THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRACTICES FOR MARKETING CONTINUING ENGINEERING EDUCATION COURSES BY A SAMPLE OF POSTSECONDARY INSTITUTIONS AND SELECTED INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

The purposes of this study were to identify the practices used in marketing short, non-credit continuing engineering education courses by a sample of postsecondary institutions, to determine the relationship between the found marketing practices and selected institutional characteristics, and to use the findings as a basis for suggesting guidelines for marketing continuing engineering education courses by colleges and universities. Eight hypotheses were tested in this study. The eight hypotheses postulated that there is a significant relationship between the marketing practices of direct mail, paid media advertising, unpaid advertising and other methods of advertising and each of three institutional characteristics. These characteristics are: (1)primary source (public or private) of institutional fiscal support; (2)fiscal position regarding the continuing engineering education program (profit making, breakeven, or not self-sustaining); and, (3)size of continuing engineering education program (number of courses offered). The postsecondary institutions from which study data were elicited are the 90 identified by the American Society of Engineering Education and National University Extension Association as having an active continuing engineering education program in the September 1, 1978 - August 31, 1979 college year. The instrument, Continuing Engineering Education Marketing Practices Inventory, constructed by the researcher, was used to elicit these data. Fifteen of the institutions reported that their programs had been discontinued prior to 1978 or had never offered short, non-credit, continuing engineering education courses and, consequently, did not provide data for consideration in this study. Respondents were the directors of the continuing engineering education programs within the postsecondary institutions contacted. The chi-square statistic was utilized in hypothesis testing. The standard set to determine independence of variables in this study was the .05 level. Summary of Findings. At the level set in this study, independence was determined between each of the marketing practices (direct mail, paid media advertising, unpaid advertising and other methods of advertising) and each of three institutional characteristics (primary source of fiscal support, fiscal stance regarding the continuing engineering education program, and the size of the continuing engineering education program). This suggests that none of the institutional variables of reference has a significant bearing on the type of marketing practices used in promoting continuing engineering education programs in the study institutions. Four marketing practices (direct mail, paid media advertising, unpaid advertising and other methods of advertising) were found to be used in the promotion of continuing engineering education programs by the 75 study institutions. Of these, direct mail was the only marketing practice used by every college and university providing data in this research. Such widespread use suggests that direct mail is the most feasible way to market a continuing engineering education program. Study findings identified paid media advertising and unpaid advertising as promotional methods often used to augment direct mail. Ancillary to the main purpose of the study, data on the institutional fiscal stance regarding the continuing engineering education program revealed that 54 of 75 study schools attempted to breakeven only, while 16 aimed at earning a profit. These findings suggest the prevailing institutional posture that continuing engineering education should be self-sustaining.