Simplify by Using Grouping

For institutions with a large number of centers, it is very beneficial to use Location Groups as a grouping method for your campus. This way, it is easier to search for and find a specific center. When creating reports, you can pull data by group as well as by individual center. Even more importantly, this feature can keep student’s sensitive information hidden from administrators of other centers. Using Location Groups allows you to set the scope of individuals. You can assign an administrator to the particular Location Group they are in charge of so that they don’t have administrative access to other centers. The administrator will only be able to view reports and data for those particular centers. For example, maybe you have a group for your advising centers, and you do not want tutoring and other center administrators to be able to view the advising centers’ session notes. You would use the Location Group feature to set the scope of the other location group administrators limiting access to this sensitive data.

Find the Students Who Never Visit

It is easy to track the students who visit all the time. The students a center most needs to reach are often the ones who never come in, and Accudemia’s Zero Visits report shows exactly who has had zero visits in a location over any period you specify. Once you know who they are, that list becomes an outreach tool: contact the students who have not visited by mid-term, either through your institutional systems or with Accudemia’s bulk messaging by email or text. You can also schedule Zero Visits reports for instructors, athletic coaches, or advisors, so the people referring students can see who has not followed through, alongside the visit reports they already receive.

Build Student Groups Three Ways

User groups let you report on and communicate with exactly the cohort you care about, and Accudemia builds them three ways. You can create a group manually. You can import groups from a spreadsheet using the provided samples, and an automated import keeps a group current on its own: a student-athletes group adds and drops members as the roster changes. Or you can create a group from a report: many reports that filter by group can also create one, so a report of students who have not visited by midterm becomes a contactable group by checking one box.

Remember Less is More

To simplify and speed up the appointment scheduling process for your students, consider making the selection paths as short as possible. In both the Appointment and Walk-ins sections of the Accudemia Control Panel, select “Optional” or “Do not show” on unnecessary parameters. In this small way, you give your students a more streamlined and more straightforward process. In places like gyms and labs where you only want to track student attendance, you might consider selecting “Do not show” so the students will only have to swipe their card or type their ID to access your services quickly. For services where no staff interaction is required, such as a computer lab, consider configuring those services so students “Skip Waiting Lines.” With these settings, students using these services will not need to go through the queue with the rest of the students waiting for tutor-centric services.

Excel In Resource Utilization

Using the “Waiting Line” feature for walk-in services allows you to maximize your tutors’ time. Instead of matching a tutor per student, consider filtering students according to their needs to place them into “study groups”; then associate that student group with a single tutor. Study groups not only allow for better use of your available tutors but will enable the center to be able to serve more students. Additionally, the use of study groups allows the student to learn in a more participatory way. Study groups can create a sense of comradery between students, encouraging them to keep up with their studies.

Let Traffic Data Set Your Staffing

The Traffic Analysis report turns visit logs into staffing decisions. It shows a week-by-week breakdown of your busiest hours, which day of the week runs busiest across a semester, your most popular subjects and services, and how often students return. Watching the front desk gives you a feel for busy times; the report gives you numbers you can put in front of a dean, which makes it a strong companion for budget requests and grant reports.

Minimize No-shows, Rescheduling, and Cancellations

Every time there is an appointment no-show, not only is a student failing to get valuable information, but a tutor’s time is wasted. Sometimes no-shows are unavoidable, but there are ways to minimize the number of no-shows using Accudemia.

1. Automated e-mail reminders:  Have Accudemia send email reminders to your students X hours before the appointment time.

2. Automated text notifications: Have Accudemia send an SMS reminder to your students’ phones X hours before the appointment time.

3. iCalendar invitations: You can include an iCalendar invitation with the appointment confirmation.  This allows students and tutors to receive an iCal appointment reminder that is compatible with MS Outlook, Google Calendar, and other popular calendar applications.

4. Limit short-notice changes: Editing, canceling, and rescheduling appointments can be prevented on too short notice by using the option that disables the feature “X minutes before the start time of the Appointments.”

5. Limit excessive changes: Rescheduling appointments can be restricted to a set maximum number of times. This option will help prevent students from abusing the rescheduling feature and from pushing off their appointments indefinitely.

Use Teamwork and Communication

Those who have used Accudemia know that it facilitates teamwork. From the tutors who assist students, to instructors sending centers their referrals, as well as administrative personnel who track the students’ performance and provide solutions to their unique needs, teamwork is required to keep a university functioning.

