The future of continuing education is centered around providing flexible, modular, and personalized learning pathways that cater to the evolving needs of learners and improve their workforce employability. Recently, before heading down to UPCEA 2024 Annual Conference in Boston, MA, Eduframe hosted a webinar together with TIAS School for Business and Society on learnings and strategies for scaling stackable pathways. This blog highlights the key insights and strategies shared during the session, focusing on how TIAS has successfully scaled its credential offerings to meet modern learner needs.

The Importance of Flexible and Stackable Pathways

In today’s rapidly changing job market, professionals need to continuously upskill to remain professionally agile and competitive. Stackable and modular education allows learners to balance their studies with personal and professional commitments, offering them the ability to start with short courses and stack credentials over time. This approach not only makes education more accessible but also encourages lifelong learning.

Marijn Veijgen, Manager IT Innovation at TIAS, stated during the webinar:

“We realized that flexibility was both, what courses learners want to follow and also when they want to follow them. Many students don’t want to commit to a complete degree program immediately. They prefer to start small, test the waters, and then progress towards larger programs as they advance in their careers.“

Strategic Framework for Scaling Stackable Pathways

Creating a scalable continuing education model requires a strategic framework that integrates technology that is purpose-built for continuing education and a unified way of working. Marijn shares that when TIAS was looking to redesign its enterprise architecture to scale their continuing education, they focused on several key elements:

  • Organizing for Growth: Focusing on digital transformation was essential to improve learner journeys, program delivery, automating and standardizing internal processes. To sustainably grow stackable credential programs, institutions should standardize steps in the administrative processes to lower the workload of colleagues and work more efficiently.
  • Supporting Flexible and Modular Program Offerings: Traditional Student Information Systems (SIS) are structured for cohort students who start study programs together and progress simultaneously. Stackable pathways need the support of a versatile platform that can enable provision of programs for both B2B and B2C audiences, spanning credit and non-credit offerings, diverse learning formats, and seamless transition pathways. This way capitalizing on key trends in continuing education such as stackable programs.
  • Fostering Lifelong Learning: Non-traditional learners are very diverse in terms of their expectations and stages in their learning journey. Such learners require better personalization to foster lifelong learning. TIAS has been using the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) since 2016, but their former Student Information System (SIS) offered little flexibility. To address this, TIAS aimed to find a SIS that offers storefront functionalities, enabling TIAS to keep their offerings accessible while providing customization to offer each participant the right personalized content, all while seamlessly integrating with their LMS, Canvas.

TIAS’s adoption of Eduframe, the Storefront & SIS solution designed for continuing education and Canvas LMS, shows how technology can support scaling flexible & stackable pathways. Eduframe’s integration with Canvas LMS has enabled TIAS to offer personalized learning experiences from the first visit on their website to the moment learners enroll into a course while efficiently managing administrative processes​​​.

Overcoming the Challenges of Scaling Stackable Pathways

With these key elements in mind, TIAS, together with the Eduframe team, determined key success in scaling their flexible & stackable education:

  • Process design: In collaboration TIAS and Eduframe identified 6 key processes to streamline and optimize TIAS operations. During a thorough functional and technical design process, new processes with Eduframe were designed in co-creation with TIAS’ employees involved in working with these processes. This phase involved mapping out existing process workflows, identifying pain points and strengths, to create efficient requirements for the future.
  • Automation: Implementing Eduframe allowed TIAS to automate various administrative tasks such as course & program management, order & enrollment management, and face-to-face & online education management. This automation not only reduced the workload for staff but also ensured standardized operations, facilitating sustainable growth. Marijn noted, “Eduframe helped us automate and standardize our processes, allowing us to handle increased student numbers without proportional increases in administrative workload.”
  • Ownership cultivation: Eduframe trained TIAS trainers to create a sense of ownership over the newly designed processes. In contrast to top-down enforcement, this enabled a full adoption of Eduframe and new processes before the go-live took place.
  • Collaboration: TIAS worked closely with Eduframe to ensure the successful implementation of Eduframe. This partnership involved proactive risk management and collaborative problem-solving, which were crucial for a smooth transition. Marijn highlighted, “Our partnership with Drieam allowed us to address challenges proactively and ensure the success of our implementation.“

Insights from the Webinar

By focusing on digital transformation, automating processes, personalizing learner experiences, and fostering strong partnerships, TIAS successfully created a framework for sustainable growth in flexible and stackable education.

During the webinar Marijn shared more about:

  • Accommodating the needs & expectations of diverse learners: Designing programs in blended formats that allow learners to stack credentials, convert non-credit courses to an accredited degree, offering flexibility in how and when learners complete their education.
  • Fostering lifelong learning through personalization: Keeping TIAS offerings accessible while providing customization to offer each learner the right personalized content.
  • Choosing the right technology: Selecting a SIS that supports the specific needs of continuing education, enabling efficient enrollment & order management and improved learner experiences​.

Case Study: TIAS School for Business and Society

TIAS School for Business and Society has been a pioneer in adopting a flexible & modular education model. By implementing Eduframe, TIAS has scaled their offerings sustainably, providing a wide range of programs from short courses to full MBA degrees. This has allowed TIAS to meet the needs of both B2B and B2C audiences, offering personalized and stackable learning experiences.

Marijn Veijgen emphasized the impact of Eduframe:

“I don’t believe that with a traditional SIS I also get that focus on lifelong learning that I do get with Eduframe.“

If you’re interested in exploring these insights further, the full webinar is available for viewing: