Volume 2, Issue 1

Volume 2, Issue 1
4-
News
Enlighten
your spirit.
by Abby Clemons - Augusoft, Inc.
Courtesy of Robert Ketchum, North Idaho College
A changing economy
A boom in population and the vast expansion of new
industries in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, Idaho, have
helped these two cities achieve the lowest level of
unemployment in the area’s history. New companies such
as Buck Knives and Sysco Foods continue to drive industry
growth, while the real estate market surges with up to
5,000 people moving into the area annually.
President for Instruction and the Executive Director for
the WTC, found Augusoft Lumens Web-based software a
perfect fit to properly manage the program’s growth. Since
the Lumens implementation in 2002, the program has
soared in online enrollments and continues to serve the
skilled workers’ needs driven by the hot economy of Coeur
d’Alene and Post Falls.
This sudden boost in the economy and new demand for
specialized workforce created a need for skilled workers
and generated interest in education and training services.
Consequently, a need arose for the Workforce Training
Center (WTC) of North Idaho College to handle the area’s
explosion effectively and efficiently through customized
(contract) training.
The WTC was built by the college’s foundation twelve
years ago to strengthen non-credit business and industry
training within the region. Since then, Coeur d’Alene and
Post Falls have undergone a transformation from an
extraction economy of mining and lumber toward tourism
and manufacturing. Robert Ketchum, Assistant Vice
(continued on page 2)
by Aaron P. Donsky - LERN (Learning Resources Network)
Marketing and communicating online
We are in an era that provides us with the capability to meet the specific needs
of each learner. The Internet gives us this capability and competition forces us
to use it. How then do we use the Internet as an online marketing tool to allow
us to cater to the unique educational needs of our present and future students?
(continued on page 4)
Need further industry information? Visit us at augusoft.net.
(Continued from page 1)
Supporting the workforce
through non-credit
programs
Ketchum easily identifies
how Lumens has
benefited the WTC and the
surrounding region since
2002.
“Our program benefits from Lumens 24/7 Web-based
enrollment features, the dramatic reduction of time in
the production of our print catalog and a more rapid
production time of instructor support materials,” he
said. “The movement of students to online enrollment
increases time for customer service staff to work with
undecided students.”
Besides gaining additional revenues through supporting
this growing economy, the WTC is made successful
through Idaho and Eastern Washington’s willingness to
reeducate its workforce through continuing education
and training services, which the program provides for
lifelong learners.
“Non-credit programs for working and retired adults
are growing and Lumens allows us to efficiently serve
that population. The need to hold down costs further
increases the value of Lumens,” said Ketchum, who later
added the addition of the contract training component
will increase Lumens’s value to all lifelong learning
programs.
design the Lumens contract training feature.
“With the release of contract training, we will no longer
have to do duplicate data entry. It will now become
seamless,” Ketchum boasted. “We have been a major
player in helping Augusoft develop the contract training
portion and the release of it cannot come out fast
enough.”
Ketchum said that he is excited about this new feature
and the benefits it will bring to the program’s growth
internationally. The WTC’s efforts in China over the past
four years have shown success with live instruction
through contract training for companies operating in
China. The program is currently exploring new training
opportunities in China by partnering with a Hong Kong
based firm and developing local trainers.
Ketchum said that he is interested in the developing
partnership with online class providers Ed2Go and Gatlin
because the WTC has already used online classes
within Lumens since they implemented the Web-based
software.
The future of Augusoft Lumens contract training feature
and the newly acquired partnership with Ed2Go and
Gatlin will continue to support the growth of the WTC.
“I’m excited about Augusoft’s growth and commitment to
supporting new technology in the lifelong learning
industry,” Ketchum said. ■
Preparing for the future: new technology
Contract training has been an active component of the
WTC for many years. Contract training works closely
with employers to identify training opportunities and
develops proposals to meet those training needs, making
it a critical role for community colleges.
Currently, the WTC staff enters contract training
enrollments into Lumens. As a member of Lumens
Product Advisory Board, Ketchum has been working
closely with Augusoft product development to help
With the release of contract training, we will no longer have to do
duplicate data entry. It will now become seamless.
Robert Ketchum - Assistant VP and Executive Director
Workforce Training Center, North Idaho College
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
by Beth Moorhead, Director of Marketing - Augusoft, Inc.
Providing contract (customized) training while
keeping up with a knowledge-based global economy
In America’s global economy, delivery of lifelong learning programs to the social, economic
and culturally diverse market segments within a community can be a daunting task especially when these demands increasingly fall outside the traditional college calendar and
organizational model.
Many continuing and community education programs provide contract training to business,
government and non-profit organizations. Programs that offer contract training engage with a business/organization
and provide a service at a set fee. Contract training is not only another financial component for most programs using a
learning management system, but also a new revenue stream.
In order to drive new program initiatives, colleges will be pushing the envelope to deal with increased non-credit
enrollments, college ROI demands, staffing issues and funding constraints, while trying to use technology resources
wisely. ■
(Full article is featured the NCCET publication The Catalyst - Volume 34, Number 3)
Quality by design
Our customers found this article by Rob L. Wood to be beneficial to curriculum
development. To read the full-length article, go to www.league.org.
Building courses that work for learners is no coincidence
by Rob L. Wood
What does it mean to say that a course has quality? By many
criteria, the quality of a course is demonstrated, ultimately, by the
extent to which learners have learned. Further, it is demonstrated
by the extent to which learners can apply their learning in various
contexts, both academic and nonacademic.
