Food for Thought and Conversation

Big Think

Learners now have more power to be self-directed in their learning than ever. Some people go so far as to say they don’t need traditional institutions like colleges and universities anymore. What impact does this wave of self-directedness have on your education business?

We are entering an age of interface blur—the television screen and the computer screen are beginning to become indistinguishable; cloud-based data can be accessed across any number of different devices; wearable technology is on the rise. Looking out 10 years, what impact do you see this shift having on your educational offerings?

Front Lines Organizational Issues

How aligned are the different parts of your organization when it comes to your education strategy? What has worked (and what hasn’t!) in getting leadership on board? In what ways have you been able to break down silos in working with marketing, technology, or other departments? Where do you still have challenges?

Business Models

What new revenue models have you experimented with in the past couple of years? Subscriptions? Sponsorships? To what extent have you tried new possibilities like MOOCs, virtual conferences, or blending flipped learning content with your live educational events. What has worked? What hasn’t?

Marketing

What innovative approaches have you tried for promoting your education programs? What has worked, and what hasn’t? To what extent do you leverage content marketing or free content as part of your marketing strategy for education? How have you used social media for marketing? What has worked, and what hasn’t?

Learning

What approaches have you tried to increasing learner interaction and engagement? What has worked, and what hasn’t? What issues have you had with getting learners to complete online content, and what have you tried to do about it? Have you experimented—or do you plan to experiment—with digital badges or other gamified approaches?