Stephen Downes

As much as educational institutions may not want to talk about it, they to a degree depend on sales, in the form of student registrations. This article reconsiders the traditional 'sales funnel' which runs from awareness to consideration to action (it's called a funnel because the number of people gets narrower and narrower through each state). This article proposes a '4s' version of the funnel: streaming, which refers to the new 'always on' internet people have; scrolling, which refers to their browsing behaviour; search, which refers to their consideration of alternatives; and shopping, which refers to the actual purchase.