UWA signs with The Learning House to enhance online education programs

LIVINGSTON, Ala.—The University of West Alabama has announced a partnership with the Learning House to enhance enrollment management and marketing efforts of UWA Online. The seven-year agreement was signed Wednesday on the UWA campus at a gathering of the University community and Learning House officials.

The Learning House, a Louisville, Ky., based company, will begin marketing initiatives immediately. For UWA, the effort is expected to boost online enrollment, with the University sharing a percentage of tuition revenues for new students recruited through the partnership.

UWA President Ken Tucker said that the partnership is a reflection of the progress that the University is striving to achieve.

“Our University has placed a strong emphasis on working collaboratively to enhance our offerings and to grow the programs that we believe make our region a better place,” Tucker said. “On campus, our teams work collectively to create opportunities and develop the initiatives that are bringing positive results, and through this type of external partnership, we will expand the efforts in a measurable and effective way.”

The president said that the partnership between UWA and the Learning House is a different type of business model than the University, and even likely most of higher education, is accustomed to, but he is confident that administration, with leadership from College of Education and Online Dean Dr. Jan Miller, has done due diligence to ensure success.

“We spent a significant amount of time in negotiation with the Learning House, and they are an impressive organization,” Miller explained. “They have already provided an unprecedented level of customer service to us through this process, and we know that is the same quality of service we want to provide to our students.”

Tucker agreed and attributes UWA’s satisfaction with two specific areas of expertise at the Learning House.

“My personal belief is that the keys to success in a large-scale organization are human resources and technology, and the Learning House has tremendous assets in both of those,” Tucker said. “Based on our interactions thus far, I expect outstanding results.”

Learning House President Todd Zipper described the journey of the partnership, beginning with the opportunity to meet Dr. Jan Miller, dean of education and online programs, at a summer 2015 conference. From there, Learning House officials and UWA administrators moved to their first meeting in January of 2016. Zipper said he recognized the type of leadership that would work well with the Learning House even at the first meeting.

“There has been a lot of thought put into the partnership, many questions, and a healthy skepticism to bring us to this point,” Zipper said. “This has taken most of a year, but we now have a really good partnership.”

Zipper insists that the relationship between UWA and the Learning House is a partnership.

“We’re not a vendor, we’re a partner,” Zipper said. “We are mission driven, and our mission is to improve lives through education. We are happy to work with a University that is already doing that. We look for innovation, boldness, courage, creativity, communication, and we see those things in UWA.”

Zipper said that the Learning House has approximately 20 educational partners, and the low number allows more hands-on work from top leadership at the Learning House.

“In this partnership we have an identified process, procedures, and accountability that will keep us on track,” Zipper said. “In addition to our staff spending time on the UWA campus, I will have one-on-one conversations with leadership to be sure the partnership stays on track.”

Through the partnership, the Learning House will meet recruitment performance goals, invest in marketing UWA Online education, and implement best practices for the program.