Eduventures Summer Sessions Learning Collaborative
The Eduventures Summer Sessions Learning Collaborative (SUM-LC) is a member-based research consortium designed to highlight the successes, challenges, and opportunities associated with summer sessions, and to assist program leaders and administrators to more successfully leverage summer sessions as institutional assets. The SUM-LC provides insight and direction to identify best management practices, benchmark performance, and improve core processes through research, analysis, and networking opportunities.
The SUM-LC provides Collaborative Research, Custom Analysis, and opportunities for interactions with our analysts, as well as decision-makers at peer institutions. Research is organized into three themes: organizational strategies, programming decisions, and marketing productivity. Upcoming studies include:
Summer Session Benchmarks
This benchmarking study will focus on core program success measures, including aggregate and program-specific enrollment figures; aggregate and disaggregated budgets (by income and expense line); and marketing productivity, as well as institutional characteristics related to organizational design, product offerings, and delivery modes. The study will provide analysis of productivity at peer institutions, enabling members to forecast program growth rates and benchmark their own institutional improvements year-over-year.
While the premise of the SUM-LC is the same as our other Learning Collaboratives, there is a slight variation in its deliverables. The SUM-LC takes the broader topic of the Continuing and Professional Education Learning Collaborative (CPE-LC) and focuses in on the particular area of summer sessions. It serves as a complement to our CPE-LC, although an institution does not need to be a CPE-LC member in order to be a member of the SUM-LC. Unique offerings provided by this program include:
Focused Research Reports
SUM-LC members will undertake a dozen original investigations to be defined by the membership at the launch of the program. These small-scale studies may take the form of benchmarking investigations, environmental scans, or primary research investigations.
Eduventures staff is pleased to present the focused research agenda for the Summer Sessions Learning Collaborative. The list presents the top twelve topics selected by the Summer Sessions members; topics listed first are of the greatest common interest to members:
- Developing Education and Training Programming for Continuing and Professional (Adult) Summer Session Students
- Identification and Analysis of Innovative Summer Session Programming
- Targeting New Audiences for Summer Session
- Understanding Motivations and Preferences of Summer Session Students
- Utilizing Marketing Channels and Advertising Strategies to Increase Enrollments
- Best Practices in Serving Summer Session Students
- Demand for Online and Accelerated Formats
- Effective New Program Development Strategies
- Effectively Marketing and Branding Summer Session
- Optimizing School Web Sites as a Marketing and Recruitment Tool
- Effective Strategies for Internal Marketing and Institutional Cross Collaboration
- Understanding Motivations of Visiting Summer Session Students
Upcoming Focused Research Reports include:
Targeting New Audiences for Summer Session
- Which student audiences comprise the current and future market for summer sessions programming?
- How do summer sessions programs strategically market to prospective target audiences?
Identification and Analysis of Innovative Summer Session Programming
- Which notable SUM-LC institutions offer unique summer session programs?
- What are the key components, differentiating factors, and potential challenges and benefits of offering these unique summer session programs?
Effective New Program Development Strategies
- How do members effectively develop new programs?
- What are the key contributing factors and potential barriers to a successful new program?
Please contact us to explore how membership in the Eduventures Summer Sessions Learning Collaborative can help you make better, more- informed decisions.