use it to increase enrollment.

6 Steps to Improve Your Registration Process

At the end of each registration season, follow these 6 steps to complete a registration process audit that will help you identify areas for improvement and get results.

1. Check Your Metrics

Start by comparing this season’s metrics to metrics from the same time last year. Don’t get too caught up in month-to-month fluctuations. Most programs see peaks and valleys in their registration numbers. Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples by checking this September against last September or this fall against the previous fall. 

Even if your enrollment numbers are trending in the right direction, it’s worth completing the full registration process audit. Seasonal check-ins can help you spot small issues before they blow up into major problems. 

Investigate: 

• Whether enrollment levels grew, shrunk, or remained the same
• Which classes got the most enrollments
• Which classes got the fewest enrollments
• How students enrolled: online, in-person, by phone
• How people reached your website: ads, web search, email, direct link

Use this information to understand how people are enrolling in your classes and where changes may be needed. You can segment data to help you spot specific trends. For example, you may want to look at whether specific populations are enrolling, or whether 6pm classes attract more students than 7pm classes. 

2. Collect Student Feedback 

Ideally, you’re asking students to complete student feedback forms at the end of each class. These can give you information about what students thought of the class experience, but probably won’t tell you much about registration. For that you may want to send out a seasonal survey that asks about the registration, customer service, website experience and payment process. 

Asking students for feedback doesn’t just help you collect useful information. Harvard Business Review reports that it also increases customer loyalty. People feel valued when you ask for their opinion.

We’ve written a whole article about how to collect and use student feedback, and here’s a broad overview of the kinds of questions that could help you improve your programs.

Ask students: 

• How easy the registration process was
• Whether they could easily find the classes they wanted
• Their overall level of satisfaction
• Whether your website was easy to use
• How you could improve the registration experience

Use these questions to understand how students actually feel about your process and identify areas for improvement. A complex process, confusing website, or hard-to-navigate course catalog may be holding you back more than you realize. The best way to find out is to ask.

3. Investigate for Tech Issues

Some technical issues may be obvious — you’re not going to miss a website crash during your busiest enrollment day of the year. Others are harder to spot and may take some digging. A link that sends visitors to the wrong enrollment form might result in staff confusion, but no complaints from students. 

Many education program directors assume that a lack of complaints means everything is fine. That may not be true. Research shows that the majority of unhappy customers don’t complain. Most just leave. And almost a third of customers will walk away from a company they love after just one bad experience.

Our own professional experience managing websites and payment systems tells us this is especially true if your website is clunky or hard to use. If your website is confusing customers, asks them to complete a complicated process, or simply does not deliver a seamless registration and payment process, they may leave without telling you. 

Check for: 

• High bounce rates on class registration pages
• Abandoned carts
• Waitlisted students who don’t convert into registrants
• Broken links
• Low traffic on course catalogs or registration pages

Proactively looking for technical issues helps you improve the user experience and enroll more of the visitors who come to your website. 

4. Ask Staff for Their Impressions

Instructors and staff who work directly with students may have special insight into the registration process. Ask them for their impressions and opinions. You’re not necessarily looking for hard data here. Instead, you want to hear how staff and instructors perceive the process. 

These anecdotes can be valuable because they reveal problems you may not have noticed otherwise. A receptionist who tells you they got three phone calls a day asking how to find your course catalog lets you know there is a pattern worth addressing. 

Sometimes staff will use their own workarounds to try to solve these problems on their own. They may have developed scripts, tracking documents or resource lists to try to help students register. These kinds of resources help staff do their jobs, but can also obscure an ongoing problem. A functional workaround may mean you never notice that there’s a major issue with your system.

Ask staff about: 

• The questions they most often heard from students
• Any shortcuts or special tools they developed 
• Student stories that stuck out to them
• How they would improve the registration process

When you ask for staff feedback, you don’t just get valuable insight into your registration process. You also improve relationships with staff and instructors. Multiply this effect by thanking staff for their insight and keeping them informed of how you use their feedback.

5. Identify Areas to Improve

With baseline metrics and insight from your students, technical team, and instructors, you should be able to build a short list of areas to improve. Prioritize the list based on which issues have the greatest impact on student experience. An issue that affects just one course is less urgent than a systemic problem with your process. 

Try to step back and get a big-picture view of what’s going on. This can help you find efficient solutions rather than creating a patchwork of fixes for various issues. For example, if you notice that some potential students are leaving the registration process without completing payment and others seem to be struggling with finding the classes they want, you may be able to solve the problem with all-in-one class registration and payment software. 

Find solutions by: 

• Prioritizing your problem list
• Looking for solutions that solve multiple issues
• Considering budget and complexity of roll-out
• Asking for recommendations from other course providers

These steps help ensure that you’re choosing efficient and effective improvements for your class registration process. 

