For associations and credentialing bodies, keeping learners engaged while supporting their professional growth is key to both retention and sustainable business success. Continuing Education (CE) programs serve as a powerful tool to foster learner development and reinforce the value of the organization. However, crafting an effective CE offering requires more than just delivering content — it involves a strategic, data-driven approach that aligns with the evolving needs of today’s learners.
With the CE market expected to reach $93 billion by 2028, associations and credentialing organizations face challenges, including increased competition, shrinking attention spans, and a market increasingly focused on price. To stay ahead, organizations must adapt by integrating trends like AI-driven content personalization and stackable credentials that demonstrate real-world skills, creating impactful learning experiences that resonate with both current and future learners.
In this blog, we’ll discuss key best practices and actionable strategies that associations and credentialing bodies can implement to design more engaging CE programs, streamline their operations, and ultimately drive learner engagement and revenue growth.
Crafting compelling CE programs requires a strategic approach that prioritizes learner engagement and relevant content. By implementing key best practices, organizations can transform their CE offerings into powerful tools for professional development and learner retention. The following five best practices provide a framework for designing high-impact CE programs that resonate with learners and deliver tangible value.
1. Utilize Personalized Learning Journeys: Personalization starts with understanding your learners’ goals. One learner might want to engage 30 minutes a day, while another aims to move quickly, show mastery, and move on. By using goal-based personalization, you can tailor the experience based on individual goals while significantly boosting engagement.
It’s also important to offer modality options—some learners prefer short videos, others prefer reading, and many benefit from a blend of both. Lastly, balance breadth and depth in your content. Offer broad coverage for those exploring a topic and deep dives for learners who need to master specific areas. Together, these layers of personalization create more relevant, flexible, and effective learning experiences.
2. Offer Varied Delivery Formats: Offering multiple learning formats isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the industry standard. Combining self-paced, live, and hybrid experiences ensures you’re meeting a range of learner preferences.
It’s also essential to understand how your learners prefer to engage. Do they gravitate toward webinars or structured lessons? Are you offering a mix of long-form, short-form, and microlearning experiences to suit different time commitments and learning styles?
Organizations that provide content in various formats and lengths consistently see higher engagement, satisfaction, and adoption—driving greater revenue, retention, and long-term learner loyalty.
3. Ensure Accessible and User-Friendly Interfaces: Accessibility and ease of use aren’t just design preferences—they’re strategic advantages. An accessible, intuitive CE platform expands your market reach, especially as more professionals (including 94% of Gen Z) access content on mobile devices. Prioritizing accessibility helps expand market reach and strengthens your competitive advantage.
User-friendly interfaces also drive learner adoption and satisfaction while reducing the need for support and training. A seamless experience keeps learners engaged and encourages continued participation.
Plus, accessible design supports compliance with ADA and WCAG standards to help you build a more inclusive, future-ready learning environment.
4. Publish Relevant and Up-to-Date Content: Keeping your CE content current isn’t optional—it’s essential. Industries evolve, regulations shift, and learners expect timely, actionable information that helps them stay competitive. Outdated material can lead to lower engagement, reduced credibility, and even compliance risks for credentialing bodies.
To maintain relevance and credibility, continuously update content, retire outdated materials, and incorporate new competencies and skills that your industry requires.
5. Provide a Clear Value Proposition Beyond Recognition: When marketing your CE program, it’s important to emphasize the value learners will gain beyond just the certificate or recognition. CE should not merely be viewed as a box to check off but as a meaningful opportunity for skill validation and professional development.
The focus should be on the tangible benefits learners will receive, such as gaining practical, applicable knowledge and supporting career path growth. A strong value proposition will demonstrate how your program equips learners with real-world skills that directly contribute to their success, making it a worthwhile investment of their time and effort.
1. Repurpose Content Strategically: Reduce content creation efforts by repurposing content. There are many ways to efficiently repurpose content. For instance, you can consider breaking down large courses into microlearning modules and converting courses into live webinars, or vice-versa.
2. Templatize Learning Products/Courses: Accelerate course development, ensure consistent learning experiences, reduce costs, and improve scalability by using standardized templates.
3. Offer Tiered Recognition Options: Drive long-term engagement and strengthen brand recognition by offering digital badges, certificates, and exclusive content at various levels.
4. Partner with Strategic Providers: Find a partner to assist with content development, repurposing, and maintenance to bring courses to market faster.
5. Leverage the Right Technology: Choose technology that supports both learner and admin experiences, accommodates multiple use cases, and provides granular reporting for data-driven improvements.
If your organization already offers a Continuing Education (CE) library, now is the time to step back and evaluate how well it’s performing across three key areas. Start with your content: Is it up to date and genuinely valuable to learners beyond simply offering a certificate? Are your recognitions stackable, and is your pricing competitive?
Then look at your technology and services: Does your platform support an accessible, intuitive, and personalized learning experience? Is it streamlining workflows for your administrators?
Finally, assess your business model: Are you optimizing for learner engagement, long-term value, and recurring revenue? By auditing these core pillars, you can unlock new opportunities to modernize your CE program and ensure it delivers meaningful outcomes for both your learners and your organization.
Unlock the full potential of your organization's CE programs: watch our on-demand webinar to discover how to design and implement impactful learning experiences that drive member engagement and revenue growth.