In keeping with this concept, you too can adjust your Accudemia account to be versatile and reach every single component in your institution by using:

• Instructor Referrals to provide a way for them to send over students having issues in their classes. You can create a set of actions and follow-up routines for your center staff to help the students and improve your student retention.
• The Accudemia messaging system for communication with all your staff and students; helps students get the most from your services and empowers them to ask questions.
• Surveys to gain insight about your tutors’ performance and your students’ commitments to their courses and activities. Survey reports are a key factor in unveiling the characteristics of your centers’ and classrooms’ successes and failures. No other research method can provide this broad capability. Accudemia surveys provide a more accurate sample to gather results and draw conclusions to make important decisions for your institution.

Session assessments complete the picture. Where surveys ask students about their experience, session assessments ask the tutor or staff member structured questions after each session: whether the student was prepared, what topics were covered, what next steps were agreed. Free-form session notes serve a purpose, but standardized assessment forms can be reported on, which makes them far more useful for shaping policies and tutor training, and they keep all of that data in one system.

Accudemia is a powerful resource that can improve your center operations, help identify successful initiatives as well as areas for improvement, and can simplify steps for students, and get them to resources faster and more often. By taking these steps you’ll be able to get more from this valuable system.

Students

Managers most often want to learn about the student experience, so we start there. Students can typically do the following, though your setup may look a bit different:

• Log into their Accudemia portal to create an appointment.
• Log into their portal to connect to a virtual appointment or walk-in session.
• Sign into an in-person or virtual kiosk.
• Check their classes and center attendance reports.

Students’ allowed activities are limited and do not give them access to any data they shouldn’t be seeing.

Tutors

Tutors have more freedom than students, though less than admins. The role is called Tutor by default, but the name can be changed to suit your center: Advisor, Counselor, or Coach are common choices. If tutors are also students, they can do everything a student can, plus:

• Create an appointment for a student. When a tutor books on a student’s behalf, they enter the student’s name or ID number; when students book for themselves, they are pre-selected automatically.
• Open a virtual appointment or walk-in session.
• Check class and center attendance reports for students, and check their own time logs.
• Sign into a regular or virtual kiosk as a tutor.

Beyond the defaults, several tutor capabilities depend on what you enable:

• With the communications features enabled, tutors see any messages students have left for them and can respond.
• With the waiting line enabled, tutors view who is currently signed in or waiting under Center Attendance > Manage Center, and can sign students in from the line or out of it.
• Tutors manage Session Logs under Center Attendance > Session Logs; depending on permissions, they may see only the sessions where they are the listed tutor.
• If you allow it, tutors can set their own schedules for appointments and walk-ins. This is not the default, but you can enable it if you want tutors managing their own availability.
• If your account tracks virtual sign-ins through the Zoom integration, tutors connect their own Zoom accounts. You can read about how other meeting platforms work with Accudemia’s virtual services here.
• You can let tutors sign themselves in and out while logged into Accudemia, which is useful when they work on tasks like the Message Center, or limit them to signing in only at a physical kiosk.

Instructors

Not every account gives instructors access, but there are good reasons to. Their default functions:

• Update their class information or attendance. Class attendance editing is meant primarily for Supplemental Instruction sessions and similar offerings.
• Create or update referrals, if your account uses that feature.
• Check the class and center attendance reports for their students whenever needed, instead of waiting for a scheduled report.

Report access alone can justify instructor logins: when several instructors need certain reports at irregular times, letting them pull those reports themselves beats scheduling or manually sending them. Referrals are the other big reason. An instructor refers a struggling student in a few clicks, the center sees the referral and reaches out, and both sides can see which students followed through and which still need a nudge. That helps centers target the students who most need their services, and it helps instructors participate fully in the referral process.

System Users

System Users, also known as Admins, have open access to most everything in Accudemia, limited most often by their scope, the locations where they work. Fundamental ways System Users interact with the system:

• Manage their center’s settings and session logs.
• Pull reports.
• Create and update referrals, surveys, session assessments, and other features.

Depending on their role or roles, a person may have a very different experience of Accudemia than the one you know as an admin. If you want to see any of these views firsthand, create test users with the relevant roles and permissions, then log in and sign in as the test user to explore what their world looks like. If you have questions about these roles or how to activate extra permissions for them, contact support@accudemia.com.

