As a membership association, you want your members to have good experiences, whether they’re renewing a membership, booking an event, finding information or taking a course. The training and learning opportunities you provide are a key part of the package. But if members have complicated, confusing or just plain boring learning experiences, they’ll disengage and be unlikely to return for more. Positive learner journeys, on the other hand, can increase member engagement and retention, to generate revenue for your association.
How to create positive learning journeys
The question is how do you go about creating those all-important learner journeys, so all members have a good experience booking, taking and being assessed on a course?
I considered this with Seán Goucher, technology enhanced learning manager at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), during a recent MemberWise webcast hosted by Richard Gott, chair of the MemberWise network. We talked about the positive impact of smooth learner journeys, why that experience can be make or break for members, how to generate thought-provoking, interactive and flexible courses, and what RCPI’s own experience has been.
Tap into the full conversation for Richard and Seán’s insights. These are three themes that I picked out:
- The ideal learning journey is simple, intuitive, personalised and flexible
Seán defines the learning journey as the entire experience a member or trainee goes through when engaging with RCPI—from the moment they first interact with the website to where they find courses and learning outcomes, the completion of the course and beyond.
Within that process, Seán identifies the key characteristics of an ideal learning journey as being:
- straightforward course discovery and enrolment
- an easy-to-use learning platform with intuitive navigation
- an element of personalisation, that tailors learning to individual needs
- flexible scheduling
- automated processes for managing enrolments, issuing reminder emails, tracking progress and issuing certificates.
For RCPI and many associations, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, some learning is now online. From MemberWise’s own Digital Excellence report 2023/24 we know that over three-quarters (77%) of membership bodies offer learning this way.
A learning management system (LMS) can help associations organise, manage and deliver online learning for that simple and compelling journey Seán describes. Learning generates value for members and associations when it aligns skills development to outcomes, pathways and certifications, streamlines content creation and learning delivery, and reaches anyone, anywhere to discover, browse, purchase and self-enrol in courses.
- Seamless learning experiences engage members for revenue generation
Members have choices. Some of their training may be mandatory, but there may be other providers they could get it from. That’s a motivation to provide positive learning journeys, but, even if it wasn’t, would you want your members to struggle through unpleasant, dissatisfying learning experiences, just because they have to?
On the webcast, I asked associations how satisfied they are with the impact of their learning offering. Only 4% were very satisfied, while a fifth (21%) weren’t.
If learning is engaging, stimulating and inspiring, members are more likely to want to do more of it and to do it with your association. That’s good for members’ career development, good for consistent, high standards of skills and knowledge within the industry, and good for your member retention, engagement and revenue.
RCPI provides a mix of mandatory and optional training to more than 13,000 doctors across 90 countries through D2L Brightspace and Zoom. Members get access to a new set of mandatory online courses at the beginning of each quarter, tailored to that quarter, with a corresponding online tutorial schedule. These tutorials reinforce and expand on the content covered in the courses, and provide interaction that enhances the learning experience. Further interaction comes through discussion boards that foster a sense of community and support, where members can build connections with their peers.
Discover how RCPI enhanced its courses through edited and captioned videos for rich learning experiences >
Seán says: “Since we’ve been able to build up the brand and continue that brand into Brightspace, we found they’re [members] much more likely to do all of their training with us rather than splitting it between some with us and some with another organisation.”
In RCPI’s case, translating that into revenue isn’t a key part of what the association does, as is likely the case with many membership organisations, but Seán acknowledges that, nonetheless, it is important to support RCPI’s ongoing work and enable it to continue providing what it does to members.
- Automation helps associations achieve more
Workload is a challenge for all organisations, particularly those like associations that operate with relatively small teams. I asked the associations on the webcast what they considered to be their main challenges this year. Over a third (38%) said financial pressures/the need to generate revenue, member engagement, member retention, and operational efficiency are all their main challenges.
That is a lot for anyone’s plate, which is why associations need to be mindful that member training isn’t adding to it through excessive administrative work like notifications, enrolments, reminders, certification and other tasks.
Seán talks about RCPI’s experience before Brightspace, when many tasks were manual and “massively time consuming.” One example he cited was sending out reminder emails. If the responsible staff member was on leave, communications would be delayed or sent so early. Either way, it wasn’t an effective process. Additionally, for courses that were in-person, paper-based evaluation forms that had to be transported back to the office and manually entered into spreadsheets to generate charts.
With automation through Brightspace, the picture at RCPI is very different because staff have been freed up from manual learning administration to focus on higher value activities.
RCPI achieved significant timesaving through automation and enhanced self-enrolment. Find out how >
Seán also points out that automation can extend to course creation too, with templates that speed up the process and standardise course look and feel for consistent member experiences.
How D2L can help your association deliver effortless learning journeys
Associations can enhance member value through learning by providing effortless learning journeys that engage, inspire and bring members back for more. This helps staff too because manual administrative work is repetitive, laborious and reduces the time that could be spent on higher value activities like engaging with members and industry stakeholders. An LMS can help your association provided effortless learning journeys to create clear paths to member engagement and association growth.
Get the full conversation with Seán and Richard on the MemberWise webcast: why creating an effortless learning journey is key to association growth
Could D2L help your association deliver effortless learning journeys? Take a look at our information for associations.
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