USQ Upskill Course Hub Implementation

Executive Summary 

Curio partnered with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) to develop USQ UpSkill, a new approach to delivering professional learning. USQ UpSkill is an educational product and service that responds to the need for shorter, engaging bites of learning, blending the rigour of academic learning with authentic, work-based contexts. The UpSkill website is built on Course Hub, Curio’s customisable storefront for education providers. The platform drives registration through an attractive tile view of available courses, with clear delivery dates and seamless journeys to enrolment and payment through integration with the student records system and Stripe payment gateway. The site offers ease of use for content editors and connects to the Canvas LMS to enable automatic registration and course management.

Client Background 

USQ is an Australian university with three regional campuses across the state of Queensland. A recognised leader in online and blended education, they are renowned for their supportive environment and student-focused commitment to learning and teaching.

Challenges and Objectives 

In 2019, USQ developed a new major programme of online short courses, USQ UpSkill. UpSkill was to be aimed at delivering life-long learning to professionals with existing qualifications or significant work experience. UpSkill would be used to expand USQ’s audience and reach a growing segment of online learners. With significant investment into the strategy, research, and build of the UpSkill courses and brand, USQ was looking for a go-to-market platform that would allow them to control the end-to-end brand experience, whilst being flexible enough to scale with UpSkill over the long term.

Solution Provided 

Course Hub has provided USQ UpSkill with its main digital touchpoint for the UpSkill brand, including a market-facing interface where learners can browse, enrol, and pay for short courses. With a strong focus on the end-user experience, USQ has used Course Hub to take UpSkill to market while continuing to build its reputation for strong blended education experiences. Working with the Course Hub team, new custom features were developed to enhance marketing activities critical to UpSkill’s lead generation strategy. Additional enhancements include the introduction of coupons, intakes, and private B2B offerings to support the UpSkill project as it scales.

Results and Impact 

Within the first six months of launch, over 35 short courses went live, with student enrolment from over 40 countries. The project provided USQ Upskill with a single platform to promote and manage registrations for micro-credentials and professional learning courses. If you’re looking to bring your short courses or micro-credentials to market at a faster pace with a more agile solution than your existing undergraduate or postgraduate marketing website, get in touch for a demo.