Case Studies

Integrating CourseStorm with their ticketing software helped a nonprofit theatre education program improve the customer experience and save staff time

The Background

Like many theatres, American Stage is still feeling the effects of the pandemic. COVID shut down the professional theatre company’s live performances as well as their summer camps and all classes that weren’t moved online. They are now in the process of “rebuilding everything,” said José Aviléz, Director of Education. 

American Stage is rebuilding and expanding their education program post-pandemic.

Founded in 1977 as an educational theatre, American Stage produces about 6 shows a year and runs a drama school for adults as well as one for youth ages 5 to 17. Their classes cover all different aspects of musical theatre, acting, and improv. They currently offer about 40 classes per year, depending on how many they can fill. The education program’s “bread and butter” is summer camps for kids and teens. These run from 1 to 3 weeks, and culminate in a musical production. 

American Stage wants to expand their educational offerings, particularly their youth programs, to meet a growing need in their community. Previously populated mostly by retirees, St. Petersburg, Fla., saw an influx of young families during the pandemic. 

The Challenge

American Stage uses Spektrix, a ticketing and CRM platform. Like many arts organizations, they tried to use the same software for class registration, too. But while they were happy with the solution for ticket sales and customer data management, it wasn’t meeting their needs for camp and class registration. 

“Everywhere I have worked has used the ticketing service for education and it just never quite fits. Everybody’s always confused. CourseStorm is so much clearer and much more user friendly.” – José Aviléz, Director of Education

Classes were purchased as a ticket, which was confusing to registrants. It was complicated to collect important student information, such as food allergies or emergency contacts. There were no class rosters, so the staff had to create them manually by copying and pasting names into spreadsheets. Even worse, the person registering a child was often a parent or grandparent, so on the first day of class instructors wouldn’t even know the children’s names. 

American Stage needed a solution that would simplify class registration for their customers and staff. 

The Solution

CourseStorm makes signing up for classes quicker and easier for people registering. Customers can register multiple people in one transaction and save their info for next time, eliminating the need to enter the same things over and over. And for administrative staff, CourseStorm automates processes they may have been doing manually, like creating rosters and managing waitlists. Programs can even give instructors limited access if they wish, empowering them to manage their own classes.

Arts programs that send students personalized class recommendations using CourseStorm’s automated emails attribute 14% of enrollments to this feature.

CourseStorm also offers marketing features to help arts organizations fill their classes every time. For instance, automated emails can be sent to current and former students, suggesting other classes they may be interested in. Arts programs that use CourseStorm’s automated emails to send students personalized class recommendations attribute 14% of enrollments to this feature alone.

CourseStorm integrates with ticketing, donor management and CRM systems—such as with Spektrix, PatronManager and Little Green Light—an added benefit for American Stage. Whether through Zapier, plugins, or direct integrations, combining CourseStorm with these other tools leverages the power of organizations’ existing customer data and CourseStorm’s class registration software.

The Results

American Stage loves how much clearer and simpler CourseStorm has made the registration process—both for customers and staff. Classes are now listed by name, not sold as a ticket. Staff used to spend hours walking customers through the registration process on the phone. Now, they get almost no calls. And people enter all their information upfront at the time of registration, eliminating the need for staff to follow up with additional requests. 

Staff can now do things automatically or in one step that used to require multiple steps or workarounds. With CourseStorm, they can email the entire roster of students at once, send text reminders, and give student discounts via promo codes.

American Stage now gets fewer complaints and calls from confused registrants, and has saved countless admin hours.

Since they’ve started using CourseStorm, American Stage gets fewer complaints and phone calls from confused people trying to register, and has saved countless hours on administrative tasks. “I think the fact that it’s simplified our lives is great [but] secondary to the user experience,” said Aviléz.

American Stage is well positioned to achieve their ambitious growth goals. “We’re about to have a major growth spurt.” 

To learn more about how CourseStorm might help your program or more information, email contact@coursestorm.com or call us at (207) 866-0328.

Many organizations offering non-credit courses struggle with a clunky registration system. These systems are often designed for for-credit classes and don’t meet the unique enrollment and payment needs of non-credit education. 

Community college workforce training programs, community health education programs offered by hospitals and healthcare organizations, enrichment classes, or other types of adult education programs often have registration processes that just aren’t user friendly. 

These types of classes come with unique registration needs because:

• Enrichment classes or courses to learn new skills typically don’t require prerequisites
• They don’t earn participants credit hours or credentials
• Non-credit courses are usually open-enrollment self-paid programs

So they don’t need a complex registration system like for-credit degree programs require. But manual processes aren’t a good solution, either. 

Some community ed programs require people to register in person or by phone during certain hours. This can be a big deterrent for busy working adults. 

