CC BY
8that the lack of experience in implementing effective public diplomacy, especially when interacting with Western countries, leads to the fact that not all methods are ineffective, and some may even have the opposite of what was expected.
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MOOC AS A MEANS OF PROMOTING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF THE UNIVERSITY
The relevance of the topic is due to the popularity of massive open online courses (MOOCs) as an alternative to traditional education, and the need for universities to adapt to this new market environment. The purpose of this article is to develop an MOOC based marketing mix model to promote offline university educational programs. The standard concept of marketing mix adapted to MOOC's requirements in the form of a 5Ps model: Product, People, Price, Platform, Promotion is used as a basic approach. The results of the analysis made it possible to formulate essential factors for the effective use of the MOOC as a means of promotion, namely: the need for accurate course positioning, a thematic link-up between the course and offline programs, building alternative communication channels in relation to the MOOC's environment, reinforcing the role of a tutor-facilitator, discounts for offline programs for students receiving a paid certificate, etc. The results can be used in the promotion strategy development of educational programs by universities that are not among the leaders of online education in the MOOC environment.
Keywords
Mass open online courses, MOOC, marketing mix, marketing promotion system
AUTHORS
Elena G. Zavorina
Senior lecturer, hospitality management department, RANEPA, Moscow 82, p. 1, Prospect Vernadskogo, Moscow, 119571, Russia E-mail: Lena-suleiman@mail.ru
1. Introduction
Although distance education began to develop in the middle of the 20th century, it was long considered a fairly marginal and niche component of higher and vocational education without playing any significant role in it. This situation remained until the beginning of the 21st century, despite the gradual development of technological means of communication between the University and the student, which has passed through at least five different stages (Taylor, 2001). The situation began to change with the emergence and expansion of e-learning technologies, and the widespread use of virtual educational environments based on the Internet. However, a radical increase of distance education is reasonably associated with the emergence of MOOCs (massive open online courses) - mass open online courses (Yuan and Powell, 2013).
The MOOC concept is based on the provision of unlimited access to e-courses for everyone on a free basis. Students from all over the world having registered on one or more international platforms can take part in the courses of the world's leading universities. Importantly, though, the content is not limited by simple access to the materials, but includes a full range of educational practices: home assignments, practical classes, tests, course discussions with other students and/or tutors, individual consultation, team projects, etc.
Despite initial scepticism, the world's leading MOOC platforms, which emerged at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, have overcome their earlier difficulties and continue to fulfil their mission successfully at the present time. The mass enrolment of potential students from around the world, allowing traditional universities to reach new audiences and promote their brand name, underpins the success of the MOOC. Despite the apparent cost-free nature, all key players in the online courses market were able to find sufficiently effective business models to ensure their financial sustainability (Yuan and Powell, 20l3; Dellarocas and Van Alstyne, 2013).The MOOC platforms can generate payments from universities that place their courses, students' fees for additional services (obtaining a certificate, individual consultations, etc.), and analytical services and recruiting, company personnel training, etc.
As for the universities, MOOC monetization can be carried out both directly through payment for the certificates and additional educational services, and indirectly through attracting students to full-time educational programs, increasing their global recognition and reputation. The government interested in ensuring access to education can also become a guarantor of MOOC projects' financial sustainability; as, for example, in the case of the Russian platform "open education". The main beneficiaries of the new educational format are larger universities with initially strong brands. They are able to create and maintain a large number of courses and specializations while ensuring their high quality. Relying on significant financial and organizational resources it allows them to be sustained over time, or even to consider the MOOC as a part of their social
responsibility strategy, as in the case of the edX platform. For universities that cannot boast of such opportunities, and consider the MOOC, first of all, as a means of promoting their fee-based educational programs, the developing successful system of marketing promotion becomes urgent. Below there is a model of such a system which can be applied to Russian higher education taking into account the opportunities and challenges of established universities which, however, are not the leaders of the online market.
2. Materials and Methods
A standard marketing concept, including strategic and tactical (instrumental) levels, serves as a backbone for the development of a system of educational programs marketing promotion of the University with the help of an MOOC. Strategic marketing of educational programs is based primarily on target segments selection. The instrumental level, in turn, is represented by a set of specific tools that can be used to solve strategic tasks and collectively constitute a marketing mix (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). In our case, we consider only the instrumental level; that is, the marketing mix of the University, which uses the MOOC to promote its educational programs.