6. Make and Test a Strategy

Make a plan for how you’ll implement the solutions you’ve identified. Some may be simple and require little up-front planning. For example, adding a link to your cancellation policy to your universal registration form may take just a few clicks. Other solutions could benefit from a longer roll-out process. For example, before you introduce a new registration software you might need to train staff on how to use it, announce the change to students, and have technical support documents ready to go. 

Consider: 

• When you’ll roll out the new strategy
• Who will be responsible for each step
• How you will communicate changes to staff and students
• How you will measure the strategy’s success

A well-planned change strategy will help you make positive changes to your class registration process without the unintended side effects of confusing or frustrating the people you’re trying to help.

Repeat Every Season to Keep Improving the Registration Process

Complete this registration audit at the end of each enrollment cycle to help your program grow season after season. Regular check-ins will help you catch small issues before they become enrollment-impacting problems. Along the way, you’ll strengthen your relationships with both students and staff.

If a complex registration process is keeping your enrollments low, it might be time to investigate a new enrollment tool. Learn How the Right Enrollment Tool Can Save You Time, Money, and Effort.

If you want to get more class registrations and boost your bottom line, it’s time to start thinking about older adults. Census projections show that by 2035, people over 65 will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history. That means seniors are likely to be a growing audience for your nonprofit education program. Even programs primarily aimed at children should consider the needs of parents and grandparents who are completing the registration process. 

Meeting the needs of seniors does not mean avoiding technology. Many older adults are capable of using online registration systems as long as those systems are simple and straightforward.

After 10+ years dedicated to class registration and payment systems, we’ve learned that designing for seniors improves the registration experience for everyone. 

Class Registration Myths About Seniors

Myth: Seniors aren’t a big audience for us. 

Reality: Many seniors are committed to lifelong learning for themselves. They also register children and grandchildren for classes. 

If you’re not already marketing classes to seniors, you may be missing a major opportunity. People aged 50 and older account for 51% of consumer spending although they represent just 45% of all adults. In short, this audience is spending more per capita than younger shoppers. Some portion of that spending is going to classes.

Many seniors are interested in lifelong learning. According to the Seniorlist, 19% of older adults say they have taken an academic course in the last six months. That word, “academic,” may be artificially limiting this result. According to AARP, 55% of Americans age 45 and older are actively learning new things either through classes or independent study.

Even if your education program primarily provides classes for kids, seniors are still a key audience. Consider the grandmother who enrolls her young granddaughter in a drawing class. The class may be for the little girl, but Grandma is the one navigating your registration system.

Myth: Seniors won’t use online registration options.

Reality: Seniors will use online options as long as you make them simple and straightforward.

Seniors may be more tech savvy than you realize. A Pew survey found that 61% of adults 65 and older own a smartphone and 75% use the internet. Making purchases is the second-most popular online activity among people age 50+ (email holds the top spot).

During and since the pandemic, seniors have learned to use technology to do everything from buy groceries to book doctor’s appointments. About 24% of respondents in a survey on aging in place said that they use grocery and food delivery apps. There’s clearly openness among older people to engage with more digital experiences—the key is to make sure those experiences are simple and seamless. 

Since the pandemic, seniors can and do use technology to buy groceries online, book doctor’s appointments, and more.

Myth: Seniors are uncomfortable with online payments.

Reality: If it’s easy and safe, seniors will pay online.

Many seniors have spent a lifetime paying with checks or cash. Some are more comfortable with these methods, but others welcome the convenience of online payments. In recent years, more seniors learned how to pay for products and services online as a result of the pandemic. 

But seniors are concerned about the security and privacy of online payments. A 2020 survey by Lightico found that people over 65 were more likely to say that they don’t feel online transactions are secure. Nonprofit class providers will see the best results if they show seniors that their payment systems are dependable and secure. Post links to privacy and security details on your payment pages so they’re easy to find.

How to Make Course Registration Easy for Seniors (And Everyone Else)

It’s not just seniors who benefit when you simplify your online registration process. Easy registration helps everyone. Apply these tips to improve the registration experience for people of all ages.

1. Remove extra steps and complexity

Seniors may get frustrated if asked to enter information in multiple places or complete a long series of steps. One 72-year-old told AP news that she has no problem shopping at Amazon or Target.com but that the grocery store app has too many steps and she often ends up starting over.  

Map your registration process to understand how many steps it includes. Does the user need to access more than one website or service to complete registration? If you’re asking people to fill out a form in one place, but make a payment somewhere else, they’re likely to get confused.

The best class registration systems seamlessly guide the user from the course catalog through registration, to payment. With CourseStorm, registration and payment is one seamless process that starts with a button on your course catalog. We don’t even ask registrants to create a user profile first. Instead, they have the opportunity to automatically create a profile as part of the registration process. 

