The 2014 LERN Annual Conference, Nov. 21-23 at the Walt Disney World Dolphin in Orlando, Florida, is brimming with new.  New sessions. New presenters. New predictions. And lots more new. Here are the top 11 New things planned for the 2014 LERN Annual Conference: 1. A brand new, one-time only pre-conference session on Designing Visuals for

In a survey of school districts sponsoring bond issues in Minnesota, LERN determined that those who participated in community education were more likely to vote in favor of the bond issue, regardless of whether or not they had children in the system. In some cases, the difference between passing and defeating the bond issue could

You already know that customer testimonials are a powerful tool in a marketing director’s arsenal. They offer people a third-party assessment of a program’s quality – and they give a peer-to-peer recommendation that is so important in attracting today’s consumer. However, customer testimonials are being reinvented because of social media. Social content, in fact, is

No one jumps for joy when they receive a call for Jury duty, but a recent visit to the courthouse as a member of the jury pool turned out to be very informative for one LERN staffer. Before the selection process began, the judge took a few minutes to address the pool of prospective jurors.

Many LERN members want to know whether it is possible to track for the impact of the printed promotions they mail. The answer, says William Draves, President of LERN, is “absolutely.”

LERN Recreation members asked us to survey the membership to find out what software programs others are using.

Following are courses identified as being the most popular/best revenue generators in a recent LERN survey on popular courses for recreation programming:

New eTools for creating online content are reshaping teaching and learning, says Les Howles, a  leading expert in multimedia learning.  Howles will be a major speaker at the big LERN annual conference in Orlando, Nov. 21-23, 2014.

Senior LERN Leaders, meeting this year in Tucson, are moving the field forward and transitioning continuing education into a new era.

The LERN Board of Directors is leading your association and the field into the new environment of the 21st century.  This spring the Board took several major steps in transitioning LERN into the next decade. This is a unique time of transition for the field and LERN. Here are the major actions taken by the

LERN ended its fiscal year this summer posting more records, plus a look to the future. Record conference attendance and record income were bookended by trends moving the field forward in the 21st century.

The Multinational Corporation is now seen as a threat to your organization. Specifically, the emergence of the Multinational Corporation in providing online courses has serious consequences for your organization. Multinational Corporations are not the same as mom-and-pop for-profit providers. Multinational Corporations are much larger players, beholden to investors, need to generate big profits, and have

Certificate in Data Analysis is the latest hot new topic for UGotClass.  It was introduced this spring and is the most popular new certificate premiering this spring. Data analysis is a hot new emerging field that impacts work places in your community, including small business, corporations, entrepreneurs, government and nonprofit organizations. LERN introduced over 20

LERN member Gabriele Janes of the Canadian Marketing Association reported overhearing a colleague say she had not turned on her desktop computer in weeks, wondering if it still worked. With the dominance of mobiles, is it the end of desktops for learning? Another LERN leader, Katie Williams, a community educator with the Hopkins Public Schools

The Flipped Classroom has now officially entered the lexicon and minds of programmers in the field of lifelong learning programming. In the Flipped Classroom the instructor records her or his presentations online so that participants listen and view the presentations outside of class time and outside of the in-person classroom.  And then the instructor spends

In the exciting and expanding frontiers of learning in the 21st century, one hot topic that was initiated among the latest LERN event is the matching of learners in peer-to-peer learning. Peer-to-peer learning has become recognized as an excellent way of helping all participants learn more. Studies report even those who share their knowledge with

“You are engaged in noble work,” Julie Coates told executives at LERN’s executive leadership institutes last month.  “You are the nation builders. You are creating the society of the 21st century for your country, she said.” Coates is a Vice President and the lead researcher for LERN. Recent events, including the entry of the Multinational

Blended, also called hybrid, learning is started to bud out this spring in the field of lifelong learning. The first programs to offer blended courses are being reported.  For example, the first association is reporting a planned blended course to start by the end of this year. Ozzie Logozzo, a LERN member and association executive

Sell time, the value of time, and the experience of time in your promotions, especially to Gen Y.  Gen Y is a generation that values its time more than any other previous generation, and is more attracted to products that are persuasive as a good use of one’s time. That’s the news from LERN’s lead

Younger professionals are taking over the way offices look and feel.    For Baby Boomers, work has always meant working alone. Talking with someone else meant not working.  And status has meant separating yourself from others.  It means a bigger office is better. It means a corner office with a window is real status.  It

Does your program have a healthy operating margin and a safe course cancellation rate? Are you on track to meet your budget goal? With LERN’s new Wellness Check Tool you can determine the financial and promotional strength of your program as it stacks up against national benchmarks, and you can see the areas where you need to

Cathy Noonan of the City of San Jose, California, is the new Chair of the LERN Board of Directors for 2014-2015.  She succeeds Gabriele Janes of the Canadian Marketing Association in Toronto. At last year’s conference Noonan gave sessions on “Lessons from Retail”  and “Reaching Diverse Audiences.”  For many years she has co-led the preconference

