Tag: Digital

Understanding Digital Marketing Strategy and Costs to Effectively Budget for Growth

In today’s digital-first world, higher education institutions are increasingly turning to digital marketing to educate, engage, enroll, and retain students. However, one of the key challenges that the campus decision-makers face is understanding the potential costs associated with digital marketing and how to effectively budget for growth.

As someone deeply immersed in the world of digital strategy, I often find myself having the same conversation with campus leaders: how do we set realistic expectations about what it really costs to do effective digital marketing? And more importantly, how do we directly link those costs with your institution’s growth objectives? In this blog, I will highlight the key data-driven strategies for assessing ROI and how these strategies inform a strategic budget plan that strengthens your institution’s overall portfolio and drives sustainable growth.

The importance of setting realistic expectations

Success in higher education landscape, particularly when managing a large portfolio, is driven by a disciplined, metrics-oriented approach. From my experience, the institutions that excel are those that rely on crisp numbers, rigorously evaluate their plans ahead of time, and understand the value of projections and estimations. By leveraging detailed forecasts and aligning resources accordingly, we can navigate the complexities of enrollment growth with precision and confidence, always mindful that incremental progress, evaluated at every stage, is key to achieving long-term goals.

Setting expectations means recognizing that significant results take time and careful planning. This translates to setting realistic growth expectations based on an understanding that reaching your enrollment goals will take multiple academic terms. When I am collaborating with our partners, we adopt a structured five year growth trajectory where Year 1 serves as the “foundational” phase, establishing the core infrastructure and strategic alignment. Year 2 is focused on “scaling,” optimizing initial investments to drive measurable growth. Years 3 and beyond are dedicated to “sustained value creation,” with a continuous focus on refining processes and maximizing returns through ongoing optimization and strategic enhancements. This phased approach allows for calculated risk-taking and ensures a clear path to long-term, scalable success.

Once we’ve set realistic expectations for our digital strategy, it’s crucial to ensure that every tactic -whether paid digital marketing, SEO, or creative content, all work together seamlessly to achieve your goals. These elements don’t function in isolation; rather, they complement each other to drive greater visibility, engagement, and, ultimately, enrollments. A well-rounded strategy that integrates SEO to boost discoverability, paid digital marketing for targeted reach, and compelling content to engage prospective students will create a strong foundation for success. By understanding how these components interrelate, you’ll be better equipped to assess their effectiveness and make data-driven adjustments as needed.

From here, let’s dive into how digital strategy translates into budget planning and ROI. Understanding the interconnectedness of these key elements will help you allocate resources more efficiently and set a clear path for measuring the success of your investments.

Connecting strategy to ROI and crafting a strategic budget plan for growth

The connection between strategy and ROI is grounded in the ability to align your digital marketing efforts with measurable outcomes, and it all starts with the establishment of clear and precise enrollment goals. Prioritizing top programs ensures that marketing resources are directed toward the areas with the highest demand or growth potential, improving overall program performance. The right channel mix is crucial to reaching the right audience, maximizing visibility, and efficiently converting interest into applications. Monitoring data and optimizing it in real-time ensures that marketing efforts are continuously adjusted for maximum effectiveness, enhancing the likelihood of meeting targets and improving ROI. Finally, effective allocation based on application timing, seasonality projections, and market revisions allows for strategic adjustments in campaigns to account for fluctuating demands, ensuring marketing spend is optimized throughout the enrollment cycle. Collectively, these elements create a robust framework for maximizing ROI, ensuring that marketing investments lead to increased applications, conversions, and, ultimately, student enrollment.

How do you craft a budget that supports your growth goals? Whether you are the decision-making authority or a decision influencer, here are the essential steps to craft a budget plan that aligns with your institution’s growth objectives and maximizes your enrollments:

1. Define your enrollment goals in detail

When you think of marketing costs, what comes to mind first? How much will it cost to meet your enrollment goals, right? So, your first step in planning a budget is to have your overall Enrollment goal (and, for graduate or online programs, a goal for every program) in front of you. With the goal (or program-level goals) in hand, determine what that means in terms of percentage growth from the current state. You may also have subsidiary goals like enhancing brand awareness, building more brand equity, or engaging alumni. If these are going to be part of your plan, they should also have tangible goals for what you are trying to do. Defining your enrollment goals helps you allocate your budget accordingly and measure ROI effectively.

STRATEGY TIP

Develop a “Goal Mapping” Scenario or you can say a Reverse Funnel (for each program). After you set enrollment goals (for the year or the term) you then need to understand the lead to enroll ratio. This will help you work backwards to determine how many accepted apps/admits will be needed, how many completed apps, how many submitted apps, and finally how many qualified leads will be needed. Based on the program category, dig deeper into what the Cost per Leads (CPL’s) are, based on industry benchmarks. That will help you calculate the estimated ad spend needed to generate those qualified leads.

A note on program-level goals: If you don’t have program-level enrollment goals for your online and graduate programs, finalize those as soon as possible. Until then, focus marketing on building brand awareness. It is likely that people in your own backyard could be less familiar with your program than you may think they are. Brand advertising will ensure that awareness rises so that when you have your program goals, you can build your campaigns on a higher level of familiarity with your institution. However, given that Google reports that 75 percent of graduate and online program searches don’t include an institution name, remember that branding alone will not be enough to fill your classes.

Institutional example: When we began work with one of our partners nearly two years ago, they had not established program-level goals. So, in year one, we focused the largest portion of the budget on institutional awareness, with mini-campaigns focused on specific programs of importance to the institution. By the beginning of the second year, the institution had set program-level goals based on a greater understanding of market conditions. At that point, we began transitioning our campaigns to focus (ultimately 80 percent of the budget) on the programs with the “mini campaign” focused on continuing the brand equity efforts.

2. Prioritize your programs

It is highly unlikely that most institutions can spend marketing dollars on every program they offer. This means that in order to maximize the ROI of your marketing budget, you must prioritize your programs. But how? Take a data-driven approach, prioritizing programs for which you a) know there is market demand both among students and employers, and b) understand the competitor environment. These are the “cash cows” that will demonstrate the best ROI on your marketing spend and support the programs that, while not demonstrating significant market demand, are critical to the institutional mission.

STRATEGY TIP

Spreading a $100K marketing budget across 15 -20 programs will only dilute the ad spend, by spreading it too thin. Instead, identify the top 5-7 programs that have the greatest market demand and focus on them. Note that sometimes, the programs that seem most in need of a “marketing boost”, really aren’t. They are struggling because their market demand situation is not what it once was.

Institutional example: A partner institution recently commissioned RNL to conduct a Program Prioritization and Positioning study focused on their current program mix. The goal was to take a data-driven deep dive into 12 programs vying for marketing dollars, with a focus on understanding student demand and employer needs in the region. The results indicated that while one of the programs they had planned to prioritize came out on top, two others that they hadn’t been planning to focus on also demonstrated strong demand, and one of the programs that they had questioned was confirmed as having weak local market demand.

3. Determine your channel strategy

Once you have prioritized your programs for marketing ROI, setting your channel strategy is pivotal. Personas (at the graduate and online levels developed for each program) dictate the channels on which you should focus. You don’t want (or need) to be present on every single channel just for the sake of “eyeballs.” Be mindful of the budget and how best to use it in order to maximize return, which can only be accomplished if you apply the personas that will inform you where your target student spend their “digital time.” So, for example, not every program may benefit from marketing on LinkedIn. Since it is expensive with a $10 minimum ad spend, a persona-based approach may indicate that other platforms are a much better match. But you can only do this if you know the characteristics of your audience, and that comes from the program personas.

STRATEGY TIP

The critical element in increasing marketing ROI is to engage the right students at the right time on the right channel, without spreading your budget too thin. In contrast, being too invested in any single channel exclusively or too long is also almost always the wrong strategy. There is always a point of diminishing returns as students cycle to different platforms, and you want to be sure to know where to go next before you approach that point by being able to tap into the next new thing.

Institutional example: One of our prestigious campus partners was struggling with recent market shifts that resulted in an overall decline in applications. We dug into market and performance data to help them prioritize programs that had the highest lead-to-enroll ratios, lowest cost per acquisition, and good search volume with an eye to increasing marketing ROI and overall success. This approach not only helped regain their momentum at the top of the funnel but also generated strong conversion volume that exceeded goals and sustainably reduced cost per conversion. These changes benefited not only the marketing operation but were also felt by the call center, and further down the funnel where we saw an increase in applications.

Talk with our digital and enrollment experts

We’re to help you find the right digital marketing and recruitment strategies. Let’s set up a time to talk.

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4. Analyze data regularly and optimize with agility

If (quality) content is king, data is queen! Sustained growth can only occur when data and insights are continuously incorporated into strategy. Analyzing performance data is crucial to understanding which programs and channels are yielding the largest numbers of applications and enrollments and, hence, generating the best return on ad spend (ROAS). This type of analysis allows for a data-driven approach to strategic pivots on how the marketing budget is allocated to ensure the highest ROI (or ROAS) across channels and the program portfolio. As the cost of marketing has risen, so has the need for marketers to make an effective case to senior leadership for additional marketing dollars. You can only do this if you can demonstrate that you are the best possible stewards of current resources.

STRATEGY TIP

As you continue to increase your campaign efficiency and success with the focus on ROI, your cost per lead will gradually start to go down – on average by 5 – 10 percent in year 2 and beyond. So, campaigns can generate more qualified leads efficiently over the years (for the same cost), thereby maximizing the return on your ad spend (ROAS). This helps you not just grow but also helps in building forecasts and projections for growth compounded over several years – and it also provides a strong ROI-driven basis for any requests you may need to make for additional funds elsewhere.

A note on analytics platforms: The fact that resources have become increasingly scarce at the same time as marketing costs have skyrocketed has resulted, out of necessity, in more sophisticated tracking of ROI. If your internal systems are set up in the correct manner (or if you are working with a strategic partner like RNL) every lead can be tracked to its source, thereby allowing for the assessment of just how effectively each marketing dollar has been used.

Institutional example: A prestigious campus partner was having challenges with converting leads to applications and enrollments. We reviewed their full-funnel data (compete with attribution percentages) and realized something wasn’t working. The top of the funnel was healthy, with good lead volume. However, down the funnel we saw that a disproportionate number of leads were not converting to apps and enrollments. As a result of the review and data analysis, we made a bold strategic pivot to shift significant budget allocations to the channel (Google search) that we could see was producing the greatest numbers of applications and enrollments. Without the data, solving the challenge would have been impossible. With the data, it was easy. Since we made this change, applications, and enrollments have consistently increased each academic period.

