Learning Design: Your Best Underutilized Marketing Tool

Many non-academic factors influence learners’ higher education decisions: financial implications, geography, degree paths, sports success, family legacy, and more. While there are many ways for a given institution to market itself, economic, technological, and societal shifts are motivating schools to refocus their marketing on attributes that specifically drive positive outcomes and generate industry-ready graduates:

• Learners are putting greater emphasis on educational ROI, suggesting that—at least for some—outcomes outweigh non-academic features.
• As the new federal administration continues to sow fiscal uncertainty, institutions increasingly look for more efficient, cost-effective differentiation strategies.
• Not only have teaching methods evolved to include online and hybrid learning, but industries are innovating at a far faster pace than most universities can match.

These shifts suggest a return to the fundamentals of education marketing. In other words, to sell an education, you need to sell an education.

Why It All Begins (and ends) With Learning

If you ask AI, “What are the key fundamentals of marketing higher education?” you will likely get some version of the content in the left column of the table below. The right column illustrates how the current realities of each fundamental suggest that a learning focused marketing strategy can be beneficial.

So, if the needs of the customer (students and employers) are increasingly focused on successful outcomes, how do institutions proceed?

Learning Design and Enrollment

Capturing the attention of a desirable prospect begins with getting on their radar. As there is no shortage of content on marketing for enrollment, we will avoid discussions of implementation in favor of understanding the messaging opportunity.

Institutions that are committed to student success are likely already emphasizing their academic credentials, such as in-demand faculty, state-of-the-art research, and graduation/employment rates. However, the more nuanced subject of learning design–-how we learn versus what we learn—is often overlooked.

If the unifying goal is to produce industry-ready graduates, it is incumbent upon institutions to take the necessary steps to maximize each student’s chance of success. That means addressing students individually, based on their strengths and weaknesses. In a textbook-and-classroom scenario, this is all but impossible. Students who excel often have to wait for others to catch up, while those facing difficulties may become discouraged or even embarrassed.

Today’s learners, on the other hand, benefit from extraordinary technological growth. Incoming students don’t know—or probably care—what came “before” smartphones, the internet, and AI, and they are accustomed to some degree of personalization in everything they do. The same advances that decide what ad to show you on social media can and are being put to use in developing individualized learning strategies.

Marketing exceptional learning design to prospects should focus on how it can benefit them as individuals who have their own unique learning challenges, giving each student an equal opportunity to excel by tailoring their education to their own learning style and pace. Commitment to advanced learning design signals that the institution does indeed focus on the individual and helps reduce the fear of being “just a number.”

Learning Design and Retention

When we look at the primary causes of drop out and stop out, most can be connected, at least in part, to academic challenges. Thoughtful application of modern learning design theory and current technology can help overcome these.

• Financial strain – Still number one for most learners, but not directly tied to learning in most cases.
• Emotional stress – While any number of factors can contribute negatively to an individual’s mental health, academic challenges and failures will stand out as a major cause for many learners.
• Academic unpreparedness/inability to keep up – Students who excelled in K-12 may struggle when they experience the pace and volume of higher education.
• Lack of structure/motivation – Students with underdeveloped study habits and issues with procrastination may struggle.
• Personal/family issues – Most likely not directly tied to learning challenges.

To borrow from the medical field, we can see from this list that treating the disease—call it learning struggles—will have a positive impact on the outward symptoms listed above. By utilizing the myriad tools available, especially AI and other advanced technology, learning designers, in partnership with faculty, can provide students with personalized educational experiences that can help them overcome their individual challenges.

Furthermore, through constant monitoring of student data, intelligent learning design can help instructors identify struggling students sooner. Integrated AI can also meet learners where they are and scaffold their learning experiences appropriately. Facilitating individual learning will logically lead to increased retention rates which, in turn, can be used as a recruitment tool.

Learning Design and Success

What exactly do we mean by “industry-ready graduates”? More importantly, what do potential employers mean when they use that phrase? Certainly, readiness for the workforce begins with  industry- and job-specific skills that typically make up the lion’s share of a learner’s educational program. But most employers also put high value on “soft skills” or the capacity to productively work and interact with others toward a common goal. While the availability of highly-trained graduates varies by industry, the “skills gaps” that all employers seem to agree on relate to the ability of employees to thrive in the working environment.