The standard model of marketing mix known as 4P, involves the classification of all marketing tools: Product, Price, Place, Promotion. At the same time, depending on the industry and the specific market, various modifications of this model can be used, complementing it with new categories. Modern higher and professional education, especially the MOOC, have many unique features that make it necessary to modify the standard model of marketing mix. In particular, within the framework of the "MOOC as a promotion tool", the course itself is both a promotional tool and independent product. In other words, the online course is an independent value for the student, because it allows them to directly solve their educational problems.
This and other features of the MOOC (mass, free, limited direct contact between participants, cross-border, etc.) should be taken into account when developing a marketing mix. A number of researchers suggest various modifications of the standard model for distance learning in general, and MOOC in particular. Thus, M. Kane and others use the 5Ps model, which includes such categories as People, Places, Programs, Processes, Policies (Cain, Abell and Cindric, 2016). Another option is proposed by A. Kaplan and M. Haenlein: Professor, Participants, Pedagogy, Pattern, Platform (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2016). The 7Ps model developed by A. Kaushik for the MOOC: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, Process appears to be useful (Kaushik, 2018). A similar approach is also used by M. Haskins, although they reduce the entire set of tools into five groups (Haskins, Centini and Shaffer, 2017).
Based on these approaches and on the prospects of the University, which uses the MOE not so much as an independent educational product, but as a tool for promoting offline programs, we can offer the following 5Ps model of marketing mix (Fig. 1).
Product Content, structure, quality Positioning
Educational technologies Relation to offline programs People Team, key roles
Key competences and personal traits
Communication and Interaction between team members
Price Costs
Price policy
Platform The choice of MOOC platform, LMS, reach of tagret groups Tuning, adaptation and personalisation of the learning space Alternative and additional communication channels
Promotion Advertisement and promotion of MOOC Marketing communications within courses Integration with offline programs promotion
FIGURE 1
Applying this model to the promotion of offline programs allows us to specify the content of each marketing element and formulate recommendations for their use.
3. Results
3.1. Product
The product of the marketing mix plays a key role in promoting educational programs of both traditional and online universities with the help of the MOOC. This is due to two key factors. Firstly, as already noted, each course used for promotion is also an independent educational product through which the student expects to meet their needs. Secondly, the entry barrier for the user, who signed up for the free online course, is so low that the termination of the course is the most natural and simple choice in the case of any dissatisfaction. When signing up for the course, a student does not make any commitments, does not engage with any personally significant social relations, does not pay for anything, and the competition among the suppliers of most popular courses is very high.
As a result, the quality of the course and its compliance with the needs of a student becomes a key task, the solution of which depends on the success of any business model that uses mass courses. At the same time, the MOOC format is objectively characterized by limitations that initially made the academic community sceptical about its pedagogical value. The key quality problems of the MOOC are the lack of direct contact between a teacher and student, the inability to conduct many types of practical classes, the
prevalence of automatic assessment systems and the lack of individualization. MOOC developers are looking for ways to partially solve these problems by providing additional, usually paid services, as well as new technical and organizational solutions, such as peer assessment, virtual laboratories, etc. However, such solutions usually involve additional costs and the need to develop pedagogical technologies specifically for the MOOC, which in many cases does not correspond to the logic of business models focused on economies of scale.
Analysis of courses placed on several major international and Russian platforms (Coursera, edX, Udacity, "Open Education", "Universarium"), as well as feedback from students, allowed us to identify several typical problems of modern MOOCs directly affecting their quality and perceived value in the eyes of students:
1. The course is designed by "cutting" mechanically from the classical University course. The peculiarities of the MOOC format and content perception in online learning are often not considered.
2. Lack of proper feedback and interactivity which particularly does not allow you to ask clarifying questions and get explanations, as well as to understand the source of errors in individual tasks and tests.
3. Insufficient practical training or the inability to develop necessary competences.
4. Unclear course objectives and target audience description results in non-alignment with real needs.
5. Low quality or irrelevant lecture material, isolation from practical needs, errors in the texts.
6. The limited scope of the used teaching technologies. Despite the opportunities provided by modern platforms, most authors are limited to a relatively small set of learning formats and do not use more interactive and innovative solutions, such as virtual laboratories, special software, creative and project work in a team, gamification, tutor support, etc.