2. Prioritize accessibility

Older adults are more likely to have vision or motor challenges that can impede accessibility. About a quarter of adults 71 years old and older have visual impairments. These could prevent seniors from using online systems unless accessibility tools are in place. 

Simple design changes, like creating high-contrast color schemes and including alt text for graphics can improve accessibility. Check with your website designer and class registration software provider to make sure accessibility options are in place. 

CourseStorm course registration and payment processing software complies with Level AA guidelines set by the Web Accessibility Initiative. That means we’ve put the work in to ensure that our registration software is as accessible as possible for people with disabilities. 

3. Share safety and privacy information

Some seniors are hesitant to use technology for safety or privacy reasons. They may have heard of or experienced scams where older people have been taken advantage of. In fact, seniors lose more than $3 billion each year to financial scams, both online and offline. 

Help your senior registrants feel secure by posting your privacy policies prominently on your website. Let them know how their information will be used and let them opt out of storing payment information. 

At CourseStorm, we take security seriously. Our credit card information handling process is PCI compliant and all stored cards are safely encrypted. Our servers are located at state-of-the-art data centers with multi-tiered security systems. 

4. Market beyond social media

Social media is a powerful way to reach potential students. But it may not be as effective in reaching older adults. Only 45% of adults age 65 and older use social media. Programs may have better luck reaching seniors through search ads and email marketing. Our State of the Arts Report found that email accounted for the highest percentage of visitors to our customer’s class registration websites. Traditional direct mail campaigns may also be more attractive to seniors. 

As a CourseStorm customer, you get personal automated marketing tools that will send personalized email recommendations to students based on past registration history. We keep an eye on marketing trends and best practices, sharing them with customers on our blog.

The Class Registration Solution for All Ages

By now we hope you see that what’s good for seniors is good for registrants of all ages. When you simplify processes, prioritize accessibility, ensure privacy, and market beyond social media, you make registration easier for everyone. And improving the student experience is ultimately what’ll help you fill classes and extend your program’s impact in your community.

Whether you offer classes specifically for seniors, or primarily for children, CourseStorm can help attract this growing and motivated audience of older adults to boost your bottom line.

To see the impact of this simplicity in action check out this case study featuring American Stage. Integrating CourseStorm with their ticketing software helped this nonprofit theatre education program improve the customer experience and save staff time.

It’s easy to assume people are happy if you get few or no complaints. But when it comes to your class registration system, a lack of complaints isn’t always a good thing. Research shows a huge majority of people won’t complain when an experience doesn’t meet their standards—they’ll just leave.

A great student experience separates thriving education programs from the rest. The student experience is the overall interaction between the learner and your organization. Your classes are just one tiny piece of that. The rest of the experience, including ease of registration, communication, and issue resolution, is more important from a customer service standpoint.

Make no mistake, your students are customers. That’s why customer service matters in education.

And make no mistake, your students are customers. You may not usually think about them in that way, but most bring a shopper’s mindset to the experience of signing up for a class. If their needs aren’t met, they’ll go elsewhere, leaving you wondering where all your students have gone.

Customer Service in the Education Industry: Why It Matters

When a potential student is looking for a block printing class so they can impress everyone with handmade Christmas cards this year, they want the process of finding and signing up for a class to be as easy as possible. 

If they run into an issue, they expect quick and helpful service that gets everything sorted out without burning through their entire lunch break. That may be why the Qualtrics Consumer Trends Report found that customers are much more likely to do business with organizations that have a great reputation for customer experience, even in a down economy.

Obviously, the class itself should deliver on student expectations. The material should match the course description and students should walk away feeling more skilled, more informed, or at least entertained.

A good student experience can turn one-time customers into lifelong learners and brand ambassadors.

But, the student experience doesn’t end when the class is complete. Ideally, you’ll keep communicating with those students. Your social media, email, and SMS messaging will offer them personalized class recommendations they can get excited about. That’s how one-time customers turn into lifelong learners and brand ambassadors. 

If an organization can’t meet student expectations for customer service, they’ll look for one that does. Often, they’ll do so without stopping to tell you about it first.

Most Unsatisfied Customers Never Complain 

CourseStorm customers find that about 35% of arts students return to take another class. Those students were clearly satisfied with both their first class and the student experience. But at least some of the remaining 65% probably felt less than satisfied and didn’t explain why.

You might think that students will complain if they are unhappy, but often that is not the case. Overall, people are giving less feedback to the organizations they buy from. According to Qualtrics, about 66% of customers won’t complain when they’ve had a bad experience. They’ll just take their business elsewhere. 

Data show 66% of customers won’t complain when they’ve had a bad experience. They’ll just take their business elsewhere.

This happens for a couple of reasons. Some students are just busy and unwilling to invest time in complaining when they can just find another class. Others may believe that their complaints won’t make a difference, so they don’t bother voicing them. 

