Abstract:

In the last few years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had an enormous impact on the educational paradigm. In parallel, lifelong learning is taking on an increasingly more important role. In the European Space of Higher Education continuing education has been one of the priorities since the Bologna Declaration and has appeared in most of its communications. On the other hand, new mechanisms of teaching–learning have appeared (Massive Open Online Courses and hybrid training) and are being established as alternatives to traditional education, driven by the development and implementation of ICTs in the educational world.

In this context, lifelong learning is a clear example of this. The methods of teaching-learning, the organisation of training and also the process of attracting students to continuous training programmes have been progressively incorporating technological tools to fulfil its mission with increasing efficiency.

The Lifelong Learning Center (CFP) of the Universitat Politècnica de València, aware of the need and the benefits linked to the integration of ICTs have launched several actions where technologies have paved the way to important improvements in its processes.

During the 2018-19 academic courses, the CFP has attended to more than 35,000 students and carried out more than 1,500 activities of continuing education. As a result, the communication between the students and the professors and the recruitment of new students is an essential task. The marketing group of the CFP, has in its operations, integrated tools like: web analytics, social networks, and a series of disciplines encompassing digital marketing to attract students. It is worth highlighting that thanks to the web analytics tool, a vast amount of information has been gathered related to the interests of the students, which allows the CFP to improve its recruitment actions through a definition of different profiles. In addition, the new online promotion tools offer the possibility to act on a very specific public objective. Therefore, obtaining results through information associated to specific promotions help value the success of these actions.

Consequently, during the last few years, the results obtained by the CFP have seen positive growth year after year, increasing the offer of training, the number of students and the income obtained.

This work presents the experiences of CFP of the UPV with regards to using ICTs, its benefits, the improvement of its processes and results in attracting lifelong learning students. This has not only meant a timely incorporation of tools, but also a paradigm shift in the focus on the actors involved in continuing education.

Keywords:

Lifelong Learning, Digital Marketing.