Outstanding experts recognized nationally in their fields will teach Hot!  New courses and certificate programs premiering in early 2016. Your new teachers include: -The top 3-D Printing authors,  according to Amazon -Game design conference speaker and teacher -Creator of Canada’s premier Wellness Coaching training program -Journalist of the Year, Public Relations Society of America UGotClass

1.Increase by two pages the space devoted to UGotClass certificates in your next print brochure. 2. Run course descriptions for UGotClass certificates and courses in your next print brochure. 3. Email your customers about our courses in October and November. 4. Email anyone who has taken a single course that is now part of a

Introduction to Game Design, 3-D Printing, and Collaborative Management are three of the nine hot new courses premiering in early 2016. Start promoting these hot new topics for the workplace now. Our new courses and certificates for 2016 were sent to UGotClass Partners this week by Leslie Kowalczyk, UGotClass Administrative and Customer Service Manager. If

Continuing to build our curriculum of the 21st century, three new certificates will premiere in February: -Certificate in Business Writing -Certificate in Google Tools -Certificate in Office Operations See all of the new UGotClass Courses for 2016.

As of today, September 2015 registrations are Up 20 percent over September last year. Keep registering people for September through Friday, Sept. 11, at least.  Last year we had 26 of your students wanting to register for September courses in the second week of classes. We’ll take them!

  Customers want the first person they connect with to be able to get them the answer they need. Instead of passing on calls and emails to other staff, the Kirkwood Community College Continuing Education & Training Services (CETS) frontline staff has been empowered to provide answers and report being able to answer 90 percent of

Email marketing was a big topic of discussion among continuing legal education providers when LERN’s Associate Vice President for Marketing Suzanne Kart presented “Marketing in the 21st Century” at the ACLEA conference in Chicago in August. ACLEA, the Association for Continuing Legal Education, serves CLE professionals worldwide. Kart reports that during her one-day preconference workshop

One of the amazing benefits you receive as a LERN member is access to free monthly webinars. Each month hundreds of LERN members participate. The next FREE webinar for members is on the topic of Pricing to Improve Profit Margins. Pricing to Improve Profit Margins Oct. 26 2 p.m. ET/ 1 p.m. CT/ Noon MT/

Plan your agenda. The brochure is out and with lots of new sessions and presenters, you’ll want to give yourself time to pick out what sessions will be best for you and your program. This is especially important if you’re attending the conference with another person from your organization. Submit your hard work for a

Creating a brand identity involves multiple components and levels of communication with your customers and prospective customers. Often; however, lifelong learning programs confuse the symbols of their brand for their brand itself. Your brand is not your logo or your brochure design or your tagline. These are communicators of your brand, but your brand is

Get the recognition your program deserves – recognition only available to LERN members – by submitting your nominations for the 2016 LERN International Awards. Your program could be one of those recognized for innovation in programming, excellence in catalog or brochure design, a marketing effort, or exemplary management practice, or a noteworthy contribution to your community.

We need to determine and describe the new 21st-century competencies and attributes for lifelong learning administrators, Senior LERN Leaders agreed in this year’s annual leadership retreat Tucson. Top questions being asked by the top 30 members in the LERN leadership included: -How do we identify 21st-century staff attribute needs? -How do we measure those 21st-century

Hundreds and hundreds of people have already registered for the big LERN Annual Conference in New Orleans Dec. 2-5, 2015. The expected 900 attendees will surpass last year’s attendance. This year participants will get access to a free pre-conference online seminar.  Plus you will get all the session handouts online in advance of the conference,

Having failed in the U.S. with K-12 and higher education, for-profit education providers are now invading the lifelong learning field.  The difference this time is they are going after your funding. Last month for-profit coding schools were on Capitol Hill looking for government funds. The for-profits, from new coding schools to online course providers to

A new LERN member level and dues for colleges and universities is being proposed to give you an option to keep your dues low, benefits high, and position LERN to remain the leading association in the world in continuing education. LERN is currently the largest continuing education association in the world, and in good financial

LERN ended another good fiscal year this summer.  This year all 10 top highlights deserved to be #1, so here are highlights in no particular order. #1 Over 500,000 people in Canada and U.S. take a class because of LERN, according to LERN members #1 Next LERN CEO Named #1 Lives are changed.  “You changed

