Using CampusGroups to Support Student Success During COVID-19
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The last few weeks have been a whirlwind as we’ve figured out how to keep our families safe, work from home, and support our colleagues and students. We’ve overcome complex challenges and adapted to the new work-life balance with resilience we didn’t know we had.
So, how can we ensure that our students are coping and managing this transition as seamlessly as possible? Now that we have gotten used to the new normal (for now), let’s discuss some ways you can use CampusGroups to support student success at your institution.
CampusGroups home page customization feature allows you to post announcements and customize the first thing users see upon login, a great way to help schools get the message out and create a virtual communication hub as operations are being shifted online. (Pictured: University of California, Santa Barbara Customized Homepage)
1. Centralize important information and resources
Students need quick and easy access to the information that will help them manage the ever-changing environment of virtual classes and remote learning. Use the CampusGroups home page and mobile app as a mini-portal where students can access the most up to date resources and guidance from your institution. You can centralize all the must-have resources by customizing announcements, important links, and other resources to which you’d like students to have easy access. Incorporate their class schedules and academic information for a truly one stop shop. We’ve given every campus this home page customization feature at no additional charge during the COVID crisis so you may streamline your student experience. No need to search around multiple websites and platforms to get the information you need.
resources at your fingertips: Easily schedule meetings and appointments with campus advisors, tutors, counselors, student ambassadors and more. Learn more
2. Provide access to staff and support resources remotely
The support systems that were once easily accessible by walking into a building on campus are as important as ever. Keep it easy for students to connect with important support services such as advising, tutoring, counseling (and more) by providing virtual office hours. Students can find the appropriate resources based on a variety or criteria such as availability, subject matter, certification level, or personal details and book time directly on staff calendars. These meetings can be scheduled and managed all from within CampusGroups - including the ability to take notes, track the appointment status, and rate the meeting.
3. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
Get more from your email experience: Build, send and analyze your emails for maximum engagement.
Everybody has a different preference when it comes to communication. Some prefer email, others like a quick chat message to their phone, while scroll-friendly feeds seem to work well from on-the-couch-working. CampusGroups allows all users to customize their notification preferences so you can be sure you’re reaching your students on their preferred medium. Proactive communication to inform students of any updates, changes, or important news is crucial when we can’t see them face to face each day. Rely on the email/newsletter builder, news articles, mobile push notifications, group/individual chats, dynamic feeds, and other communication tools to keep students in the loop with need-to-know information. Creating a centralized platform where they can find the information at the moment they’re looking is also a great technique.
Easily drag & Drop smart widgets to create the perfect campus app for your community
4. Create virtual community
We all know that keeping students engaged outside the classroom is a key factor in their wholistic success and learning. Continue to build your campus community (virtually) by facilitating remote events, fun activities, and opportunities to continue fulfilling requirements (such as leadership trainings). Encourage students to update their interests so they can be matched with peers and build new connections they might not otherwise have explored. The mobile app is a great way to facilitate engagement through group and individual chats, promote programming, and direct students to resources from the palm of their hand. Utilize our tools for virtual check in, video conferencing integration (new!), checklists, news feeds, and more to keep your students’ connected to campus from wherever home may be.
5. Identify students who may be at higher risk and provide additional support
See individual student and group involvement at a glance with powerful dashboards to visualize comprehensive engagement data.
Some students are transitioning to this new way of life more easily than others. Learners who have a more complex home life, financial hardship, or limited access to technology may face more obstacles than others during this challenging time. Use the data collected within CampusGroups to identify these at-risk students and provide additional outreach, communication, and support (see items 1-4 above!). Utilize user tags to identify ‘at-risk’, Pell eligible, or other identifiers so you may easily filter to those populations and identify the list of those students most in need. Additionally, every student has a success dashboard which unites all the data points on any given student into a single view, viewable by administrators. Monitor students in aggregate and individually to provide customized support plans during this crisis.
If you have other ideas on ways to better support your students during this time, please share with the community! Our CG User Community is a great place to connect with your CG colleagues to share ideas, access important resources such as videos, articles, feature updates, and more.
Feel free to provide feedback, add ideas, and link to existing resources such as blog articles, training videos, etc.!
Want to learn more about leveraging CampusGroups to help keep students connected, virtually engaged and efficiently manage online programming? Please check out our blog post on Communications and Community with COVID-19, or feel free to reach out to chat with one of our team members on a quick demo call.
