ICISF – Case Study

Rick Barton, CEO of ICISF

The International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, also known as ICISF, is the education and training leaders in crisis intervention and disaster behavioral health services. They support emergency response personnel with regional workshops on crisis management and offer over 50 different courses on related topics. ICISF was faced with rising interest due to the increase in national and global crises and, at the same time, declining training and travel budgets. ICISF reached out to CourseArc and requested assistance in creating a strategy for moving their content online. ICISF’s main challenge was creating an affordable, easy, and scalable solution with no internal knowledge nor capacity to go online.

As Rick Barton, ICISIF’s CEO explained,

As a nonprofit, we needed this to be successful to continue to have it work for us as a business model. So our expectation was that the interest and success of these online programs would create enough revenue that we could reinvest it to create more online courses, or, at the very least, sustain our operation. Absolutely that has been the case! We have found that the online courses are popular and are attracting people from around the world.

The numbers below prove that ICISF’s investment paid off.

Expanding Markets

Prior to 2015, ICISF only offered in-person workshops in the United States. However, after moving online, they have been able to expand their reach to more than 17 countries. Some of the groups they have been able to train, include police, forest service, fire and rescue, park service, airline pilots, U.S. Marshals, and the military.

Increasing Enrollments and Revenue

Because online classes offer much more flexibility in comparison to face-to-face workshops, enrollment in eLearning increased dramatically. The graph below compares total enrollments from 2014 – June 2017. ICISF offered their first online course in 2015. ICISF increased their total enrollments by close to 250%. They are on track to hit 300 online enrollments in 2017.¹

The increase in enrollments translated into 544 percent increase in revenue! This allowed ICISF to recoup their initial investment after just two offerings of their first online course, and use the profits to invest in their next two online courses.

ICISF used CourseArc to create their courses. CourseArc was so easy that even non-technical subject matter experts were able to create engaging, high-quality content without needing any development skills. Because CourseArc integrates into any LMS using Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), ICISF has the flexibility to offer the content using multiple delivery methods.

Engaging Content

The content experts who used CourseArc to develop content were impressed with the end result:

“Our hesitation for years was, ‘Could we develop a quality [online] product that conveyed a complex subject?’ But, CourseArc made a believer out of me. In some ways, it may even be more effective than in-person training because we don’t do those interactive exercises at the same level of cognitive stimulation that the online course does. I think it will enlarge our footprint internationally. This is huge for us.”
– Dr. George Everly

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Professor, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Professor of Psychology, Loyola University Maryland
Professor (Honorary), Universidad de Flores, Buenos AiresChairman Emeritus and ICISF NGO Delegate to the United Nations

Most importantly, the training had a positive impact and helped to save a life:

“Thank you. The saying “timing is everything” certainly holds true for me and taking this course. My daughter-in-law’s sister has been in a deep depression for almost a year and sent a note illustrating everything we learned in the course. I don’t think I would have picked up half of the warning bells if it weren’t for what I learned…This course just might have saved one more life and if it weren’t possible for me to do this virtually, I wouldn’t have been able to take it…It was invaluable.”
– Student Testimonial

What Can CourseArc Do For You?

You’ve just seen the impact that CourseArc is having on business and education for ICISF. Would you like to have that same impact at your organization? What if you could offer online training quickly and easily, and supercharge the revenue streams that help your organization expand its reach and fulfill its mission?

Contact us today and find out how CourseArc can help you create online courses that will take your organization to the next level.