They may not be talking to you, but they’re almost certainly telling friends and family about the experience. People may end up avoiding your program without ever experiencing it for themselves. 

That leaves education directors and administrators with the challenge of how to provide a better student experience without much feedback. Fortunately, there are a few areas we know can improve the student experience.

For more insights on what’s working in arts education and how to improve the student experience, download our State of the Arts Report 2024.

How to Improve the Student Experience

Consumers in general, and students in particular, prefer to do business with organizations that deliver these three things: 

1. Self-service on-demand 

Learners expect to be able to sign up, change registrations, and handle payments online and without direct interaction with a staff member. In fact, about 67% of survey respondents said they preferred self-service over speaking to a representative. 

Online registration and payment systems with carts and friends and family registration tools can help customers help themselves. 

2. Quick and helpful communication

When registrants do run into an issue they can’t solve on their own, they expect quick and helpful service. Research by author Jay Baer found that customers “hate” having to contact a business more than once and about 66% of customers think speed to respond is as important as price.

Arts nonprofits probably don’t have someone standing by to answer customer questions at any moment of the day. That makes it all the more important that whoever is assisting customers is trained in customer service and empowered to provide real solutions to issues, for example, tech support, discounts, refunds, or transfers.

When someone does reach out, let them know how quickly they can expect a response. Feed the need for self-service by offering an FAQ sheet or a knowledge base they can read while they wait.

3. Personalized marketing and communications

According to HubSpot’s Marketing Trends Report, 75% of marketers say offering a personalized experience increases sales and repeat business. Personalized messaging can lead to 50% better customer re-engagement. 

Customized class recommendations, SMS-based text reminders, and centralized customer data management can help you personalize communications so each student feels valued. 

Offer returning students exclusive early-bird registration or special promotions to make them feel valued.

Acknowledge a preexisting relationship with students who have enrolled before by offering them exclusive early-bird registration or special promotions for returning students. When you personalize marketing and communications, you make every student feel valued.

Listen and Take Action to Improve the Student Experience

Although customers may not seek you out to complain about a sub-par experience, some will answer candidly when asked. Asking for feedback from students can help you catch and fix common issues. It can also strengthen your relationships with learners. After all, everyone likes feeling like they’ve been heard.  

For more advice on listening to learners to improve the student experience, read our article on How to Collect and Use Student Feedback to Build Better Programs.

Does your staff regularly work through lunch and answer emails on weekends? This might seem like the norm for understaffed nonprofits. And besides, most people working in the arts are there because they love it, right? But perhaps you’re noticing in your staff what you may have experienced yourself: the moment when work you used to love becomes an impossible burden. 

If your previously cheerful employees are snapping at coworkers and missing meetings, if they’re taking more sick days and productivity is slipping, if you’re seeing a negative impact on how staff interact with your customers and community … nonprofit burnout could be the culprit. 

“Burnout is about your workplace, not your people.” – Jennifer Moss, author of Unlocking Happiness at Work

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that 69% of nonprofit leaders are concerned about employee burnout. According to a Council of Nonprofits survey, more than 50% of respondents said stress and burnout were causing workforce shortages. But it doesn’t have to be this way: leaders in nonprofit organizations can develop a strategy to detect, prevent, and deal with nonprofit burnout—both for themselves and their teams. Here’s how. 

Where Nonprofit Burnout Comes From

According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• feelings of negativity or cynicism related to one’s job; and
• reduced job performance.

In some ways, people working in arts nonprofits are especially susceptible to burnout. They care deeply about the work they do and tend to selflessly go beyond the call of duty to keep serving their stakeholders. Being deeply invested means they may not feel like they can say no or take time off when they need it.

Many nonprofits are chronically understaffed and constantly scrambling to secure next year’s funding. At the same time, they may be working on intense projects with hard deadlines. And they’re doing all this with a small team of volunteers, part-time employees, and no real HR oversight to speak of. 

According to the American Psychological Association, burnout is most often observed in professionals who work in service-oriented vocations; nonprofit arts education certainly qualifies. Experts have written whole books about how to identify and fix burnout, but we’ll summarize the essentials for you.

How to Spot Nonprofit Burnout Before it Consumes Your Staff

The best time to get rid of burnout is before it happens, but you may already suspect your team is suffering from burnout. 

It might seem like common sense to just ask if people are burned out, but that doesn’t always work. Some employees will feel shame or discomfort if they are burned out—that they should be able to power through to keep serving your community. On top of the stigma, people don’t always know they’re burned out. Often, they need an outside observer to point out the problem. 

Signs of burnout include being available 24/7, skipping lunch, taking more sick days, and having a short temper.

Look around and see if you spot any of these common signs of nonprofit burnout among your team. 