Check the page about our Monthly Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!

The Shifting Dynamics of Fitness Management

As fitness clubs and gyms have evolved from simple exercise spaces to comprehensive wellness centers, the challenges associated with managing a growing member base have become more pronounced. The traditional reliance on manual processes, paperwork, and fragmented communication channels has proven to be increasingly inadequate in meeting the demands of a digitally connected world.

AccuClub steps into this void, offering a suite of digital solutions designed to streamline and enhance the entire membership management process. The platform’s holistic approach addresses key pain points faced by fitness establishments, ushering in a new era of efficiency, connectivity, and member satisfaction.

Automated Attendance Tracking: Beyond the Headcount

AccuClub’s automated attendance tracking system is a game-changer in itself. No longer bound by the constraints of manual record-keeping, fitness establishments can witness a real-time influx of data regarding member attendance. Whether it’s through digital key cards or mobile apps, members can check in effortlessly, providing valuable insights into attendance patterns. This not only saves time for members and staff but also lays the foundation for data-driven decision-making.

Don’t have member ID’s? Use AccuClub to create custom QR-code tags or stickers for a quick and painless attendance-tracking solution.

Empowering Members with Personalized Portals

AccuClub introduces a paradigm shift with its personalized member portals. Fitness enthusiasts can now take control of their fitness journey, accessing their account information, tracking progress, and signing up for classes, all from a personalized dashboard. This level of customization not only enhances the member experience but also fosters a sense of community within the digital space.

Leveraging Customized Membership Plans

AccuClub provides a robust platform for fitness centers to tailor their membership plans, offering a personalized and flexible experience for their members. Utilize AccuClub to create customized membership packages for each identified segment. For example, a student package might include discounted rates or special promotions, while a corporate package could offer flexible timings for working professionals. These packages can be easily configured within the AccuClub platform, ensuring that each segment receives a plan tailored to their unique needs.

AccuClub enables fitness centers to set up flexible billing cycles. Whether it’s monthly, quarterly, or annually, you can customize billing cycles to align with the preferences of different member segments. This flexibility not only caters to various financial preferences but also enhances member retention by accommodating diverse needs. The broader playbook of member retention strategies applies to fitness communities as much as associations.

Communication Hub: Bridging the Gap

In an age where communication is key, AccuClub serves as a centralized hub for fitness establishments to connect with their members. Updates, promotions, and class schedules are delivered directly to members’ devices or web portals, ensuring that vital information reaches them promptly. This not only fosters a sense of community but also keeps members informed and engaged, reinforcing their commitment to their fitness goals.

Acknowledging Achievements through Certificates

AccuClub offers fitness centers a versatile platform to leverage customized certificates and awards, adding a personalized touch to their services and a sense of achievement for members. Design and generate customized certificates and awards upon fitness class or program completion to be emailed to the attendee or simply printed.

Performance Analytics: The Power of Informed Decision-Making

AccuClub’s analytics tools provide fitness establishments with a treasure trove of data. From club performance to member engagement and class popularity, these insights empower clubs to make informed decisions. This data-driven approach allows for the optimization of class schedules, the introduction of new programs, and the tailoring of offerings to meet the evolving needs of members.

AccuClub in Action: A Digital Transformation

As fitness establishments across the globe embrace AccuClub, stories of transformation are emerging. Operational efficiency has become the norm, with a reduction in administrative workload allowing staff to focus on enhancing member experiences. The seamless integration of AccuClub into the daily operations of fitness clubs is evident in the positive shift in member satisfaction and retention rates.

The impact is not confined to large fitness hubs alone; smaller and more intimate wellness experiences, have also reaped the benefits. AccuClub’s ability to maintain a personal touch while efficiently managing memberships has resulted in increased retention and a strengthened connection between the studio and its community.

Looking Ahead: A Digital Fitness Revolution

AccuClub is not merely a software solution; it is a catalyst for positive change within the fitness industry. The era of manual paperwork, communication gaps, and inefficient management processes is gradually giving way to a digital revolution. AccuClub stands at the forefront of this transformation, empowering fitness establishments to thrive in the digital age.

