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Fine-Tune Your Online Education Pricing and Hit The High Notes In Sales

2/18/2014

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By Christine Oh
Online Education Elearning Pricing Marketing
Too often organizations treat the pricing of their online education programs as an afterthought. And yet, experts say that it is one of the driving factors that impacts sales, and should be determined as early as possible. If your organization is in the planning, launch or even post-launch stage of an online education program, here are some actions that will help you fine-tune your pricing to reach your ideal learners:
 
DO YOUR RESEARCH: 
Determining pricing should not be an independent exercise. Collect research on other factors like the cost of comparable in-person courses, the value of the content (i.e. do participants receive credit or certification for the course), the average prices in the industry for similar content, and the prices of your competitors. You might also have to experiment with discount codes and other promotions to find a sweet spot.
TOO HIGH? TOO LOW? Common sense tells us that high prices deter learners from purchasing your courses because they cannot or will not pay. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that lower prices will automatically mean more sales. If your learners perceive your prices to be too low, they may assume your content is low quality, outdated or irrelevant. Not only that, you lose the opportunity to have higher profit margins on your content.
"Don't fall into the trap of thinking that lower prices will automatically mean more sales."
WALK IN YOUR LEARNER'S SHOES: Consider how a learner’s willingness to pay will be impacted by factors like level of education, income, geographical location and age. For example, disposable income generally rises with age, and therefore your prices should be lower to attract a younger generation and higher for a more mature group of learners. Which demographic you want to attract will depend on the type of content and your organization’s unique goals and objectives.
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[ScholarLab Dispatch] Visions of Change at NABE's Midyear Meeting 2014

2/13/2014

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By Christine Oh
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ScholarLab hit the road to attend the 2014 National Association of Bar Executives (NABE) Midyear Meeting in Chicago earlier this month, where the presentations, conversations and even tweets circled around the theme of embracing change. It’s true, we’ve reached a new era of law (click to read why), and it is becoming more and more evident that bar associations need to be evolving to the changing demands of today’s lawyers. 

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On the online learning front, this only reinforces how important it is to take a hard look at how lawyers learn today and in turn, build programs that cater to their education needs. Some bars have taken the leap into online CLE, but they’re seeing poor sales and still fighting criticism that bar associations should be doing more for new lawyers. 

The programs are, according to the conference’s twitter feed, failing to facilitate the interactive learning, network and post-graduate skills that lawyers need to successfully enter the legal marketplace.

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But how to put such programs into motion? In a time with such sophisticated learning technologies at their fingertips, bar associations need to modernize their programs to walk in stride with the capabilities of our time. This means moving past the outdated systems that rely simply on the live streaming of content. Instead, bar associations can be providing members with an ecosystem of education and communication tools that will facilitate a more complete, networked and engaged learning experience. 

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At ScholarLab, we are always asking ourselves, what keeps learners coming back? The answer at the end of the day is always a superior learning experience. It’s time we start giving lawyers just that. 

If you’re interested in learning more about some of the great ideas laid out at the conference, look out for online versions of select sessions from the meeting coming soon at: http://nabe.scholarlab.com/

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Purveyors of Knowledge: How Bar Associations will become key players in the new era of legal education

1/26/2014

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By Alexandra Caufin
The verdict is in: Crisis has settled upon the legal sector. In 2012, only about 50% of new law graduates were practicing law within nine months of graduation. 27.7% were actually un- or underemployed, pursuing other degrees or leaving the industry altogether. At the same time, longstanding law practices continue the struggle to survive, slashing the jobs of even seasoned legal professionals. 

The culprits? Well for one, more and more new law graduates are appearing annually and they’re unfamiliar with the opportunities available to them beyond junior roles at law firms (who, by the way, aren't hiring). A growing client-base needing legal services for less means that clerks and paralegals are taking the roles that new lawyers once held. Alternatives that have popped up—virtual firms, automated risk management services, and online legal and dispute resolution—offer niche services at a fraction of the cost of law firms. We know this much: the game is changing and everyone will have to adapt. But in the eye of the storm, even legal experts say it’s difficult to know what the future of law practice will actually look like. 
Lawyer Legal CLE Education
Burlington Studios, 1912

Bridging the Gap: Building CLE for new lawyers and legal professionals

And yet, amidst this time of crisis, bar associations have a strange new opportunity to step up and incite change. This means reorganizing to become central hubs for Continuing Legal Education (CLE), creators of modern knowledge communities, and indispensable resources for legal professionals and law firms alike. Associations like the National Association of Bar Executives, Iowa State Bar and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute have already begun to build virtually-minded programs that reach out to new graduates and longtime practicing lawyers, get a dialogue going and a pulse on the most pressing subjects now needed in Continuing Legal Education.
In the intricate conversation about why new graduates and first and second year lawyers can’t find paid positions, Ida Abbott, award-winning consulting lawyer and author puts it plainly: They’re inexperienced. At least that’s how they’re being perceived by clients and firms alike. The industry, she says, is losing so many brilliant minds because they need professional experience but are unaware of different legal careers paths. In creating rich, interactive, and accessible-from-anywhere learning environments, institutions who can bridge the gap have the potential to become as relevant as law schools themselves. And that’s where Web 2.0 comes in. 

