Maine Adult Education Association
Website and Course Registration
System Proposal
Prepared for
The Maine Adult Education AssociationPrepared by
Brian Rahill Founder & CEO RainStorm, Inc.
Introduction
Dear Maine Adult Education Association Board of Directors, Since the start of our relationship in 2006, we at RainStorm have all been proud of the work we’ve done in partnership with the Maine Adult Education Association. We’ve really enjoyed working with MAEA to promote adult education in Maine and we appreciate the opportunity to continue this relationship. Enclosed is our plan to keep MAEA programs growing while keeping costs low and continually improving the Portal long into the future. We know that the successful future is bright and we at RainStorm hope to have an opportunity to continue to build on our partnership with MAEA. We believe our in depth technical expertise, excellent personal service, and proven commitment to adult education in Maine make us an excellent choice. Sincerely, Brian Rahill Founder & CEOAbout MAEA
The Maine Adult Education Association promotes and supports adult education programs throughout Maine. One of the ways it does this is through the use of an online portal (the Portal) that catalogs all member programs, their classes, and adult education news across the state. The Portal is considered by MAEA to be the “glue” that holds adult education programs together as a statewide system. Using the Portal students can not only find classes of interest in their area, but easily register for them with their credit card, making it an indispensable resource for marketing adult education across the state.History of the Portal
In 2009, MAEA partnered with RainStorm to create a website to link all of Maine’s adult education programs, make it easy for them to post information, news, and class offerings online, and link all programs into one integrated system. The year it debuted, the Portal won the TechMaine Award for Nonprofit Site of the Year and a national Best of the Best award from LERN. Since 2009, the Portal has seen steady success, with a growth of 15% each year, more than doubling the number of registrations since its inception. Thanks to the continued partnership of the Association and RainStorm, the Portal is now home to websites for 68 programs, more than 40,000 student accounts, and has received more than 2.2 million visits. This growth shows no sign of slowing and with mobile device support and improved marketing features, has begun to accelerate. In the 2015 school year alone, the Portal is on track to process nearly $1 million in registrations.
To continue this growth, in August 2014, a new version of CourseStorm became available to MAEA members. This upgrade included many new features, a simplified user interface, mobile friendly payments, builtin email marketing, a smoother registration flow, and provided an even stronger foundation upon which to build the future of the everexpanding Portal.
Current Services
As the original partner with MAEA on the Portal, our services are well known to the Association and identically matched to the RFP. Therefore, rather than itemize each feature provided by the existing Portal, we have chosen instead to highlight features distinctive to this project and areas where we believe RainStorm continues to offer unique value to the Association and its members. RainStorm’s current services to the MAEA Portal can be broken down into three categories: website hosting and editing software, the CourseStorm class registration software, and our continued support and training.Website Hosting and Editing
For each website in the Portal system (including the Portal itself and the individual member program websites), RainStorm provides hosting and maintains the editing software used to manage website content.
Hosting
Website hosting consists of the services needed to keep the website online and available to anyone who needs it. This service includes maintaining the web server used by the Portal site as well as 24/7/365 monitoring of the site and its services with oncall, RainStorm support staff available to deal with any issues that may arise. As the Portal has increased in popularity over the years, RainStorm has continually increased the server resources allocated to the Portal to keep up with the increased demand.Editing Software
A second part of our website services includes the use of SiteTurbine as a content management system (CMS). This software was developed by RainStorm and is used by many other websites. SiteTurbine includes a suite of modules, each allowing users to manage different sections of their websites. MAEA and its members primarily use: ● PageStorm Ability to add, edit, and remove pages from each website.● FormStorm Provides a contact form that notifies the Association or Program of a submission with an automatic, unlimited archive of submissions. ● FAQStorm Used to manage frequently asked questions to be posted to a Program website for use by the public ● NewsStorm Allows programs to publish news to their site RainStorm also built functionality into the Portal which allows content, such as news, from each member program’s website to automatically be displayed in aggregate in the Portal, providing easy access to resources throughout the state in a single place. Finally, RainStorm developed and maintains a feature allowing anyone to discover their local program using a geolocation search right from the Portal website. In addition to the above services, RainStorm developed the official Association website, built on WordPress, an opensource content management system, and hosts that site at no additional cost to MAEA.