As the industry continues to evolve, embracing digital solutions like AccuClub is not just a choice but a strategic imperative. The platform’s commitment to data security, streamlined processes, and member engagement positions it as a cornerstone in the ongoing digital fitness revolution. The journey towards a fitter and healthier world has found a digital ally in AccuClub, and the fitness industry is undoubtedly better for it.

Introduction

The Support Drop Box, also known as the Ticketing System, is a new module in Accudemia for regular Accudemia license accounts to track any support your center provides to students that are not based on a normal face-to-face or virtual meeting. It’s a versatile feature designed with asynchronous academic support in mind, but it can be leveraged in a variety of ways.

This Best Practices Guide will review the basic functionality and configuration options for the Support Drop Box, as well as provide ideas for how to utilize it, many of which may surprise you!

Jump to…

• What is the Support Drop Box?
• Why Should I Use It, and Why Should My Center Offer Asynchronous Support?
• Configuration Options
• Applications
• Usage Examples (including paper submissions, job applications, and more!)

What is the Support Drop Box?

The module allows students and other users to submit tickets to you with requests for assistance or other questions. They can provide the subject, a written message, and attach documents as well. They can also select a center, course, and staff member. Center staff and admins can then view the ticket and make updates, and both students and staff can be notified when the ticket is updated or added. Additional attachments can be added and comments can be made on an existing ticket by students, staff, or admins. Students can rate comments made by tutors assigned to a ticket, which helps administrators see the overall effectiveness of tutor support within the Drop Box. Staff and students can easily view their open tickets and filter by tickets awaiting a response.

Remember that the Support Drop Box is NOT meant to be a replacement for any of the existing services that you may or may not be tracking through Accudemia. You can still track your synchronous services just as you always have, and any non-time-based support that you provide that has not previously been tracked in Accudemia can now be tracked alongside your synchronous services.

To access the Support Drop Box, go to Center Attendance > Support Drop Box from the main Accudemia menu. Here you’ll find the default view of open tickets, and you or a student can click “Create Ticket” to open a new one. Click on a ticket to view and make changes to it.

Why Should I Use It and Why Should My Center

Offer Asynchronous Support?

It’s worth thinking about the potential benefits of asynchronous support for your center if it’s not something you currently offer. It provides a convenient way for students to ask questions at times that are convenient for them, and it also allows staff and tutors to respond to questions at their convenience. This provides peace of mind to the student, while also allowing your staff time to respond thoughtfully. With the Support Drop Box in particular, it’s easy for staff to view and respond to tickets, even ones that are not explicitly assigned to them, helping to distribute the workload more evenly.

Even if your center does not offer asynchronous support, there are many other ways this module can be leveraged, either by your department or another at your institution. Utilizing this module will provide your students with another avenue for engaging with and connecting with you, and help keep you top of mind when they need help that you can provide.

Configuration Options

Within Accudemia, you can view the configuration options by navigating to Administration > Control Panel > Support Drop Box. These are institution-wide settings, so keep that in mind if you have multiple centers on one account. Here are the options available to you:

• Enable: This allows you to enable or disable the module altogether.
• Welcome Message: Here you can provide a welcome message for students who access the module. If you have multiple areas using the Drop Box, you may wish to include notes on what type of asynchronous support each center offers, if any. Both this and the Instructions can include HTML coding, including images and embedded videos and links.
• Instructions: This message will appear when the student goes to open a ticket. The default message instructs students to fill out all fields and that the center will attempt to respond to tickets in a timely fashion, but you may wish to put a more specific estimate here.
• Email Notifications: There are several options for what notifications can be sent out automatically regarding the Drop Box, including a notification to the tutor that they’ve been assigned a ticket, notifications that new posts were made, and notifications about changes to the ticket status.

Additionally, language regarding the Support Drop Box can be adjusted by navigating to Administration > Control Panel > Terminology. Words explicitly related to this module that can be changed to meet your center or institution’s needs include:

• Support Drop Box
• Ticket
• Tickets

For example, if “Ticket” doesn’t meet your needs, you could use a word such as “Submission” or “Request.” You can use whatever language you’d like, as long as it makes sense to you, your staff, and your students.

For more information about how to use the Support Drop Box, take a look at these links:

• Accudemia Manual: Support Drop Box
• Accudemia Manual: Creating a New Ticket

Applications

Just like many other features and modules within Accudemia, the Support Drop Box can be used by a variety of different centers, departments, and offices, including:

• Tutoring
• Writing
• Advising
• Career Centers
• Security Offices
• Business and Technology Centers
• Computer Labs

And lots more! Read on for some usage examples to see some ideas for how the Support Drop Box can be utilized across different locations.

