Online education has suffered from an image problem (for more than a decade) that is only now slowly being corrected.
Enrollment is up. Favorable employer perceptions are slowly shifting. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are now charging fees – and getting them.
To understand online students attitudes better, we performed a research study of 3 main persona groups – Healthcare, Military, and Lapsed Learners – and asked about their current states of mind.
What emerged is a psychographic profile of degree seekers who are busy, hungry, paranoid about being left behind, and very sensitive to the credibility of the institution.
Here’s a synopsis.
“My life is crazy busy”
Verbatims: “I’m juggling as fast as I can. That’s why, without the flexibility of an online program, I would not be able to pursue a degree…I have an ill mother and 2 kids and I’m trying to make it work.””
Insights: Education Marketers need to:
- Put flexibility front and center
- Demonstrate an understanding of being personally and professionally overloaded – and offer ways to address it.
“My family deserves more”
Verbatims: “We’re surviving, but they should have more…I want my kids to look at me and see someone who’s succeeding…I was a shithead when I was younger, but I’ve grown up and have serious responsibilities now.”
Insights:
- Use images that include families.
- Demonstrate how a degree equates to respect.
“My degree needs to be legit”
Verbatims: “There are plenty of stories about online degrees from diploma mills that are worthless…For what I’m paying I better get teachers who know what they’re talking about and a degree that gets respected.”
Insights:
- Talk about accreditation. Explain what it means.
- Feature faculty with name-brand qualifications that students can remember. Example: A client professor who had worked at NASA became known as the “NASA prof” – a shorthand way of communicating a quality credential.
- Feature faculty with name-brand qualifications that students can remember. Example: A client professor who had worked at NASA became known as the “NASA prof” – a shorthand way of communicating a quality credential.
- Highlight programs that are successful and use them as standard bearers for the brand.
- PPC ads can cheapen the brand.
“Give me a roadmap”
Verbatims: “Just show me the path, tell me what it will cost, and how long it will take. I’ll get it done.”
Insights:
- Use gamification functionality to chart progress.
- Do this before the student enrolls or takes a class.
- Highlight economies within the journey.
“My experience counts”
Verbatims: “I was never the best student in high school, but I’ve worked hard and I’m no dummy…No one knows what you go through in the military, but I do, and it’s the real thing…I know how to work and make sacrifices…You’ll be surprised at what I can do.”
Insights:
- Demonstrate the understanding that “life is the toughest teacher of all” and that your school gives credit for life experience.
- Offer online calculators that estimate credit received for certain types of life experience.”
- Financialize savings.
Online education is complicated. More complicated than a blog can capture. If you’d like to have a conversation about it, contact us.
