Virtual Book Clubs for Universities
Connect Alumni, Faculty, and Students Anywhere in the World
Engage your community in an impactful university book club, movie club, online course or webinar program. Our expert facilitators manage every detail of your customized program. Engage hundreds or thousands of people with only a few hours of staff time per year.
We Manage Virtual Alumni Books Clubs At 250+ Colleges And Independent Schools Around The World
Wondering if we can create an amazing, impactful book club experience for your institution? We create and manage custom book club programs for educational institutions of all types, including:
✓ Large Public Universities ✓ International Universities ✓ Community Colleges ✓ Regional Public Universities ✓ Liberal Arts Colleges
✓ Large Private Universities ✓ and Independent Schools
PBC Guru has done a great job facilitating the Smith School Alumni book clubs! We’ve had hundreds of alumni sign up, with nearly 60% from out of state (including 9% international). The book clubs have been very easy from a staffing standpoint – once up and running, PBC Guru do all the work. Their thought-provoking posts help jumpstart discussions and share valuable professional development tips with alumni.
Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Partnering with PBC Guru has given us the opportunity to expand our educational offerings and engage hundreds of Penn alumni in a quality learning experience. The leadership at PBC Guru has included us and solicited our feedback in every aspect of planning, ensuring that we can make our book clubs feel like Penn Alumni activities without taxing our staff resources with the day-to-day program implementation and supervision.
University of Pennsylvania
University Book Clubs and Other Services
Online Book Clubs
Engage thousands of alumni that you've never reached before in a lifelong learning program.
Alumni Learning Consortium
Improve the quality, quantity, and depth of your online alumni programs.
One Book Programs
Connect students and alumni together for conversations around a One Book Program.
University Book Clubs by the Numbers
250+
60%
70%
Virtual Book Clubs Build Community and Enhance Learning
Customizable
Books can be selected to meet almost any group's learning needs (or general interests). No matter your purpose and aims, we tailor your book club to what you and your participants are aiming for.
Effective Learning
Reading a book is one of the best ways to deeply learn and improve capabilities. Whether it’s a book on soft or hard skills for work or a novel that fosters new awareness, sparks curiosity, or builds empathy, books help people stretch their minds.
Scalable
Our virtual programs work for groups from dozens to thousands. Whether you’re a company with dozens of people, a professional society with hundreds, or a university with thousands, we can tailor your program to where you are (and where you’re going).
Continuous Development
Whether your group consists of employees, alums, members, or patrons, participants will read new books on a regular basis allowing for ongoing growth, improved critical thinking, and a deeper relationship with your organization.
Accountability
Whether it’s a company book club or one through another organization that’s just for fun, book clubs work best with a sense of social obligation. Our accountability tools and the schedule of a book club keep your participants engaged and on track with reading.
Social and Fun
Participants enjoy connecting with each other and benefit from developing a shared language. No matter your group, your organization type, and your aims, your people will benefit from the enjoyment of this social experience oriented around mutual growth.
How it Works
A lot goes into managing a virtual book club or other program to achieve your organizational goals while engaging participants. We manage virtually every aspect of the program so your community can connect with your organization easily without draining staff time.
Customized to your Goals
We work with you to define the goals for your program based on your needs and our experience working with organizations and institutions like yours.
Targeted to Participants
Based on your goals, we’ll help you decide how many readings to do and who should be invited to each one.
Book Selection
We work with you to preselect the reading or books for participants to vote on. For voting, we recommend allowing participants to vote between two to three books each reading period.
Author Talks
Included in our service are live Question & Answer talks with best-selling authors. Author talks cover the hottest novels, business reads, memoirs, and other book genres.
Your Own Forum
Participants engage when it’s convenient for them. We create a private online forum on our purpose-made platform where your participants will network and discuss the reading from anywhere in the world.
Facilitated Discussion
We moderate the online discussion by posting interesting content, asking questions, and encouraging conversation. Never worry about whether your program will fall flat. We guide it at every step.
Regular Guidance & Content
We share interesting content related to readings and send gentle reading reminders by email and within the forum to spur conversation and keep participants on track.
Ongoing Engagement
Book clubs read several books each year on topics that matter to you and to your participants, keeping them more engaged over time compared to one-off programs and events.
Clubs We Run for Universities Like Yours
These are just a small sample of the programs we run for more than 250 universities, including more than 60 of the top-ranked universities in the U.S.
Cornell University Virtual Book Club
James Madison University Alumni Book Club
Santa Clara University Alumni Book Club
Illinois State University Alumni Book Club
University of Maryland Alumni Book Club
Love From Our Learners
We love our customers and participants. And they love us! Here’s what some of them have to say about what we do.
150K+
60+
1M+
Let’s Talk
Request a demo and explore how our book clubs or other managed programs can help engage your community in lifelong learning.
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