Students in Charge of Their Own Success

As the higher education landscape continues to be ravaged by pressure to lower costs and raise quality, one very important college element seems to be forgotten-- learning. The team at Engineerica Systems Inc. believes that unless we find an efficient way to refocus on learning, our nation will continue to see rising student attrition rates. As a response, the Engineerica team set out to solve this issue using the latest technological opportunities as well as over 20 years of experience in the student tracking business. Their latest creation, AccuCampus, stands to solve some of the more pressing obstacles faced by nearly every higher education institution by relieving front line personnel of time consuming record-keeping tasks, by encouraging collaboration between all student services entities including the ever important faculty members, by fostering meaningful student to student interactions aimed at managing educational goals, and most importantly, by placing the responsibility of student success squarely on the student. While this may sound like a tall order, allow us to explain how this feat can be achieved by implementing a few simple, effective shifts in how a college handles their business.

Beginning with the staff members who deal with students face to face, AccuCampus will provide essential data concerning future, present, and past usage of institutional resources. This allows the department or program to form a comprehensive process for optimizing the usage of their resources by students. This process begins with determining the best way to let the students know what it is the college entity offers and why it will help the student succeed. AccuCampus facilitates the marketing of all college resources specializing in the marketing to certain student groups who may benefit the most from the resource. Once the students are aware of the resources, AccuCampus engages the student by leading them through an easy process which allows them to make use of the resource. Using student facing applications including mobile applications, AccuCampus removes impediments that normally deter students from actually making use of resources. Once the student shows interest in the resource, AccuCampus provides the resource entity with information to help determine if the student is a good match for the resource and if the resource can be made available to the student. This includes determining if the service needed is offered and if there is adequate staff available to provide the service. AccuCampus further eases the process of using college resources by providing Text Box: When AccuCampus automates this process and places the majority of its function in the hands of the students, it frees up a remarkable amount of time and energy for the staff and faculty members to actually facilitate learning. the student and the staff with ample information about the planned use of the resource. Each resource entity can set unique ways for which they wish students to engage in the use of their services. Once the student is engaged, AccuCampus allows the staff members to document what occurred during the engagement as well as encourage the student to remain engaged through repeat usage of the resource. Students are then encouraged by AccuCampus to give feedback on the resource that can help the resource entity make improvements as well as encourage other students to use the resource. Because all of these interactions are tracked, the resource entity can produce robust reports useful both internally and externally. When AccuCampus automates this process and places the majority of its function in the hands of the students, it frees up a remarkable amount of time and energy for the staff members to actually facilitate learning.

AccuCampus does not just focus on resource entities in student services. While literature continues to state the importance of student to faculty interactions in regards to student success and persistence, most faculty members find themselves on a schedule and in a building that is not conducive to student interactions other than the time pressed moments in the classroom. AccuCampus provides easy avenues for faculty to interact with students in nearly the same fashion that is provided to college resources. Faculty are able to promote student engagement with college resources as well as with themselves. AccuCampus provides faculty with attendance recording features, access to college resource availability, comprehensive demographics of their classes, as well as unique feedback for each of their courses. Faculty can easily see which students are making use of resources on campus and set requirements for this usage if necessary.  Because student resource entities are already able to place their services out to the students through AccuCampus, professors will find it much easier to help students navigate to the services that will benefit the most in the course. AccuCampus also keeps the pulse of student needs and will instigate this navigation for the professor. For example, if the service is not offered, student resource entities will know that the students and/or professors are in need and can act accordingly. These interactions foster collaboration between faculty and student services not to mention allow more meaningful interactions to occur between professors and students.

The most important shift in the processes for an institution using AccuCampus, is the process of placing all of the navigation of the resources offered by the institution in the hand of the student. The availability of resources, the way in which a student can make use of the resource, and the motivation to continue making use of resources is all packed into a mobile application for the student. Rather than rely on typical communications in order to encourage students to use college resources, AccuCampus designed a mobile application that will house all information important to the student in one place. The design of the application allows students to monitor their educational success easily with many ways for the student to be encouraged to explore campus resources. Students are even able to encourage other students to use resources through a unique feedback feature in the mobile application which awards them for participation. All of the functionality of the mobile application is also available on other devices able to use the web. Integration with college LMS and SIS systems allow AccuCampus to do some encouraging of its own. Poor exam scores will result in a nudge from AccuCampus for the student to make use of tutoring services available for that subject. A change in major will result in a nudge for the student to make use of all that is offered at the college’s career center. When students are more aware of what the college has to offer and the offerings are tailored to the student’s interests and needs, the result is a highly engaged student body. Usage gauges displayed for the student will encourage students to explore each of the student resources more deeply.

When all college resources are able to properly convey what they have to offer and are able to navigate students to obtain the services, students will take it upon themselves to drive their success. A student body in charge of their own success is the essence of AccuCampus. Please join us in the effort to decrease student attrition through collaboration and student engagement.