CRITICAL AUDIENCES STUDENTS

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Marketing learning communities
Part 3 Marketing to critical audiences By
Jacque Mott with Jean Henscheid Barbara Leigh
Smith
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Marketing to critical audiences

• Learning communities can
• have many different audiences
• be offered in various areas of the curriculum
• be administered differently at different
  institutions
• Wherever the program is situated, reaching key
  audiences and important communicators is critical
• Marketing is a means of gaining support and
  building understanding of your program

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Marketing to critical audiences

• Who are the key institutional audiences for your
  learning community program? Why?

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Different strategies for different audiences

STUDENTS
FACULTY

COUNSELORS
ADMINISTRATORS
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Different strategies for different audiences

• In general terms
• Students are concerned with graduating as well as
  making friends and having fun
• Faculty are concerned with academic quality,
  collegiality, and life-long learning
• Counselors are also concerned with student
  completion and are often involved with the
  development of all aspects of the students life
• Administrators often have a broader view of
  campus life. They are concerned with logistics,
  academic quality, and maximizing every dollar.

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Other critical audiences
Residence Halls
Computer Technology
Professional/Career
Developmental
General Education (Core Course)
Natural and Life Sciences
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Marketing to students

• Stamats Communications reports that teenage
  students considering college say the following
  marketing approaches work best with them
• Honesty and clarity
• Humor
• Seeing the product
• Knowing something important about the product
• Showing realistic situations

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Marketing to students

• Making visible learning community values and
  benefits is an effective promotional strategy for
  students, including
• Good schedules
• The opportunity to make friends
• A sense of community
• Deeper connections with faculty and peers
• Supportive study groups
• Inter-related courses and interesting subjects
• Higher retention and student academic achievement
• More coordination of coursework

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Marketing to students

• Since LC assignments are often coordinated, use
  manageable homework theme in publicity as a
  selling tool for student recruitment
• Work the scheduling-advising center, helping
  students select their courses
• Ask the testing center to inform you of incoming
  students who test at pre-college levels so you
  can direct them into developmental LCs

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Marketing to students

• Remember personal contact is most effective
• Include LC literature in all new first-year
  student orientation materials
• Send letters to new students and their parents
  inviting them to join in the honor of
  participating in the program

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Marketing to students

• Send promotional literature to high schools and
  feeder schools
• Consult with high school counselors and hold
  informational sessions
• Organize high school visits to see LC courses in
  action

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Marketing to students

• Ask marketing and graphic students to help
  develop promotional materials
• Field test LC titles with students
• Hold campus-wide program naming or logo
  development contest
• Develop a student testimonial video for use
  during registration and presentations
• Establish a speakers bureau on learning
  communities

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Marketing to students

• Leaflet strategic locations around campus
• Create LC buttons for students and advisors
• Place LC bookmarks in public libraries
• Place LC displays in mall store windows
• Use your student programs office
• Involve student leadership groups and residence
  life staff in recruiting

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Marketing to students

• Include students on your LC steering committees
• Routinely speak to student leadership groups and
  solicit their assistance
• Develop an LC alumni group to speak to new LC
  students
• Designate a learning communities room with a
  large sign

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Marketing to students

• Link courses so registering for one course
  automatically registers the student in the
  other(s)
• Secure key timeslots for LC courses and priority
  registration
• Require LCs for graduation
• Build LCs around high demand courses
• Offer sequential LCs
• Offer one or two semester LCs fulfilling general
  education requirements

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Marketing to faculty

• Marketing efforts directed at faculty are often
  motivated by a desire to interest them in
  teaching in learning communities or, if they are
  in a key positions such as department chair,
  getting them to support the LC effort. Working
  from their interests and issues is key.

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Marketing to faculty

• Before approaching faculty, determine how each
  individual
• Reacts to innovation from within
• Can be influenced to endorse change
• Expresses their feelings and exchanges ideas
• Responds to ideas from outside sources

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Marketing to faculty

• Employ these strategies
• Publicize models in use and LC rationale
• Demonstrate benefits to students
• Show how LCs can support other innovative
  programs they may be interested in
• Make assessment results public
• Sponsor professional development activities
• Hold term-end celebrations and opportunities for
  reflection

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Marketing to faculty

• Keep LC values and benefits visible, including
• Opportunity to teach with colleagues
• Learn new teaching techniques
• Have more time with students
• Learn new subjects
• Build closer relationships with students and
  colleagues

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Marketing to faculty

• Employ these strategies
• Communicate with full and part-time faculty
• Publicize work with regional and national
  movements
• Invite faculty from other campuses to hold
  workshops
• Arrange for faculty to visit other LC campuses

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Marketing to faculty

• Employ these strategies
• Develop a handbook for developing an LC
• Connect faculty to LC listservs
• Provide sample syllabi from other institutions
• Connect them with faculty on other campuses who
  have done similar LCs

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Marketing to faculty

• Incentives for participation can include
• Stipends
• Reassigned time
• Professional development credit
• Class size reduction
• Intrinsic rewards and enhanced collegiality
  often matter the most!