Making sure that the top of the funnel strategy is guided by down funnel numbers is the KEY! Effective strategy must evolve through ongoing optimizations with thoughtful placements across diverse media platforms that are informed by performance data. Remember that the path to enrollment is rarely linear and an integrated media strategy allows you to provide a personalized message in the right place at the right time.

5. Understand and account for seasonality/application timings/expansion

Another aspect of the dynamic nature of the marketing process relates to the seasonality of lead flow – and subsequent enrollment. This requires flexibility to adjust your strategies based on real-time performance data collected throughout the year. For any program or institution, there are times of the year during which more or fewer leads are generated. Fully understanding these trends takes time; you can make preliminary judgments on when the lead volume is highest and lowest within one year, but multiple years will allow for greater certainty. As you build your capacity to track lead generation – and conversion throughout the funnel – by program and source – you can create visualizations that map these factors by month. They can be used to build monthly budget allocations like those presented below.

Institutional example: For one campus partner we used the annual performance data in an innovative way. Our data insights indicated that there was more market share to capture, by having the program leverage low cost per conversion at the top of the funnel at certain points in the year, and low cost per acquisition at the bottom at other points of the year. There was time to scale up both applications and enrollments. We developed a forecast plan to address the potential areas of opportunity, calculated the cost, and pitched it to the partner. Once approved, we moved with agility, and implemented additional ad spend on the top champion programs and frontloaded the budgets for the academic periods yielding the highest number of applicants and enrollments. With this, we were not only able to meet the qualified lead goal but also exceeded the enrollments by 19% for the following academic period.

The lifetime value of the student

As you budget for growth, it’s crucial to consider the lifetime value (LTV) of a student. LTV refers to the total revenue a student generates throughout their academic journey and beyond. This value encompasses tuition fees, ancillary revenues (like housing and meal plans), alumni donations, and increasingly in our era lifelong learning opportunities.

Talk with our digital and enrollment experts

We’re to help you find the right digital marketing and recruitment strategies. Let’s set up a time to talk.

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January 21, 2025
Despite being global leader, UK cannot afford to rest on its laurels in digital, AI and green skills

By Matteo Quacquarelli, Vice President of Strategy and Analytics at QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

Across the globe, economies are grappling with skills and talent challenges. From talent saturation to workforce reskilling, each country is facing its own unique issues as it prepares for the evolution of the digital age.

The QS World Future Skills Index, just launched, offers a detailed breakdown of the globe’s higher education systems, their links with industries and how countries are preparing for the next industrial evolution. Using exclusive QS data, it identifies where economies and countries need to align their higher education outcomes with the needs of industry in three key areas – green, AI and digital.

The analysis delves into 81 economies and finds that UK higher education is currently one of the world’s best for cultivating students with the future skills business and industry are calling out for.

It measures four indicators linked to skills like AI proficiency, digital literacy and environmental sustainability that will form the bedrock of the industries of tomorrow.

Skills Fit measures how well countries are equipping graduates with the skills employers desire. In this, no country is currently better than the UK. Using data from both our own largest-of-its-kind QS Global Employer Survey and the World Bank Group, we identified that UK employers have the highest satisfaction rates with the skills graduates bring with them, anywhere in the world – but perhaps only for the time being.

Additionally, the UK received top marks in the Academic Readiness dimension, measuring the preparedness of a country in regard to the future of work. The UK’s success in the QS World University Rankings by Subject allowed it to flourish here.

However, the UK must not rest on its laurels. Higher education in other markets globally is innovating at a far more rapid rate than in the UK. The reputational strength of the UK – built on its history and tradition of delivering excellent teaching and learning – is unlikely to be the key driver of satisfaction going forward.

The UK was slightly less successful than its closest rivals in the areas of Future of Work and Economic Transformation.

Future of Work measures how well the job market is prepared to meet the growing demand for digital, AI and green skills, using 1Mentor data of over 280m job postings worldwide.

Economic Transformation analyzes whether a country has the infrastructure, investment power, and talent available to transition to industries driven by AI, digital transformation, green technologies and high-skilled work. This indicator used data from the World Bank Group, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the Education Policy Institute.

This lower score is reflective of the slow-to-no economic growth seen in the UK over the past decade and the tightening of the public purse strings strangling investment in R&D and new business innovation (evidenced by decline not only in public but also private sector funding in the UK).

The latest economic forecasts signal a further period of stagnation for the UK economy might be on the horizon.

Just as the importance of investment in future skills cannot be understated, nor can the importance of higher education in AI breakthroughs and innovation.

Funnelling research innovation down the value chain into industry has been the bedrock of economic innovation worldwide. Without Stanford University, there would be no Silicon Valley. In Germany, the universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen are key in the country’s Cyber Valley initiative. If Melbourne didn’t have its outstanding higher education institutions, the city would not hold the crown of tech capital of Australia.

The QS Future World Skills Index highlights the example of South Korea, where there is a correlation between increasing numbers of young adults attaining tertiary education and GDP growth.

The UK government’s new AI Opportunities Action Plan, announced earlier this week sets out a clear ambition strategy to maintain Britain’s position as one of the world’s AI superpowers and has been widely welcomed by industry.

The prime minister says his government will make it easier for experts to come to the UK via its talent visas and for future leaders to learn here. Tens of thousands of additional AI professionals will be needed by 2030, he has said.

The Government also wants to ‘increase its share of the world’s top 1,000 AI researchers’ and will launch an AI scholarship scheme to support 100 students to study in the UK.

While the UK was also top in Europe for talent creation, with 46,000 students graduating from an AI-relevant higher education program ahead of Germany in terms of absolute numbers with 32,000, the UK is still behind Finland on a per capita basis. Without specific policy and commitment, the UK risks losing its leading position.

The UK is missing ‘frontier conceptual, cutting-edge companies‘. DeepMind, the AI research laboratory, was one such company that was founded in the UK before being acquired by Google in 2014. But where was it established? The three co-founders meet while studying at University College London.

The new AI Growth Zones the government has announced, with the first starting in Culham, will need to engage universities up and down the country. Higher education must also be closely involved in the Digital and Technology Sector Plan, which is set to be published in the coming months.

The government has also previously pledged to become a green energy superpower. The QS Future World Skills Index suggests that both the UK’s job market and its higher education system is well set up to capitalise on that opportunity.

To succeed, government policy, the needs of industry and higher education curricula must all align to create an environment where the country can succeed and be future-ready.

Economies and higher education systems that invest in high-quality academic programmes in AI, digital and sustainability are setting themselves up for long-term success.

For the full QS World Future Skills Index: https://www.qs.com/reports-whitepapers/world-future-skills-index

The UK Spotlight is available here: https://www.qs.com/reports-whitepapers/uk-spotlight-qs-world-future-skills-index

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January 17, 2025
Call for Submissions for Special Edition – “Trends in the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Digital Learning.” (Anthony Picciano)

Dear Commons Community,

Patsy Moskal and I have decided to be guest editors for Education Sciences for a special edition entitled,

“Trends in the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Digital Learning.” (See below for a longer description.)

It is a most timely topic of deep interest to many in the academy. We would love to have you contribute an article for it. Your submission can be research, practitioner, or thought-based. It also does not have to be a long article (4,000-word minimum). Final articles will be due no later than July 1, 2025.

You can find more details at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education/special_issues/6UHTBIOT14#info

Thank you for your consideration!

Tony

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January 14, 2025
Start from where you are: why digital transformation is more than a final destination

Nick Gilbert, Chief Information Officer of the London School of Economics and Political Science, shares perspectives on how institutional leaders can work together to deliver strategic change in challenging times.

We in universities face well-reported challenges that have brought long-standing strategic imperatives into sharper focus. While the sector has always needed to evolve and transform, today’s operational and financial pressures have added fresh urgency.

For many, this creates a perceived choice between investing in long-term change and delivering immediate improvements. However, this isn’t an either/or proposition. The priority has to be on today and tomorrow. We cannot afford to focus exclusively on building solutions that will only deliver results in five or fifteen years. Planning for both requires careful navigation from institutional leadership, with the entire leadership team aligned on where we’re going and how we’ll get there.

Leading strategic change together

At the heart of these considerations lies the fundamental purpose of universities: the advancement of knowledge and its dissemination. We must constantly evolve to remain institutions of quality, delivering value to students, fostering impactful research, and building capabilities for the future. This multifaceted purpose shapes how leadership teams approach transformation.

We can no longer afford to simply implement new systems or processes. If our investments aren’t vital to the changes that our organisations need to make to survive and thrive now, we really must be questioning why we’re doing them. These aren’t just operational decisions – they’re strategic choices that require alignment across the leadership team.

Consider student retention, where challenge and opportunity intersect. We need both immediate interventions and long-term solutions. Many of the 6.4% of students who withdrew last year had not changed their goals. But, rather, they were struggling with a particular issue at a particular time. Identifying these crucial moments in a consistent and systematic manner requires sophisticated infrastructure and processes that many institutions are still considering how to build. Supporting our students with the maturity and capability they deserve demands that our academic and professional services leaders work in concert – and shows up in the right conversation at the right time with the right person.

Data as a foundation for change

Data is the cornerstone of the modern university. The development of institutional data capabilities illustrates how organisations can balance immediate value with longer-term transformation. Most universities recognise that they need sophisticated ways to understand and act upon their data – from student engagement patterns to research impact measures. However, achieving this requires careful consideration.

Building comprehensive data capabilities is an undertaking that every institution needs to consider, and the challenge lies in structuring this work to deliver tangible benefits throughout the journey. Success requires the entire leadership team to understand that while the full vision may take years to realise, we can and must deliver meaningful improvements at regular intervals.

“Planning digital transformation is like planning a long car journey. You need to know your destination but also need to plan your stops carefully.”

This approach reflects proven change management principles: begin with well-defined challenges, demonstrate value quickly, and build incrementally with clear institutional support. The institutions making real progress in this space share a common approach. They identify specific challenges – perhaps understanding patterns in student engagement or tracking research collaboration opportunities – and address these systematically. Each solution helps their communities immediately while contributing to more comprehensive capabilities.

