by Aubrey Mellos | Nov 17, 2016 | News
Columbia, MD – November 17, 2016. CommPartners, a leading provider of Learning Management Software, webcast, and event live stream solutions and Higher Logic, the leader in cloud-based community platforms announce they will be collaborating to fully integrate community and online learning. Traditionally these two spheres have been presented as separate components. Through this new partnership, Higher Logic clients will now be able to access online courses directly within a community framework, further leveraging the relationship among participants and host organizations. CommPartners’ clients will now benefit by having greater engagement through Higher Logic’s community platform.
“We have been talking for years about the need to bridge the divide between learning and community. This partnership provides the opportunity for a true knowledge hub similar to how we participate within a classroom environment.” Richard Finstein, CEO, CommPartners
CommPartners Elevate LMS will extend the value of Higher Logic Communities through simple and secure course access, centralized reporting of results, and simple setup and management. Elevate LMS is powering the Higher Logic Academy which will provide the company’s clients with educational offerings and training.
“Our partnership with CommPartners and Elevate LMS is a great opportunity to bring together the strength of online communities and social learning tools. Higher Logic and CommPartners already offer innovative services for any organization looking to improve engagement and connect people. We’re excited to debut the new Higher Logic Academy alongside CommPartners as a premier online learning tool.” Mark Lowry, CRO, Higher Logic
To learn more about CommPartners and Elevate LMS please contact Meghan Gowen at mgowen@commpartners.com or 443.539.4851.
About Higher Logic
Higher Logic is an industry leader in cloud-based community platforms. Organizations worldwide use Higher Logic to bring people all together, by giving their community a home where they can interact, share ideas, answer questions and stay connected. Learn more at www.higherlogic.com
About CommPartners
CommPartners is a leading provider of online education and event solutions. At the core of the company’s solutions is our Elevate Learning Management System. Elevate is the only LMS with fully integrated and embedded webinar, livestream and multimedia software to support learning, how and when it occurs. The connection between live, peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges and traditional continuing education programs leads to improved learning outcomes, as well as increased participation within an organization’s education offerings. To learn more visit: www.commpartners.com
https://www.newswire.com/news/a-new-social-learning-initiative-commpartners-and-higher-logic-17020728
by Aubrey Mellos | Nov 14, 2016 | Blog
Every day, each of us makes many decisions on how we spend our time and money. Some of these decisions require careful consideration and can take weeks or months, while others happen almost unconsciously, based on a feeling of comfort, expectations and trust.
All organizations, regardless of mission are in the business of attracting consumers to their brand and hoping that over time these people will have increasing loyalty and investment. That investment can be through a purchase or one’s actions. They are our members or stakeholders, channel partners, franchisees, or even people within our organization.
The question is; how can we influence potential customers, so making a choice to invest in us is an intuitive and easy decision?
I pose this question with a specific challenge in mind. My company helps clients provide, and in many cases monetize, online education through a learning management system (LMS). Our client organizations dedicate a significant amount of resources in their learning platforms and development of content, banking on the notion that if we build it they will come… and spend money. However, while knowledge cuts to the core of what attracts people to these organizations; expectations for participation are often not met. We find that some are having success while others are more challenged. When you look more closely at the reasons for this, you find that participation in one’s education offering has more to do with organization strategy than a learning strategy.
Where Community Comes in
Over the past several years, we are witnessing a movement towards open, transparent dialogue and sharing of ideas through social media and other means. This represents a profound shift for groups in their quest to build a following. It moves them from creating and directing to facilitating and empowering. A tangible way we see this happening is through significant growth of private online communities where conversations occur under the identity of a sponsoring organization. An online community changes the paradigm and invites dialogue. It also provides an on-boarding strategy to welcome new participants and break down social barriers which often lead to greater participation.
Private Communities and Online Education
As private online communities have evolved, these platforms have been created as separate and distinct areas within an organization’s Web presence. An organization’s LMS is typically in a different area therefore creating two, unique silos for community engagement and learning. Idea sharing happens in one area, while people enrolling and connecting through webinars, courses, listening to Podcasts or collaborating in a workshop happen somewhere else. This separate existence can cause fragmentation and a slowdown of momentum. Just like in other parts of society, social, community and learning go together.
Participation in learning calls for an investment.
People will resist that structure if they are not comfortable. Community cultivates comfort to make these decisions more intuitive.
