Arriving in Fall 2020: New Tool to Enhance Students’ Academic Journey

In fall 2020, the college will launch new software that will be used to communicate and manage connectivity with students. The software platform, Engage, is a communication and relationship management tool that will improve the student experience with academic advising, support student academic success, and make communications between students and the college more efficient and effective.

Engage was selected after a year-long evaluation process with a cross-functional team of campus stakeholders who work closely with students in academic advising, course registration, and academic support services. 

Who will this new software benefit, and how?

Students

• It’s easily accessible. The self-service portal gives students a quick way to interact with their personalized support team, starting with their academic advisors. 
• It allows students to expand their communication preferences. Students can select their preferred method of communication from a variety of options (such as: text messaging, self-service workspace, email, etc.), making it less likely a student will miss important messages or key deadlines.
• It’s personalized, based on each individual’s academic needs. It provides custom information tailored to each student’s specific college journey, including to-do lists and automatic reminders when they need to take action. This means that students won’t have to sift through information that’s not applicable to their specific needs, saving them time. 

 Academic Advisors

• It expands communications options. It offers a variety of methods to communicate with students, such as using the software to send a text message, providing advisors a more effective means of communication.
• It displays academic advising resources in one place. It makes it easier for advisors to find resources online by linking academic advising resources in one workspace location. This replaces some paper forms, displays relevant academic advising Banner data, and links to other systems such as Degree Works and OnBase. Advisors will no longer have to track down resources in multiple locations
• It makes referring students for additional support and raising early alerts easy. Advisors can easily make referrals to other student support services and view a case’s status.

Administrative Staff

• It simplifies communications. The software will provide a means to identify a target audience and build a personalized communication plan.
• It aggregates data used for decision making. The software can be used to analyze data  to gain new insight into processes, course and program offerings, and student outcomes, allowing for informed decision making.

The project team will be giving frequent updates about the implementation of this software as the project progresses, including FAQs, a project timeline, and other information. If you have questions, please email engage@oberlin.edu.