About CourseStorm
In August 2014, MAEA programs across the state were upgraded to a new version of CourseStorm which provided mobile friendly payments and a lowfriction payment flow. Unlike traditional updates where perhaps a few new features are added here and there to improve things, this update was a very significant improvement on many levels, some obvious and others perhaps not so obvious. In this section, we outline what makes CourseStorm such a unique opportunity for the Association and its members.CourseStorm is Designed for You
Since the beginning, we have designed CourseStorm specifically for the needs of adult
education programs. This makes it a much more unique product than say, a traditional shopping cart. The result is saved administrative time and increased enrollments.
Registering students for classes is very different than selling products online. For one, there is no concept of “shipping” in CourseStorm. You don’t ship your classes to anyone, so it doesn’t make sense to ask a student for their shipping address or if they prefer UPS or FedEx. This may seem like a trivial difference, but it turns out to prevent a mountain of calls from confused registrants, thereby increasing enrollments for your classes. As another example, you can send an email directly to everyone who registered for a given class in CourseStorm. This developed from a common need among programs who had a lastminute location change or weather cancellation. Since CourseStorm was designed for you,
the feature was builtin, saving each MAEA program administrative time. But, you won’t find features like this in a typical shopping cart.
Traditional Shopping Cart:
● Designed for online stores selling
physical goods
● Additional administrative time
● Cumbersome to use for classes
● Lacking class management and
enrollment features
CourseStorm:
● Designed for adult education
programs
● Saves administrative time
● Builtin enrollment tracking
● Builtin class communication
features
CourseStorm vs. PayPal
Another benefit of CourseStorm derives from the way in which payments are processed. Credit Card PaymentsWith CourseStorm, MAEA programs now have an improved student payment process. In a typical PayPal or Andropay integration, students registering for a class are shipped off to a new website when entering their payment information. For example, in the old CourseStorm system, students would be directed to the PayPal website when it was time to pay. Unfortunately, this change of websites is confusing to many students and resulted in 36% of them never completing their registration. The new version of CourseStorm eliminated this barrier, enabling students to stay on the program’s website when completing their registration. This change has contributed to 3,000 additional registrations than the previous year.
“Two of our students
went out of their way
to tell me that the
registration process is
much simpler and less
confusing with the
switch away from
PayPal. I think it has
directly contributed to
our program’s growth
of more than
360%
in
the past year.”
Vivian Champagne
RSU 54 Adult &
Community Education
Refunds This smooth payment processing has other benefits as well, including the ability to issue oneclick refunds right from the CourseStorm administration area. Previously, to cancel a class, programs needed to individually issue a refund for each student who registered online. To refund a single transaction, programs would have to log in to their PayPal account, find the transaction associated with a given registration, and issue the refund there. They would then need to log in to the registration system and record the refund a second time to ensure that theirrecords were up to date and the appropriate number of seats were available for the class. This process would be repeated for each online registrant in the class. Today, this operation is much simpler requiring one click to cancel the class, cancel registrations for all students, issue refunds to each credit card, and send automatic emails to the students that their refunds were issued. On a class with 10 students enrolled, the time to cancel a class goes from 25 minutes down to less than 60 seconds. This new streamlined approach is possible because CourseStorm handles the payment process right in the registration system. To replace these same features with PayPal would require that each program set up a PayPal Payments Pro account for an additional $30 / month. With CourseStorm, these features are built in at no extra charge. Collectively, this saves MAEA programs $18,360 in yearly PayPal fees.