Some noncredit programs may require people to register in person or over the phone during certain hours, for example, which isn’t possible for a lot of working adults. This also requires time, effort, and even unnecessary frustration for the program’s administrative staff. A poor registration experience can be a big deterrent for busy adults. 

That’s where CourseStorm comes in. Designed specifically for noncredit providers, like those serving adult learners, CourseStorm allows people to register and pay online at any time it’s convenient for them.

One non-credit course provider, in the first 6 months of using CourseStorm, processed almost as much revenue in registrations as the previous 2 years combined. Another customer added an online registration option through CourseStorm and increased enrollments by 316% in the first year.

In this post, we’ll look at how non-credit course registration software like CourseStorm can grow enrollments while improving student satisfaction and automating manual administrative processes. We’ll explore three real-life CourseStorm customers offering adult classes that have used the features of our non-credit course registration software tool to:

• Offer convenient online registration and payment so people can register whenever is best for them — a must for busy adult learners

• Improve user experience to reduce registrant complaints, encourage returning students, and keep programs growing

• Increase awareness of their many course offerings without endless scrolling to ensure students can easily find what will pique their interest

• Reduce the administrative burden on staff caused by in-person or phone registration and other manual processes

Is your registration system for non-credit courses complicated and time consuming for students and program staff alike? See how CourseStorm’s impossibly simple online registration software can streamline signups and payment. Try it today! 

Features of non-credit course registration software: What community education programs love the most

At CourseStorm, we work with a lot of organizations that offer non-credit adult classes. Many come to us because: 

• Their current registration system is clunky and inconvenient for working students to access outside of standard business hours

• Students and administrative staff complain about the course registration experience

• People in the community aren’t aware of their program or able to browse their classes easily

With simple online registration and accessible course listings, here’s how CourseStorm solved their problems and boosted enrollments.

Increased enrollments for non-credit education with online registration: Manchester Community College

Like many community college programs, Manchester Community College’s Workforce Development and Community Education program struggled with a clunky registration system designed for credit classes. It did not meet the unique enrollment and payment needs of non-credit classes. Because of this, the MCC program didn’t use any formal registration system before CourseStorm. Students were required to register in person and pay by cash or check during daytime office hours. 

This was a problem, since their target audience was either busy job searching or looking to improve their skills in a current job. Not allowing students to register for classes outside of business hours and conveniently pay online affected the program’s growth. 

“When you looked at our audience who were either looking for work or trying to improve their work skills, it just wasn’t convenient for them to have to come to our office to register for a class. Because of this, we missed a lot of people,” said the program director. 

MCC realized they needed a system geared toward non-credit classes if they planned to grow their enrollments.

Since switching to CourseStorm, students are now able to view classes, register, and pay online whenever it’s convenient for them. The system is more user-friendly for administrators, too, saving them both cost and time. 

MCC has been using CourseStorm to manage its online catalog and registration system for several years now. The program has increased the number of overall registrations and early enrollments. These features also helped increase student satisfaction — giving MCC a strong positive presence in their New Hampshire community.

Improved customer satisfaction and freed up staff time: Shasta College Community Education and Business Training Center

Managing non-credit class registration was a challenge for Shasta College in California. They offered a diverse catalog of community courses, but it was difficult for learners to find classes — students had to scroll and scroll until they found a class that was of interest. 

The college got complaints from frustrated customers that they couldn’t find the courses they wanted to register for. These calls were time-consuming, and disheartening, to staff. “Last year I had one customer call and complain that our registration system was so difficult to use that she said, ‘Now I remember why I quit taking your classes.’ It wasn’t the only complaint, and it’s what prompted me to seek out a new system,” said the program coordinator.

Additionally, with no way to add images to grab a student’s attention, their online course catalog felt plain, uninspiring, and unwelcoming. Another administrative hurdle was that instructors had to rely on program staff for access to information. 

Implementing CourseStorm has helped streamline Shasta’s entire class registration process. The image-rich online catalog allows students to browse and find classes of interest effortlessly, and its three-click registration is quick and straightforward, so fewer students call with issues. Unlimited admin user accounts, improved data entry, and instructor accounts are just a few of the things making life easier. And CourseStorm’s customer success team is available to answer questions and provide assistance whenever it’s needed.

Within the first few months, Shasta College Community Education and Business Training Center noticed a big difference in the amount of time they saved not having to help students with registration via phone and manually entered registrations. 

Instructors are now able to self-manage their classes, cutting out the middleman and freeing up admin staff to focus on more significant projects, like program growth and innovation. Overall, managing registrations, classes, and students is much more streamlined with CourseStorm. 