In their 2023 study “The Career-Ready Graduate: What Employers Say About The Difference College Makes”, the AAC&U does a deep dive into this subject, but to the specific point of non-technical skills gaps, they shared the following chart:

Source: THE CAREER-READY GRADUATE

If your eyes quickly drop to the bottom, you’re not alone. One of the interesting results of this online survey of 1,010 employers seems to indicate that the industry isn’t too worried about graduates’ ability to utilize technology and digital media platforms. In fairness, this is likely driven by the understanding that modern students have only ever existed in a digital world and the perception that, by nature, they will readily accept and adopt new technology. 

But perhaps the more telling results are in the rest of the chart. Of the 10 other skills listed, none are tech-based, none are industry-specific, and none are apparently being adequately taught/coached in the university setting.

Not surprisingly, this represents an opportunity for learning designers to incorporate these skills by creating tailored, engaging learning experiences that connect theoretical knowledge with real-world applications. And, of course, as with increasing retention rates, successful career placements can be a powerful recruitment tool.

Learning Design and the Importance of Staying Current

In the US, Professor James Lang in his 2016 book Small Teaching, describes this development:

“The past several decades have brought us a growing body of research on how human beings learn, and a new generation of scholars in those fields has begun to translate findings from the laboratories of memory and cognition researchers to the higher education classrooms of today. Their findings increasingly suggest the potency of small shifts in how we design our courses, conduct our classrooms, and communicate with our students.” 

(Source: What’s behind the growth and interest in learning design? — Neil Mosley Consulting)

In our exploration of the importance of regular course updates we take a closer look at the challenges of keeping up with rapid technological growth and the downside of failing to stay current. Rather than review all the reasoning behind this assertion and the steps higher ed should pursue, let’s look at the opportunities that modern learning design creates for implementing curricula that are not only current in terms of content, but in terms of learning science and design.

• Programs built as a series of independent modules can be easily updated or replaced individually, rather than overhauling an entire curriculum as regulations or market needs change.
• Micro-credentials or certifications can be quickly developed and deployed, allowing you to quickly respond and giving learners a more dynamic and personalized educational experience.
• Implementing a sprint-based approach allows curriculum changes to be regularly piloted, tested, and refined based on direct feedback from students, faculty, and industry advisors.

By adopting these strategies, universities can build a more responsive educational framework that is better equipped to navigate the rapid changes in teaching methodologies, regulatory requirements, and technological advancements.

Learning Design and the Future

The importance of learning design in developing the next generation of industry-ready workers cannot be overstated. In fact, The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that employment of training and development specialists will grow by 12% from 2023 to 2033, much faster than the average for all occupations. This translates to an average of about 42,200 openings each year over the decade. As a partner with institutions, Noodle can provide guidance on hiring or outsourcing, help with evaluating candidates, and ensuring integration with other initiatives.

Perhaps the most salient takeaway is that the way students learn has changed significantly over time and will continue to evolve as new teaching approaches and technologies are developed. Institutions must embrace the opportunity to serve the next generation of learners by understanding how they learn, utilizing available technology to meet those needs, and guiding them through their education and professional development to become the in-demand employees that industry needs.

Robyn Hammontree, Senior Managing Director of Partnership Development for Learning at Noodle, brings over 12 years of instructional design experience and 20+ years on university campuses, helping educators tackle challenges and focus on their passions.

Kevin Phang, VP of Partnership Development for Marketing & Enrollment at Noodle, has over 15 years of experience in digital marketing. With roles at QuinStreet and HotChalk, he brings expertise in creating impactful solutions by balancing the needs of learners and institutions.

 Noodle is the leading tech-enabled strategy and services partner for higher education. A certified B corporation, Noodle (founded in 2013) has developed infrastructure and online enrollment growth for some of the best academic institutions in the world. Noodle empowers universities to transform the world through life-changing learning. It offers strategic consulting to advise partners as they navigate their futures, provides services tailored to meet their growth aspirations, and deploys technology, tools, and platforms that integrate for scale, making our partners more resilient, responsive, efficient, and interconnected.