Hybrid Tracking Solutions (with Santa Barbara City College)

ACCUDEMIA USER SPOTLIGHT

In this week’s User Spotlight segment, Media Technician Julio Martinez talked about the difference that Accudemia has made for their Learning Center at Santa Barbara City College, where they have used the system since 2016 at 20 locations. Watch the discussion in full here, or read on for a summary!

Tracking Student Sessions From Anywhere
The Cartwright Learning Resource Center, where Julio works, offers several services for students, such as tutoring and writing assistance. The Center offers both appointments and walk-in sessions, and operates on a hybrid system, with sessions taking place both virtually and online.

Many of our clients ask us, is it possible to have a hybrid setup with Accudemia? The answer is an unequivocal yes, and SBCC is an excellent case study on how it can be done! For example, many hybrid clients are unsure of the best way to show students how to use Accudemia, and while there’s no one right way, SBCC created a short instructional video and posted it on their center website to show students how to make appointments for both online and in-person sessions. They have also configured their confirmation emails to instruct students on how to connect to or attend their session, depending on how they will receive assistance.

Custom and Unique Setups? No Problem
Another question we are sometimes asked is how to hide tutor information from students when they make appointments. While many centers want students to choose, others wish to eliminate bias towards or against particular tutors, or avoid overloading one popular tutor’s schedule. SBCC addressed this concern by setting up their appointment system so that students see numbers instead of tutors’ names, but students can still request a specific tutor via a web form or phone call.

Julio assists with the Accudemia setup for many of the other centers that use the program, and each center uses Accudemia differently. For example, some centers allow students to check themselves in and out with no staff member overseeing the kiosk, while others want staff members to sign the students in. Prior to Accudemia, multiple products were in use across all centers, and most of them did not allow students to sign themselves in. Using Accudemia provides a unique experience for each center, while keeping data consistent and in one central location.

Now: A Truly Unique and Flexible Use Case
Having access to consistent data has been very helpful for the whole institution. Julio reported that it has allowed their Institutional Research office to show the positive impact these services have on student retention and success, semester after semester.

Overall, Accudemia has been a worthwhile investment for SBCC, allowing them to capture better data, streamline their services across the college, and divert the time and energy spent managing their traffic to supporting their students.

Thank you to Julio for sharing Santa Barbara City College’s Accudemia story so far, and if you would like to learn more about their account, please watch the full presentation here. If you’re interested in learning how Accudemia can make a positive impact at your institution, contact us today!

Join us next time
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Accudemia User Spotlight segment recap for 3/15/2022 for the weekly Accudemia sessions. We hope that these questions help you to ponder how you might utilize Accudemia and other innovations in your own center. Join us next Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. EST for our Weekly Accudemia Session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!