CourseStorm Continually Improves (for Free)
Since the introduction of the new system to MAEA programs in August 2014, RainStorm has delivered 7 major updates to CourseStorm including the ability to organize classes by catalog and the ability to send mass emails to students advertising new offerings. Our email marketing features, in particular, were a dramatic improvement for programs. Outside tools such as MailChimp or Constant Contact average about $299 per year for a subscription, putting them outside the reach of many cashstrapped programs. With CourseStorm, however, this same feature is built right in and available to every program free of charge. This saves MAEA programs another $15,300 every year.
Every update we’ve made has brought significant improvements that saved MAEA programs time and money, while at the same time helping each program reach new students and fill more classes. Best yet, all were added free of charge a pattern that will continue.
Old:
● Pay for every update
● Slow to adapt
New:
●
FREE
updates
● New features and improvements
yearround, like magic
The Future is Bright
As mentioned above, thanks to the foundation set by this new version of CourseStorm, we are able to continually iterate, adding new features throughout the year. Below are a few of the features we are planning as future improvements made available to the Association and its members at no charge.
Improved Mailings We’ve heard from several programs that they love the ability to easily email their students about their new catalog or upcoming classes. By the end of 2015 we will be further improving mailing to enable programs to easily target students based on their registration history. MaineSTARS Syncing Currently, when a new registration comes into the Portal, the program is sent an email and, for proper recordkeeping, must handenter this registration info into MaineSTARS. We’ve begun discussions with Kelly Heath at the MDOE and the staff at Benchmark ITS (the company responsible for MaineSTARS) to see what opportunities there are to streamline this process, saving time and money for MAEA programs. Pending MDOE approval, we will add this functionality for the MAEA system at no additional charge.
Automatic Minimum Enrollment Emails
The fastestgrowing programs using CourseStorm send out notification emails to students when a class is in danger of cancellation due to low enrollment.
We will automate this practice, saving programs valuable administrative time and giving the best recruiters registered students an opportunity to boost enrollment and reduce cancelled classes.
Support
At RainStorm, we pride ourselves on our legendary support. To us, this means supporting our customers so quickly and so well, that they tell stories to others about the great experience they get from our team that’s the best measure of our success. For the past 7 years, we’ve been privileged to train and support staff at every program in the Association through: ● inperson trainings ● conference sessions ● webinars ● email newsletters ● unlimited phone and email support This allinclusive support comes builtin all at no extra charge. Our support of MAEA goes deeper than software training, which we’ve made available for MAEA programs. We have present live training workshops for MAEA conference attendees at every marketing and annual conference. These trainings are designed to help educate programs so they can use the tools we have provided to grow, save time and reach more students.“Anytime I need anything,
the staff at RainStorm are
always right there. All I
need to do is pick up the
phone or shoot off an
email and they’ll help to
solve whatever problem
I’ve encountered. Their
team stands out among
the typical companies I
interact with. They’re a
pleasure to work with.”
Sue Colley
Sanford Adult &
Community Education
Pricing
Over the past 7 years, we’ve seen the Portal grow to become an astounding success, more than doubling in size since its inception and showing no signs of slowing. Though the usage increased dramatically over time (and the support along with it), the cost to each program has remained largely unchanged in that time. At RainStorm, we know that already cashstrapped programs are not in a position to respond to the increase in costs required to maintain the service that has become such an indispensible tool. We also know that MAEA cannot rely on grant funding or its own finances to keep up with changing technology. With this in mind, we developed a pricing structure for the new CourseStorm to ensure a sustainable system that continues to improve without additional costs. Students who benefit from the convenience of registering themselves online without the need to call during business hours or mail in their registration, could pay a small $1 or $2 fee for each registration. This ensures the costs of Portal sustainability are distributed among the many registrations throughout the Portal rather than felt directly by each program while at the same time, ensuring that the cost to each student is nominal. There is no convenience fee for walkin or mailin transactions. This method enables the funding to naturally increase with usage, protecting the programs from a price increase. In short, the system pays for itself as it is being used. Thanks to the Association’s bulk purchasing power, we have been able to extend a substantial discount off the standard CourseStorm rate.Pricing for the next 3 years:
● The Association will pay a subscription of $1,900 / year each January. This covers both the hosting and support of the primary Portal website as well as the official Association website.
