Marketing of Short Courses

This presentation was part of the session : Universities and Companies Highlight What Works!Anna Mahr: Associate Director of Professional Programs, Professional Education Programs, School of Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA (since 2006). Received Ph.D. in biology from University of Rochester and M.B.A. from Babson College (2001). Postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School. 6 Research scientist at Integrated Genetics, Applied Biotechnology, IG Labs and Genzyme. Tavish Baker: Online Marketing Manager, Professional Education Programs, School of Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA (since 2004). Received B.S. in journalism/advertising from Northeastern University. Website/ecommerce marketing and management at Houghton Mifflin/Sunburst. Dee Moore: Director of Marketing, Professional Education Programs, School of Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, USA (since 2003). Received M.B.A. from Fordham University and M.A. in media studies from New York University. Corporate Marketing positions in the high tech industry and publishing industry prior to joining MIT.IACEE 11th World Conference on Continuing Engineering EducationThe Professional Institute is part of the Professional Education Programs office within the MIT School of Engineering. PI offers 35-45 courses geared to working professional scientists and engineers. Our course directors are regular MIT faculty who make the decision on whom to invite to help teach the course. Because we cannot hire adjunct faculty, our organization is supply-side driven and we can offer only courses that MIT faculty offer to teach. Our courses are promoted in a variety of ways. Chief among them are our Web site, brochures, post cards, print ads and electronic methods. The latter includes e-mail marketing, e-mail and Web-site advertising, search engine marketing, and link-building (from internal sites, events listings, industry blogs, etc). Recent additions include attending conferences as well as sponsoring events and seminars. We will detail our evolving marketing strategies to target niche markets and how we involve our students and professors in the entire process. Because we are supply-side driven, in addition to our students, we also view MIT faculty as our customers. Toward this end, we also reach out to faculty members to inform them about our activities. Our goals are to drive PI enrollment and increase the number of offered courses in a way that is consistent with MIT culture, practices and mission, and to keep the Professional Institute a vibrant and dynamic professional organization offering relevant courses even after more than 50 years.Distance Learning and Professional Education ; International Association for Continuing Engineering Educatio