Fusion Productions - Integrating Meetings, Learning & Technology

March, 2002, ASAE and Fusion collaborated to develop and disseminate a detailed questionnaire concerning association online learning practices. The survey's purpose was to see how association online learning experiences have changed since the previous survey, conducted in 1997. The survey was sent to Association executives directors and education directors. We received 220 responses, and wish to thank participants for the time they took and their thoughtful responses. While a sample this small can't yield statistically valid information, it can indicate emerging trends.

Key findings

State of the Industry
E-learning is growing steadily toward critical mass in the association market. In 1997 we found only 7% of survey respondents were using it, with 17% expecting. to use it. Today, 54% are using online education, and 14% say that it plays a significant role in their education program.

Why are associations turning to e-Learning?

• For those who tell us e-Learning is significant, the majority offer e-Learning for knowledge and skills improvement.
• Two-thirds believe the key advantage is getting learning to members faster.
• Half turn to the internet to complement their existing programs and for non-dues revenue.

What is e-Learning used for?
Currently, two thirds offer continuing education credits for their courses, one-third offer certification programs, and one-quarter offer self-assessment courses. For those associations where e-Learning plays a significant role in their overall educational strategy, nearly eighty percent offer courses for continuing education credits.

What kinds of courses are being offered or are likely to be offered?
The most popular form of e-Learning is PowerPoint presentations in various guises--alone, with video/audio, live or archived. Two-thirds of course offerings are offered "on-demand." More associations are offering multimedia courses which include video clips and graphics rather than pure text courses. Only 7% of respondents feel live video is an appropriate medium for the internet at this time.

How Associations are Producing Online Education
Content development paths are split fairly equally among internal association staff, volunteers, and outside vendors. Seventy-eight percent do not use an instructional designer specializing in e-Learning. The mechanics of getting courses into authoring software and up on the net are performed chiefly by outside vendors; only 10% of our respondents are highly likely to do it themselves, a significant change from our 1997 survey, when four-fifths did it themselves.

e-Learning and $
Is online learning bringing in revenue? Is revenue a key motivator for associations to offer online courses? One-third are making money, one-third are breaking even, and one-third are offering online education as a member benefit. Comments within the survey indicated (not surprisingly!) that executives would like online education to bring in more revenue, and that some key learnings from past experience indicate that choice of content, cost of production, and marketing are crucial to earnings. (See top challenges below.)

What about spending? Current spending averaged 10% or less of the total education budget for 74% of our respondents. However, among those for whom online learning is a significant part of their business/education strategy, fully one-third are devoting 30% of their education budget to online education, and 10% are spending over $250,000 on major implementations. Only 7% plan to spend less than current spending, despite 9-11 and revenue shortfalls.

Top Challenges
Our respondents report that their top three challenges are:

• Developing course offerings
• Financing course offerings
• Marketing their offerings

What’s Coming

For future trends, we look to our respondents who have indicated that e-Learning plays a significant part in their overall business strategy. These are the associations which are pioneering online education, which put in place a strategy several years ago, and have made the capital expenditures to create an infrastructure to support online education.

• 50% use instructional designer with E-learning expertise (5 times other categories)
• 60% use various multi-media forms (5 times other categories)
• 78% use testing
• 86% integrate with other sources of knowledge (books, seminars)