At LSE, I work with colleagues across the institution to ensure this balanced approach delivers results. Like many institutions, we’re exploring how emerging capabilities around data and analytics will reshape research and education. The key is ensuring these forward-looking initiatives also address current needs. When we improve our understanding of student engagement patterns, for instance, we’re simultaneously helping today’s students while building the foundation for more sophisticated support in the future.

Strategic choices in resource-conscious times

Institutions have always faced decisions about what capabilities to develop internally versus where to collaborate or buy solutions. One question I see leadership teams grappling with every day is what makes us distinct, and therefore where we should focus our innovation efforts. While these considerations aren’t new, they take on added significance when resources require careful stewardship.

This calibration extends to decisions about technology investment and development. Whether considering research management systems, student engagement platforms, or data analytics capabilities, institutions must weigh up where to invest in distinctive capabilities versus where to adopt sector-standard approaches. Making the wrong choice doesn’t just affect current operations – it can impact an institution’s transformation journey for years and affect trust between different parts of the organisation. Success requires clear strategic alignment on where distinctive capability matters most.

Aligning the journey with the destination

We need to identify our goals, our destination, but that is not enough. I like to think of planning digital transformation like planning a long car journey. You need to know your destination but also need to plan your stops carefully. Each stop should serve multiple purposes – refuelling, rest, perhaps some strategic sightseeing. What you want to avoid is driving for eight hours straight only to realise you’re headed in the wrong direction. And we certainly don’t want to have to keep everyone in the car interested and excited in the journey for eight full hours without seeing any progress. We must start from where we are, end at our final destination, and, crucially, lay out our way markers.

This means being intentional about both immediate improvements and long-term transformation. As universities, we have a responsibility to push boundaries while ensuring we deliver value to our students and society today. This balance between innovation and operational excellence is something every institution must navigate. Going on that journey as connected leadership teams and being collectively clear where we will see value along the way is vital if we are to be successful.

While the current environment may add complexity to this task, the fundamental approach remains sound: start from where you are, deliver value as you go, and keep your destination clearly in sight. What matters most is taking that first step together, with a shared understanding of both immediate priorities and long-term ambitions.

Nick Gilbert will be speaking at Kortext LIVE in London on 29January 2025. Join Nick and other education and technology expert speakers at a series of three events for HE leaders hosted at Microsoft’s offices in London, Edinburgh and Manchester during late January and early February. Find out more and register your free place here.

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January 10, 2025
How the university can support student digital learning freedom

Feelings of belonging have a significant positive impact on academic success and progression, but we know that creating belonging isn’t as simple as putting up a welcome sign.

Belonging is not something that can be automatically created by an institution, regardless of its commitment to access and inclusion. To make students feel they belong in a higher education environment, having the power to shape and co-create the environments in which they participate is essential.

For students in higher education, liminal digital spaces (those informal areas of interaction that sit between formal academic environments and students’ broader social contexts) offer unique opportunities for students to lead, collaborate, learn and foster a sense of belonging, and the freedom to shape their learning environment and exercise agency in ways that may not be available within more formal institutional frameworks. They also offer opportunities for institutions to create places that nurture academic success without assuming responsibility for the development and delivery of all support.

But squaring the ownership, credibility and safeguarding triangle is complex, so how can universities do this while also embracing digital tools?

Taking ownership for learning

Focusing on digital spaces allows institutions to expand the space their students feel comfortable inhabiting and learning in, without limiting engagement from those who may not be free to meet at a specific time or be able to meet in person.

Digital learning resources can help students connect to their peers, further strengthening their sense of place within the institution. These spaces could act as connectors between university resource and student-driven exploration and learning in a way that more formal mechanisms sometimes fail to. At Manchester, resources such as My Learning Essentials (a blended skills support programme) can be used by the students within the spaces (via online resources) and signposted and recommended by peers (for scheduled support sessions).

Although this model exists elsewhere, at Manchester it is enhanced by the CATE-awarded Library Student Team, a group of current students who appreciate and often inhabit these spaces themselves. The combination of always available online, expert-led sessions and peer-led support means there is a multiplicity of avenues in the support. This allows the University to partner with, for example, its Students’ Union, and work alongside students and the wider institution by hosting these digital spaces, acting as mediators or facilitators, and ensuring the right balance of autonomy and support.

Keeping learning credible

Wider institutional support like My Learning Essentials already takes advantage of digital spaces by delivering both asynchronous online support and scheduled online sessions, and it can be easily integrated, signposted and shaped by the students using it.

These spaces need to be connected to the institution in such a way as to feel relevant and powerful. “Leaving” students to lead in spaces, giving them leadership responsibility without institutional support or backing, sets both them and these spaces up for failure.

Universities can work alongside students to help them define collective community values and principles, much like the community guidelines found in spaces like MYFest, a community-focused annual development event. Doing so ensures these liminal spaces are inclusive and responsive to the needs of all participants. Such spaces can also help students transition ‘out’ of the university environment and support others to build skills that they have already developed, such as by mentoring a student in a year below.

Safeguarding in a digital world

Universities should also allow students to follow the beat of their own drum and embrace digital outside of university spaces to further their learning.

Kai Prince, a PhD candidate in Maths at The University of Manchester, who runs a popular Discord server for fellow students, notes:

If the servers are led by a diverse group of students, I find that they’re also perfect for building a sense of belonging as students feel more comfortable in sharing their difficulties pseudo-anonymously and receiving peer-support, either by being informed on solutions or having their experiences, such as impostor syndrome, acknowledged.

Spaces like Discord allow students to engage in peer-led learning, but universities can enhance the quality of that learning by making available and investing in (as is done with My Learning Essentials) high-quality online materials, clear paths to wider support services and formal connections with societies or other academic groups. These mechanisms also help to keep the space within a student’s university experience, with all the expectations for behaviour and collegiality that entails.

The higher education sector is a complex and diverse space, welcoming new members to its communities each year. But it is often mired in a struggle to effectively engage and include each individual as a true part of the whole.

Work to address this needs to incorporate the students in spaces where the balance of power is tilted, by design, in their favour. Recognising the potential for digital spaces, for accessibility, support and familiarity for students as they enter higher education means that universities can put their efforts towards connecting, but not dictating, the direction of students and helping them forge their own learning journeys as part of the wider university community.

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January 10, 2025
Forming a Digital Transformation Committee

The Role of a Project Committee in Digital Transformation

Why do some institutional digital transformations fail while others completely change whole institutions? The hook lies in one critical thing: the project committee. Institutional digital transformation is no longer just a choice for higher education; it’s now essential to the success of modern institutions.

Without the right team leading the way, even the best plans can fail. The chances of an institution reaching its digital goals are 2.5 times higher if its project groups are well organized, according to research! There’s a bigger picture here than just managing a project. Your committee is shaping the future of your institute.

Partially deciding who does what is not the only thing that matters. A strong group of thinkers, problem-solvers, and decision-makers can make goals come true. The question is, what makes a dream team, and how can your institution put together one? Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty.

Why Institutional Digital Transformation Needs Project Committees?

Embracing new technology implementation in institutions is just one part of institutional digital transformation in higher education; the process also involves changing the culture and practices of institutions. Still, there will be problems along the way, like how hard it is to update systems, get people from different groups to work together, and get people to accept and gain from change.

In this case, the digital transformation project group must be well organized. Committees create goals and monitor progress to help change efforts succeed. Since they may adjust their plans, they can face issues head-on.

Maintaining a sense of responsibility is essential. If there is a digital transformation project committee, then everyone on the team will be responsible for their part of the change. Committees bring multiple viewpoints to address the full gamut of challenges: experience from information technology (IT), administration, faculty, and other departments. Together, they create the kind of innovative solutions that pave the way for positive digital transformation.

Key Members to Include in the Digital Transformation Project Committee

Digital transformation demands clear roles and responsibilities and more than a group. Clear project committee roles improve transformation efficiency. In it, everyone knows their roles, so responses are faster. Here are the essential roles of the higher education digital transformation project committee:

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities Within the Committee Members

Now that you have your essential players, make sure everyone knows their roles. The committee must have clear duties and responsibilities to work well and achieve its goals. Here are typical duties for each role:

Executive Sponsor

Executive Sponsors are your project’s top supporters. They acquire funding, top leadership support, and project alignment with the institution’s vision. Their role is to move the project forward and remove obstacles. Without them, the project may lack top-level direction and support.

A Project Manager

This individual manages the project daily. They organize, manage, and track deadlines. They oversee project timelines and budgets. Strong project managers pay attention to every detail and finish on time.

Subject Matter Masters

SMEs offer digital transformation competence (admissions, student services, tech). They suggest solutions that meet the institution’s needs and offer design and implementation help. SMEs connect tech solutions to institutional needs.

IT Leads

The IT Lead ensures smooth technical operations. They integrate new technology, maintain security and compliance, and resolve technical concerns. They must oversee infrastructure and data security.

Swap Champions

These people manage grassroots transformation. They handle resistance, promote adoption, and motivate staff and faculty. Unless people are onboarded and trained, even the best technology can fail without Change Champions.

A Faculty Rep

Faculty represent teachers’ needs and viewpoints. They ensure institutional digital transformation doesn’t disrupt learning and faculty demands are considered. Faculty input is crucial to campus development and developing a system that works for everyone.

Students’ Representative

Improved student experiences depend on their voices. This individual ensures improvements satisfy student learning, communication, and accessibility needs. Many of the systems being altered are used by students, so their feedback is vital.

Finance Officer

The Financial Officer manages the budget. They manage spending, finance, and project budget. They ensure project budget and resource efficiency.

Law and Compliance Advisor

This person ensures the project respects all laws, policies, and regulations, notably data privacy and security. Avoiding legal issues requires a dedicated person.

External consultant if needed

If needed, external experts provide project expertise. They can offer best practices and cover team knowledge gaps. A third party may provide fresh perspectives to help the team avoid surprises.

Steps to Define the Purpose and Objectives of the Committee

Step 1: First, figure out what the organization needs.

Look at the goals and problems of your organization. Find the places where going digital can make the biggest difference.

Step 2: Align with the institution’s goals

Make sure that the committee’s goals are in line with the institution’s long-term mission and plan. This will help the transformation program support the institution’s goals.

Step 3: Find important people

Find out who will benefit or be affected by the move to digital, such as students, staff, teachers, and administration. This group’s needs should guide the group’s goals.

Step 4: Make your goals clear

SMART goals should be used to make changes, like running the business or making the school experience better for students.