A careful look at the above-stated problems allows us to see a critical difference between the strategies of those universities for which the MOOC is an independent activity, and those for which it is a means of promoting offline programs. In the first case, ensuring the quality of courses and their compliance with the educational needs of students is the main and self-sufficient goal. The simplicity of refusing to undergo further training leads to the termination of contacts with students and, as a result, the inability to monetize the course.
In the case of an MOOC as a means of promotion, the situation is more complicated, since the shortcomings and limitations of this format of training can be considered as a certain opportunity for the university. More specifically, when presenting and positioning online courses, universities can offer offline services and programs as a complement, focusing on those aspects of the educational process that are objectively easier to implement in a full-time learning format (interactivity, immersion in practical and project work, a more individualized approach). However, maintaining the quality of the MOOC to the extent permitted by the format itself is a priority in this case as well.
One more important issue of the university product policy must be considered in the formulation of specific marketing objectives. In most cases, universities that use MOOC for their promotion are focused on the development of the university brand as such. As part of this strategy, it is assumed that developing a strong brand will provide an influx of students to various university programs. Accordingly, the task of the university is to develop a high-quality online course which will be in demand by the target groups, and to form an appropriate promotional system.
If the university plans to use the MOOC to promote specific educational products, the task becomes more complicated. To successfully promote specific programs, it is not enough to simply develop any quality course based on available resources and competencies; it is necessary to consider its relationship with offline programs and positioning opportunities for the same target audience. For example, it is easy to imagine a situation where a university has enough competence to develop a high-quality online course in the IT sphere. However, if the promoted offline programs are business or finance related, the effect of such promotion will be insignificant.
Establishing a clear link between an online course and an offline program, as well as course positioning, can have two components: thematic and competency-based. A thematic link is a meaningful link between an online course and a specific educational product offered by an offline university (e.g. refresher courses, a master's program, an MBA program, seminars and training courses, etc.). At the level of competence offline programs can be positioned as a way to develop and consolidate specific knowledge and skills that are objectively difficult to form in the course of automated mass online training. First of all, it concerns practical skills and experience in solving real problems, as well as skills that require direct interpersonal interaction, for example, communication.
Based on the specifics of the product component of the MOOC in the system of promotion of educational programs, we can formulate several specific recommendations for the university:
1. When developing online courses, it is necessary to proceed from the list of priority offline programs that they are planning to promote. With limited resources and low entry barriers, it is advisable for the student to be limited to a small number of quality courses that most closely match the topics of the promoted programs and the needs of the target groups. The strategy of massive development of courses based on maximum coverage of the market must be abandoned.
2. When developing the course, it is necessary to position it as accurately as possible, based on the understanding of the educational needs of the target audience defined in preliminary marketing research.
3. When developing the course, it is recommended to use as wide a range of pedagogical technologies as the platform allows, as this can create value for the user. Interactive forms that provide rapid feedback are particularly valuable.
4. Each course should be developed as a stand-alone product in view of its connection with offline programs and features of online learning. It is unacceptable to develop a course by mechanically reducing or adapting a classical university course.
5. The structure and content of the course should contain elements that clearly indicate its thematic and competency relationship with offline programs. These elements may include selected thematic blocks with a description of related disciplines and training programs, reference material, teasers, etc.
6. Independent audit is required to guarantee the quality of the course, and the relevance of its content and compliance with the educational needs of the target groups.
3.2. People
The second element of the MOOC marketing mix, which is absent in the standard model focused on the commodity market, is the people who provide the development, placement and support of the course. In traditional educational models the key role belongs to the teacher. However, in the case of the MOOC, the situation is more complicated, because even if we do not take into account the organizational and administrative support of the educational process, it is necessary to allocate at least three independent roles which the quality of the course depends on. These are the authors who create the content of the course, the designers who ensure its presentation in electronic
format, and the tutors-facilitators who accompany the course during the training. The latter role is particularly important because it provides elements of interactivity and feedback to trainees that are extremely valuable to them.