Signs of nonprofit burnout: 

• Working more to do less
• Skipping lunch, breaks, or social events
• Available at all hours
• More sick days
• Short tempers or tears

Any of these signs on their own could be a personal quirk or the result of a bad day. Taken together, they point to just one thing—burnout.

What Nonprofit Organizations Can Do to Prevent Burnout

The good news is that since burnout is often an organization-level problem, you have the power to help your team avoid it. The following systemic changes can help shield your team from some of the stressors that can lead to burnout. 

1. Encourage restful time off.

Time off is more than a benefit, it’s essential to avoiding burnout. People need time to rest and rejuvenate their mind and body. Studies show that productivity falls off sharply when people hit about 50 hours of work per week. So while some nonprofit team members wear overwork as a badge of honor, your most valuable employee is one who is well-rested and burnout free.

Some subtle changes can help give employees permission to fully unplug. For example, you can use the scheduling feature in your email if you need to send a message after hours to avoid accidentally triggering after-hours work. Also, pay attention to how you talk about time off. Comments like “I hope you had a good time while the rest of us worked” or “I wish I could afford to take the afternoon off” leave employees feeling judged and guilty. If you find yourself thinking these thoughts, that may be an indicator that you, yourself, are on the verge of burnout.

Encourage restful time off by:

• Limiting off-hours messages and emails
• Reminding people to use their vacation benefits
• Avoiding statements that make time off sound like a luxury

2. Offer as much flexibility as possible.

Flexible schedules allow people to shift their work time to match the demands of their life. Giving people the power to control their own schedule helps them avoid burnout by managing their tasks and energy. 

Of course, there are some times when you need staff and volunteer coverage. An instructor can’t just not show up to teach a class. But wherever and whenever possible, make it okay for employees to flex their schedules, work from wherever they want, and come and go as needed. 

Offer flexibility by:

• Allowing remote work
• Letting employees flex schedules
• Crosstrain so no one person is carrying too much responsibility
• Offering mobile-friendly work tools

3. Model self care as a leader.

As a leader in your organization, you set the tone for the workplace. If your team sees you always working late, never taking vacation, and working through lunch, they may feel pressured to do the same. On the other hand, if you regularly unplug and take a walk during lunch, they’re more likely to feel free to care for themselves as well. 

Model self care by:

• Leaving work on time
• Taking your vacation days
• Pausing to eat lunch
• Flexing your time for family events

4. Praise and thank your people.

In nonprofit work, it’s easy to run from one major project or challenge to another. Often, we forget to stop and appreciate what we’ve accomplished. Endless work with no reward is a fast track to burnout. Put the brakes on by stopping to thank your employees and volunteers and find ways to reward them for good work.

You can get as creative with this as you want to. Sometimes an old-fashioned thank-you note strikes the right chord. Other times you might want to make a special trophy or entrust someone with The Team Plant.

Acknowledge success by:

• Publicly thanking staff and volunteers
• Building in a rest day after a major project closes
• Celebrate birthdays and life milestones
• Handwrite a thank-you note

5. Evaluate your systems.

Nonprofits often operate on tight budgets. Your organization may be using free tools, software or programs designed for larger or for-profit businesses, or cobbling together some combination of solutions. It may be the way things have always been done, but it’s important to recognize that these hacks and workarounds take a toll. The first step in affecting change is taking inventory.

Identify areas for improvement by:

• Survey your employees on what’s working and what’s not
• For more detail, have staff track a typical day — how many steps does it take them to do certain tasks? Are there any blockers that prevent them from completing things?  
• Talk to other organizations like yours to learn how their systems work and what solutions they use

Awareness and praise alone won’t solve the nonprofit burnout problem, but a culture of gratitude and self-care can go a long way. For more tips on reducing the administrative burden on your staff, subscribe to our blog.

With generative artificial intelligence making headlines all over the place, some education directors and their teams are wondering whether they should use AI to write course descriptions. After all, course description writing can be time consuming, especially for those who are not confident writers or have heavy workloads and limited time to be creative. 

Does AI really save you time writing course descriptions, or are you better off looking for other ways to streamline your processes?

This question of whether to use AI to write course descriptions is not an easy one to answer. It comes down to your goals, level of comfort with the technology, and ethical stance on generative AI tools. Plus, it’s worth considering whether AI really saves you time, or whether you’re better off looking for other ways to streamline your processes. Since we’ve heard this question several times from CourseStorm customers and the internet at large, let’s discuss it. 

Can an AI Writing Tool Create Course Descriptions?

The answer to this question is theoretically yes. AI tools will attempt to write pretty much anything you ask for. Whether they do a good job of it is another story.

Every course description shares a few common goals: 

• Get students excited about the class
• Inform them about benefits and outcomes
• Tell them where and how to register

A quality course description does all of this in a couple of hundred words. It uses words and ideas that will resonate with the intended audience and convince them to take action. This is the standard AI writing tools have to meet.