Increased awareness and enrollments to save a struggling program: Sacopee Valley Adult Ed

The Sacopee Valley Adult Ed program is located in a small, rural community in Maine. The dedicated staff provides a variety of non-credit adult and community education opportunities to a large district, but before CourseStorm the program was struggling and considering closing. 

Without a website or online course catalog, it was difficult for Sacopee Valley to promote upcoming classes — the team had to rely on printed brochures and word of mouth. The program was struggling with low (and sometimes no) enrollments. 

Like many non-credit course providers, Sacopee Valley also struggled with an inefficient registration system that was inconvenient or even inaccessible for interested learners. For years, students had been required to register in person and pay by cash or check. 

A large part of a non-credit education program’s success is based on its online presence. Even though some skeptics were unconvinced that the smaller, more rural community of learners at Sacopee Valley would respond to online registrations, they were mistaken. The adult ed program built an online class registration site using CourseStorm with a user-friendly, online interface for both registrants and administrators. It was an easy transition, and in only one year, the program saw results.

Even if learners are not tech savvy, CourseStorm is easy for them to use and has helped increase student satisfaction. Half of their learners have used the website to register for classes and enrollments grew over 316% that first year. CourseStorm’s streamlined online payment system gives students convenience and more options when it comes to paying for courses, like friends and family signups, promo codes, and early-bird discounts. 

“CourseStorm helped our program survive,” said the director of adult ed. “It really gave our program a new lease on life.”

See What CourseStorm’s Non-Credit Course Registration Software Can Do for Your Adult Education Program

Many programs offering non-credit courses, such as community colleges, adult education or continuing education programs, struggle with registration. Maybe students and staff are frustrated and overwhelmed by manual processes like in-person and phone registration. Or programs are trying to make a system intended for credit classes work for non-credit offerings like continuing ed and enrichment classes. 

For non-credit course providers that want to give learners a streamlined registration experience, CourseStorm is an ideal solution. Automated registration and payment functions empower registrants to sign up when they want, taking the burden off program staff. And user-friendly features like attractive online course listings, payment plans, waitlists, promo codes and more make CourseStorm a win-win for both students and program administrators. 

Is your registration system for non-credit courses complicated and time consuming for students and program staff alike? See how CourseStorm’s impossibly simple online registration software can streamline signups and payment. Try it today! 

CourseStorm helped a diverse not-for-credit education program improve its students’ registration experience and customer satisfaction, and free up staff time to focus on growth.

The Background

Shasta College was founded in 1950 in Redding, California and is committed to serving its community through education. Its Community Education and Business Training Center offers educational opportunities for personal enrichment, professional development, and career training. The business training center provides workforce training to businesses while Shasta’s enrichment classes range from finance, health and fitness, computers, cooking, creative arts, parenting, and day trips to regional events. Shasta College not-for-credit programs not only provide lifelong learning to the region but also help keep California’s workforce competitive in an increasingly competitive global market.

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CourseStorm helped Manchester Community College’s Workforce Development and Community Education program achieve a substantial increase in the number of enrollments through a streamlined, easy-to-use registration experience.

The Background

Manchester Community College (MCC) located in Manchester, NH has a finely tuned program focused on workforce development. Their learning community includes those looking to gain skills, pursue career advancement, or maintain professional certifications. These opportunities are key for their mixed audience of rural and urban students.

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CourseStorm helps a struggling, rural adult education program transition to a thriving community resource through a streamlined and easy registration experience.

The Background

The Sacopee Valley Adult Ed program is located in a small, rural community in Maine and offers adult and community education courses to a large district. The dedicated staff provides a variety of educational opportunities to learners in their local community, but it wasn’t long ago that the program was struggling and considering closing. Dave Durkee, Director of Adult Ed programs, was asked to come in and help. Dave knows what a successful program needs to grow and be sustainable. He brought in CourseStorm to add an online registration presence and was able to increase enrollments by 316% in the first year.

CourseStorm is very intuitive and user-friendly, with an easy way to register and pay. It’s so simple to use for our learners.”

—Dave Durkee, Director Adult Ed Programs, Sacopee Valley Adult Ed

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Using CourseStorm, a community health program integrated and smoothed out its class signup process and substantially grew its revenue.

The Background

The MaineHealth Learning Resource Center (LRC) believes that figuring out how to be healthy shouldn’t be hard. Its staff of health educators develops and carries out strategies to improve the health of individuals and communities. Creating, coordinating and offering health education programs; providing resources and information to promote healthy living and prevent disease; and connecting people to credible resources are the staff’s primary tasks. 

The center also holds a large number of classes on a regular basis from healthy eating to maternity workshops to cancer treatment education, offered at multiple locations in the MaineHealth system. Keeping on top of registrations and registrants was a constant and time-consuming challenge for staff.

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