How is technology shaping education marketing during covid? Your views are needed.

New research survey aims to understand how technology is shaping the education sector during Covid @weareclearhead @uniofbeds

Global content agency Clearhead and the University of Bedfordshire are collaborating on a joint research project to understand how the education sector is continuing to deliver education services and events during Covid-19 and they need your views. 

The pandemic has hit the education sector hard, at a time that would usually be packed full of on-campus events and activities, schools, colleges and universities have been forced to think creatively and embrace new technology in order to carry on engaging with current and new audiences.

Clearhead is based in Luton and specialises in student marketing; when the pandemic struck they started working in different ways with their education clients  – providing virtual campus tours to universities in place of their usual open days and virtual events for schools and colleges across the country.

Gordon Brady, Senior Business Partnerships Manager at University of Bedfordshire said,

“The education sector often wastes time and money repeating what it already knows, but not thinking about what the perfect scenario could be and what is needed to make that happen.  This research aims to find out whether the tools and technologies exist that suit the future needs of the education sector, so that they can start the R&D to build it now. I’m now very curious to see what it uncovers.”

Gavin is the CEO at Clearhead and chair of Luton Business Improvement District:

“Since the start of the lockdown we have seen a huge increase in the amount of education clients wanting support in delivering virtual events. Like us, this sector has had to adapt their services and taking their events online is a big move for them.

We’ve been helping schools, colleges and universities on a number of virtual film projects and we’re committed to providing and adapting services to meet the needs of the education community.  We were keen to find out how technology could be changing and shaping the way this sector is working, both in their day to day activities and events that contribute to the academic calendar.

Having close links with the University of Bedfordshire we consulted with them on their own experiences and challenges during Covid and discussed the lack of research and insight that existed in this area. 

Using their expertise in research and development and our knowledge and experience of using technology to deliver education events we decided to collaborate on this joint piece of research with an aim to find out what options are available, how the sector is adapting during this difficult time and what the future needs could be.

Rhidian Lewis, Associate Dean Enterprise and Employability at University of Bedfordshire Business School said: 

“We’re really excited to be involved in this research and we’ve been able to provide support already in terms of questionnaire design and the use of quantitative and qualitative data capture methods. Once we have the results back we will continue to support Clearhead through independent analysis of the data and co-authoring a White Paper of the findings and their application.”

Clearhead and The University of Bedfordshire are welcoming respondents from across the education sector to share their experiences via an online survey which is anonymous and takes just five minutes to complete.

The results will be shared with respondents and the wider education sector with the primary purpose of providing insight and best practice advice.

As a thank you for taking part, respondents will be offered a free virtual event checklist which includes a free template of helpful questions and tips to consider when running an online event.

Please support your education colleagues and share your experiences through this online survey in order to provide best practice advice, ideas and future technological needs.