● Each MAEA program will pay a standard $329 / year for their website including online registration.
● MAEA programs taking online registration pay a credit card processing fee of 2.9% + 30 cents for each credit card transaction. This is the standard pricing for companies like PayPal and is required to process credit cards online.
● Students registering themselves online pay an additional $1 to $2.50 fee for each class, based on the price of the class (more info below).
● MAEA may choose to terminate the contract (minus fees) with a 90day notice.
Student Convenience Fee
Students choosing to register via phone or mailin registration do not pay this additional convenience fee. Programs can also opt to absorb the fee on behalf of their students if they so choose. Pricing Tiers ● Classes less than $25: $1 fee ● Classes between $25 and $49: $2 fee ● Classes at $50 and above: $2.50 fee
Included Services
Statewide Portal website
● Website hosting ● Website content management Aggregated news and classes ● Locationbased class searching ● Searchable directory of MAEA member programs ● Unlimited disk space ● Unlimited phone and email support ● CourseStorm online registration
Individual Program websites
● Website hosting ● Website content management ● Ability to create pages, post news and FAQs, receive contact form submissions, etc. ● CourseStorm online registration ● Unlimited disk space ● Unlimited phone and email support
CourseStorm Online Registration
● Integrated payment processing ● Email marketing features ● Family and friends multistudent registration ● Mobile responsive design ● Builtin image searching for classes ● Waiting lists, student accounts, stored credit cards, promo codes, Excel reports, etc. ● MaineSTARS integration for importing catalogs and syncing of seat availability for classes ● Unlimited phone and email support
Summary
When we designed the website and online course registration system for the Maine Adult Education Association, we set out to build the perfect system for adult and community education programs, one that could continually improve and pay for itself without putting a burden on an individual program a system that can sustain itself for many years to come. This is exactly what we’ve been able to accomplish with the Portal and CourseStorm. This version of CourseStorm is not only used by MAEA and it’s programs, but also hospitals, libraries, and schools in many other states including Connecticut, Kansas, Wyoming, Washington, and South Carolina. This list will only continue to grow, providing year after year of free updates and improvements to the MAEA system in the process. And, as a transactionbased service, future growth is planned for and built into the system, avoiding unpredictable annual price increases, while delivering new features that keep pace with technology. RainStorm’s legendary support and regular training for MAEA members and programs help to illustrate our long term commitment to MAEA’s success. Our knowledge, experience, and expertise from fifteen years of working with educational organizations enable us to help organizations transform challenges into successes. We’re very proud of the partnership we’ve created with MAEA and hope that we’ve demonstrated what a great resource RainStorm can be in the coming years as we continue to strengthen the adult education system in Maine.Qualifications
References
Maine Health Learning Resource Center
Anita Ruff, MPH, MCHES Director, MaineHealth Community Education Program ruffa@mainehealth.org http://www.mainehealthlearningcenter.org RainStorm worked with the Maine Health Community Education Program to develop a website for Maine people to access quality health information online. RainStorm built the site to give Maine Health staff easy access to curate and update information on conditions and treatments, and highlight the resources of the Maine Health network. The website also uses the CourseStorm registration system to highlight health classes within the MaineHealth network.
MACTE: Maine Association of Career and Technical Educators
Dr. Don Cannan Executive Director doncannan@aol.com http://www.mainecte.org
RainStorm developed 17 interconnected websites for all the career and technical centers in Maine. RainStorm worked with MACTE to provide a common information architecture and style for each site and provide training and support for staff at each school. The centers are linked by a statewide portal that aggregates their news and student success stories. Visitors can learn about career and technical education, locate schools and educational offerings, and apply online.
