422: Beyond Competitive Advantage

As parents, as partners, as colleagues, as professionals, people are constantly being asked for some of their time, and learning businesses are part of the clamor for people’s time. Learning requires time, yet many people feel they don’t have enough of it. How do learning businesses secure a share of people’s limited time, and how can they help learners make the most of the time they do invest? In this episode, number 434, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele focus on the small matter of time for learning and for learning businesses. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode434.

Amrit Ahluwalia is executive director of Continuing Studies at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, where he’s focused on growing Western’s professional and continuing education reputation and approach to match the reputation and approach the institution already brings to its research and undergraduate programing. Before joining Western, Amrit founded The EvoLLLution, and he ran the publication for a little over ten years. He also hosts the EdUp PCO podcast. In episode 433 of the Leading Learning Podcast, Amrit talks with co-host Jeff Cobb about the revenue imperative facing most professional, continuing, and online (PCO) education units; the need for the 60-year curriculum; collaboration between higher ed and associations; COVID’s impact on learner expectations; the value for many learning businesses of moving beyond a content producer mentality to being a curator and a guide; and Pink Floyd. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode433. 

Nuno Fernandes is president of American Public University System. One of the pioneers of online education in the United States, APUS now offers 200 programs serving more than 90,000 students in 50 states and almost 50 countries around the world. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 432, Nuno shares how he came to lead a higher education institution, and he and co-host Jeff Cobb talk about the current state of higher ed, the rising costs of a university degree, marketing and education, the impact of artificial intelligence on education, the role of partnerships in the future of adult learning, and more. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode432

Motivation and mindset are two of the baseline requirements for effective, lasting, and enjoyable learning. Through thoughtful design and delivery, learning businesses have the ability and opportunity to influence the motivation and mindset of the learners they serve. In this episode, number 431, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele look at these two related but different concepts and talk about how each impacts learning. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode431.

Impact is one of the core goals at the heart of most learning businesses, and we believe that impact should be as broad as possible—meaning ideally your learning business delivers significant and relevant results for learners, for the organizations that employ those learners, and for the fields, professions, and industries those learners work in. In this episode, number 430, Leading Learning Podcast co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele look at how providing learning paths, offering valued credentials, and aligning with employer needs are three activities that can deliver impact on their own and how the combination of all three is more potent—and a bullseye learning businesses might want to aim for. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode430.

Having a strategy is part of what any learning business needs to thrive. But what does establishing a strategy look like? In this episode, number 429, we get a peek behind the strategy-developing curtain in a conversation. Pam Rosenberg, director of education for the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, has been in the exciting role of helping to develop ASNT’s first formal education strategy. Pam talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Celisa Steele about build, borrow, and buy choices for creating a catalog; the need to assess the quality of learning content; competition from subject matter experts; the reality and challenge of serving check-the-box learners; the importance of connection; and more. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode429.

Most learning businesses have three goals at heart: reach, revenue, and impact. Reach deals with clearly identifying who you can and should serve and then connecting with them. Impact involves delivering real results for learners, organizations, fields, professions, and industries. Revenue is the lifeblood that keeps a learning business alive. Very few would disagree that impact and reach are important, but making money off education can cause discomfort to some. And so in this episode we focus on the necessity the reality, and the opportunity revenue represents. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://leadinglearning.com/episode428.

Heutagogy might be the most important and powerful idea in learning that you never heard mentioned on the Leading Learning Podcast. Until today. If a learning business embraces heutagogy, it will be well positioned to lead learning in the field, industry, or profession it serves because it will have enlisted the help of all learners. In this episode, number 427, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele talk about the emergence of heutagogy, its relationship to andragogy, and the potential it might represent for learning businesses. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode427.

In the U.S., higher education institutions are increasingly interested in serving nontraditional students, in providing credentials beyond degrees, and in using online learning to extend their reach beyond physical campuses. As those changes happen in higher ed, ripples are created that impact the learning business landscape. Luke Dowden is the chief online learning officer at the Alamo Colleges District, located in San Antonio, Texas. In this episode, number 426, Luke talks with Leading Learning Podcast co-host Jeff Cobb about the good and the bad of online learning becoming an established part of higher education, digital credentialing, non-credit offerings, credit for prior learning, and partnerships between higher education and other organizations serving the third sector. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode426.

Learning is both a natural, intuitive activity all humans engage in and a complicated process we haven’t yet fully appreciated or understood. While there are plenty of nuances and neuroscientific details that factor in, fundamentally learning requires three elements: motivation, time, and effort. In this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast, number 425, co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele focus on some of the most important takeaways from andragogy and learning science, things that can help you be a better learner yourself and things that can position your learning business to address common barriers to learning. Show notes and a downloadable transcript are available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode425.