Supplementing Your Catalog - Online Educational Content Providers

Owned by Ashleigh Briggs (Deactivated)
Last updated: Apr 09, 2020
3 min read

With many programs being unable to conduct in-person classes for the foreseeable future, many are working on transitioning their in-person classes to an online format. This is a great option, but it's not the only way programs can continue to provide education. 



Online educational content providers provide turn-key courses that programs can offer to students through their existing CourseStorm catalogs. Once a program has partnered with a provider or providers, they have access to hundreds of online classes across a wide verity of topics.

An example of online educational content providers include:

  • Ed2go classes focus on skills for today's job market and offer more than 150 certifications in dozens of industries.

  • Tooling U offers more than 500 online classes designed for workforce development and upskills training.

  • MindEdge offers continuing education, workforce, credit, and even custom classes.

Why Should my Program Supplement its Offerings with outside Classes?

  • Keep students engaged with your program - It's easier to keep students coming back when you're regularly engaging with them. That can be hard to do when classes have been suspended for the next few months Transitioning in-person classes to online is a good option but can take time, and some classes just aren't a good fit for online instruction. These platforms allow you to basically plug and play classes into your catalog and provide options to your students in a matter of hours, which allows programs to offer classes still when they otherwise can't.

  • Expand your current course catalog - In-person classes often have enrollment minimums which can limit the number of new courses offered each catalog as an effort to keep low enrolment cancelations low. E-Learning options generally don't have enrollment minimums as they are either offered as standalone registrations or are open to students nationwide (and sometimes beyond) and seldom have low enrollment. 

  • Communities need education now more than ever - As many of us sit in our homes day in and day out we need new ways to connect with those in the outside world now more than ever, why not be the one to connect them with others and help them learn a new skill?

  • Add an additional revenue stream- While an outside source provides these classes, you still get a cut of the registration fee. It's likely going to be a while before programs start seeing traditional registration volumes, so now is a great time to start bringing in revenue from new places. And it's a revenue stream you can keep going once things return to normal.

How Does This Work with CourseStorm?

Many CourseStorm customers already offer Online Educational Content through their regular catalogs. You simply add a new class just like you would for an in-person class. You can then provide the course access information to registered students via a Roster Email.

Many programs using e-learning offer their online classes using a separate system with a separate catalog and registration process, creating a disjointed user experience for students and staff alike. In light of the current health crisis' effect on education, our team is accelerating our work on a first-class, unified registration experience for these online classes. By integrating directly with online class providers and LMS systems, CourseStorm will streamline the entire experience for students and help you grow enrollments in the process.

In the coming weeks, our team will be rolling out a series of updates and integrations designed to optimize our compatibility with online classes. If your program is interested in getting early access to these updates, please let us know by filling out the interest form.