LMS as a Component of Community
If our participants are already invested in a destination where they participate and share strategies and ideas about real life experiences, why would we disconnect them from where they go and move them somewhere else to start over? In a sense, this is what we do when we create a partition between private communities and our Learning Platforms. In contrast to this, a more effective approach is when the LMS is a component to a community building on the existing relationships and patterns of engagement?
Our Work with Higher Logic
Over the past year, CommPartners and Higher Logic have collaborated about bringing together our two platforms to support the ideas shared in this post. Our initial efforts have been directed to create the HL Learn Online Academy where online training is embedded within the HUG Community and leverages the relationships that are supported through this outstanding resource. We believe this is the ideal way to showcase the many benefits that occur when learning is a component of community.
Richard Finstein
CEO, CommPartners
rfinstein@commpartners.com
If you have questions or would like more information on the CommPartners – Higher Logic initiative you may email info@commpartners.com
by Aubrey Mellos | Aug 30, 2016 | Blog
Because associations serve a dual bottom line, they are always looking for ways to do well while doing good. As mission-driven organizations, they are called to serve those missions, but “no money – no mission.” There is a constant search for programs, products, and services that will raise revenue and benefit members and other stakeholders, the industries and professions that they represent, and the general public. Unfortunately, those opportunities aren’t always easy to locate.
Right now, both in the US and globally, the education and employment sectors are being profoundly disrupted. In their new whitepaper The Association Role in the New Education Paradigm, Shelly Alcorn (Alcorn Associates Management Consulting) and Elizabeth Weaver Engel (Spark Consulting) make the argument that associations are uniquely positioned to play a vital role in helping current and future stakeholders adjust and even thrive in this rapidly changing environment by drawing on their historic strength of experience in educating diverse audiences outside the constraints of the traditional classroom setting.
Globally, millions of workers, particularly young workers, are without jobs, and millions of jobs, many of which require “21st century” skills, are unfilled. Student debt in the US is at an all-time high. We are facing, in short, a “wicked” problem, one that is so complex and touches so many socioeconomic factors as to defy easy solutions. In the whitepaper, your authors argue that associations are a key player in solving this “wicked” problem and bridging the gap from education to employment.
CommPartners will be hosting a live webinar on Monday, September 12 at 12pm ET, in which Shelly and Elizabeth will share highlights from their research into the dramatic changes affecting the realms of both education and employment, why they believe these changes represent such a tremendous opportunity for associations to benefit the professions/industries we serve, and the real stories of associations that are fully embracing their role in nurturing the next generation of professionals and members.
Bridging the Gap: The Association Role in the New Education Paradigm | August 12, 2016 12pm EDT
We hope you can join us!
by Aubrey Mellos | Mar 2, 2016 | Blog
We see it frequently, that is, associations being threatened by new, innovative and well-funded competitors of all shapes and sizes. Indeed, it’s daunting to witness new players encroaching in our territory, challenging the relevancy of our once well-insulated industry. This is especially true for those of us who, for many years, were the only source of continuing education programs and resources for our members. Nowadays, our members have access to a virtually limitless tap of learning materials from a myriad of content sources.
Depending on your outlook, you can view this as a dire situation, or an opportunity for growth. In our opinion, negativity never seems to work to anyone’s advantage, so let’s continue on a positive—and realistic—train of thought. What sets you apart from those competitors also targeting your community for professional learning programs? We asked that very question to several folks and the following themes surfaced:
- “Associations are specifically charged with developing and disseminating late-breaking content and professional learning opportunities. This is one of our core missions, and a primary reason we exist. Given this focus, we invest significantly in developing our members through meaningful and outcome oriented continuing education programs.”
- “Associations have the clout to attract the most respected thought-leaders and change-makers to facilitate their professional learning programs. This provides members with exclusive opportunities to learn from and engage with industry titans.”
- “Associations have a duty to offer vetted, peer-reviewed and accurate professional learning programs and resources. Even if we charge for our continuing education offerings (as a way to generate non-dues revenue), we won’t skimp and compromise content quality just to generate more income.”
Folks, these are some impressive competitive advantages! The rigor that goes into your education is your inimitable edge and what places you above your competitors. You have the upper hand; instead of trying to work against these competing forces, what about aligning with them? At first, this might sound off-putting, but hear us out and consider your options.
Content Licensing
Think about those competitors who offer free or cheap professional learning programs as a marketing tactic. You know what I’m referring to…companies that have their core suite of products/services and use free education as a way to raise brand awareness, build a following, gain loyalty and increase revenue. Another example are companies that provide free or subsidized continuing education programs to their staff as an employee benefit. There are a number of other scenarios, but you get the gist. In general, designing and building quality professional learning programs is not their forte.