Step 5: Put together a group

Write down what each person in the group does to help the group reach its goal. This covers everything that’s important and makes sure that everyone is responsible.

Step 6: Write down your goals

Put your goals in order of how important they are and how doable they are. Think about what makes things useful now and in the future.

Step 7: Set goals to reach them

Things can be judged by how involved the students are, how well the business runs, how much money it has, how many people accept it, or how it’s planned.

Step 8: Get together

As new information comes in, the committee’s goals should be changed to meet the needs of higher education.

Strategic Contributions of a Project Committee

Institutional digital transformation project committees supervise daily operations and strategize long-term success in this way:

Vision Alignment

The committee makes sure the digital transformation project fits the institution’s aim. By understanding institutional priorities, the committee steers the initiative in the appropriate direction and ensures it contributes to the institution’s vision.

Risk Management

Financial, operational, and reputational risks come with digital transformation. Early risk identification and mitigation by a strong committee reduces setbacks. The committee can foresee and mitigate project issues with different skills.

Stakeholder Engagement

Leadership, faculty, staff, and students must communicate well to succeed. Communication is key, and the project committee ensures everyone is informed and engaged. The committee ensures buy-in from all groups by addressing issues and receiving feedback, smoothing the transition.

Resource Allocation

The committee prioritizes resources! The committee carefully manages funding, staffing, and technical investments to maximize ROI. Allocation ensures the organization benefits from transformation by implementing the best options.

Setting Up the Campus Digitalization Governance Structure

Digitization needs a good governance structure! It ensures order and transparent decision-making. Setup:

Use Decision-Making

Regulate committee decision-making. Most votes, consensus, or executive sponsor approval? Avoiding misunderstanding and delays with a clear decision-making process helps the committee act quickly.

Determine Reporting Hierarchies

Who reports to whom? Early clarification ensures everyone knows their direct channel of communication. The project manager may report to the executive sponsor, while committee members may report to IT or faculty leaders. The organization is maintained by hierarchy.

Set Objectives

Determine project milestones and outputs. These project milestones will be monitored. Goals-based timelines keep everyone focused.

Crisis and Risk Planning

Campus digitalization governance involves risk management and decision-making. Risk planning is necessary for risk management. After an unforeseen event, the committee can quickly adjust and minimize disruption.

Honesty and Duty

Establish transparency and accountability. Progress reporting, decision documentation, and stakeholder communication are required. Unanimity eliminates misunderstandings and missing chances.

Hold Review Sessions

Discuss achievements, challenges, and plan modifications with the committee periodically. The meetings coordinate and allow course modifications.

Communication Setup

Communicate clearly using email, project management software, or meetings. Communicating with the committee is crucial.

Challenges in Forming and Managing a Digital Transformation Committee

Forming and leading a digital transformation committee is exciting but difficult. These obstacles can make it hard to guide the committee toward the institution’s aims. Examples of frequent challenges and ways to overcome them:

Misaligned Goals

One of the major problems is aligning all committee members with digital transformation goals. Committee members may have diverse opinions based on their duties, and without a clear goal, it might be simple to stray. Smooth functioning requires everyone to understand and support the same goals from the start.

Change Resistance

Change management in education is common in digital transformation. With new technologies and processes, faculty, staff, and stakeholders may feel intimidated or uncomfortable. Resolving this opposition requires clear communication, stakeholder engagement, and committee change champions who can promote the shift.

Poor Expertise

While a project committee can bring together stakeholders, technical or digital tool skills may be lacking. Without the right SMEs, the committee may struggle to make judgments. Include members who understand the institution’s needs and the technologies involved to address this.

Balanced Goals

Numerous committee members balance different tasks and priorities. Other roles may tug committee members in different ways, causing time and attention issues. The committee must prioritize its work and give members appropriate time for the assignment.

Trouble Communicating

Diverse teams can have communication issues if duties aren’t clear or updates aren’t communicated. To keep everyone in sync and provide information quickly, effective communication is essential. Without effective communication, the committee may miss opportunities or delay matters.

Uncertain Decisions

Decision-making confusion can cause delays and frustration. Members may disagree or be unsure of how to proceed without a clear decision-making framework. Avoid decision deadlock by setting clear guidelines for decision-making and who has the final say.

Insufficient Budget and Resources

Technological, training, and support investments are common in digital transformation projects. The committee might stall development if it lacks resources and funds. Leadership support and early funding are crucial to the committee’s success.

Scope Creep

It’s tempting to add features or adjust the scope as projects progress. Scope creep can cause delays, higher costs, and less concentration. Keep the group focused on the agreed-upon goals and plan and approve any amendments to avoid scope creep.

Overcoming Challenges in Managing a Digital Transformation Committee

A digital transformation committee can be difficult to organize and manage, but there are simple solutions. Let’s simplify:

Communicate clearly. Be clear about expectations from the start. Establish roles, goals, and duties and communicate regularly. It aligns everyone.

Digital transformation requires teamwork. Encourage open dialogue and collaboration. Higher input is preferable. This guarantees everyone is heard.

Be flexible. Digital transformation changes quickly. Adjust your plans and strategies as needed. Monitor progress and adjust. Flexibility maintains momentum.

Keep learning. Not everyone is an expert straight immediately. Give your crew training and resources to stay organized. Knowledge is power and simplifies decision-making.

You may need outside help. Use transformation-experienced experts. They can identify issues early and suggest novel solutions.

Grab smart tools. Track progress and goals with strategic planning tools. It streamlines tasks, deadlines, and KPI management. If plans go awry, you can change them.

Monitoring the Success of the Committee

After launching, your digital transformation committee must track its goals and progress. Track the committee’s progress to improve and stay on track. Monitor committee performance:

Establish KPIs: Define success to track it. Scheduled milestones, budgets, and stakeholder participation are examples. Set KPIs to track progress and ensure the committee meets digital transformation goals.

Status updates regularly: Communication matters. Monitor committee progress with regular updates. Meet to review progress, handle obstacles, and keep the project on track. You can notice issues before they escalate using updates.

Reverberations: Important to gather committee and stakeholder input. Feedback reveals issues and growth opportunities. Be transparent and use feedback to improve processes and results.

Examine Resource Distribution: Track budget, time, and personnel to see if the committee is staying under budget. If resources are abused or underused, project changes may be needed.

Monitor Stakeholder Satisfaction: Faculty, staff, and students must be satisfied for the digital shift to succeed. Poll these groups often to measure how well the transformation is accepted and how well the committee is addressing their concerns. Dissatisfaction should encourage the committee to improve results.

Institutional Goal Impact: Assess your institution’s digital transformation project’s success. Does it improve education? Do administrative processes work better? Improves student engagement? The committee prioritizes what matters by aligning progress with institutional goals.

Enjoy successes, learn from losses: Recognize small achievements. Celebrate wins to foster teamwork. Analyze setbacks and improve future efforts. Successful and unsuccessful people learn and evolve.

Conclusion: The Path Forward

As digital transformation reshapes higher education, a strong project committee becomes more essential. These committees serve as the backbone of successful initiatives by offering governance, guidance, and collaboration to navigate challenges and meet institutional goals.

Strategic planning and a clear structure lay the foundation for success. By assembling the right team, assigning clear responsibilities, and monitoring progress, institutions can drive meaningful change, improving operations, and student experiences, and fostering innovation.

For institutions to thrive during this transition, the right tools and systems are key. By focusing on the right approach, higher education can effectively embrace transformation and build a brighter future for both staff and students.

Let’s improve higher education together. Get in touch with the right committee for higher education technology projects! Connect with Team Creatrix Campus.

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November 29, 2024
Maximize Digital Advertising For Language Learning Programs

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Language learning institution’s growth is projected to increase in the coming years. From 2024 to 2030, the global language learning market is predicted to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 20%. Due to the globalization of the labor market, language learning is likely to be in high demand.

Though language learning is growing in popularity, for lasting success, your school must find effective ways to stand out among other language academies looking to boost their enrollment. Digital advertising offers a broad spectrum of tools to attract students, but knowing how to maximize the impact of these strategies is key to success. At Higher Education Marketing, we’ve spent years refining approaches that yield measurable results for schools offering language learning programs. The following strategies offer actionable steps to elevate your ads targeting language students and attract the right prospects to your programs. Let’s explore!

Want to create successful ad campaigns?

Request a Free paid advertising consultation.

Understanding the Unique Needs of Language Learners

Language learners are a distinct group with varied motivations, backgrounds, and learning goals. Some are looking to learn a language for career advancement, while others may seek language acquisition for academic, travel, or personal reasons. Advertising that speaks directly to these needs requires a keen understanding of the diverse audience you aim to reach. One of the first ways to maximize the impact of digital advertising is through careful audience segmentation. Instead of promoting the same message across all channels, consider the specific motivations that drive different groups of learners and tailor your messaging accordingly.

Segmenting audiences by factors such as age, occupation, location, and even language proficiency allows schools to create highly targeted campaigns. How does language impact advertising for schools? Simply put, it depends heavily on your organizational goals. If you’re looking to target professionals wanting to learn English for business purposes, the language in your ad copy should reflect the vocational value of your programs. On the other hand, copy-targeting students hoping to improve their French skills before an international exchange can be more casual and experience-focused. This approach ensures the content resonates more deeply with potential students, increasing the chances of conversion.

Do you need help launching your language school’s latest ad campaign? Reach out to discover how we can support you.

Leveraging Social Media Platforms to Build Authentic Engagement

Social media is a powerful tool for language learning programs, offering an opportunity to create ongoing engagement with potential students. However, simply posting ads isn’t enough. The most successful social media campaigns foster a sense of community and engagement, which encourages followers to take the next step toward enrollment.

For language schools, showcasing success stories is one way to build trust. Highlighting testimonials from former students, sharing video snippets of language immersion experiences, and offering short, valuable language tips can increase authenticity. Interactive content, such as live Q&A sessions or virtual language exchange events, can draw in potential students who want to see what learning at your institution feels like before they commit.

Schools can also encourage user-generated content by asking current students to share their experiences online, providing social proof that can be far more persuasive than traditional ads. When students are shown engaging and relevant ad content on their social media feeds and in your school’s stories, they are much more likely to visit your site and perhaps even take the first step in your enrollment process.

