Introduction
In every way of learning, there is always a need to determine the effectiveness of the teaching process if it is impactful or not. For positive results, the method is upheld while the faulty sections are amended, but when it is negative, the method is discarded and suitable alternatives should be proposed or adopted. To this end, there different methods through which a program’s effectiveness can be evaluated.
Posing online questionnaires is one way to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning processes. The questionnaires can be structured in many ways, such as having multiple choices, being open-ended, correlations, and others (Regmi et al., 2016). They can be randomly presented so that the learners do not get similar questions. The questions will be posed to assess the quality of teaching and whether the learners find it good or bad, enabling the program’s effectiveness to be evaluated. Another method is the use of essay questions to determine learners’ mastery of the topics and offer a chance to access personal reflections (Kaipa, 2020). The essays should be marked as per the guidelines of the instructions.
Dialogue simulations will also work great as the dialogue tools will enable the learners to engage in virtual conversations with the simulators as in real life. With the feedback given from the characters’ questions, the learning process’s efficiency will be determined (Anderson et al., 2019). Conducting interviews is another method used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program which involves and interviewer and the interviewee. The person who is interviewed ought to be a learner who has personal experience on the program, offering clear and non-vague responses. Lastly, online surveys are one of the popular methods of getting the required feedback. By recording and evaluating reactions and perceptions, information can be acquired regarding the student’s beliefs and perceptions. The process requires proper eLearning tools to allow for instant feedback to be obtained.
Marketing Strategies and ‘Brand Promise’
In order to boost any forum or business, there is a need to utilize proper marketing strategies to attract more people. Moreover, brand promise is the expected value or experience a customer will receive when seeking service from a business enterprise (Kingsnorth, 2019). The more it is delivered, the more the strengthening of the brand value in customers’ and employees’ mind. In other words, a good value proposition establishes a business further.
In terms of marketing strategies, web design is one essential feature of marketing tactics. When the websites are neatly designed, easy to read, and enjoyable, they will attract attention, thus more traffic. To be implemented, there will be a need to hire an expert with good designing skills ensuring the website created is attention-grabbing and modernized, which will align with the tastes and preferences of learners. Maintaining a blog is another critical method that acts as a marketing tool and ensures that the relationship with customers is maintained. It is enabled by optimizing the search engines, posting new keywords, and offering a platform where customers are advised as information bits are shared. It is advantageous in the sense that the customers’ tastes and preferences can be determined which can be used to improve the quality of the program.
Getting into articles and news stories is another marketing strategy to see the business is marketed in business articles. In this case, the health-related segments and articles and the new stories amplify this new prospect, thus reaching a broader base of people. Regarding the brand promise, it should be modeled to portray the value of the business, its expectations, quality, uniqueness, and affordability. The brands identity should reflect an organization that values specificity when dealing with different clients. The brand promise, subsequently, must be a provision of unique and customized services that are specific according to age and gender groupings.
Learning Platforms and Recommendations
YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular video sharing platform on the web. It is used by billions of people across the globe. The program will open a YouTube channel where all the tutorials will be accessed. Viewers will be encouraged to pose their questions on the comment sections, thus reaching many at their times of convenience. Since the program will be enrolled within the social media platforms, Twitter will be the favorite to host spaces focused on remote teaching and learning (Rehm & Notten, 2016). Interactions within such platforms will be more accessible as the discussions are brought about to ascertain the program’s success. Pushing tags and mentions, will popularize the program, thus attracting more people. Organizing virtual meetings in platforms such as zoom and webinars will ensure the program is successfully run. According to Clement et al. (2017), such platforms are often underutilized; hence, providing a big opportunity. Running a website will also offer a platform where all the tutorials and information are stored, making them easily accessible.
The above platforms are cheaper compared others like Udemy. On the other hand, social media platforms such as Facebook allow for discussions but do not host spaces, proving disadvantageous. I recommend that popular online networking technologies be utilized since they have more users. However, changes should be made within the conferencing platforms such as zoom and webinar to expand the capacity of the meetings so that more people manage to attend learning. However, it is somehow to host a very large number of people since it reduces the classroom experience thus reduced quality of learning.
Ethical Issues and Risks Associated with the Program
Some of the ethical risks posed include online anonymity, confidentiality and consent. They can be breached in situations where the discussions made in the interactive sessions tend to dig into an individual’s personal life and matters. This predisposes them to unethical situations such as blackmailing and shaming in several ways (Stommel & Rijk, 2021). It may further predispose the program to ethical persecution, thus destroying its image and putting it at loggerheads with particular state agencies or regulatory bodies. Consent is another ethical issue to which the program might be vulnerable. When carrying out the learning processes, teachers may or learners may use examples of individuals or institutions to explain more on the study topics (Gupta, 2017). Such scenarios may lead to misrepresentation of image and possibly lawsuits from those aggrieved further tainting the image of the program.