Have they approached you about licensing your content? Have you engaged them to see if they’re interested in licensing your content? You might consider having these conversations, even if it’s purely explorative to discuss possibilities. This relationship arrangement has the potential to be a win-win for everyone.
A New Way of Expanding Your Association’s Reach
Now, being the futurist you are, envision a great possibility that lies before you. For the purpose of this example, congrats, you’ve aligned with a former competitor and are now in the process of establishing a partnership. This happens to be an organization that offers professional learning opportunities to their staff as part of their benefits package. They admit they’re not content experts and understand it’s more cost effective and efficient for them to license your learning portfolio rather than create their own. Plus, you have top-notch programs and they can’t compete with you in terms of content quality and speaker prestige.
A Unique Proposition
They love your learning management system (LMS) and education portfolio within. In fact, they want to replicate your entire LMS (including content and resources) and offer a co-branded version exclusive to their community. In terms of content licensing, they desire an arrangement in which their learners have a credit of $250 already populated in their LMS profiles, as well as full access to your entire education portfolio. This setup would empower their learners with the latitude to customize a learning path tailored to their specific professional goals.
The Value behind This Proposition
What’s in it for them?
- The organization can focus on their core mission and provide this employee benefit (at a higher quality) in a more cost effective/efficient manner.
- Staff will be impressed their employer aligned with a high-profile association that specializes in professional learning related to their field/trade.
- New content is always being introduced, which will incentivize staff to remain connected to their ever-evolving learning community.
- The organization can monitor the learning progress of their employees to see who is excelling and who needs additional support and mentoring.
- Staff satisfaction is likely to increase with this one-of-a-kind opportunity, which equates to higher retention rates.
What’s in it for you?
- Your organization will expand its reach through key influencers who each have their own loyal community of followers.
- You will advance the industry at large as a result of more people accessing your learning portfolio and keeping current with best practices and new skill-sets.
- For years, you’ve accepted that certain people in your industry will never engage with your association…this arrangement has the potential to mitigate that dilemma.
- You will grow your non-dues revenue stream by using these alliances as new distribution channels.
- You’ll gain visibility and exposure, as well as the opportunity to demonstrate the value of membership to non-members.
From Concept to Reality
We understand this scenario doesn’t work for all associations. But, for those of you seeking the next big “Ah-Ha” moment, this might just be it. It’s a paradigm shift that holds exciting potential to reinvent your landscape.
We have the wonderful opportunity of collaborating with hundreds of innovative organizations, both non-profits and for-profits. In this position, we get to see and participate in (first-hand) a variety of pilot programs. Of course, some are more successful than others, but the important point here is we can share these ideas, key takeaways and lessons learned with our entire community. It’s especially fun to infuse ideas from our creative counterparts in the for-profit world and apply their ingenuity to the association community. In fact, that’s where we first observed the huge value potential of licensed content.
Truth be told, we’ve been noodling on this concept for a few months and wanted to come up with an easy way for associations to license their content. If the process was cumbersome, clunky or tedious, the concept would fall flat, regardless of the potential. So, behind the scenes, we calibrated our Elevate LMS in such a way that it’s now easy for you to license your content. In fact, the example mentioned earlier is 100% achievable.
With our recent Elevate enhancements, you have the ability to partner with fellow organizations (aka former competitors) and easily create co-branded knowledge communities. What is more, you have flexible options to establish the right partnership with each alliance. For example, in addition to co-branding opportunities, it’s up to you to decide how to populate your partner’s LMS (i.e. your entire learning catalog, or just select courses). And, you can also install parameters to limit user consumption based on the terms of your licensing agreement.
Strategy above Technology
As with any new venture, strategy trumps technology, and a well-conceived business plan is the first step. Should you move forward in considering this initiative, keep in mind it demands enterprise-wide support and buy-in. Collaborate with key stakeholders to figure out if/how this model makes sense for your organization, discuss the pros and cons, and identify desired outcomes.
In closing, at the very least, it doesn’t hurt to have these conversations in the near future, regardless of your ultimate decision. It’s better to proactively weigh your options now, then miss the opportunity completely. And, that’s where we can help. We understand the business of education and can support your conversations and vision with a fresh perspective and complementary solutions.
To learn how we can assist in converting your competitors into colleagues, contact Meghan Gowen at mgowen@commpartners.com or 443.539.4851.
