Can your VLE match your institution's growth goals? With Martin Bean, CBE
Planning to boost enrolment numbers at your institution? Martin Bean CBE explains the importance of having a VLE that can support your growth goals, and how to tell if yours is up to the challenge.
Alright. So let's cut to the chase. I'm evaluating a VLE because I wanna unlock possibilities for new student types and new revenue streams. Traditional patterns of enrollment, traditional pathways of trans national students, a retraction in the support from government funding, a slowdown in domestic demand, new types of competitors. All of these things sort of have come together to put more pressure on universities and tertiary education providers than anything else I've experienced in my entire career. And you can see by the gray hair, that's a fairly long career in educational technology.
And so a lot of what they asked me is, Martin, how do we diversify? How do we go find students in places that we normally wouldn't find them, both to drive impact and do good things in our communities and society, but also to grow revenue. And there's really only a few areas that I've found and I engage with them to actually drive more student flow and increase revenue. The first of those is, clearly through diversifying demographics, targeting non traditional students. The lifelong learner is a wonderful example of that. The second is all about expanding into online and hybrid learning to reach a global audience and to offer new types of programs.
The third is all about strategic partnerships, creating tailored education programs to open up new revenue streams. It's often by working with industry or government, for example. How can you develop and and launch micro credentials in partnerships with employers or government bodies or community organizations to go after a new type, of student and a new type of of revenue on the back of that, so really engaging with industry closer. And then the final one is all about growing offerings and reaching new markets through the offerings that you present. Technology actually gives you the opportunity to enter new types of programs that you may just not have the capacity to deliver inside your your physical environment.
I often talk about it as moving from brick and mortar to a click and mortar mentality, and that just opens up not just new opportunities for new audiences, but almost an infinite number of opportunities for new types of programs as well. A legacy VLE often has a real challenge in being able to interoperate and provide customized experiences to unlock partnership opportunities. They're quite rigid. A lot of legacy VLEs just can't be twisted and bent to work with partners and what they need from the learning experience. Often when you work with say corporations or or b to b organizations or government organizations, they actually need, want, desire, and must have your VLE to do things that you don't need it to do for traditional undergraduate or postgraduate taught students.
Without that functionality, it's impossible to fit their that sort of respond to their needs. If you can't respond to their needs, you're unlikely to win the bid. If you don't win the bid, then you're unlikely to be able to address those populations.
And so a lot of what they asked me is, Martin, how do we diversify? How do we go find students in places that we normally wouldn't find them, both to drive impact and do good things in our communities and society, but also to grow revenue. And there's really only a few areas that I've found and I engage with them to actually drive more student flow and increase revenue. The first of those is, clearly through diversifying demographics, targeting non traditional students. The lifelong learner is a wonderful example of that. The second is all about expanding into online and hybrid learning to reach a global audience and to offer new types of programs.
The third is all about strategic partnerships, creating tailored education programs to open up new revenue streams. It's often by working with industry or government, for example. How can you develop and and launch micro credentials in partnerships with employers or government bodies or community organizations to go after a new type, of student and a new type of of revenue on the back of that, so really engaging with industry closer. And then the final one is all about growing offerings and reaching new markets through the offerings that you present. Technology actually gives you the opportunity to enter new types of programs that you may just not have the capacity to deliver inside your your physical environment.
I often talk about it as moving from brick and mortar to a click and mortar mentality, and that just opens up not just new opportunities for new audiences, but almost an infinite number of opportunities for new types of programs as well. A legacy VLE often has a real challenge in being able to interoperate and provide customized experiences to unlock partnership opportunities. They're quite rigid. A lot of legacy VLEs just can't be twisted and bent to work with partners and what they need from the learning experience. Often when you work with say corporations or or b to b organizations or government organizations, they actually need, want, desire, and must have your VLE to do things that you don't need it to do for traditional undergraduate or postgraduate taught students.
Without that functionality, it's impossible to fit their that sort of respond to their needs. If you can't respond to their needs, you're unlikely to win the bid. If you don't win the bid, then you're unlikely to be able to address those populations.
“Technology gives you the opportunity to enter new types of programs that you may just not have the capacity to deliver inside your physical environment. A legacy VLE often has a real challenge in being able to interoperate and provide customised experiences to unlock partnership opportunities.”