Ideally, all three roles are combined in one, but in practice this is not always possible, due to lack of competencies and for organizational reasons. If the course is very popular and a larger number of students are enrolled, the author in principle cannot provide its operational consulting support. Well-established platforms enter into contracts on their own with independent experts who can act as tutors. However, for ordinary universities, simpler MOOC platforms and for situations of "MOOC as a means of promotion" such a model is not very suitable.
Taking into account the specificity of training in the MOOC environment, as well as the limited human and organizational resources of the university, it allows us to formulate the following recommendations for the development of the personnel component of the marketing mix:
1. It is necessary to form an MOOC-team responsible for the creation and support of the course. The key roles within the team include author, designer and tutor. If it is impossible to combine roles in one person, it is necessary to create organizational conditions for effective interaction of team members.
2. It is essential to draw up and formalize a list of key competencies required from the members of the MOOC-team, then carry out the selection of personnel in accordance with the list. Study shows that MOOC teachers, in addition to knowing the general subject and having pedagogical competencies, are also required to have more specific skills: the ability to hold their audience's attention in the absence of direct contact, presentation skills and the ability to work in front of a camera, competencies related to the course support, such as creating topics in forums and maintaining discussion, developing tests and checking homework, etc. (Pekker, 2018). Other important requirements include ICT and virtual environment skills, an ability to work with culturally and socially heterogeneous groups, knowledge of their audience's needs, as well as an understanding of possible educational paths, and a taught course can be part of them.
3. One of the key professional duties of tutors-facilitators is to inform and consult with students about relevant offline programs, if and how they are connected with the content of the online course, and to assist in the formation of a further educational path.
3.3. Price
The price component of the marketing mix of the MOOC includes the cost of creating and maintaining the course, the ways of its monetization and university's financial strategy compliance. As noted there are different financial models of MOOC involving their monetization through additional services, services for corporate clients, government subsidies and attracting applicants for paid programs, etc. (Dellarocas and Van Alstyne, 2013). At the same time the key idea of the MOOC is to minimize the cost of the educational process due to the economies of scale, lack of costs for physical infrastructure and movement, growing automation and intellectualization of ways of providing content, and practical and assessment activities.
When calculating the cost of the course, it is necessary to take into account that the methods that improve its quality due to interactivity and tutor support can significantly increase the costs to the university, thereby levelling the advantages of the new format. This is one of the main reasons why universities refuse to use many interactive forms of online learning, and students regularly face the problem of obtaining timely and adequate feedback. If a university uses MOOC as a promotional tool, it does make sense to use tutoring as well in spite of additional costs. This is due, not only to the importance of maintaining the quality of the course, but also to the need to build long-term relationships
with students for whom direct consulting work within the course is extremely valuable. Based on this, a university can be recommended to use the following pricing and cost strategies:
1. Minimization of maintenance costs is achieved by accurate positioning of the course and dropout "at the entrance" of those who are not included in the target segment, as well as the possibility of charging for individual forms of work.
2. Obtaining a certificate and providing other additional paid services to students should be accompanied by discounts on admission to paid offline programs or recommendations to third parties, the result of which was their appeal to the university.
3.4. Platform
An MOOC platform in the online education system serves as a sales channel in the traditional marketing mix. The platform is the entry point for students and a university fully ensuring the educational process. Although universities can create their own online education environment, in the case of MOOC this practice is not normally used. The platform not only provides high-quality education infrastructure, but also often accomplishes many other tasks: data analysis, development of new pedagogical technologies, assistance in course development, attracting students, interaction with employers, etc. The concentration of a large number of courses from different universities in one place stimulates competition and fosters the reputation of both the platform and all partner universities. At the same time existing platforms may differ significantly in the opportunities they provide and their ability to achieve target segments of universities. For universities that focus primarily on the Russian-speaking audience, it is important to choose between Russian and international platforms.