Replace your paper evaluations of courses with an online survey tool like Survey Monkey or Zoomerang, says Monique Fortmann, Director of the Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula, Montana. Her program takes in 15,000 registrations a year. She says she gets evaluations back within 3 days and has a whopping 70 to 80 percent response rate

By William A. Draves, President of LERN Visiting a west coast program last year the head of the institution called his branding folks the “branding police.”  But institutional branding, contrary to the serve and protect function of real police, often prevent your lifelong learning program from serving, leaving your unit without protection. Institutional branding policies

From two  LERN events this month, one a conference and the other our online Certificate in Teaching Adults,  it’s clear instructors in lifelong learning and continuing education programs will soon be subject to three big interrelated trends in learning and teaching: 1. Focus on student learning outcomes 2. Different, and better, teaching practices 3. Assessment

The Top 7 Causes for Attendance Problems Attendance problems could have many causes. But most programs experience attendance problems for the same reasons.  Here are the top seven reasons why programs have attendance problems, and what to do about each cause. 7. Not enough new courses or events. Every program should be offering around 20

Flextime is now an issue for LERN member organizations. Administrators from organizations attending  the annual Nine Shift seminar this month report the Nine Shift prediction is happening now. Jennifer Luddy with a LERN member organization in Lowell, Massachusetts, says that at her organization Gen Yers hired as new staff  now “assume” they will be able to telework

Here’s the news from leading association educators meeting in Tucson this spring. Thanks to Susan Davis of the American Society of Civil Engineers in Washington DC for this report. Conference attendance is up (up to 20% increase at ASQ) Possibly due to registration processes being streamlined. Industry is seeking more bite-sized learning available 24/7. Very

NeuroEducation, the science of learning and the brain, is a new area developing in neurology and association education. Tracy King, Associate Director of Education for the American Academy of Neurology, will be a SuperStar presenter at the big LERN annual conference in Orlando November 21-22, 2014. Here’s the two sessions she will be presenting at

Layne Harpine of Emerald Isles, North Carolina, has been named LERN’s new consultant for workforce development and contract training.  LERN President William A. Draves made the announcement at the Senior LERN Leader meeting in Tucson last month. “We are fortunate to have an executive of Layne’s caliber, experience and expertise,” noted Draves.  Harpine has a

There are three keys to success with online courses right now. The lack of these keys are also the three biggest reasons why online courses fail. LERN highlighted the three keys once again last month in an on-site training session for faculty about to teach graduate courses online with the Brock School of Business at

That’s the message 250 UGotClass Partners got this month about the new UGotClass administrative software, now being employed. Registrations are now over 3,200 a year, up 25 percent over the previous year, so there’s lots to look at now. The new administrative software allows Partners to see: 1. Student progress. Partners can now see the

LERN’s newest webinar, the Top 10 Tips for Successful Operations, aims to help you simplify your program’s processes. In this new webinar from LERN, you will: Learn practical, specific, humorous ways to engage your staff, generate revenue and increase customer satisfaction. Discover easily-adaptable ideas to implement in your organization. Understand why improving staff productivity by centralizing operations is critical to your

Dynamic pricing is common in the business sector. It ought to be more common in the field of lifelong learning. LERN has long advocated you offer courses and events at varying prices. Dynamic pricing involves looking at your popular courses and events to see if there are peak times, venues, or another pattern to some

Your brochures are now stored in a university library for history and research purposes. LERN is now working with Syracuse University Special Collections Library to archive and save brochures from lifelong learning and continuing education programs. LERN has shipped 185 boxes of program brochures from 1980 to 2012 to Michele Combs, Lead Archivist for Syracuse

This post originally appeared on Jan. 25, 2014. If you would like information on the 2015 Executive Leadership Institutes, please click here.  It’s not too late to attend our three events in Tucson April 23-25, 2014 at the fantastic Westward Look Resort with three outdoor swimming pools, walking trails, and poolside dining. As the official

The life of Doug Soo is being celebrated this month in his hometown of Vancouver, BC.  Soo grew his lifelong learning program to be one of the biggest and best programs in North America. He was a long-time leader in LERN, serving as Chair of the Board of Directors in 2004-2005. Doug served in the

Overall, the field of lifelong learning and continuing education is currently successful in engaging Generation Y and positioning itself for a lifelong relationship with Gen Y, our entire future. Gen Y participation in lifelong learning and continuing education appears to be as strong as one could wish given the austere economy for young people. Gen

Are Canadian brochures still better overall than brochures from programs in the United States?  Looking at the LERN International Award winners for 2014, the answer appears to be ‘Yes.’ Canadian programs in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Fredericton won this year, taking half of the awards for brochures. Canadian programs are ten percent of LERN members, serving