Example: Here, a leading language school, EF Education First uses Instagram to drive their organic traffic. In their post, they share valuable language acquisition tips, providing an English reading list for their students. Try using social media to share actionable language tips with your audience. This will drive engagement, boost your follower count, and broaden your digital reach.

Source: Instagram | EF Education First

Creating Culturally Relevant Ads to Reach Global Audiences

Language learning programs often attract an international audience, which means your digital ads must resonate across cultures. One way to do this is by crafting culturally relevant ads that speak directly to the experience of international students. The language and imagery used in ads should align with the cultural values of the target audience. For example, an ad targeting language students in the Asian market might highlight the importance of family and education, while an ad aimed at Latin American students might focus on community and connectivity.

Schools should also consider creating ads in multiple languages to appeal to global audiences. You may be wondering how to go about this. For example, Can you target by language on Google Ads? Yes! Google Ads allows advertisers to create campaigns that specifically target users based on the language settings of their browser or device. You can set up your ads to appear in multiple languages, ensuring that they reach potential students who speak those languages. Additionally, you can create language-specific ad copy and landing pages, enhancing the relevance of your campaigns.

Optimizing Paid Search Ads for Long-Tail Keywords

One of the most effective ways to drive qualified traffic to your website is through paid search advertising. Language schools can take advantage of this by focusing on long-tail keywords that are specific to language learning. While broad keywords like “learn English” may have high competition, phrases like “intensive French courses for business professionals in Paris” or “Spanish language classes for travelers” are more targeted and tend to attract a highly motivated audience.

Long-tail keywords may have lower search volumes, but they often result in higher conversion rates because they target users who already have a clear intent. This approach not only helps you to maximize your ad budgets but also ensures that the clicks you receive are more likely to turn into enrollments.

Source: Hutong School

Example: Here, Hutong School uses the long-tail keyword: Global Chinese language school in their metadata. This targeted keyword is designed to attract students who not only want to learn Chinese but also want to do so at a global institution that welcomes students from all over the world. Specificity in keywords ensures higher quality leads who are specifically looking for you.

Crafting Compelling Ad Copy That Speaks to Pain Points

Effective ads for language learning and education go beyond promotion and address the specific challenges that potential students face. Whether it’s the fear of not being left behind in class or the worry about balancing language learning with other responsibilities, successful ads speak directly to these concerns.

To craft compelling ad copy, start by identifying the pain points that your target audience experiences. Are they professionals concerned about fitting language classes into their busy schedules? Are they international students worried about mastering a new language before moving abroad? Once you’ve identified these challenges, your ads should provide solutions. Highlight the flexibility of your class schedules, emphasize the support systems you have in place for struggling students, or showcase how your programs help learners achieve fluency quickly.

Source: KCP International Japanese Language School

Example: Here, KCP addresses a very common pain point for language learners in their ad copy. Many fear that it’s ‘too late’ to learn a new language as the experience can be expensive and time-consuming. KCP positions itself as the solution to this barrier, ensuring its audience that as long as they meet four basic criteria, learning Japanese is within reach for them.

Using Retargeting to Capture Warm Leads

Retargeting is one of the most powerful tools in digital advertising, particularly for language schools where prospective students may need time before making an enrollment decision. Retargeting campaigns allow schools to stay top-of-mind by showing ads to users who have already visited the school’s website or engaged with its content.

Retargeting works particularly well for language learning programs because it targets individuals who are already interested in the subject but may not have been ready to commit when they first encountered the program. Your school can use this strategy to provide reminders about upcoming enrollment deadlines, promote special offers, or share new content that highlights the benefits of your courses.

For instance, if a visitor left your site after viewing the course offerings but didn’t sign up, retargeting ads can remind them of the benefits of joining your program. This approach can be particularly effective when combined with personalized messaging, such as offering tailored suggestions based on the courses they viewed.

Incorporating Video Content to Showcase Language Learning in Action

Video ads offer a dynamic and authentic way to showcase your school’s programs. HEM’s tailored video ad services help you stand out, whether promoting a specific course or building brand awareness. From high-energy hype videos to authentic student interviews, we create compelling visuals that maximize visibility and generate results. How does that affect you as a language learning institution?

Video content is a particularly effective tool for language schools, offering prospective students a glimpse into the real-life experience of learning a new language. Whether it’s a classroom setting, a student testimonial, or a tutorial on language pronunciation, videos create an emotional connection that static ads often lack.

To maximize the impact of your video content, ensure that it highlights the immersive, interactive nature of your language programs. Videos should showcase the benefits of learning in a dynamic environment where students can practice speaking in real-life scenarios. This builds excitement and helps prospective students visualize themselves succeeding in your program.

Additionally, video ads on platforms like YouTube or social media can target specific audience segments. Language schools can use these platforms to create ads tailored to different learner types, such as professionals looking to learn a language for work or students hoping to study abroad.

Source: LSI Worldwide | YouTube

Example: This promotional video presented by a school director highlights the unique selling points of their online learning system. The unique academic benefits of your programs are an excellent topic for your promotional videos – particularly when presented by a language expert within your faculty. What makes your instruction style unique?

Harnessing the Power of Influencer Marketing

Language schools can also benefit from partnering with influencers, especially those passionate about language learning or travel. Influencers offer access to a built-in audience that already trusts their recommendations. By working with influencers who align with your institution’s values, language schools can reach potential students who may not have been aware of your programs.

An effective influencer marketing campaign for a language school might include sponsored posts where the influencer shares their language learning journey, highlighting the value of enrolling in formal programs. Schools can also consider offering affiliate programs, allowing influencers to earn commissions for every student who enrolls through their recommendation.

Utilizing Data Analytics to Refine Advertising Campaigns

Data-driven decision-making is at the heart of successful digital advertising. Language schools must continually analyze their campaign’s performance to ensure they’re reaching the right audience and achieving optimal results. Tools like Google Analytics and Facebook Insights can provide valuable insights into which ads are performing well and which need to be adjusted.

For example, schools can track metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and the cost per lead to determine the effectiveness of their campaigns. By continuously monitoring these metrics, schools can make data-driven decisions that maximize their return on investment. Adjustments might include refining audience targeting, improving ad copy, or reallocating the budget to the platforms that yield the highest returns.

Offering Free Trials or Sample Lessons to Convert Prospects

One of the most effective ways to convince prospective students to enroll in your language learning program is by offering a free trial or sample lesson. Language learning can be an intimidating prospect, and many students may hesitate to commit without knowing what to expect. By offering a no-obligation sample lesson, schools give potential students a taste of the learning experience, which can be enough to convert them into paying students.

This strategy works particularly well in digital advertising campaigns where schools can drive traffic to a landing page offering the free trial. Ads promoting a “try before you buy” approach can alleviate apprehension about committing to a full program.

Source: WuKong Education Online | YouTube

Example: WuKong Education Online offers a trial class to attract their prospects. Trials are an excellent way to convert leads and are particularly effective for online academies.

By implementing these language learning advertising strategies, your school can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your digital advertising campaigns. At Higher Education Marketing, we believe that understanding the unique needs of language learners, leveraging innovative tools, and continuously refining your approach is key to driving enrollment and building lasting connections with students.

Want to create successful ad campaigns?

Request a Free paid advertising consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Can you target by language on Google Ads?

Answer: Yes! Google Ads allows advertisers to create campaigns that specifically target users based on the language settings of their browser or device. You can set up your ads to appear in multiple languages, ensuring that they reach potential students who speak those languages. Additionally, you can create language-specific ad copy and landing pages, enhancing the relevance of your campaigns.

Question: How does language impact advertising?

Answer: Simply put, An ad aimed at professionals wanting to learn English for business purposes should be crafted differently from one targeting students hoping to improve their French skills before an international exchange. This approach ensures the content resonates more deeply with potential students, increasing the chances of conversion.

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November 20, 2024
How Provosts Can Lead Digital Transformation to Build a Institution
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Introduction: The Role of Provosts in Digital Transformation

As a Provost or Vice Chancellor, we know your roles and tasks are tough in the evolving digital landscape. You are the cornerstone when it comes to maintaining academic excellence while creating a future-ready environment that meets the changing needs of your stakeholders, especially the students!

The world out is competitive, hence building an agile, student-centered campus is not just a goal—it’s a necessity for engagement, success, and the general well-being of your university. We have interacted with provosts across the globe who have underlined the need to drive digital transformation in colleges and universities. With the help of this blog, you should be able to navigate digital transformation with ease and be more empowered to improve the overall experience of students at your institution and bring about significant change.

8 Crucial Provost Leadership in Universities

Key Data & Insights on Digital Transformation in Higher Education

It’s time for provosts to face the digital reality that is consuming higher education. More than 60% of colleges are making significant investments in digital projects, according to a recent EDUCAUSE survey, which is a positive development. The bad news is that almost 50% are encountering obstacles. They are being held back by reluctance to change, limited funding, and the challenge of integrating cutting-edge new technologies with antiquated systems.

Cloud Adoption

Beyond Just a Fashion Now let’s discuss cloud computing. The statistics are positive: 65% of colleges have adopted it, indicating a major change in the way higher education functions. This isn’t just a trendy term either. You simply cannot afford to overlook the advantages of cloud computing, which include increased collaboration, cost savings, and flexibility.

Effect on Engagement of Students

Let’s now discuss what actually counts: student involvement. Institutions that use automation and artificial intelligence are witnessing an astounding 30% increase in student retention and overall satisfaction. However, embracing technology isn’t enough on its own. The goal is to completely change the way that students learn by designing individualized learning pathways that genuinely meet their needs. If you could use these resources to raise student achievement and learning outcomes, just think of the effect it would have on your campus.

Contented Teachers and Staff

A Crucial Factor in Success What about your staff and faculty? According to JISC studies, the implementation of a digital campus management platform increases satisfaction by 25%. This is not merely a figure; rather, it is an indication of a more contented and effective work environment where employees collaborate easily, have less work to do, and enjoy coming to work every day. In order to support these changes and create an environment where creativity flourishes and faculty members feel empowered to give their all, provosts play a critical role.

Examine the data below to get a clear idea of how satisfied faculty and staff are using digital tools. This is a call to action, not just information, in your opinion. Your faculty are clamoring for support for remote learning, seamless technology integration, and more efficient workflows. Don’t ignore the areas that require attention, though, such as the development of digital skills and the time set aside for training. These upgrades may have a significant impact on how your organization responds to the digital revolution.