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Marketing to advisors and counselors

• The first contact with students

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Marketing to advisors and counselors

• Advisors and counselors are critical in
  recruiting students to learning communities.
  Consider the following strategies
• Work to gain and maintain their support
• Inform them early and often about LCs
• Re-educate them since turnover is frequent.
• Work to maintain consistency in your program.
  Its easier for advisors and counselors to
  explain.
• Many campuses have annual LC retreats that
  include advisors and counselors.

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Marketing to advisors and counselors

• Employ these strategies
• Invite them to speak with LC students or visit
  classes
• Distinguish special qualities of each LC
• Keep LC materials visible and accessible Some
  institutions have developed a LC Handbook for
  advisors.
• Create easy-to-use promotional materials
• Include them on LC steering and marketing
  committees

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Marketing to advisors and counselors

• Employ these strategies
• Introduce them to the larger LC national movement
  
• Interact with them one-on-one
• Attend their meetings to review LC courses
• Understand their advising philosophy

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Marketing to advisors and counselors

• Employ these strategies
• Invite LC allies to speak with them
• Provide assessment results
• Buy pizza on registration days or other
  high-stress times
• Assist at registration tables
• Provide up-to-date information on LC enrollment
  status

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Marketing to administrators

• Successful LC programs have administrators who
  believe in the effectiveness of programs and are
  willing to provide resources and leadership for
  them.

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Marketing to administrators

• Good strategies for reaching out to
• administrators include
• Providing frequent, concise assessment results
• Maintaining high quality in the program
• Involving administrators in LC committees
• Inviting them to visit LC classes

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Marketing to administrators

• Employ these strategies
• Invite their peers from other campuses to speak
  to them
• Connect to national LC movement or bring in
  national speakers to build status and prestige
• Provide practical models that work at similar
  institutions
• Immediately provide solutions to problems
• Collaborate with others in making requests

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Marketing to administrators

• Employ these strategies
• Jointly develop strategies for student and
  faculty recruitment and faculty development
• Ask well in advance for approvals on lower
  enrollments for first-time LCs
• Seek a minimum and maximum enrollment guideline
  for LCs

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Marketing to administrators

• Define LC effectiveness in multiple ways.
  Jointly develop an assessment plan around
  specific measures of
• Cost effectiveness
• Benefits to students
• Benefits to faculty
• Benefits to curriculum
• Benefits to institution
• Visit other sections of our website for more
  information on evaluation and assessment
  measures.

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Marketing to all audiences

• Distribute literature and assessment results
  across the campus
• Develop a catalog insert
• Permanently locate LC signs to provide updates
• Feature articles on an LC class in newspapers -
  invite reporters to come to class
• Have previous LC faculty write columns for the
  papers and journals

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Marketing to all audiences

• Speak at student and parent orientation sessions
• Promote LCs as an innovation that puts your
  college at the forefront of educational practices
• Visit classes that could feed into LCs - make
  presentations and distribute registration
  information
• Develop a campus learning communities newsletter
  or become a featured section of an existing
  publication
• Develop an effective website (see section on
  effective promotional strategies)

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Marketing to all audiences

• Reserve a dedicated space in the course schedule
  for LC listings
• Develop a method to easily identify LC courses in
  the course schedule such as a dot in front of
  them or a comments line
• Mention LCs in routine institutional recruitment
  letters
• Ask faculty members, rather than the coordinator,
  speak to their students about upcoming LCs

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Marketing to all audiences

• Ensure LC announcements run on
• campus radio station
• Kiosks electronic signage
• Internal TV announcement channels
• Find community, corporate or government sponsors
  for certain learning communities (i.e. the
  Department of Water Resources for an LC with a
  water theme)

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Marketing to all audiences

• Stage an LC event on campus (break the Guinness
  Book of World Records by making the longest
  paperclip chain) to build awareness
• Distribute publicity materials at a give-away
  table in the center of campus (popcorn, coffee)
  established by your program
• Build momentum to announce the arrival of an LC
  class through a billboard/signage campaign