Usage Examples

Paper Submissions

Many Writing Centers using Accudemia report that they allow students to submit papers for review without requiring a formal sit-down session. Tutors can review the paper and submit it back to the student with notes and suggested changes. This was one of the primary use cases in mind when Engineerica designed the Drop Box because these centers needed a way to track these “sessions” without tying them to specific dates and times.

Asynchronous Tutoring and Other Support

Another common use case is general asynchronous tutoring support, as well as support for other similar services across your institution. Sometimes, students may have a quick question and either don’t have time or don’t see the need to come in for a full session, so allowing them to use the Ticketing System to submit their question could be a good way to quickly respond AND track those conversations as well, ensuring both that these types of conversations are tracked in Accudemia alongside your regular Session Logs and that session time is being reserved for students who need it.

Tech Support

Many departments across a given institution utilize software programs or provide hardware that students may need assistance with at various times. The Ticketing System can easily be utilized to allow students to submit troubleshooting requests which a tech support representative can assist with.

After Hours Support

If a department or center has the manpower to offer this, they may wish to allow students to submit questions through the Drop Box after hours, so that students can be assured they won’t have to wait to ask a question. This could still lead to an in-person visit during the center’s normal hours of operations, but the ability to at least submit their question could provide great peace of mind to struggling students and could free up session time for issues that warrant longer meetings.

Referrals

Accudemia already contains a Referrals module, but the Drop Box can be used for this purpose as well, or work alongside it. Users from other areas that either do or do not use Accudemia can submit tickets on behalf of students, referring them to centers and allowing staff to easily communicate with them. This will work best in cases where the referral should not be kept confidential from the student, and where there does not need to be tracking for an outside stakeholder once the student is handed off. For a more formal Referral process that may be in line with your institution’s policies, the Referral module may be a better bet, or both could be utilized in tandem!

Tutoring Requests

Many centers report wanting a way to track tutoring requests, either for subjects the center does not yet cover to see the larger need, or as a way to match a tutor with a student as part of their center’s procedures. The Drop Box can adapt to both of these needs, allowing students to submit a ticket with a request for tutoring for a specific subject, and be easily updated when a tutor is assigned to them or to acknowledge and update them on their request, whichever is most appropriate.

Submit Paperwork

Some centers require paperwork to be submitted as part of a hiring or similar process, and if a centralized system is needed to keep track of these materials beyond email, which can be difficult to organize, Accudemia’s Drop Box can fulfill that need. Hiring exercises, essay responses, and completed forms can easily be attached to a ticket and the candidate can be updated throughout the process in the secure Accudemia system.

Contests and Scholarships

The Drop Box can be leveraged for submissions if institutional offices are accepting applications for contests or scholarships. These may include sample artwork or writing, as well as application materials. It can even be utilized to upload auditions for performances!

Literary and Art Magazines

Similar to contest submissions, a college’s literary and/or art magazine could easily accept submissions through Accudemia, which would keep them confidential and allow them to be seen by any applicable staff. Students can be notified of acceptances or rejections through the Support Drop Box ticket as well.

Suggestion Box

Centers can accept suggestions through the Support Drop Box regarding their operations. This is a good way to keep suggestions between the suggester and the center staff only, while allowing for transparency when the center staff reply to tickets and provide feedback about the suggestions. It’s also generally useful to see a baseline of sentiments, even when sweeping changes aren’t feasible. For example, if a change in hours is suggested, admins can ask questions about why the change would be needed for that student, and while a broad change to the center hours may not be possible, such a request could help accommodate the suggester and other students who may have the same concerns.

Conclusion

We hope this guide has provided you with insight regarding the versatility of the Support Drop Box module, and given you some ideas about how it might be utilized. Like most Accudemia features, it is designed to make the management of your center easier and to help engage your students in ways that you may not have been able to capture before. If you have any ideas you’d like to add to this list or any questions about this feature, please get in touch with us!

Introduction

The Accudemia Engagement Board, available to all regular Accudemia license holders and their users, is a way to help students and other members of your community engage easily with each other, especially around topics related to the academic and college experience.