Key Challenges Faced by Provosts in Digital Transformation

Provosts, we know the digital transformation journey is complex, and you’re juggling more than most. Let’s break down the major challenges you’re likely facing.

Legacy Systems: Stuck in the Past?

You’re not alone if outdated systems are holding you back. Nearly 70% of campuses still use obsolete software, making modern tools hard to integrate. It’s like trying to force a square peg into a round hole — you need seamless solutions, and we’re here to help.

Resource Allocation: Balancing Innovation and Budgets

Balancing innovation with tight budgets is tough, right? Almost 60% of provosts are facing the same challenge. But strategic investments today can secure long-term success.

Data-Driven Decisions: From Info to Action

Got data but struggling to use it effectively? You’re not alone. 75% of leaders want better tools for analyzing student performance. The right technology can help turn data into action, and we’ve got the solutions.

Student Engagement: Meeting Digital Expectations

Students demand more than just lectures — they want interactive, hands-on experiences. By adopting innovative strategies, you can boost retention. It’s time to reimagine your classrooms and empower students.

Faculty Adoption: Overcoming Resistance

Faculty resistance to new tech is a real barrier, with 50% of educators concerned about adopting new tools. The answer? Create a supportive environment with proper training and clear benefits.

How Creatrix Campus Can Help: Solutions Tailored for Provosts

Simplified Campus Management

Imagine working in a higher education setting where every aspect of campus administration is streamlined into a single, cloud-based platform. By assisting you in getting rid of outmoded procedures and never-ending paperwork, Creatrix Campus frees up time for you to concentrate on what really matters—improving academic innovation and student success.

Data-Based Perspectives

We are aware of how important it is to base decisions on current, usable information. With the aid of advanced analytics and business intelligence tools from Creatrix, you can transform complicated data into insightful knowledge. This provides you the self-assurance to take on obstacles head-on and make choices that will advance your organization.

Untiring Student Lifecycle Administration

Overseeing the student journey shouldn’t seem like a difficult undertaking, from admissions to graduation and beyond. A complete student lifecycle solution that streamlines each step is provided by Creatrix. We make it easy for you and your students, whether it’s increasing student engagement or expediting enrollment.

Enhanced Academic Task

We are aware that one of the trickiest jobs you have on your plate can be faculty management. You can make sure that resources are maximized and that faculty members have more time to concentrate on what they do best—teach and mentor students—with Creatrix’s Faculty Workload Management.

Stress-Free Compliance with Accreditation

Maintaining compliance with accreditation requirements is crucial, but it can be very demanding. You can relax knowing your institution is adhering to all relevant regulations with our automated compliance tools, all without adding to the administrative workload.

Flexible and Cost-Effective

We are aware that money is tight, but Creatrix allows you to avoid making any sacrifices. Our solutions ensure you get the resources you need without breaking the bank because they are not only scalable but also built to grow with your institution.

Real-World Success Story: Dublin Dental University Hospital

Leading dental school in Ireland since 1899, The Challenge DDUH was doing well in patient care and dental education, but what about their curriculum management? Not in that way. Faculty were being slowed down and it was becoming more difficult to guarantee student success due to the manual process of mapping courses and tracking learning outcomes. They required a method that would simplify these processes without making them more difficult.

What was required by DDUH

The DDUH faculty was looking for more than a simple update. To make their jobs easier and more intelligent, they needed a single platform where they could simply map out their curriculum, monitor progress, and access reports instantly.

Creatrix Campus: The Salvation
- We offered DDUH a tailored Curriculum Management solution that satisfied every requirement:
- Faculty members could see exactly where they were and where they needed to go with the help of a tool called visual curriculum mapping.
- Data-Driven Insights: Accessible reports that ensure each choice was supported by reliable data.
- Personalized Dashboards: hassle-free, role-specific views that kept teachers informed and responsible.
The End Results
- DDUH saw improvements right away after deploying Creatrix, taking only half the anticipated time to complete:
- 50% Quicker Execution: No more fees, no delays—just quick, seamless integration.
- Improved Teaching Quality: Faculty could devote more time to students and less time to administrative tasks.
- Smarter Operations: With streamlined procedures and transparent results, the organization as a whole became more efficient.
Conclusion: Drive the Role of Provosts as Pioneers of Change with Creatrix Campus

You are leading your organization’s digital transformation as a provost. Real change can be sparked by your leadership, not just in the way your institution runs but also in the way students learn and achieve. You can empower your faculty, reduce complexity, and enhance student outcomes with Creatrix Campus—all while adhering to regulations and staying within budget. Together, let’s rethink what is feasible and establish a progressive, prosperous organization. You can make that happen with your leadership.
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September 24, 2024
The Trickiness of AI Bootcamps and the Digital Divide –
As readers of this series know, I’ve developed a six-session design/build workshop series for learning design teams to create an AI Learning Design Assistant (ALDA). In my last post in this series, I provided an elaborate ChatGPT prompt that can be used as a rapid prototype that everyone can try out and experiment with.1 In this post, I’d like to focus on how to address the challenges of AI literacy effectively and equitably.

We’re in a tricky moment with generative AI. In some ways, it’s as if writing has just been invented, but printing presses are already everywhere. The problem of mass distribution has already been solved. But nobody’s invented the novel yet. Or the user manual. Or the newspaper. Or the financial ledger. We don’t know what this thing is good for yet, either as producers or as consumers. We don’t know how, for example, the invention of the newspaper will affect the ways in which we understand and navigate the world.

And, as with all technologies, there will be haves and have-nots. We tend to talk about economic and digital divides in terms of our students. But the divide among educational institutions (and workplaces) can be equally stark and has a cascading effect. We can’t teach literacy unless we are literate.

This post examines the literacy challenge in light of a study published by Harvard Business School and reported on by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). BCG’s report and the original paper are both worth reading because they emphasize different findings. But the crux is the same:
- Using AI does enhance the productivity of knowledge workers.
- Weaker knowledge workers improve more than stronger ones.
- AI is helpful for some kinds of tasks but can actually harm productivity for others.
- Training workers in AI can hurt rather than help their performance if they learn the wrong lessons from it.
The ALDA workshop series is intended to be a kind of AI literacy boot camp. Yes, it aspires to deliver an application that solves a serious institutional process by the end. But the real, important, lasting goal is literacy in techniques that can improve worker performance while avoiding the pitfalls identified in the study.

In other words, the ALDA BootCamp is a case study and an experiment in literacy. And, unfortunately, it also has implications for the digital divide due to the way in which it needs to be funded. While I believe it will show ways to scale AI literacy effectively, it does so at the expense of increasing the digital divide. I will address that concern as well.

The study

The headline of the study is that AI usage increased the performance of consultants—especially less effective consultants—on “creative tasks” while decreasing their performance on “business tasks.” The study, in contrast, refers to “frontier” tasks, meaning tasks that generative AI currently does well, and “outside the frontier” tasks, meaning the opposite. While the study provides the examples used, it never clearly defines the characteristics of what makes a task “outside the frontier.” (More on that in a bit.) At any rate, the studies show gains for all knowledge workers on a variety of tasks, with particularly impressive gains from knowledge workers in the lower half of the range of work performance:

As I said, we’ll get to the red part in a bit. Let’s focus on the performance gains and, in particular, the ability for ChatGPT to equalize performance gains among workers:

Looking at these graphs reminds me of the benefits we’ve seen from adaptive learning in the domains where it works. Adaptive learning can help many students, but it is particularly useful in helping students who get stuck. Once they are helped, they tend to catch up to their peers in performance. This isn’t quite the same since the support is ongoing. It’s more akin to spreadsheet formulas for people who are good at analyzing patterns in numbers (like a pro forma, for example) but aren’t great at writing those formulas.

The bad news

For some tasks, AI made the workers worse. The paper refers to these areas as outside “the jagged frontier.” Why “jagged?” While the authors aren’t explicit, I’d say that (1) the boundaries of AI capabilities are not obviously or evenly bounded, (2) the boundary moves as the technology evolves, and (3) it can be hard to tell even in the moment which side of the boundary you’re on. On this last point, the BCG report highlights that some training made workers perform worse. They speculate it might be because of overconfidence.

What are those tasks in the red zone of the study? The Harvard paper gives us a clue that has implications for how we approach teaching AI literacy. They write:

In our study, since AI proved surprisingly capable, it was difficult to design a task in this experiment outside the AI’s frontier where humans with high human capital doing their job would consistently outperform AI. However, navigating AI’s jagged capabilities frontier remains challenging. Even for experienced professionals engaged in tasks akin to some of their daily responsibilities, this demarcation is not always evident. As the boundaries of AI capabilities continue to expand, often exponentially, it becomes incumbent upon human professionals to recalibrate their understanding of the frontier and for organizations to prepare for a new world of work combining humans and AI.

Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality

The experimental conditions that the authors created suggest to me that challenges can arise from critical context or experience that is not obviously missing. Put another way, the AI may perform poorly on synthetic thinking tasks that are partly based on experience rather than just knowledge. But that’s both a guess and somewhat beside the point. The real issue is that AI makes knowledge workers better except when it makes them worse, and it’s hard to know what it will do in a given situation.

The BCG report includes a critical detail that I believe is likely related to the problem of the invisible jagged frontier:

The strong connection between performance and the context in which generative AI is used raises an important question about training: Can the risk of value destruction be mitigated by helping people understand how well-suited the technology is for a given task? It would be rational to assume that if participants knew the limitations of GPT-4, they would know not to use it, or would use it differently, in those situations.

Our findings suggest that it may not be that simple. The negative effects of GPT-4 on the business problem-solving task did not disappear when subjects were given an overview of how to prompt GPT-4 and of the technology’s limitations….

Even more puzzling, they did considerably worse on average than those who were not offered this simple training before using GPT-4 for the same task. (See Exhibit 3.) This result does not imply that all training is ineffective. But it has led us to consider whether this effect was the result of participants’ overconfidence in their own abilities to use GPT-4—precisely because they’d been trained.

How People Create—And Destroy—Value With Generative AI

BCG speculates this may be due to overconfidence, which is a reasonable guess. If even the experts don’t know when the AI will perform poorly, then the average knowledge worker should be worse than the experts at predicting. If the training didn’t improve their intuitions about when to be careful, then it could easily exacerbate a sense of overconfidence.

Let’s be clear about what this means: The AI prompt engineering workshops you’re conducting may actually be causing your people to perform worse rather than better. Sometimes. But you’re not sure when or how often.

