Update on AIAA Continuing Education
Briefing to Technical Activities Committee
1 September 2015
Background
• AIAA Continuing Education offerings
 Courses
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Courses at conferences
Onsite (at facility)
Home study
Webinars (Not currently offered)
 TC-organized workshops
• Continuing Education oversight
 Career and Professional Development Committee
– Formed in January 2015 from the merger of the Career and
Workforce Development Committee and Professional Member
Education Committee
– Offerings heavily supported by Technical Committees
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Successes
• TC-organized workshops
 Generally well attended (40+ attendees)
 TCs are very engaged in the development and
organization of workshops
– Many are defined series
 Workshop pricing model
– Can register a la carte either in addition to forum
registration or just workshop
– Standardize pricing structure and package to ensure
consistency between workshops
– $10/registrant “levy” goes to organizing TC as revenue
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Challenges
• Courses
 Number of onsite courses declining
– High margin product for AIAA
– More organizations handling training internally or training budgets
cut
– Number of inquiries about onsite course increasing recently so
there is possibility of increase in this offering
 Home study courses holding steady
– Offer 3-4 courses per year; same courses offered each year
– Courses attract 5-10 registrants per course
– Provides a distance learning option for those who can’t travel
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Challenges (continued)
• Courses
 Webinars not currently offered
– Experimented by webinars in 2012 with limited success
– Webinars are being considered as part of Virtual Presentation
Portal
– Need to assess content, competition, pricing, audience,
marketing, delivery, etc. before re-launching webinars
 Courses at conferences continuing to struggle
– Limiting the number of courses offered at forums
– Seeing slight uptick in number of students per course in 2015
– Need to understand what is driving current state: content, pricing,
schedule, marketing, etc.
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Addressing Courses at Conferences Challenges
• A number of TCs are assessing their courses to
improve results
 Good discussions at P&E about ideas to improve
content, delivery, marketing, etc.
• The Career and Professional Development
Committee (CPDC) wants to work with TAC to
address issues and determine path forward
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CPDC Recommendations
• Form small group of TC members to work with
staff to discuss options and develop
recommendations
 Define who we should be serving with courses and with
what content
– Practitioners, academics
 Explore online course and what AIAA offers
 Assess pricing/packaging
– Offer a la carte (for C@C), student rates?
 Assess promotion
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CPDC Recommendations (continued)
• Schedule a brainstorming session during SciTech
2016 to get feedback
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Content
Delivery
Audience/Market
Competition
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