Can your program survive without LERN? The Senior LERN leadership and Board of Directors say ‘No’. Not just another association, LERN members report 12 percent higher registrations, an ROI of 10:1 on your investment in LERN, record conference attendance, and benchmarks and information not available anywhere else. With LERN being in the first year of

“If you are responsible for programming, what is your area of focus?” was the question asked on LERN’s latest member survey A whopping 854 LERN members responded to the survey asking for your focus of programming. The results were tabulated by these institutional settings: -Parks and Recreation -Community education in Public Schools -Continuing education in

New learner competencies and attributes are so integral to your program that Senior LERN Leaders meeting in Tucson this spring are recommending LERN create a set of new learner competencies and attributes for use by your program. Those new competencies would include skills to train your teachers and staff on how to use and integrate

Here’s your Senior LERN Leadership for 2015. They are your 30 top leaders, LERN members who are also some of the top practitioners with some of the most successful lifelong learning programs in North America. The group meets twice a year. Each fall, they meet with other LERN leaders at the LERN Leader Retreat the

“If you are responsible for programming, what is your area of focus?” was the question asked on LERN’s latest member survey. A whopping 166 LERN members from Parks and Recreation Departments responded to the survey asking for your focus of programming. Members could cite more than one focus, so percentages add up to more than

“If you are responsible for programming, what is your area of focus?” was the question asked on LERN’s latest member survey. A whopping 177 LERN members from Community Education Departments in Public Schools responded to the survey asking for your focus of programming. Members could cite more than one focus, so percentages add up to

Are digital or paper planners better for increasing productivity and time management? The answer is both, it seems, according to participants in our recent UGotClass on “New 21st Century Strategies for Productivity and Time Management.” With participants from a variety of occupations and work situations, the course is one of most popular courses for LERN

“Instant feedback is one of the big items that students want,” says teacher Jared Campbell of Melbourne, Florida. Campbell, one of our SuperStar presenters for the big LERN annual conference in New Orleans, Dec. 2-5, will speak on Motivating Digital Natives. He will demonstrate how to use text messaging in class to involve your participants.

You will be as excited as we are about the big annual LERN conference when you see the brochure. Register by Aug. 1 and save $100. The print version of the brochure is being mailed in early July. Contact us at info@lern.org if you don’t receive it by the end of July. But you can

Youth programming and summer camps are a strong part of lifelong learning programming, according to an exclusive new survey by LERN. A whopping 854 LERN members responded to the survey asking for your focus of programming. The results were tabulated by these institutional settings: -Parks and Recreation -Community education in Public Schools -Continuing education in

Saying that “cheating doesn’t exist anymore” in learning, Senior LERN Leaders meeting in Tucson are proposing LERN create 21st-century competencies and attributes for your program’s students and customers. The demise of cheating is one example of new learning skills for the new economy, with collaborative learning being shown to be more productive than individualized study

“Social media has flipped out many marketers in our field,” Suzanne Kart told participants at LERN’s annual Executive Leadership Institute in Tucson recently. “People are stressed out about marketing today,” she says. She advises lifelong learning programs to focus on the top eMarketing priorities that generate registrations, rather than trying to have a presence on

Staffing issues are becoming multi-dimensional now for lifelong learning programs, according to executives at our events this spring and LERN on-site visits to lifelong learning organizations.  In fact, there will be a whole track of sessions at the big LERN Annual Conference in New Orleans Dec. 2-5, on the subject of staffing. Here are some of

It’s almost the end of the fiscal year and many LERN members are looking to LERN to help maximize the bang for the buck with the dollars remaining in their budgets. Here are some ways you can get the best value for your year-end budget dollars: Register NOW for a LERN Institute or the Annual

Over 100 professionals in Parks and Recreation responded to our exclusive LERN survey on job titles.  Here’s the chart with the results. The most common job title is “Supervisor,” with over 30 percent of LERN members in Recreation having that job title. The second most common title is “Coordinator,” with around 25 percent of LERN

Over 500 continuing educators responded to our exclusive LERN survey on job titles for continuing educators in higher education.  Here’s the chart with the results. Clearly “Director” or “Manager” is the leading job title, with 50 percent of all continuing educators reporting that as their job title. The second most popular job title is “Coordinator,”

