90% of Higher Education Institutions Deliver Subpar Digital Engagement

TORONTO - March 9, 2021 - PRLog -- 73% of North American higher education leaders agree that their website is the number one marketing tool when it comes to student engagement and facilitating registration. Yet only 10% rate their site as "very effective", according to the "State of Continuing Education 2021: Exposing the Modern Learner Engagement Gap (https://moderncampus.com/research-paper/state-of-continuing-education-2021.html)" survey from Modern Campus (http://moderncampus.com/), the industry's leading "student first" modern learner engagement platform (https://moderncampus.com/products/modern-campus-platform.html).

The survey looked at the effects of the pandemic on continuing education (CE) providers while examining whether current institutions and technologies were meeting student needs. The research identifies specific areas where institutions suffer from a modern learner engagement gap. Further, it highlights areas where schools of CE are innovating to address this gap as well as identifies emerging opportunities.

"Modern colleges and universities address their engagement gap by making it unbelievably easy to not just enroll but also provide students with clear, personalized career pathways. The data from this year's State of Continuing Education report spells out the risk of not meeting the needs of modern learners," said Brian Kibby, chief executive officer of Modern Campus. "Those that do will thrive. We know this because we see it in our customers every day—on average they grow annual revenue by 19%."

While there's little wide-ranging research available on the CE market, these units tend to be at the forefront of transformation and innovation in the higher education industry. Understanding the trends in CE provides a high-level view into where the rest of the postsecondary industry is moving.

Additional Key Findings

●       76% of respondents have senior leadership buy-in to scale and expand non-degree course and programs, however:

o   58% of respondents say they can deliver the experience non-degree students want but only with significant staff effort.

o   39% say their current non-degree student registration system is not meeting their needs.

o   31% of respondents struggle to access non-degree student data – 11% have no access at all.

●       The biggest challenges to adding or scaling programs includes concerns about market demand, administrative burdens, cost to launch and time to market.

●       About 45% of respondents said buy-in from faculty, staff and leadership are the biggest obstacles to creating pathways from non-degree to degree programming at their institution.

o   80% of respondents said their institution intends to pursue the development of pathways from non-degree to degree education.

●       35% of responses were positive, 49.8% were neutral, while only 15.6% skewed negative when asked how continuing education has changed since the pandemic.

●       The biggest areas for growth identified in the survey are stackable credentials, microcredentials and customized corporate training.

Visit: https://moderncampus.com/research-paper/state-of-continuing-education-2021.html.