Law Goes Digital: Modernizing CLE in content and delivery 

Why modernize? Like virtually every other industry, legal has seen an eruption of new commercial sectors. Online risk analysts who work virtually to provide legal advice; E-discovery specialists and litigation support that are research-oriented; virtual firms and web-based services that allow legal advisors to login from all over the world, enabling longer-hour access, rapid contact and communication, and often, reduced costs for the end client. With these online-based enterprises, an entirely new skillset is emerging in the legal sphere. How do we get our seasoned legal professionals up to speed? 
Many bars are already looking to the on-the-go production of content now possible via mobile capture and platforms that go past simple live streaming from a physical facility. The technologies offer a way for lawyers and legal educators alike to engage in frictionless teaching and learning that can happen from their office desk or their iPhone or their kitchen table or even, from the courtroom. Bars can use sophisticated CLE programs to educate in job transitioning and help fashion a greater fluency with new technologies in the sector, ensuring that as the field modernizes, lawyers can modernize their own skills with it.  

Building the Network: Linking learning with e-mentorship

Exhibit A: Law Without Walls. It’s a new initiative by the University of Miami law school. It brings together firms, legal corporations and law schools worldwide, setting students up with mentors and advisors. Among a mob of new challenges, creating virtual opportunities for new graduates to connect with one another and with more experienced lawyers, presents a major opportunity for bar associations to step up and be the matchmaker. 
As the pre-existing middleman in the law community, bar associations can leverage the wealth of online technologies at their fingertips to construct a sustainable network: create cross-state, cross-province and cross-nation dialogue, facilitate information exchange, create online programs on competitive techniques for job seekers in the field. Help foster exposure to seasoned lawyers via online courses, webcasts, workshops and seminars. Establish e-mentorship programs and pair new legals with the role models that can help them develop the distinct professionalism that isn't taught in school.

With these changes, bar associations have the opportunity to center themselves in what will be a new era of practicing law. Lawyers across North America are calling for change and if bars can be the ones to respond, they’ll become more than administrators, they’ll become a part of the education process at large. 





Cited:

The Real Employment Numbers for the Law Class of 2012
Connecting Core Competencies: New Graduates and the Bar (Lecturer Ida Abbott)

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Edutech Gallops into The year of the horse: 5 Online innovations We'll see in 2014

1/26/2014

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By Alexandra Caufin
Picturebloomua/Shutterstock.com
It was a good year; 2013 saw the release of the first-ever Google laptop, the rise of globally accessible education via the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), the eager implementation of the flipped classroom model and growth of platforms like Khan Academy, and a new feverish development around cloud computing. The second era of online education—one with multimedia, interactivity and social media rich at its core—has, aptly, reached a galloping pace as it proceeds into 2014, the Year of the Horse.

It’s no coincidence. The technologies coming out of the woodwork are answering a public demand to make education more accessible globally, more affordable, more practical for working adults, and more relevant in our digital and mobile-centric world. We’ve reached unbelievable momentum in the evolution of online learning tools, and here’s what we’re betting you’ll see more of in 2014:


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VIDEO BECOMES THE MEDIUM
Heavy-hitting platforms like Skype, YouTube and Vimeo paved the way for the now massively popular TED talks, releases like 2013’s Vine, and a slough of other video-based mobile apps. Effectively every major social platform now boasts a video chat feature from Facebook to Gmail to your iPhone’s FaceTime. With video, we at last have the opportunity to change how we deliver knowledge, granting a perpetually widening access to learning content. As our methods for recording, live streaming and sharing continue to sophisticate with better hardware and software, video in everyday life will become as commonplace as the in-class lecture, boardroom presentation, conference or seminar.

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COLLABORATION 3.0
The buzzword of 2013, collaboration will only surge forward this year, fuelled by technologies that have been designed to facilitate peer-friendly group work. Advances in cloud computing—Dropbox, Google Docs, Wikis and blogs to name a few—offer the tools needed to collaborate on projects, whether that it be in the same office, in different states or provinces, or even, across the world. With these capabilities at their fingertips, new graduates will be able to work and learn in the way that they socialize, continuing to blur the lines between learning, networking  and socializing.


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A ROGUE CERTIFICATE SYSTEM will rise from the influx of continuing education learners and the public’s ongoing criticism of the conventional university degree. We are beginning to see online programs that compete with university and college certification in the way of theory, practical skillsets and sophisticated evaluation systems (read: grades). Khan Academy for instance, awards ‘badges’ with the successful completion of its courses. Alternative learning certificates, diplomas and the acknowledged participation in online workshops and seminars will become the norm on resumes and CVs, complexifying the concept of a single person’s “education.” Associations and organizations, in turn, will be able to deliver more highly-recognized certification to their members.


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LEARNER CENTRIC EDUCATION
Long ago we discovered that the learning process is as unique for every individual as their own fingerprint. And yet our education systems are still touting the one-way, one-time-only, one-size-fits-all lecture. Online initiatives are responding by providing unique, adaptive programs and technologies for a spiralling spectrum of students. With the advances in user-based customization on the Web (think LinkedIn suggesting job openings that fit within your skillset and suggesting articles that coincide with your social demographic), the future of education technology will offer platforms that empower the learner by pinpointing distinct strengths, weaknesses and interests.

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DIGITALLY SUSTAINABLE INSTITUTIONS
will be the only institutions to survive in our brave new digital world. With an eager upcoming generation of digital natives who interact with mass media via a myriad of devices, those who fail to adapt will fail to capture their interest. Does your association have engaging online content accessible on computers, iPads and mobile devices? Do you use social media to share new learning opportunities with members? Do you offer any kind of digital environment that connects multimedia-rich learning with social collaboration? 2014 will make way for institutions who are ready and willing to join the digital revolution. Competition will up the stakes, entice innovators to push boundaries, and advance the face of learning online.


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