Associations are viewed as the top trusted source for professional education and training. Your continuing education program is one of your association’s key value propositions.
According to Community Brands research, career advancement benefits – including training and certification/ credentials – are important and/or increasing in importance to members.
Now is the time to double down on your learning program and increase member engagement.
Four ways to grow member engagement with your learning program
Easy, familiar enrollment and purchase experiences
Your members are used to utilizing your member portal to complete member activities. Whether renewing their membership, purchasing learning courses or registering for an event, these experiences should mirror one another. Remove any barriers to a purchase or enrollment in courses by integrating your LMS and AMS.
Nimble AMS integrates with Crowd Wisdom LMS for an easy, familiar enrollment/ purchase experience. Integrated shopping allows members to purchase multiple items from the AMS and LMS through one checkout experience.
In addition, single sign-on allows members to seamlessly access both your AMS and LMS without multiple logins, preventing password fatigue and a poor user experience.
Offer a variety of content offerings
Ideally, your online learning program should serve as a full-blown knowledge community that supports and integrates live and on-demand content in many forms. Engage members in a variety of year-round learning opportunities to address members’ budgets, schedules, educational and certification needs, and learning preferences.
Members no longer look to annual conferences as the primary or only source of training and continuing education. They now learn anytime, anywhere, and in a variety of ways (five on average) – in-person, digital, time-intensive, condensed, and micro-focused.
Take learning to the next (social) level
According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, learners who use social features watch 30x more hours of learning content than learners who don’t. You can transform your online learning into an engagement hub with a social learning component.
A unified community in your LMS encourages learners to collaborate and share knowledge within courses. Utilize the community to facilitate expert Q&A sessions, provide forums for specialty discussions, and allow course-specific conversations. Learners can also provide peer-to-peer feedback to strengthen the learning experience.
Crowd Wisdom LMS includes a social learning community where learners can engage and collaborate with instructors and other learners.
Career advancement opportunities
One of the top three reasons members join associations is to advance their careers. And the next generation of members is continuing this trend. 76 percent of Gen Z learners believe learning is the key to a successful career. Your learning program should be your members’ most trusted asset for lifelong career growth.
Community Brands research found that members see a return on investment in the career advancement that comes from certifications and trainings. Provide your members with training that goes beyond technical skills to include “soft” skills, such as communication and presentation skills, which can help members excel in the workplace.
Not sure what training to offer? Ask members about their professional goals and challenges. Then, use their feedback to inform the educational opportunities you provide.
You can also tie your learning programs to members’ career growth with intelligent, personalized job and course recommendations by integrating your career center and your LMS. Crowd Wisdom LMS integrates with YM Careers to recommend relevant courses to job seekers and relevant jobs to learners based on their job searches, resume content, or courses taken.
With the right technology solutions, you can increase member engagement with your learning program. With Nimble AMS, Crowd Wisdom LMS, and YM Careers, you can meet your members’ expectations and deliver a great member experience.