This Best Practices Guide will review the basic functionality of the Engagement Board and provide some ideas about how to leverage it for your center and institution to maximize student participation and engagement.

Jump to…

• How Do I Use the Engagement Board?
• Why Should I Use It?
• Public or General Channel Ideas (Includes Extracurricular Activities, Department Announcements, Volunteer Opportunities, etc.)
• Group Channel Ideas (Includes Group Projects, Activity Planning Groups, etc.)
• Center Channel Ideas (Includes Center Staff Communications, AMA for Administrators, etc.)
• Class Channel Ideas
• Global Channels

How Do I Use the Engagement Board?

We’ve created extensive documentation to help you use and customize the Engagement Board, which you can find here. Essentially though, you can use it however you’d like! If you want to disallow students from creating channels or replying to posts, you can do that. If you want to limit certain channels to only certain users, you can do that. If you want to join channels with users from other colleges and universities, you can do that!

There are six types of channels: Public Channels (anyone from your institution can join), Center Channels (a channel specific for your student support center), Class Channels (accessible only to students enrolled in a specified class), Group Channels (users must be invited or added to participate), Global Channel (accessible by any Accudemia user with specified roles at any institution), and a General Channel (a public channel that doesn’t require joining to view).

Why Should I Use It?

Students are already using outside social media applications to communicate.  However, you cannot control, view, or moderate your students’ discussions on these forums. The Accudemia Engagement Board allows you to view, control, and moderate these discussions.

Unlike traditional social media, the Engagement Board is a secure method of communication that ensures control for yourself and other administrators and ensures that students will only be able to communicate with other students and other approved users. The level of customization and control available to you provides peace of mind and helps you create an experience that makes sense for your unique student body. Furthermore, there are many opportunities for you, other administrators, staff, and faculty members to connect using the Engagement Board, both within your institution and outside of it, again with the assurance of a secure and safe experience.

Personal information is not made public between users of the Engagement Board, and each channel can have customized privacy settings, in addition to customized settings for each type of user and even individual users. Simply put: you have control over what happens with your institution’s Engagement Board, and who has access to it.

Besides security, there’s another big reason to encourage your students and colleagues to use the Engagement Board. Since it’s accessed via Accudemia, using the Engagement Board means more students are logging into Accudemia, which means you have more opportunities to advertise your center and encourage its use.

We’ve divided our list of channel ideas into the various channel types available, but if you are interested in using one of these ideas and feel another channel type would work better for you, feel free to set that up however it makes sense for your institution and center!

Public or General Channel Ideas

For information that could be of interest to anyone at your institution, a public or a global channel are good option. Both channels are accessible by anyone at your institution with specified roles (you’ll set that when you create the channel), but while public channels require a user to join to view and participate in posts, anyone can participate in a global channel without joining. You can still set channels to read-only if you want members to only be able to view posts, or control which types of user roles can access your channel, even if they’re public or general.

Lost and Found

A Lost and Found board can be a good way for students to share items that they’ve found on campus, or ask others to keep an eye out for things they are missing. If your campus already has a lost and found office, then as an alternative, the office can create a channel that’s “read-only” for students and which serves as a way to announce found items.

Extracurricular Activities

If your center sponsors any extracurricular activities, such as a book club, a sport, or a performance, you can build one or more channels to discuss these types of activities or encourage students and other departments to build them too. Posts can be made in this channel letting students know about upcoming events and activities and how to access them.

Virtual Job Fairs and Job-Hunting Tips

This is a great opportunity for career centers or other folks at your campus who want to spread the word about job or internship opportunities, either on or off campus. It can be a centralized classifieds area for jobs, and/or a place to post job hunting tips.

Housing or Roommate Searches

Most college campuses have at least some students who need to find roommates for on or off-campus housing, and avenues to search for housemates are not always secure. Since only verified students and employees can be members of Engagement Board channels, creating a housing and roommate channel could be a good solution to this issue. It would allow students to guarantee that they are only communicating with other students, and would allow for these conversations to be reviewed and moderated by a college employee.

Buy Nothing/Odds and Ends Board

You may already know that Accudemia’s feature Book$mart allows students to list and purchase used textbooks, but sometimes students may have items that they are trying to unload which don’t quite work for Book$mart. Whether they want to sell or give away these items, an Engagement Board channel for just this purpose is a secure way for them to do so.