Over 100 community educators responded to our exclusive LERN survey on job titles for community educators in public schools.  Here’s the chart with the results. The most common job title is “Coordinator,” held by 30 percent of community educators.  The second most common job title is “Director of Community Education,” held by almost 30 percent

The purpose of point of sale materials is to give the Contract Training sales representative something to guide an introductory in-person meeting and something to send out or leave behind to familiarize clients and potential clients with the breadth of services of the Contract Training unit. In this article, I’ll refer to these materials as

 Dealing with difficult situations with leaders is one of the top issues for Gen Y, according to participant questions in the hot new UGotClass Certificate in Leadership Development. Here’s four good questions Gen Yers asked, and the answers. Q1. What would be a good course of action when one asks the leader a question and

Thank you!  Over 1,000 LERN members responded to our membership survey in just two days this spring.  Thanks for the great information that will help us serve you better. One of the questions we asked was your Job Title.  We have the results, by constituency. Parks and Recreation professionals. To see job titles of LERN

This month’s home page is devoted to the top stories coming out of LERN’s annual Executive Leadership Institute, held this spring in Tucson. Top leaders in the field of lifelong learning cited as the top trends for executives topics falling into four areas.  New in 2015 is the arrival of “Learning” as a chief area

This year’s Executive Leadership Institute became the first LERN event where participants were given and encouraged to chew gum. While slightly tongue in cheek, new research shows that chewing gum improves both learning and test scores, according to Julie Coates, one of North America’s foremost authorities on learning. More importantly, the premiere of gum at

By Dr. Layne J. Harpine, LERN Vice President If you do all your own work and never delegate, you eventually hit a production ceiling.  You can only work so many hours in a day and there are only so many tasks you can accomplish in the hours you work. Without delegation, you limit your productivity and

Certificates continue to be a huge growth area.  And you have more upward potential in creating and offering more certificates. From two recent LERN events, here’s our small but first survey results on how many certificates continuing education programs are offering right now. Half of programs said they offer between one and 10 certificates.  Only

Only half of LERN member programs have their website mobile optimized, eMarketing expert Suzanne Kart told lifelong learning executives meeting this spring in Tucson. Over the next year or so, a high priority for your lifelong learning program should be to make your website mobile friendly. Kart says that Google has now changed its search

The Beginning Rider motorcycle class, as instructor Scott Collins told us, would be led by him, but also by us, the students. In groups of four we studied the course reading materials – either individually or as a group, it was up to us.  Then we discussed the most important elements of the unit assigned

To make your objectives, only one person should be accountable for each goal or objective, recommends operations and staffing authority Greg Marsello. While many people may be involved in marketing or programming, group accountability in lifelong learning is not effective. If everyone is accountable, then no one is accountable. Instead objectives get met when a

LERN’s book, “How To Teach Adults,” now in its Fourth Edition, has now been translated into Russian with over 400 books distributed in Russia in the last few months. In all, the book has sold over 100,000 copies, making it the top book ever on the subject of teaching adults. The book is the text

You asked for it! Your top certificates are now offered for optional graduate and undergraduate credit. The UGotClass news just keeps getting better.  Last year our Top Partners asked for more of our courses to be offered for optional graduate and undergraduate credit. Here’s why: 1. Many businesses will pay for training for employees if

“You can only stay on track for three months,” operations and finance authority Greg Marsello told lifelong learning executives. From consulting with the most successful programs all over North America, he recommends lifelong learning executives hold quarterly reviews for their staff, and for themselves. Those quarterly objectives come from your annual objectives, Marsello notes. “Take

Sept. 8 – Oct. 30, 2015

Dr. Layne Harpine of Emerald Isle, North Carolina, has been named the next LERN CEO.  The announcement was made to Senior LERN Leaders meeting in Tucson this spring for the annual LERN planning retreat. Harpine will become CEO in 2019, as part of a LERN Management Team Transition plan for the next 10 years. “On

Here are LERN presenter Fred Bayley’s top new Customer Service tips from LERN’s Program Management Institute and CPP training in Savannah this spring. When improving customer service focus on the few major items that will make a significant difference. 20 percent of your customer service impacts 80 percent of our customers. Focus on the significant