Bangor School Department
Dr. Betsy Webb Superintendent bangorsupt@bangorschools.net http://www.bangorschools.net/ RainStorm developed a department website and customized sites for each of the ten schools within the Bangor school department. These WordPresspowered sites give each of the schools access to a userfriendly administration area that staff use to continually update their sites, post news and successes, and communicate with their parents and students.
About RainStorm
RainStorm was founded by Brian Rahill in 1999 to assist some of the earliest websites with search engine marketing and promotion strategies. Over the years, RainStorm has grown from a oneperson consultancy to a fullservice firm providing web development and hosting services to a wide range of statewide and national organizations and companies. RainStorm maintains a small, local team offering a great mix of talent in technical programming, project management, artistic skill, and client relations. We’re best known for developing simple solutions to complex technical problems and enabling both experts and novices to manage their websites and data. Always working toward the best and most innovative strategies, we use a mix of opensource tools with WordPress as our main content management system. Each system is customized by RainStorm’s inhouse staff to meet our clients’ specific needs. Our programming services are delivered using a variety of tools to craft elegant, easytouse solutions. RainStorm remains committed to providing organizations with customized websites and easytouse software, backed by the same legendary support that has guided the company since its inception.Employee Profiles
The RainStorm team offers a great mix of talent in technical programming, project management, artistic skill, and client relations. RainStorm is proud to provide services to a wide range of local and national organizations and companies.Brian Rahill, Founder and CEO
Brian founded RainStorm in 1999 as a search engine consulting firm. Under his leadership, the company has continually expanded and now provides fullservice web development, software development, and hosting services. Brian is responsible for company strategy, sales, and project planning. He has a Masters in Education degree from Ohio State University, where his thesis focused on technology adoption by classroom teachers. Brian is also the cofounder of CourseStorm, a software startup company with a mission to connect people to local, affordable education.
Leo Edmiston-Cyr, Operations Manager
Leo ensures that our projects stay on track, on time, and on budget. As our operations manager, Leo manages website production from the visitor’s perspective while never losing track of the client’s goals. With experience in web design, website promotion and growth, and
programming, Leo brings a comprehensive view of the client’s needs, as well as the knowledge of how to integrate the technical solutions. Leo holds a degree in physics from Frostburg State University.
Matthew James, Programmer
Matt builds powerful webbased software for clients in PHP, Javascript, and MySQL. In addition to programming dynamic web applications, Matt excels at web usability and information design and delights in finding elegant solutions to complex problems. Matt is a New Media graduate of UMaine and a PHPcertified programmer. He has been programming webbased software for 12 years.
Ian Belanger, Web Developer
Ian has extensive experience developing WordPressbased marketing websites and themes. He is responsible for the development of plugins and customizations for our WordPress sites and email campaigns. Ian has deep knowledge of WordPress programming and recently completed a largescale WordPress integration for Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory.
Evan Habeeb, Graphic Designer
As our graphic designer, Evan is responsible for planning and designing the look, feel, and interaction of our websites and webbased software. Evan is also a skilled web developer, assisting on both new projects as well as maintenance on current sites and software. Evan ensures that the design of our sites and software is as beautiful as it is functional.
Ian Lusk, Web Developer
Ian is our support team web developer. He has extensive WordPress skills and an eye for both the visitor’s experience and the client’s’ goals. His role is to develop high quality solutions to realtime challenges our clients’ face. Ian supports our sites after they go live, keeping current sites uptodate and tackling their technical support issues.
Suze Howe, Support Specialist
Suze is the friendly voice who answers our clients’ questions about websites, email, domains and more. Suze is knowledgeable and compassionate, helping support clients in a
downtoearth, understandable way. She holds a degree in graphic design from Clark University.
Monique Bouchard, Client Relationship Manager
Monique’s goal is to understand client needs and match those needs with RainStorm’s services. Her insight as a technology user and communicator helps the RainStorm team find the best
solutions for a client. A UMaine graduate, Monique also brings skills garnered from 14 years in public relations, marketing, and communications.