Cafeteria Announcements

Your campus’s food services could make use of the Engagement Board as well! This is an easy way for your students to find out about the latest updates about cafeterias and other food-related news on campus. Whether it’s a menu change or free pizza, we know college students want the latest info about how to feed themselves.

Campus Announcements

The Engagement Board can be one of several avenues students turn to for important information about campus, such as on-campus event information, safety information, and closure announcements.

Transportation Discussions

For many schools, especially ones in urban areas, getting to campus is a hot topic. A transportation channel can help students navigate the best way to get to school by bus or subway, organize carpools, and generally discuss all things transportation.

Volunteering Opportunities

Many students need to volunteer as part of their academic program, and many more just want to do so to get involved with their community. A channel specifically to post and answer questions about volunteer opportunities near campus can be a great way for students to discover these options.

Scholarship Discussions

Similarly to volunteering opportunities, students may find it difficult to navigate all of the scholarships that might be available to them. Students and other users can share tips about scholarships they’ve found and their qualifications, ask questions, and even request feedback on submission materials.

Local Happenings

Many students are interested in things to do outside of campus but aren’t sure where to start. A local happenings channel can help students and other users share information about local events and activities such as concerts and other performances, farmers markets, and specials for local establishments.

Life Skills Board

We’ve all heard students talk about the skills they wish they had been taught in high school, and their best resource for learning those skills is from each other. A life skills board can allow students not only to ask questions about things like how to change a tire, how to cook, how to do taxes, and much more. This could also be a good place to post group opportunities to learn these skills, such as classes at the local library or community centers.

Group Channel Ideas

Group channels are great for limiting discussions to certain groups of students or other users. Only invited users can join group channels, making it ideal for the ideas listed below.

Study Groups

Students within a class may form a study group and want to discuss their group happenings and questions separately from their main class channel, so a study group channel is a great way for them to do that.

Lab Partners

Similarly to study groups, a small group of lab partners may find it easier to hold discussions in a small group channel.

Group Projects

Students working on a project together can create their own channel for discussions related to their assignment.

Campus Organizations, Teams, and Greek Life

Fraternities, sororities, clubs, sports, and other organizations on campus can create channels with only designated members able to join.

Volunteers

Opportunities to volunteer exist at many schools, and leaders can make a group channel to help disseminate important information such as meeting times, and hour requirements, and to communicate things like shift needs.

Activity and Event Groups

For events such as orientation, dances, and holiday parties, committee members responsible for organizing can create a channel to make communication easier.

Center Channel Ideas

Each center can have one channel attached to it, so the ideas in this list can each be the main purpose of your center’s channel or one of several ways you utilize it!

Center Announcements and Important Information

Communication information about your center is no easy task. You can leverage the Accudemia homepage for this, but with this option, students aren’t notified if there are changes or updates. That’s why it’s also a good idea to create a channel on the Engagement Board to list your center’s important policies and announcements. You can create this as a “read-only” board for students but encourage them to subscribe to the channel so they’ll receive a notification when updates are made. Aside from general center announcements, this can be a good outlet to remind students about important center policies, such as no-show limits for appointments and conduct expectations.

Center Staff Communications

You can create a channel accessible only to the current staff of your center, which can be a great and secure place for them to interact. This would be a good option both for sharing announcements and important information to staff and for your staff to speak to each other about questions related to their work.

AMA for Center Administrators

Provide students and other users the opportunity to ask questions of center administrators questions about how to utilize their services. It’s a great way to show transparency and help you build an FAQ.

Class Channel Ideas

Like Center channels, each class can have one channel attached to it. The following ideas are just a couple of ways faculty can utilize their designated class channel.

Per Course Resources

Help students enrolled in specific courses by allowing them to join course-specific channels to discuss quick questions with tutors and other students, share resources, and form study groups. This can be especially helpful as an additional resource for gen ed courses, or courses with high DFW rates.

Research Advisors and Their Assistants

Research advisors may want to create a channel for themselves and their assistants to help with communications regarding their projects. For example, they may announce new publications that have come out of their lab, discuss upcoming conferences, announce new funding sources, or communicate about deadlines or tasks.

Global Channels

Global channels are accessible by any user at any institution using Accudemia (as long as they have the right role designated by the group creator). We have already created a few global channels for you and your colleagues to utilize, but you can still create your own or contact us with ideas for what you’d like to see.