A quality course must be relevant, timely, and responsive to
the specific needs of learners. It must be
responsive to the expectations of various
constituencies and stake holders searching for
graduates who can ramp up quickly in terms of
their performance and begin adding value to
organizations. A quality course must balance
higher order thinking with technical skills, and
it must further empower those who experience
it to continue growing as lifelong learners. ■
LERN forecasts for 2006
This exclusive report prepared by LERN
(Learning Resources Network) gives you trends
and ideas, plus practical how-to information not
available anywhere else. For a copy of this
report along with other impactful information
shaping your lifelong learning community, visit
lern.org and become a member today.
Top ideas of 2006
•
Pass out registration forms for your next
session or event at the second-to-last
class meeting.
•
Use the shopping cart symbol on lifelong
learning program websites.
•
Send out your emails the same week of
the month, the same day of the week and
the same time of the day.
•
Use numbers on benefits, reasons to
attend, outcomes and results in your
promotion and publicity.
Top trends for 2006
•
Marketing for professional development
activities such as conferences, institutes,
courses and certificate programs is
becoming much more sophisticated and
varied.
•
Website marketing is now a central
operational work feature for programs.
•
Websites for lifelong learning programs
are getting better.
•
Lifelong learning programs are becoming
more Web-based and conducting more
business operations online.
To learn more about the keys to achieving quality in a course, visit www.league.org.
Have you assessed your program lately for its effectiveness in reaching
your learners? LERN consulting is here to help you succeed by
offering information and resources to providers of lifelong
learning programs. Visit lern.org to discover the benefits of
becoming a member of LERN, Augusoft’s strategic
partner in the development of Augusoft Lumens.
Cem Erdem, President and CEO of Augusoft, Inc.
(continued from page 1)
Let’s consider four important elements necessary for
marketing online.
by Abby Clemons - Augusoft, Inc.
Element 1: It’s the customer, not the product.
Industry Tidbits
The Internet gives us the capability of discovering
what people need. The underlying principle to any
website you create, any online registration you
initiate or any emails that you send to students must
meet the needs of the people with whom you communicate. Give potential
students the opportunity to tell you about them and at the same time use
the contact to teach them about your programs and institution. In essence,
you concentrate on the client, not the product, and use that knowledge to
customize your products.
Element 2: It’s market share, not income, that is important.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, understands that “new economics”
is really the economics of the Internet. The important thing to do is to gain
market share and thereby capture a market niche. Once you control the
market niche, you create brand loyalty, and this will give you even greater
income in the future. Amazon.com is planning for the future; you must do the
same.
Element 3: You should view students as organizational staff.
Remember, the Internet is constantly being designed and redesigned by
the people using it. The best “online stuff” is produced by the people who
consume it. Think of Internet marketing as an opportunity for the ultimate
customization. In the new economics, the lifelong learning provider with the
best-informed students wins. Remember that as we continue to move into a
networked environment, the role of the employer, employee and customer will
continue to be blurred. All will and should have a role in both producing and
consuming.
Element 4: Move to a Web-based enrollment management system.
A Web-based enrollment management system is one of the most effective
ways of using the Internet to gather client needs and project these needs into
your products and services. It provides a continuous source of revised course
preferences, evaluations and marketing data. ■
Website hints from Augusoft: Get more click-throughs from your emails
Give them a reason to click. Don’t give recipients the whole story. Entice them with a catchy intro and make them click to get more information.
Make sure you are offering them something special. Emails that contain promotional offers are much more likely to get customers to your site than those that don’t.
Links, links and more links. Simply put, the more links you have the more click-throughs you will receive. Remember that links that appear in the inbox preview pane are 50 percent more likely to be clicked on than those at the bottom of the message.
Augusoft Findings
“Nearly 85 percent of Verisign clients can
save 3 to 5 percent per year by buying
their services through an authorized
Verisign partner.”
Tom Faster, Special Projects - Augusoft
Quotes
“Education is the ability to listen to almost
anything without losing your temper or your
self-confidence.”
Robert Frost
“Education is a companion which no future
can depress, no crime can destroy, no
enemy can alienate it and no nepotism can
enslave.”
Ropo Oguntimehin
Books
Building Learning Communities in
Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the
Online Classroom
by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt
This book shows how to create a virtual
classroom environment that helps students
excel academically, while fostering a sense
of community. This practical, hands-on
guide is filled with illustrative case studies,
vignettes, and examples from a wide variety
of successful online courses.
Developing Adult Learners: Strategies for
Teachers and Trainers
by Kathleen Taylor, Catherine Marienau
and Morris Fiddler
Developing Adult Learners highlights the
powerful and compelling voices of teachers
and students who have discovered the
excitement of growing and changing through
learning.
How to Evaluate and Improve Your Grants
Effort: Second Edition
by David. G. Bauer
Bauer reveals that most institutions do
not invest enough time, effort, or money
into the grants process. Bauer offers grant
seekers a dynamic, flexible, and adaptable
system for the efficient procurement, and
administration, of external funds.
Sign up for an Augusoft
Lumens Webcast by visiting us
online at
augusoft.net or by calling
(612) 605-1200.
All contents of the Augusoft web sites and various marketing mediums are: Copyright ©1994-2006 Augusoft, Inc. 4050 Olson Memorial Hwy., Suite 245, Golden Valley, Minnesota, 55422, U.S.A. All rights
reserved. Augusoft, the Augusoft logo, and the marks relating to Augusoft products and services referenced herein are either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Augusoft, Inc. All other names are
trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. If you have comments or need further information about this newsletter, contact us at [email protected].