Boosting Edinburgh's leading offer on Lifelong Learning

Lauren Johnston-Smith, Online Learning Marketing Strategy Manager at the University of Edinburgh, tells us more about the impact of our work.

In 2022 the University of Edinburgh worked with CarringtonCrisp to better understand what learners are looking for in the growing market of online learning, digital credentials and continuous professional development (CPD).

The University had one of the largest portfolios of online postgraduate courses, over 70 in total, with more than 10,000 graduates and 5,000 students; its short course offer counted with more than 4 million learners.

CarringtonCrisp looked at market conditions, competitors and best-in-class examples, carried out audience work with learners and employers (both qualitative and quantitative) and developed personas - from exec ed learners to hobbyists - to help the University better understand the needs of its learners.

Out of the work CarringtonCrisp carried out, which components have resonated the most with the University?

We commissioned this work to inform decisions related to the procurement of a new learning platform and digital credential service. We are already a world leader in online education but, in order to maintain our position in this rapidly evolving marketplace, we needed to better understand learners’ needs, how competitors position themselves and to have a full-market report on how online learning is changing. 

We have in the past undertaken research with prospective online learners, but this new research with employers provided us with fresh insights into what they need for their staff. Combining the employer insight with what learners want to learn and what we, as educators, want to teach is key to ensuring that Edinburgh delivers the right courses in the right way to the right people, and enables us to fulfil our ambitious lifelong learning strategies. 

What changes has the work brought about?

Since undertaking this research, we’ve procured a new learning platform and are in the process of building a website catalogue of our short course portfolio. The insights from this research helped us determine the platform requirements and the website content. By giving us a wide overview of the marketplace, this research has also led us to identify other areas where further focused research was required, such as UX website research and an expanded set of audience personas. 
 
Tell us a bit more about the outcomes of this project

At the time of commissioning this research, our focus leant more heavily towards understanding the marketplace for short, not-for-credit courses delivered online, although we knew that our new learning platform would also support those learning on face to face or hybrid courses.

And so we shifted our emphasis — we have moved towards delivering solutions that will support all types of short courses, from hobbyist courses to executive education, online and face to face. This research has been valuable in providing us with a more robust understanding of our competitive position and what audiences are looking for.