We tested two web-based, free generative AI tools: ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. These are the most easily accessible options for nonprofits and small businesses. There are dozens of other tools out there, but many involve monthly subscription fees or desktop downloads. 

The user experience for these sites is pretty simple. You visit the site, sign in, and enter your prompt into the chat box. A prompt is the question or request you’d like the technology to answer.

The prompt: Write a class description for an adult improv class that includes “yes, and” improvisation, finding agreement, scene building, and team collaboration.

ChatGPT: First Attempt

The first result ChatGPT spit out was almost 400 words long, so we won’t reproduce the whole thing here. The opening line was: “Welcome to our Adult Improv Class where creativity thrives, laughter echoes, and spontaneity reigns supreme!” Which sounds more like the opening line of a game show than the start of a class description. 

Second Attempt, ChatGPT

One of the interesting things about ChatGPT is that you can ask it to try again and get an instant rewrite. Asking for something a little shorter gave us a much more manageable 95-word result. 

Welcome to our Adult Improv Class! Dive into the exciting world of improvisational theater with a focus on “Yes, And” improvisation, finding agreement, scene building, and team collaboration.

In this class, you’ll:

• Learn the “Yes, And” principle: Embrace spontaneity and build upon your scene partner’s ideas.

• Develop agreement skills: Enhance your ability to listen and create cohesive scenes.

• Master scene building: Discover the essentials of crafting engaging narratives on the spot.

• Foster team collaboration: Work together to create memorable comedic moments.

Join us for a fun and rewarding journey into the heart of improv comedy!

Missing Important Details

This actually isn’t a terrible result. It seems to be factually accurate and looks like a course description. However, it lacks some of the essential information we’d like to see: 

• An opening that hooks the reader
• What students will gain from taking the course
• A call to action

The opening: “Welcome to our Adult Improv Class!” is just fluff. It doesn’t tell the reader anything. The second sentence isn’t much better, it simply lists the four skills covered in the class. It’s then followed by … a list of the four skills covered in the class. Neither of these lists get to the real benefits of the class. 

The last sentence is trying hard to be exciting, but is also almost meaningless. What exactly is the “heart of improv comedy” and why should an adult want to discover it? 

The longer-form ending was slightly better: 

Whether you’re looking to boost your confidence, sharpen your comedic timing, or simply unleash your inner creativity, our Adult Improv Class offers a fun and rewarding journey into the heart of improvisational theater. Join us and embark on an unforgettable adventure where laughter knows no bounds and every moment is an opportunity to shine!

While it produced a factually accurate result, there were lots of meaningless words. We give ChatGPT a C+ in course description writing.

At least this version offers readers the outcome they can expect from the class: boost confidence, sharpen comedic timing, or unleash inner creativity. It’s still surrounded by a lot of meaningless words added simply to build excitement.

Overall, we give ChatGPT a C+ in class description writing.

Google Gemini: First Attempt

Google Gemini is another free-to-use AI writing tool that many organizations have experimented with. The same prompt on Gemini gives a more promising result. It delivered about 200 words in a reasonable format. It certainly looks like a course description. 

Unleash Your Inner Comic with Adult Improv!

Have you always wanted to try improv comedy but felt too intimidated? Our adult improv class is the perfect place to start! In a supportive and fun environment, you’ll learn the fundamentals of improvisation, including:

• The Power of “Yes, And” – The core tenet of improv is to agree with and build upon your scene partner’s ideas. We’ll explore how “yes, and” can help you create spontaneous, hilarious scenes.

• Finding Agreement – Improv is all about creating a world together as a team. You’ll learn how to listen to your scene partners and find common ground to build upon.

• Scene Building Techniques – We’ll teach you the building blocks of improv scenes, from creating characters to developing storylines.

• Team Collaboration – Improv is a team sport! You’ll learn how to work together with your classmates to create scenes that are both funny and engaging.

Benefits of Taking the Class

In addition to being a lot of fun, improv offers a number of benefits, including:

• Boosted confidence and public speaking skills

• Enhanced creativity and thinking on your feet

• Improved listening and communication skills

• Stronger teamwork and collaboration skills

Ready to Get Started?

Sign up for our next adult improv class today! You’ll be amazed at how much you learn and laugh.

Better Results, Subtle Issues

This is a much better description right out of the box. It starts by speaking to one of the reasons people may be reluctant to sign up. Then it includes the skills actors will learn, defining terms that may not be immediately understandable to a novice audience. Finally, it lists the benefits of the class, which are essential points to convince adults that a class is worth taking.

A closer read reveals some potential problems as well. The first line mentions that the reader might be intimidated, but the rest of the description doesn’t do much to overcome that objection. The phrase “supportive and fun environment” is inching closer, but it’s not going to convince a shy person to take action. 