While I don’t have a confident answer to this problem, the ALDA project will pilot a relatively novel approach to it.

Two-sided prompting and rapid prototype projects

The ALDA project employs two approaches that I believe may help with the frontier invisibility problem and its effects. One is in the process, while the other is in the product.

The process is simple: Pick a problem that’s a bit more challenging than a solo prompt engineer could take on or that you want to standardize across your organization. Deliberately pick a problem that’s on the jagged edge where you’re not sure where the problems will be. Run through a series of rapid prototype cycles using cheap and easy-to-implement methods like prompt engineering supported by Retrieval Augmented Generation. Have groups of practitioners test the application on a real-world problem with each iteration. Develop a lightweight assessment tool like a rubric. Your goal isn’t to build a perfect app or conduct a journal-worthy study. Instead, you want to build a minimum viable product while sharpening and updating the instincts of the participants regarding where the jagged line is at the moment. This practice could become habitual and pervasive in moderately resource-rich organizations.

On the product side, the ALDA prototype I released in my last post demonstrates what I call “two-sided prompting.” By enabling the generative AI to take the lead on the conversation at a time, asking questions rather than giving answers, I effectively created a fluid UX in which the application guides the knowledge worker toward the areas where she can make her most valuable contributions without unduly limiting the creative flow. The user can always start a digression or answer a question with a question. A conversation between experts with complementary skills often takes the form of a series of turn-taking prompts between the two, each one offering analysis or knowledge and asking for a reciprocal contribution. This pattern should invoke all the lifelong skills we develop when having conversations with human experts who can surprise us with their knowledge, their limitations, their self-awareness, and their lack thereof.

I’d like to see the BCG study compared to the literature on how often we listen to expert colleagues or consultants—our doctors, for example—how effective we are at knowing when to trust our own judgment, and how people who are good at it learn their skills. At the very least, we’d have a mental model that is old, widely used, and offers a more skeptical counterbalance to our idea of the all-knowing machine. (I’m conducting an informal literature review on this topic and may write something about it if I find anything provocative.)

At any rate, the process and UX features of AI “BootCamps”—or, more accurately, AI hackathon-as-a-practice—are not ones I’ve seen in other generative AI training course designs I’ve encountered so far.

The equity problem

I mentioned that relatively resource-rich organizations could run these exercises regularly. They need to be able to clear time for the knowledge workers, provide light developer support, and have the expertise necessary to design these workshops.

Many organizations struggle with the first requirement and lack the second one. Very few have the third one yet because designing such workshops requires a combination of skills that is not yet common.

The ALDA project is meant to be a model. When I’ve conducted public good projects like these in the past, I’ve raised vendor sponsorship and made participation free for the organizations. But this is an odd economic time. The sponsors who have paid $25,000 or more into such projects in the past have usually been either publicly traded or PE-owned. Most such companies in the EdTech sector have had to tighten their belts. So I’ve been forced to fund the ALDA project as a workshop paid for by the participants at a price that is out of reach of many community colleges and other access-oriented institutions, where this literacy training could be particularly impactful. I’ve been approached by a number of smart, talented, dedicated learning designers at such institutions that have real needs and real skills to contribute but no money.

So I’m calling out to EdTech vendors and other funders: Sponsor an organization. A community college. A non-profit. A local business. We need their perspective in the ALDA project if we’re going to learn how to tackle the thorny AI literacy problem. If you want, pick a customer you already work with. That’s fine. You can ride along with them and help.

Contact me at [email protected] if you want to contribute and participate.
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October 2, 2023
Dan Marrable of 448 Studio Helps Academics with Digital Media and Technology
Virtual conferences, social media, and EdTech

Technology in education has transformed over time to better meet the needs of teachers and students. Dan Marrable, founder of 448 Studio in the United Kingdom talks how they’re jumping on this wave of technology to bring solutions for academic conferences and virtual events.

I met Dan back in 2020 when he invited me to speak at the All Day All Night 24 hour conference. It was a production to behold. Well managed, well organized. Speakers from all over the world joined in to share knowledge for Higher Education professionals. I’ve been on the steering committee ever since for this great online event.

In this interview, Dan Marrable opens up about some of the struggles professors have with virtual events (event organizers, speakers, and attendees). And, he asks for your help with their virtual teaching study funded by the Scottish Government and European Commission.

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Meet Dan Marrable

Jennifer: Hi everyone. My name is Jennifer van Alstyne. Welcome back to the new season of The Social Academic. Today, I’m here with Dan Marrable, the founder of 448 Studio, who is an amazing person I met in 2020. We worked together on the All Day All Night Conference.

He’s here to tell you about some ed tech software today that’s really amazing for faculty, for professors. If you’re in Higher Ed, I’m excited to share this interview with you.

Dan, how are you today? Would you start us off by introducing yourself?

Dan: Sure. Well, first of all, Jennifer, thanks for having me on the podcast.

My name is Dan Marrable. I’m the founder and CEO of a company called 448 Studio, launched back in October 2018. After working a stint at the University of Glasgow, I launched it as a consultancy to, to work with a variety of different higher education institutions working on their social media strategy, working on the support for digital media within academia.

That’s been going on for the past 3 years. It’s been quite an interesting time.

Obviously everyone knows that the past 2 years a lot of things had to pivot and change. And I think that’s kind of why I’m really excited to speak to you today about the evolution of not only 448 Studio, but kind of how we managed to jump on that wave of technology in teaching and learning. And what education institutions have had to cope with and deal with them the past couple of years [during the pandemic].

Technology changes for education during the pandemic

Jennifer: Yeah, it’s been increasingly difficult for faculty, but I love that you’re creating solutions for them. I’d really like to just let other people know, you know, what does your company do? Who are you helping and why?

Dan: Yeah. So primarily at the moment, we are very much embedded within higher education.

We have done some work with further ed, and with schools and things like that. That’s kind of more on the horizon. But I think for the company to grow, we’ve had to really focus on what I know. And what the people that worked for me know. And that is within universities.

Primarily we help not only academics, but also people within professional services.

It started out as you know, as workshops and support for social media and working with academics to represent their research in a digestible manner for widening participation as well as for international connections. And we still do that. And it’s still very much the core of 448 Studio.

But two years ago, when everything went into lockdown, we launched a conference called All Day All Night, which is where I met you. That was for education professionals and academics based off the fact that I felt that the core of what we did and the core of networking and knowledge share had almost been stunted as soon as all these conferences closed. And as soon as you couldn’t meet people in person. So we launched this 24 hour conference.

That’s what started me on that journey of saying, okay, well what can we do? And what can we do better? Specifically for education. Now there’s a lot of solutions for private companies and for corporations. But it does seem like at the moment we’re trying to kind of cram corporate technology into education. And trying to kind of balance the two, which I find is working in various degrees, but not necessarily the most fit-for-purpose thing.

Jennifer: It feels like we’re at this explosion of all of this technology all at once. People aren’t always sure where to turn to. And with so much to learn it just becomes difficult because you’re finding lots of solutions for the same problem, not even sure which one to turn to.

Forumm, a solution for virtual events and conferences

Jennifer: I think that’s why I like what you’re doing with Forumm. Can you tell us a little bit about Forumm?

Dan: Yeah. No, of course. So off the back of All Day All Night I met with some of the guys that were doing the live streaming for it. And very quickly realized that there’s kind of two elements to a virtual event. One is a platform that you host the event on. But a very separate element that a lot of people overlook is a broadcast element of it. So I think we had the broadcast…

The platform that we were using wasn’t necessarily fit-for-purpose. It worked fine, but we just felt that maybe we could do a little bit better from an actual event perspective.

As of last year, January, we started Forumm, which is a virtual event space for the education sector. So something that’s fully customizable.

You’re able to change things like the registration and the user journey. Been able to update simple things like branding and stuff like that.

But also have elements, for example, PDF readers or PDF things for journals. We had academic poster competition within the platform. And 3D and virtual spaces as well, embedded in.

So it’s really focusing on the technology and seeing where the technology can make a virtual event better, as opposed to trying to replicate a physical event virtually.

It’s really trying to find those core things that people within education struggle with and try to find a solution for them on a virtual event in space.

It’s been quite a journey. Yeah. We’ve been doing it for a year and a half and learning as we go. We get so much feedback from the institutions and the people that we work with that it’s great. It really feels like a partnership there. They know that we’re dedicated to the sector which I think makes a big difference as opposed to going for everything.

Jennifer: That does make a big difference, especially because it means that you know the types of struggles that professors, that faculty, that other educators are dealing with when they attend virtual conferences. You’re finding solutions to those.

One of the things that I really like about it is that it’s the kind of this all in one platform. Like if you need that conference space to fit a certain way or to fit your needs. Maybe you’re a journal and you have a series of publications to share. Or again, like that poster competition.

Dan: Yeah.

Jennifer: That can make a really big difference in higher education for researchers and for professors to really create that engaging space. I love that.

Dan: Yeah, no. I think it’s been a real learning experience, Jennifer. And I think the big thing that’s come out of it is how much professional services within universities find it a challenge to run events.

It’s either the fact that you know, that they need a bit of upskilling, which we’re happy to do.

It could be a case that, you know, they’ve got a million and 1 different jobs. And all of a sudden they’re like, okay, now I’ve got to run a virtual event.

Where I think we’ve been able to support that. Show that and set and support where we’ll come alongside you help you
- Plan the event
- Build the platform
- Run it
- Broadcast it
- Wrap-up
So then that’s where we’ve realized we can really provide a lot of support because when you do boil it down to an event platform, they are starting to pop up everywhere. And they do seem a dime a dozen at the moment. But a lot of times it’s just, you know, “Here are the tools,” and they’ll just step away.

Jennifer: Right.

Dan: And then everyone has to become a professional virtual event individual, whereas maybe they’re doing physical events to begin with and now they have to switch over.

Then obviously now, we can go down that hybrid route, which means so many things to so many different people. That’s that’s another challenge.

I think one of the vast refreshing things that I have seen is the fact that we’re not constrained by geolocation anymore. We’re not restrained by how much is it going to take to fly someone over and put them up and speak?

And, I think it also broadened your access to knowledge because you would get speakers that are like, “Sure, I can give you half an hour, 45 minutes of a talk.” Whereas before it would be a major thing saying to bring someone like that in.