The above problems bring to question how or what strategies can be used to eliminate them. Prevention is always better than cure, so consent must always be sought when intending to use an individual or organization as example during learning sessions. Administrators must first approve the use of such information to evade consequences that may come with breaches. Anonymity must always be ensured in situations where private matters are involved. It can be achieved by directing the questions to the private box of the host of the program rather than exposing them to the public domain. Use of anonymous features when tackling sensitive matters is also advised in cases such as in the Quora platform where identity is hidden (Gupta, 2017). The method protects the learners in sensitive matters by enhancing confidentiality.
Cost of Funding the Program
The cost of funding the program is minimized hence advantageous. It comes by mainly utilizing the free social media platforms, as in the cases of hosting spaces and running channels. However, conferencing platforms such as zoom and webinar do charge some amount, after which they avail a link to host the meetings (Lockwood & Forey, 2016). Such charges go by the capacity of choice as in the more extensive online classrooms are bought at higher prices than those of smaller capacities. An example is webinars; their prices range from $39 to $199 per month, while most people pay around $129 or less (Clement, Lejeune & Coeurderoy, 2017). It is quite affordable hence a good option for running the program.
Another cost is that of a website, as in the case of around $200 to build one. What will follow is maintenance which happens to be monthly as it can cost $50 per month (Li et al., 2018). In cases of hiring a developer, the costs tend to be high, which can be an upfront charge of $6,000 and $1,000 per year for maintenance (Clement, Lejeune & Coeurderoy, 2017). All these can be affordable if one obtains revenue from subscriptions on the programs from platforms such as YouTube and charges a small fee for the educative program.
Discussion
As projected above, a business requires proper marketing strategies to thrive, with online marketing not being an exception. The issue is marketing the program and initiating a brand power that ensures that the customers are retained. It has been shown that brand power is the means of creating connection with the customers through value addition, shoving off other competitors (Kingsnorth, 2019). When organizing the educational programs, there are a few ethical risks that may be detrimental to everyone: the host, learners, associated persons and organizations, and the program itself. There are numerous learning platforms, with the social media ones being the ones that are less costly to run. Other conferencing platforms such as zoom, require monthly charges to host the virtual classrooms.
Evaluating program effectiveness is also critical and can be enabled in several ways such as conducting online surveys, enabling dialogue simulations, giving out essay questions, and giving online questionnaires. All of those methods help to assess the learners’ perceptions but online surveys stand out among others in terms of being most preferred. Running the program also comes with costs such as maintaining the website through repairs and so. These costs tend to vary depending on the method used.
Conclusion
The discussion above shows that brand power is a crucial part of business marketing. This program is beneficial due to its uniqueness, especially since it does not offer generalized services as in other learning programs like Udemy. Building blogs will be vital in maintaining a relationship with the learners’ customers since queries will be made, thus ensuring trust. Marketing strategies should be good and the main example used was developing a website that will attract the students’ attention. Other marketing tools such as appearing on journals and news stories are also good. Organizers should also establish links with popular news channels and tabloids for subsidized advertising. Hiring a skillful web designer has also been discussed as this will ensure that the web created is neat, easy to read and attention-grabbing.
On the cost side, it can be surmised that building the program’s website rather than hiring a developer will reduce the cost of hosting on other servers. These costs turn out to be affordable in cases that more people flock into learning platforms, thus earning money from revenues and subscriptions. Regarding getting into private or more profound matters of an organization, consent must always be sought to avoid being sued over acts of defamation or breaching privacy. When also engaging in online interactions, anonymity should always be encouraged to prevent cases of defamations and character assassination.
Finally, social media platforms prove to be elemental since, when utilized, information can reach millions of people while also accounting for convenience. Twitter spaces prove to be a good platform since by pushing hashtags and having many mentions, the program can be popularized. The program should utilize these platforms to gain a more significant base following or users. The virtual classrooms are also good since they create the classroom experience for learners.
References
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Clement, E., Lejeune, C., & Coeurderoy, R. (2017). Web conferencing solutions on a global scale: challenges for software vendors, strategic partners, and clients. Louvain School of Management, Université catholique de Louvain.
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Kaipa, R. M. (2020). Multiple choice questions and essay questions in the curriculum.Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. 13 (1), 16-32.
Kingsnorth, S. (2019). Digital marketing strategy: An integrated approach to online marketing. Kogan Page Publishers.
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Stommel, W., & Rijk, L. D. (2021). Ethical approval: None sought. How discourse analysts report ethical issues around publicly available online data.Research Ethics,