TABLE 1 - SHOWS THE COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF SEVERAL MAJOR INTERNATIONAL PLATFORMS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE RUSSIAN UNIVERSITY
Parameter Coursera edX Udacity Udemy Future Learn
level of requirements to university reputation Very high Very high Very high Middle High
openness to partnership Low Low Very low Very high High
opportunity to place on-line programs Yes Yes Yes No Yes
global audience (million students over the world) 25 m 14 m n/d 20 m 8 m
amount of courses in Russian language 190 5 0 >100 0
amount of Russian university partners 8 3 0 - 0
possible role of an independent expert Tutor - Tutor Author -
Russian interface and documents Yes No No Yes No
As you can see, international platforms have great potential for promoting a university primarily due to global coverage, high reputation and wide functionality, which allows, for example, placement, not only of individual courses, but also entire specializations. However, it is easy to see that for the purposes of promoting specific programs in the Russian market, the choice of international platforms is still irrational. Some platforms, primarily Udemi, are focused on working with individual authors and do not allow us to effectively solve organizational problems. Others do not have a Russian-language interface and Russian partner universities, and make high demands which can only be met by the market leaders. The potential cooperation with Coursera looks the most promising, but rather from a more distant perspective.
A comparison of existing Russian and international platforms allows us to formulate several recommendations for Russian universities:
1. For a university that is not a market leader, in the short term it is recommended to cooperate with the Universarium platform; in the long term with Coursera.
2. Taking into account the practical lack of alternatives when choosing a platform in the Russian market ("open education" is closed to universities "from outside" and is focused on supporting only standard educational programs; other platforms are of insufficient quality, or functional), it is recommended to use alternative channels of communication with students, in particular, social networks, in addition to the platform's capabilities.
3.5. Promotion
Marketing communications used to promote the MOOC include a wide range of channels, but the main role is played by Internet marketing tools, including SMM, direct and native Internet advertising, word-of-mouth, etc. In many ways, the task of informing and promoting online courses rests with the MOOC-platforms, which use the reputation weight of partner universities to promote both the platform itself and the rest of its participants.
In the case of "MOOC as a means of promoting a University", where an online course is only a means, the most effective promotion strategy is the 'try-before-you-buy' strategy (Petrusheva, 2018; Ponomarenko and Yartseva, 2017; Howarth et al., 2016). The online course is used as a kind of tester - a free sample service, or an extended version of which a satisfied customer can purchase for a fee. In accordance with the freemium model, such an approach in the case of a classical MOOC involves the purchase of paid certificates or additional services, as well as an entry to the online specialization. In the case of a traditional university, such "extensions" of the free product are offline programs. The main marketing task for the University in the field of promotion is to establish long-term relationships with the client, beyond the specific online course.
Based on the features of the online learning format and the marketing task, there are several conditions for building marketing communications for a traditional university:
1. MOOC should be integrated into the holistic system of marketing communications, including traditional channels of promotion of educational programs. At the same time, the MOOC should be seen as an independent channel of communication.
2. It is advisable to position the online course as a free trial version of more complex and valuable paid educational products in traditional channels of promotion of educational programs.
3. It is advisable to position the online course directly in the MOOC environment as part of a possible educational path, including (paid) offline programs that can compensate for the shortcomings of the MOOC, and are of value to the user.
4. The establishing of long-term relationships with students requires an active role of the facilitator in the promotion of specific products, as well as the creation of alternative channels of communication outside of the MOOC platform. Since social networks have proven effective as a means of promoting MOOCs (Liu et al. 2016), alternative communication channels in social media used by the target audience (in Russia it can be Vkontakte, Facebook, Telegram) should be created. This will ensure the communication independence of the university, the preservation of ties after course completion, and the implementation of horizontal ties which will contribute to the successful WOM-marketing.
4. Conclusion
The new format of training based on free mass online courses, having passed the first stage of formation, has proved its viability and prospects.
Despite its limitations, the MOOC developed by the world's leading universities is a threat to traditional universities, as it provides an alternative way to meet educational needs, which has important advantages: low cost, flexibility, the opportunity to learn from anywhere, constant access to content and the ability to communicate professionally with students from around the world.
In this context universities that are not leaders in online education should look for ways to integrate MOOCs into their strategies, in particular to use them as a new channel of promotion. This goal can be achieved through the accurate identification and study of the target audience, the development of a small number of quality courses that meet its needs, and the purposeful building of the marketing mix system.
The role of a tutor-facilitator is of primary importance. They interact with students to promote offline programs and the accompanying learning process, as well as the creation and maintenance of alternative communication channels, beyond the MOOC platform used.
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