Learning Designs was asked to help Ryerson University’s School of Retail Management to develop an effective, sustainable distance education strategy. From the onset, Ryerson and Learning Designs decided that a key requirement for success would be obtaining a complete understanding enrolment and retention rates.

Ryerson commissioned Learning Designs to conduct research on the state of virtual universities in terms of key success issues—enrolment and retention. The results of the study provided Ryerson and its corporate sponsors (e.g., Wal-Mart, Hudson’s Bay) with a roadmap of how to develop strategies to avoid the pitfalls and to maintain and increase levels of enrolment and retention.

The study indicates that increased retention creates in substantial savings for both large and small sized educational institutions, traditional and distance based institutions. But beyond the financial impact that improved retention and enrolment rates have on institutions, the augmentation in student satisfaction is especially important. Increased retention and enrolment rates indicate that student success and institutional success are inseparable.

The study emphasizes that for distance education organizations to survive they must put students' needs at the centre of their attention and operations. The report outlines strategies educational institutions can follow to improve the likelihood of success when they choose to embark on eLearning initiatives.