Then we get to those definitions and descriptions, and it turns out some of them may be missing the mark. The description on finding agreement includes the phrase “find common ground to build upon,” which feels more like a conflict resolution meeting rather than something that happens on an improv set. 

Second Attempt, Google Gemini

Unlike ChatGPT, Google Gemini does not offer a regeneration option. If you re-input the same prompt, you do get a different result. That result was clearly weaker than the previous one. It includes phrases like “Improv isn’t just about guffaws” and “springboard to hilarious spontaneity.” In fact, variations of the word “hilarious” appear four times in less than 300 words. 

Pros and Cons: Using AI to Write Course Descriptions

We can’t tell you whether you should use AI to write class descriptions. All we can do is present the pros and cons of using this technology.

Why Use AI to Write Course Descriptions: 

• It’s fast
• You don’t have to be a skilled writer

Drawbacks to Using AI to Write Course Descriptions: 

• Results can be either bland or overly cutesy
• You may need to spend more time editing and refining
• Ethical concerns
• Lacks your unique brand voice

That last point is especially important. Learners have options. They can take classes online, travel to a different location, or simply stay at home and watch clips of “Whose Line is it Anyway?”

Your brand’s unique voice and personality is part of what encourages learners to register. A human writer can draw on their own experience of learning. They may know what it’s like to live in your community or region and write from that perspective. 

Just for fun, we asked Gemini to generate a class description suitable for a Midwestern audience. The results were … questionable. Let’s just say it opened with the line: Ever feel like you’re the life of the county fair but clam up in the city lights?  The “yes, and” approach was described as “like passin’ the gravy.” 

Using AI for writing may alienate some potential students, since many artists and writers have strong objections to AI technology. 

Generative AI programs may be able to write passable text, but they’re still missing a lot of the nuance that human writers bring. They also pose an ethical dilemma, especially for creative arts organizations. Using AI for writing may alienate some potential students, since many artists and writers have strong objections to generative AI technology. 

How to Use AI to Write Course Descriptions

If you do want to experiment with using AI to write course descriptions, get the best results with these best practices: 

• Learn the technology. Writing a good prompt can go a long way. Learn how the technology works and how to write a prompt that delivers the results you want.

• Edit before you post. Read the output carefully and edit where necessary. You should never copy and paste AI output directly into your class catalog. 

• Double-check for the basic elements of a class description: These include a hook, benefits, and call to action. As we saw, many AI tools miss at least one of these.

If you’d rather write your own course description from scratch, these examples and templates will help get you started. 

Better Ways to Save Time

We at CourseStorm are not averse to using AI to save time and solve problems — in fact, we are developing a new AI-powered feature that will simplify running reports on your education program.

In fact, every feature of CourseStorm’s online registration software is designed to save time and reduce the administrative burden on your staff while improving students’ experience at the same time. It’s simple, intuitive, and easy to set up and use, even if you’re not especially tech-savvy.

An arts education director who tried it told us, “I opened CourseStorm and built a class in 3 minutes!” But don’t take our word for it. Sign up for a free trial today and find out for yourself!

Any arts or education program offering classes to the public needs a mobile-friendly class registration and management system. It’s just not optional anymore. Students, instructors, and administrative staff expect to be able to access essential course information on the go. 

With 60% of time online spent on mobile devices, your students and staff expect to be able to register and access course info on the go. 

Globally, about 60% of the time people spend online happens on a mobile phone. In the U.S. 15% of adults are smartphone-only internet users. Trying to run arts or education classes without a mobile-friendly system leads to: 

• Missed registrations because people can’t take action whenever they think of it. They have to wait until they’re at their computer, if they have one at all.

• Unhappy customers who are annoyed or inconvenienced by digging out their laptop, which they really only use for work anyway.

• Time wasted by instructors and administrators who would happily manage their classes while commuting but can’t, because they only have a mobile phone with them.

• Extra admin when customers call or send emails to try to register for classes instead of using the all-in-one registration and payment system on your website.

A mobile-friendly class registration system is convenient for customers and instructors. It makes registration available anytime, anywhere, and lets everyone make the best use of their time.

Here’s a closer look at why your arts or education program absolutely can’t go another day without mobile-friendly class registration software.

If you’re already convinced that adding mobile registration is the right choice for your program, it’s time to give CourseStorm a try. Start your free trial today and discover how much simpler course administration can be.

CourseStorm: Simple, Mobile-Friendly Class Registration

CourseStorm is class registration, payment, and management software designed to be simple to use on any device. It’s mobile friendly and user friendly for both registrants and staff. All pages on a CourseStorm site, from class listings to registration pages, are automatically optimized for mobile devices. There’s nothing you have to do or set to make a CourseStorm site friendly for mobile users — it just is.