I mean, we’ve had events hosted by hosts in Sydney, in Australia, with the actual event taking place in the United Kingdom. They’ll have the event. Then they’ll go into breakout rooms, which need to be recorded with transcripts done because it influences policy decisions.

That was amazing to see, you know, somebody’s hosting it in a completely different time zone, but still being able to, you know, gain the knowledge that they need from individuals within the UK. I think it’s just opening up that space right now.

Jennifer: And with the All Day All Night Conference, you had people coming in from all over the world. And we had presenters in how many different countries? I mean, it was truly amazing to see the power of that kind of platform and that kind of organization.

So it sounds like it’s not just the platform that you’ve created. It’s the system for really supporting the people who are creating that virtual event. So that together with the platform, it can really produce something that’s engaging for all of the participants.

Dan: Yeah. I think that, and that’s just the whole thing as well, Jennifer.

Obviously we would love everyone to use our platform. But some people, you know, they’ve got their own things set up. Maybe they’ve actually developed their own space within university, the university team on the website. Which I think is great. It’s truly ambitious.

And obviously our platform is great, but I think where we’re really leaning to as well is that support mechanism to help people manage and run the events that they need to run.

And I think it does fit hand in hand with what we’re doing as a consultancy at the very beginning and being embedded within higher education. Now we’re continuing that, but then we’re adding on more layers of support where people need it.

Jennifer: Yeah. Well, I like it because it’s almost like the software production of this idea of how can people connect better online? How can people share their research online?

And this product is almost, it feels to me like this evolution of like here we can create this space in which this knowledge sharing can happen in real time. Asynchronously, it can happen. You can have your recordings and go back later and watch those as well. I just think that that’s so cool.

Compared to all of those other platforms for events. You’re actually focused on education in a way that many of the others are not. And I think that stands you apart, especially when paired with that support.

That’s what I would do. I did events like physical events for my university. And I loved that.

But virtual events presents is like whole new set of challenges. And really getting people engaged. Well, that takes extra planning and extra work and creativity to figure out how these academic spaces can also be online.

Dan: Yeah, and I think the physical event in my opinion can, can never really be replaced. I think there is a space for that. Nothing really compares to just being able to sit in a room with someone and just share knowledge and share information and talk about specific tailored topics and things like that based off of conferences.

But, I think in its own right, a virtual event needs to be looked at with different eyes. Trying to run a virtual event the way you would run a physical event is almost impossible.

Yes, there’s probably some crossover in terms of registration. There’s probably some crossover in terms of some of the communication that you send out to people.

But when it actually comes to the event itself, you know, having to organize different broadcasts of things, different tracks. The support that comes alongside of it as well from a technical perspective, when people aren’t able to log in or having trouble doing different things.

And then dealing with your speakers as well. You know, making sure that they’re up to speed on the technology, making sure everything’s running.

So there’s a lot of things from a virtual event in space that people have had to learn quite quickly.

Where we’re talking about the hybrid space, it’s such a broad term. I’m hoping that people are understanding that, you know, a hybrid isn’t just trying to replicate a physical event to virtual audience. Because I’ve found time and time again one of the audiences loses out.

Whether it’s the virtual guys at home where they don’t feel like they’re part of the event. Or maybe the people in person feel like too many things are catered towards making sure the live streaming is happening, everything’s working properly. So that could even cause delays in, in the event.

So I think it’s still just trying to crack that kind of where those two types of events interact with each other. And I think our platform where we’re trying our hardest to try and figure that out. And I think a lot of other people are trying to figure it out too. But yeah. It’s quite an interesting space to be involved in and to watch.

Jennifer: That’s fascinating.

Struggles with virtual events, the problems people encounter often

Can I ask what are some of the biggest struggles that you’re seeing people have with these virtual events? The educators that you work with.

Dan: I think it depends on the question I guess, Jennifer. I think that the struggles are different for an event organizer, as opposed to a participant, as opposed to maybe a speaker.

Jennifer: Oooh, ok.

Dan: I think from an event organizer point of view. Yes, there’s a lot of technical challenges that need to happen. In terms of making sure everyone’s prepared for the event, making sure speakers are ready, making sure all the right communications are going out to the attendees. Not to mention having to promote it and things like that.

But I think the challenges for people that are speaking is the fact that without maybe more of a guiding hand, sometimes they’ll just have to show up and do everything themselves. I think that can be a huge challenge and a bit frustrating from a technical point of view.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Dan: I think there’s a bit of a barrier as well from the audience. And I think this is something that people have been seeing for the past couple of years, you know, from a webinar perspective. Not necessarily getting that instantaneous feedback. So you’re almost just sitting there talking to a screen and trying to be animated for it.

I think from an attendee point of view, some of the challenges are again from the technical side. Being able to even just simple things like log in, and network, and connect.

But also to be able to get as much out of it as possible from a networking point of view. I think a lot of people go to these events or virtual events hoping to make those connections. But we find time and time again, you know, you have your breakout rooms that people can join. But they’re really under utilized. People are scared to go into these spaces and just turn their camera on and talk to people.

We’ve been advising event organizers to really structure those breakout spaces and say, this is a topic. One of our guys will be in there and we’ll make sure that everything’s fine. And trying to facilitate that networking.

I think, yeah, as soon as they try to replicate a physical event, virtually it shows up a whole lot of challenges for organizers.

So I think their approach should be: We’re going to focus on a virtual or focus on a physical event with maybe some virtual elements to it.

Jennifer: Oh, that makes sense. Hearing all of those struggles also makes me understand why as an event organizer, you know, really thinking about the participants and the speakers is why going with something with support like 448 Studio offers, that can be beneficial.

Educators, university staff. They’re so busy. They’re overworked. And they need help and support with this kind of event. So I just love what you’re bringing to the table. And I’m really glad that you joined me for today’s interview.

Developing a new teaching and learning tool for lecturers

Dan: One of our core focuses over the next nine months because we received a grant from the European Commission to actually do a feasibility study.

Jennifer: Oh, congratulations!

Dan: Thank you. Yeah, it was about a year long process that gets it. But I think we realized quite quickly during the pandemic that the traditional tools that were being used by universities had pretty big barriers when it came to actually teaching.

So I guess aside from the event side of things and conferences side, I think, you know, university students and lecturers were really struggling.

I do commend all of the Higher Ed institutions, and further education, and schools as well for trying to utilize the tools that were given to them. And it ends up being, you know, the Teams or Zoom or something like that, where they really had to completely change the curriculum and the way that they taught to adapt to these tools.

Jennifer: Right.

Dan: We’re really focusing a lot over the next 9 months on understanding that learning and teaching process, that hybrid learning teaching process. And hopefully trying to develop a tool specifically for lecturers.

At the moment we’re doing a lot of sending out surveys to different academics and lecturers to find out where their pain points are. And we’ll hopefully have something to show for it,

I just think there’s quite an interesting time from a learning and teaching perspective. And yeah, just seeing if there’s better ways for tools.

Obviously, I think there’s overlap between learning a teaching platform and Forumm. But learning teaching is really is kind of its own space. It needs its own tools as well.

Jennifer: Yeah, I think that’s fascinating.

How are you soliciting those surveys? Do you want people who are listening to, to reach out to you?

Dan: Yeah, of course I would! I’d love to. I’ll send it across to you to share.

Jennifer: Yeah!

Dan: We’re definitely trying to get as much feedback as possible. We just kind of polished it up as of actually today. So we’ll hopefully in the next week or so we’ll be putting it out.

Jennifer: Yay! [Claps.]

Dan: Yeah, no, I think finding as much information as possible is really key for us at the moment. And then we’ll be developing something closer to the end of the year.

We’re really excited about it and really grateful to the European Commission and Scottish government as well for supporting us on this. It’ll be quite an interesting journey as well.

Jennifer: That is excellent. I love seeing how your business is growing, and changing, and adapting to meet the needs of the people that you serve.

I’m so glad that you’re working on all of that. And congratulations on that grant. That is so exciting. I can’t wait to see what you build.

Dan: Thanks. I know. I think it’ll be quite interesting because I think we’re definitely embracing the flexibility of it. I think, you know, going in with blinders on to say we’re going to create a live streaming that does X, Y, and Z that’s going to do this will be detrimental.

I think trying to find as much out as possible from lecturers and from people on the ground is really important.

And really exploiting technology as opposed to trying to replicate things. Getting that application to do things with the tech that you could never do in person. I think that’s what I really want to explore. As opposed to trying to find a way to replicate things.

Educators, please take this survey to help with Dan’s study.

So, yeah. It’s been a really interesting. We’re in the real thick of it for research at the moment. So it’ll be really interesting. I’ll make sure to keep being informed when we start to release some of the information.

Jennifer: Yes, I’d love to hear more about it. And I think that everyone listening will be very excited as well.

Yeah. Thanks for sharing that sneak peek with us. [Laughs.]

All Day All Night Conference

Jennifer: Well, Dan Marrable of 448 Studio, thank you so much for coming on The Social Academic blog podcast, YouTube channel. It’s going to be on all of it.

Where can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about 448 Studio or Forumm?

Dan: They just want to go to the website, 448.Studio.

We also have All Day All Night coming up on November 10, 2022. So we’ll, we’ll be sending more information out about that as well. Which I’m very sure you’ll be involved in some capacity, Jennifer.

Jennifer: Yes. I would love to be involved!

Just for everyone who’s listening. They might not know what All Day All Night is. So could you just end us with a couple of sentences about it?

Dan: Yeah, of course. So it’s a conference for the education sector. This year steam is regrowth. It’s a 24 hour virtual conference that starts in the United Kingdom. And then follows the sun around the world with speakers from Canada, United States, Australia, South Africa. Well, people from all over the place, I think.

It’s fully live, 24 hours. And again, it’s hosted on Forumm.

It really is out there for them for digital knowledge sharing. And I think it’ll be a really great event on the 10th of November.

Jennifer: I love it. November 10th, adding it to my calendar now.

Check out the All Day All Night Conference coming soon.

Dan, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Dan: Great. Thanks, Jennifer!

Bio for Dan Marrable

Dan Mararable is the founder of 448 Studio, an EdTech company that is committed to the future of knowledge sharing with a product called Forumm; a ground-breaking virtual event platform designed for the education sector.

The company supports institutions such as the University of Glasgow, University of Leeds, LSE, Lancaster University, the Welsh Parliament and Cornell University.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn.

Interviews The Social Academic

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August 2, 2022