Discover easily adaptable operational ideas to implement in your organization and understand why improving staff productivity by centralizing operations is critical to your success by attending LERN’s newest webinar “Operations matters: Best practices for increasing customer satisfaction.” You will take away practical, specific techniques to engage staff and simplify processes and learn the best practices

Fully one-third of participants attending LERN’s Marketing Institute are in the process of doing a web page redesign, reports LERN’s Associate Vice President for Marketing Suzanne Kart. Kart also noted that the new Google search update focusing more on mobile search – combined with the fact that more people will access the Internet from a

“Poor decisions are being made by too many administrators regarding the performance of a class, event, or contract,” says Greg Marsello, LERN Senior Vice President for Organizational Development. Marsello travels around Canada and the United States each week and sees program financial data.  He reinforced the unfortunate “news” at the Operations and Staffing Institute in

Lifelong learning and continuing education students are becoming more demanding, says Holly Klotz, presenting at LERN’s Operating and Staffing Institute this spring. Klotz provided these three top news and tips from the Operations Institute: Organizations are realizing how important having effective software (particularly for online registration) is to their survival/success. Students are becoming more demanding

Cut the dogs, said participants in LERN’s Contract Training Institute.  You can’t be everything to everybody, and that’s ok.  Then, after telling potential clients about your other customized programs, refer any clients seeking your dogs to the competition. You should “stomp the competition” or get out of that particular line of business if you can’t

From this year’s Advanced Programming Institute in Savannah, here are the top new issues and trends for programming professionals. Consolidation of data. Data sources do not always talk with each other, so getting reports valuable to programming professionals is often difficult. The new issue was raised by Kevin Carter of the College of Extended Studies

“Automation can be salvation for the busy eMarketer,” Susan Hurrell of Modern Earth in Winnipeg told her participants in LERN’s eMarketing Institute this spring.  “Using tools like Hootsuite to pre-plan and preschedule your messaging for multiple channels means you don’t have to do the same things twice, or three times, or more,”  she says. From

For all the fans of Julia King Tamang, all is going well at the start of her three year Retreat. Her Sealing Ceremony was a wonderful day and LERN consultant Kassia Dellabough attended. Julia is working hard to learn how to sleep sitting up in a box. Each morning she is up at 3:30 a.m.

Blended courses are now emerging in the field of lifelong learning. Some half of participants at the LERN Advanced Programming Institute reported offering some blended courses, and a third of participants at the LERN Executive Leadership Institute in Tucson (photo from conference hotel resort) also said they are now offering some blended or hybrid courses.

The last three months have seen enormous changes as the Industrial Age collapses before our eyes.  And the landslide of Gen Y and the 21st Century is now on a roll. One event in the last three months could have even bigger implications for the United States than the Affordable Health Care Act, say “Nine

Any non-peak month when you are not registering for your in-person classes is a great month to email customers about UGotClass. Here are two great groups to target: Those who have taken an individual course that is part of a certificate. Encourage them to enroll in the entire certificate. Those who have taken a UGotClass

Focus on the basics for success: 1 .Print. Put our top certificates and courses in your next print brochure, with course descriptions. 2. Website. List all our courses and certificates on your website. 3. Update. Check for registration links and list new dates and registration info each time 4. Email. Email all your customers about

Exciting new courses and certificates premiere this fall. We continue to build the Curriculum to keep your community’s workers’ learning current with “Skills for the 21st Century.” Just a few of the new courses include Certificate in Accounting and Finance for Non-Financial Managers, Project Management Project Processes, Law for Non-Lawyers, and Change Management Skills for

Well that didn’t last long. The October all-time monthly record, that is. February registrations set a new all-time monthly record, topping October and Up a whopping 24 percent over February last year. It is a good sign for the rest of 2015. Some 122 Partners participated in generating the record setting registrations. Partners ranged from

The North Carolina Association of CPAs is bringing in LERN consultants Layne Harpine and William A. Draves, CAE, for a program review this spring. It’s just the latest association to engage LERN in consulting to boost association education income and profitability. To find out how your association can get an ROI of 10:1, just email