Professional learning can be an important revenue driver for your association. Whether you offer it as a perk of membership or sell it as a standalone, when members have access to skill-building opportunities that advance their careers, it creates stickiness. They’re more likely to stay engaged with your association and tell colleagues about the programmes you offer, encouraging them to get involved and experience the benefits for themselves.
But the ROI of learning can be hard to track. Without insight into engagement, it can be difficult to pinpoint the courses that are providing the most value—to your association and its members alike. You need actionable data to identify the programmes most likely to attract new members, keep them engaged and retain them over time.
The case for association-led learning programmes
Providing certification programmes and continuing education is critical to maintaining and increasing membership. Yet a survey of over 1,000 members showed that many feel their associations don’t place enough emphasis on training opportunities. While members ranked certifications as the third most important benefit, associations put it in sixth spot.
Conferences and in-person networking events still have significant value. Members enjoy them, and they help your association build its presence and credibility. Yet increasingly, they’re only part of the picture. Many members also want flexible, online options that let them fit continuing education around their personal and professional lives.
The uncomfortable reality is that if members don’t see the value of an association, they won’t join or stay.
How one association is enabling flexible, affordable training for dispersed learners
horsescotland understands the challenges associated with teaching learners who are geographically widespread. When it launched the Scotland Coaching Certificate in 2021—replacing the UK Coaching Certificate that had been taught face to face—it saw an opportunity to modernise the coaching qualification and make courses easier for more people to access.
“We wanted to make our coaching qualifications more accessible; to break down barriers, both in distance and accessibility,” explains Fiona Rawson, education and development manager at horsescotland. “We also wanted to take a more holistic approach so that candidates could, for example, upload evidence in whatever format suits them to present their evidence.”
horsescotland successfully created a feature-rich, convenient learning environment through D2L Brightspace. Learners are empowered to take part in learning no matter where they are. “Walking around a centre or arena, I will say to candidates, ‘take a picture of the Fire Safety sign, take one of the fire extinguisher’. They can learn and record as they go,” says Richard Johnston-Smith, director of coaching. Delivering learning this way has also helped cut costs for horsescotland and its learners. The organisation has been able to reduce the duration for which it needs to hire equestrian centres, and staff and candidates have been able to minimise the amount of time and money spent on travel.
Additionally, the horsescotland team is using several tools to help simplify workflows for its staff. It has set up pre-defined rubrics, which makes for consistent marking and clearer outcomes. It has also benefited from task automation that is set up to award certificates after candidates complete a course without manual intervention. Fiona explains, “We’re a small governing body so that’s a massive benefit for us.”
“Brightspace has revolutionised how we deliver courses, how learners are assessed and the ease with which they can access courses,” says Richard.
Deliver professional learning faster to increase membership value
The faster your members can access professional training, the sooner they can see value from their involvement in your association. Brightspace helps automate course creation with simple workflows and customisable templates to minimise the time between design and delivery.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) used these tools to pivot from in-person learning to digital on a tight timeline during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Launching the [digital education] platform in two weeks was something that neither our members nor the leadership within CHIME thought was possible,” says Dr. Tim Stettheimer, VP of education. “And we couldn’t have done it without our team and D2L. It was an amazing effort, and one that succeeded far beyond what we expected.”
Maximise revenue with D2L Course Publisher and Course Merchant
D2L’s solutions for associations combine an easy-to-use platform with in-depth analytics designed to help you adapt learning programmes to your association’s goals and offer your members the most valuable courses and credentials.
Providing fast access to professional education, certifications and credentials as a benefit of joining your association can attract new members and drive more revenue from dues. But what about non-dues revenue?
As member expectations change, associations are having to adjust their business models to rely less heavily on membership dues. Non-dues revenues now account for the bulk of association revenue—55% for trade associations and 75% for professional associations. Finding ways to grow sources of non-dues revenues is key to staying relevant and competitive.
Course Merchant can help you monetise courses by making them available through a customisable storefront. You can offer discounted prices for members or open up courses to non-members—making it easy to distribute and sell courses within your association and beyond.
Multichannel marketing tools help your association get its education programmes in front of interested learners who can enroll through a simple self-service sign-up process.
As more people see the value these programmes bring to their professional lives, your association has the potential to develop its reputation as a trusted representative and steward of the industry. This can, in turn, attract more members and grow profitable revenue streams.
Make data-driven decisions to increase learning ROI
Delivering high-quality, relevant content that meets members’ professional needs is key to maintaining a reputation that attracts new members and encourages them to renew year after year, but many associations simply don’t know where to start. What questions do you need to ask? Where can you automate core workflows? How can you maximise the impact of your association’s educational programme and ensure every learner benefits from their experience?
Data from D2L Performance+ helps you identify your most profitable and engaging courses and programmes. Analytics dashboards and visualisations reveal which courses members sign up for, progress through and complete. Working with an experienced learning analytics consultant can help you make sure you’re maximisng the value of your data with a strategy tailored to your needs and provide hands-on support to dig into the impact. With these insights into real indicators of ROI, you and your team can make informed decisions about where to focus the association’s educational efforts.
Analysing your learning programme can uncover opportunities to extend members’ learning paths and encourage membership renewals. Options like stacking courses to earn micro-credentials or combining micro-credentials into full credentials can increase engagement and satisfaction by helping members fill gaps in their professional knowledge.
Get professional support to develop engaging educational content
When the Grain and Feed Trade Association (Gafta) wanted to improve the presentation of its course materials, D2L was there to help.
“Much of our content is very technical, so it can be heavy going for learners,” says Sophie Webber, head of training and events. “D2L made it much more interactive, more appealing and more professional-looking. It was a super-positive experience working with D2L’s Learning Services team.”
Strategic consulting from D2L can help you follow Gafta’s path, creating learning programmes that better appeal to learners and align with your association’s goals. Brightspace experts are on hand to set up and optimise the platform. D2L’s team can also work with you to create a customised analytics strategy with dashboards and reports that show the exact data you need to make decisions that support members’ success.
Maximise member engagement and grow your organisation by partnering with D2L
With D2L’s solutions in place, you have the tools you need to deliver high-value, personalised learning to every member of your association.
- Brightspace provides a central platform for course delivery that keeps members engaged and focused on completing their learning paths.
- Course Publisher and Course Merchant simplify course creation and delivery so you can quickly design and distribute educational content.
- Analytics dashboards make it possible to track learning ROI and identify opportunities to increase memberships and non-dues revenue.
- D2L’s experts are on hand to help you plan, create and maintain great learning experiences that will set your association apart.
Members who take part in courses are more often likely to renew their memberships and stay engaged with the work your association does. And that’s the most worthwhile ROI of learning: stability in membership and revenue that enables you to make an impact for your members, industry and community now and into the future.
Interested in learning how D2L can help maximise learning ROI and member retention for your organisation? Request a demo today.
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