The LMS, eBooks, Instructional Design, Enrollments, Marketing, Faculty Training, At-Risk Students…
These are just some of the things that keep you up at night if you deliver online classes or fully online programs. Whether you partner with an OPM (Online Program Management) firm, run your own full-service group inside the institution, or simply work with instructors ad hoc as they deliver eLearning, these worries are the same concerns a Provost or President might have. The difference, of course is that your population is one that you rarely see in person and have no ability to ‘gather together’ when important announcements arise.
We here at Campus understand these issues first hand. Why? Because we have fully-online administrators who work here. We have people who pioneered what student services looks like for a learner who is only available after midnight. For more than two decades, some of our team members have been explaining to faculty members that simply translating what is done in the face to face classroom to an online experience is not enough. We have felt the pain of publisher textbook codes throwing error messages and we have worked with support desks for the LMS but also for the dozens of other “smaller” tools you leverage to manage everything from plagiarism to tutoring for your online population.
That story is how Campus came to be a central platform. As technologists from three continents worked on a system to improve the student experience through accessible, mobile, community driven workflows, administrators from multiple states strategized and implemented toward the same thing, from a success and support point of view. We were all frustrated by the lack of visibility into the overall student experience, the learning communities which stopped abruptly when the term was over, and the frustrating difficulty of true peer to peer learning. So when the technologists and practitioners finally came together, you might say it was like the old commercials about getting peanut butter in my chocolate – something great happened. Campus became the go-to mobile and web portal for online learners.
See, while Campus is built to connect all people at a college or university, the irony of our implementations so far is that eLearning has almost always been where the biggest surge begins. Online learning groups, students, faculty, and staff are likely primed to better understand technology that connects people, resources, community, and support, so they typically lead the charge. eLearning divisions are almost always the ones who see the biggest retention gains when using Campus, right from the start. Similarly, prospective students desirous of fully online experiences typically want to enroll at your school after seeing the super modern, hyper connected platform that is Campus. They breathe a sigh of relief that someone finally “gets it” as they use the mobile app or the web portal to find information, fill out required documentation, meet student ambassadors, etc.
Do your students struggle to read email? Ours did. In fact, at times, staff and faculty even struggled to keep up with the deluge of emails they were being sent. Campus helps a ton in that arena, allowing people to configure most of their notifications (not emergency alerts or super admin announcements, etc) in such a way that they receive the information via a channel they desire. Pinned posts? Campus does that. Mobile notifications? Campus does that too. Email? Of course. The difference is that students, faculty, and staff are receiving updates and notifications in a manner they choose, leading to measurably different open and read rates.
But when you really get to the heart of online learning, you know as well as anyone that your students probably don’t feel connected. We make statements like, “eLearning requires more dedication, maturity, or self-direction!” But what that often means is that students need to overcome loneliness, a lack of community, fewer opportunities to connect with the school, and more. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Campus is designed to help all learners, especially those who never come to campus, better connect to every club, organization, tutoring service, writing center, career service…to whatever will help them be successful. At the same time, eLearning professionals can make use of the same environment to not only connect to professional development, peer to peer conversations, or more, but they also have new insight into how students are being supported across departments. Success can’t be expected if it only happens from silo to silo, in bubble after bubble. Campus by Ucroo helps ensure everyone connects to everything, while also helping faculty and staff find more opportunities to support. It’s the tool that so many students, faculty, and staff have tried to wedge into the LMS, never seeing that strategy work. It’s the tool you have been waiting for a very long time to see.
Actually, that is why the Campus team sees world class technologists working alongside veteran, academic administrators. This has been so long in the making, we all want to share it with the world. We’re not selling a cool new toy or gadget or widget…we’re selling an affordable central hub, a modern portal, making use of golden real estate that has often been ignored or barely updated for years. We have built a modern connection hub that has return on investment as you can use it to measure things like enrollment, retention, or even alumni affinity after being turned on. This system gives you affective data, surrounding non-academic pursuits, but marrying perfectly with the SIS and LMS, so that you have a whole new way to look at intervention. And with the ability to automatically notify any faculty or staff at any time when specific terms or phrases have been used, the tool is a proactive support system. While you can always monitor for language or depression or other issues, you can pragmatically notify the research librarians when “term paper” is used, notify the Registrar when “I can’t register” is typed, etc. You will finally start to see issues that were relegated to back channels and you can overcome barriers before they become barriers.
We hope you’ll ask to discuss all of this in more detail. We know you’ll do your homework. It’s in your blood. So after you read a few more of our blogs, look at our features, and see how our solutions work, let’s talk about how to change your eLearning mantra from, “Be more self-directed,” to, “Let us connect you to anything and everything you need.” We look forward to talking with you.