1. Keep Customers Engaged By Improving the User Experience on Mobile Devices

Most people have used their smartphone to visit a website that forced them to zoom in on text to read it, or scroll left-to-right to find information. It’s frustrating. These websites haven’t bothered to make their content mobile friendly, they simply display the desktop version without regard for the smaller screen. Customers are likely to click away in frustration. 

At CourseStorm, user experience is our guiding principle. We design and test our software to make it impossibly simple for almost any user. As one customer put it, “If you can use email, you can use CourseStorm.”

A website that is not optimized for mobile might look fine on the desktop version, where the text is large enough to read and the links are easily clickable. But the mobile version is another story. Everything shrinks down, to fit the smaller screen. The text is tiny and the pictures are distorted. Good luck trying to click on any of those links without accidentally hitting the one beside it. 

For contrast, below you can see what a class listing on CourseStorm looks like on a mobile phone screen. The text is large and easy to read. Buttons are large enough, with space around them so you can click with precision.

2. Break Down Access Barriers by Letting Mobile Users Register Without Downloading Extra Apps

Some programs require people to use proprietary apps for registration. That means customers have to download your software to their phone, where precious storage space is already full of their favorite mobile games, social media apps, work tools, and videos of their pets. 

The last thing most people want is one more mobile app to download, especially if they’re a first-time user who is just learning about your program. Adding that extra step might just mean they choose not to register at all. 

CourseStorm allows users to register and access their user profile from any device with an internet connection — no download required. That means they can use their mobile phone or borrow a friend’s iPad to sign-up, pay, and manage their registration.

Imagine two friends out at lunch and one of them is telling the other about the interpretive dance class they took last week. It sounds fun, and the friend is interested in signing up. But, they’ve never taken a class from you before, so they’re not willing to commit to downloading an app. Fortunately, they don’t have to, because you use CourseStorm. They can pick up their mobile phone, go right to your website, and register without leaving the table. They can even register their friend at the same time! 

Ready to make your class registration site mobile accessible? Start your free trial of CourseStorm today and see the difference for yourself.

3. Mobile-Friendly Websites and Class Pages Rank Higher on Google

Google believes in mobile-friendly websites. In fact, the search engine actually prioritizes sites that are mobile friendly. So if you want your site to show up when people search for things like “art classes near me” or “painting class for adults” you want your website to be easily accessible from a tablet or smartphone. 

That’s just one of the many reasons CourseStorm makes mobile-friendly the default mode. Ranking on Google helps your classes get discovered by more people, which results in more registrations. 

When a local dad is standing on the sidewalk waiting for his girls to get out of school, he might realize that summer is fast approaching. Maybe it’s time to sign the girls up for a summer camp. He pulls his smartphone out of his pocket and types “art summer camps” into Google. Fortunately, your CourseStorm site is mobile friendly, so it’s right at the top of the page. He clicks, and before you know it, you have two new campers signed up for the first July session.

4. Make Administrative Tasks Easier So They Get Done Fast and Accurately

Instructors and administrators are busy. They don’t always have time to sit at the desk in their office, boot up their computer, access course files, and do all the admin associated with their classes. These tasks tend to pile up, resulting in bottlenecks or mistakes as they try to reconstruct records days or weeks later. 

With CourseStorm, instructors and administrators can access course material from wherever they have a mobile phone. That means they don’t have to lug a laptop to an art class. They can update attendance records on the fly, or send a quick follow-up note to students while riding the train or ferry home from class. 

You need to keep accurate attendance records, because your grant funding depends on it. On the other hand, your instructors are more focused on supporting the students in front of them. They don’t have time to run to their office between sessions, so they keep notes on printed papers that they transcribe later. It’s not efficient and sometimes papers get lost. Enter CourseStorm. Suddenly instructors can quickly take attendance without disrupting the flow of their classes. Everybody wins. 

5. Get Mobile-Friendly Design With No Special Technical Expertise Required

Some class catalog hosting and registration programs make it hard to create a mobile friendly website. They offer you a bunch of options you may not understand or expect you to use plug-ins and special code. After lots of frustration, you have a mobile site that doesn’t quite work, but you don’t know how to fix it. 

The only solution is to hire a web designer or app developer to customize something for you. That costs you time and money, while delaying roll-out of your mobile solution.

CourseStorm helps you skip all that frustration. Every page of your site, from class catalog through payment confirmation, is automatically mobile friendly. There’s nothing to turn on, download, or pay a developer to change. It’s all built in.

For Mobile-Friendly Class Registration, Choose CourseStorm

Mobile friendly means user friendly, and that means more registrations, happier customers, and less frazzled admins and instructors. It’s time to modernize your class registration software with CourseStorm. Discover what all the fuss is about. Start your free trial of CourseStorm now.