There are 48 criteria your program should be benchmarked against. You might be surprised at how well your program stacks up against these 42 criteria.  And we know you will get LERN recommendations that will strengthen your program, reinforce the things you are doing well, and provide an ROI for your dollar that is the

The conference saw the first program to document that more frequent and targeted emails works.  The award winning program sends an email to their best email list every two weeks, the most frequent email schedule to date.  The lesson: email more frequently, and to a more targeted list. The North Seattle Community College, Seattle, Washington, 

A big new trend this year is for print brochures to have more white space and more visuals and reflect a design that takes on some of the features of good website design, reported brochure authority Julie Coates. The trend was seen among the best brochures chosen for International Awards for 2014. For example, the

Direct from the LERN Conference in San Francisco, check out this jam-packed webinar – Best Promotion Strategies of the Year.  A perennial conference favorite, this hard-hitting, fast-paced webinar has ideas you can use on Monday morning.

Take some lessons from the world of gaming, which your students know and love, and use them to enhance learning assessment and learning, says Andy Stanfield,  Melbourne, Florida, an instructor and director of a center for teaching and learning excellence. He spoke at LERN’s annual North American conference on teaching and learning this spring. Here

Mobiles and online lead the list of issues for association educators right now. From a survey of leading association educators, here’s their current list of top issues in association learning. 1. What strategies people are using to integrate face to face training with online learning. Are they simply putting everything they have in the face to

By Aiysha S. Johnson, MA, IOM As we embark on our continuing education efforts in 2014, I want to share a few key discoveries on staying laser focused on your audience.  I had a chance to reflect at the close of the 2013 American Dental Association (ADA) annual meeting in New Orleans. While our overall

Millennials — The Beat (Up) Generation. That’s the headline of the new Psychology Today magazine and online story that includes an interview with LERN’s own generational guru Julie Coates. The story, by Abby Ellin, begins “They’re narcissistic. Impatient. And just try to get them to work nine to five. Trouble is, the conventional view of Millennials

The more your learners interact with the content, the more they learn.  This is particularly true of Generation Y (born 1980-1999), your association’s future. Gen Y, and Gen Z following it, learn more when they interact with the content.    One great technique, now available with low cost software, is called “drag and drop.”  At LERN

From talking with numerous lifelong learning CEOs, it appears that leaders in central administration in institutions are clueless about transforming their institutions for the 21st century. Institutional leaders are also drifting, with no clear direction or consensus. One lifelong learning CEO noted three key buzzwords currently in her institution, which exemplify the situation. The current

Gen Y is interested in leadership skills, and already is assuming leadership positions in the workplace, says LERN’s Julie Coates, one of the nation’s foremost generational experts.  Coates was interviewed recently by Psychology Today. The reason is simple numbers. Numbers-wise, there simply are not enough Gen Xers to assume all the leadership positions being vacated

Brian Banmiller, national business reporter for CBS News Radio, reports a survey of CEOs finds that the top 2014 New Year’s resolution for CEOs is to learn something new this year. That’s your first ‘Must’ 2014 resolution, to learn something new this year.  You have many options, from technology to leadership skills. And LERN has

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) took a central role in numerous sessions at the record LERN conference. SEO was featured in sessions on content marketing, inbound marketing, website design and even email promotions. SEO took center stage as the key to enabling people to find your program and your offerings. SEO is the process of getting

Gen Y is committed to local neighborhoods and community, revitalizing a sense of community. This is surely good news for avocational and leisure programs serving local communities, stated generational expert Julie Coates.  She said Gen Y even forsakes moving to other states and provinces, and also is willing to live in less desirable housing to maintain

Top Three Stories of 2013  More than 2,000 visited our NineShift blog in the last month to read the Top 10 Stories of 2013.  Here are the top three stories of 2013: #3 The End of Text Based Online Courses This was the year every online expert endorsed multi-media in online courses. Online courses are

In this spring’s Nine Shift seminar for college senior administrators, Ryan Purdy, President of Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Nebraska, reported that virtually his entire cabinet of senior college administrators are Gen Xers.  It’s the first report of a college being run by Gen Xers. Purdy, himself 36, said he does not know of

Sheila Quirk Bailey, Chief of Staff and Vice President at Harper College, is seeing Harper’s suburban demographics changing dramatically At this spring’s LERN Nine Shift seminar for senior administrators in colleges and universities, administrators reported seeing the Nine Shift predictions now happening on campus. One of those changes is the economic decline of suburbs. Sheila

Highlights,  high points, and what was new this year:  1. Focus on the Good Stuff    Opening keynoter Mike Robbins was so good there was a long line at his book selling table afterwards and he sold out of books.  A top pointer from Robbins, don’t worry too much about what people think about you:

2013 was another record year, thanks to you.  The calendar year 2013 was another record year for LERN, with membership strong, a record income, and a record conference attendance as just a few of the highlights. Thanks to all 5,000 members in all 1,100 member organizations for your support and involvement. We’re here to serve