Academic Center Staff Forum

We have set up two channels specifically for admins at the various institutions utilizing Accudemia. One is for discussion of all things related to Accudemia, the other is for general discussion about topics related to running student support centers. Just click “Browse Channels” and search for “Accudemia Admin Lounge” or “Center Admin Discussions.”

Keynote Session Discussion

Our Engineerica Education Keynote Webinar series has proven very popular among college and university employees across the country and around the world. While not all attendees are Accudemia clients, those who are can take advantage of a special channel devoted to discussing upcoming and recent keynote sessions. This is also a great place to suggest future keynote speakers! To join, browse channels and search, “Engineerica Education Keynote Series Discussions.”

Conclusion

The sky is the limit when it comes to ways to leverage the Engagement Board. Don’t be afraid to contact your Customer Success Manager with questions or to discuss additional ideas for its usage. The benefits for your center, your institution, and your students are numerous, and we are excited to see how you utilize it.

We would love to hear which of the above ideas would benefit your center and students.  Also, if you have other ideas for utilizing the Engagement Board, we would love to hear about them.  Send us a note to let us know.

TECH TALK SESSION

In this month’s Accudemia Tech Talk, Senior Support Specialist Nick Armstrong talked to our clients about the Accudemia Outlook 365 Integration. This is a feature that has garnered a lot of questions lately and can be a great tool for managing appointments in your center. Watch Nick’s full demonstration of this feature here, or read on for a quick summary!

Why Use Outlook Integration?
This feature does a couple of notable things for tutors and other support staff in Accudemia:

• It automatically syncs appointments made in Accudemia to the staff member’s Outlook 365 calendar
• It will automatically update their availability in Accudemia when an event is added to the Outlook calendar (meaning tutors and admins no longer have to enter off time in Accudemia!)
• If the appointment’s date, time, or duration is modified in Outlook, it will automatically sync that information back to Accudemia, and vice versa
• It allows Accudemia appointments to be canceled through the Outlook calendar.

These abilities can all save staff a lot of time when it comes to managing their appointments and calendar. If your license allows for Outlook integration and you have an Outlook calendar, there’s no disadvantage to setting up the connection. It requires no ongoing maintenance once it’s set up, and it will mean less overall maintenance of your schedule in Accudemia.

How Do I Use the Outlook Integration?
It’s important to note that the integration is only available to schools using an Accudemia license (formerly known as an “Institution” license). If you do have an Accudemia license, then this feature is already enabled for your account.

As long as you have the “tutor” role (your account may be using different terminology, but this is the default name for the role), where you have a schedule and the ability to meet with students either through walk-ins or appointments, then you simply need to connect your Accudemia account to your Outlook 365 calendar. To do this, click on your name in the Accudemia main menu, and then click Connect to Outlook 365. From here, click the blue button, and then authenticate or provide your Outlook 365 details. Next, authorize the integration to connect to your calendar and perform these 2 actions to finalize the connection:

1. Choose which calendar to send your appointments from Accudemia.
2. Select the calendar or calendars Accudemia should validate against to block off your available time.

Many admins want to know if their tutors are using Outlook integration, and this is possible by navigating to Administration > Advanced > Outlook 365 Integration. This is useful for verifying who has successfully connected their accounts and assisting with troubleshooting if needed.

Nick’s demonstration showed how easy it is to set up and manage your Accudemia availability with Outlook 365 integration. If you are an Accudemia client and would like assistance setting it up, or if you are not a client or are an Accudemia Lite or Essentials client and are interested in learning more about this feature and the other benefits of a full Accudemia subscription, contact us!

Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 6/13/2023. Held Tuesdays at 1 pm EST (weekly during the academic year, and monthly during the summer), Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. Check the page about our Monthly Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!

TECH TALK SESSION

In our latest Accudemia Tech Talk, Senior Support Specialist Nick Armstrong went over some basic but important features of the new Accudemia app, which is available for all regular Accudemia accounts, and Business Development Manager Chadd Blodgett provided a demonstration of the app, which mentioned some of its additional capabilities as well. The app is designed for students and tutors (or staff members) to easily access some important Accudemia features, such as appointments and notifications. To view Nick’s overview, click here, and to view Chadd’s demonstration, click here. Or read on for a summary of both!

Logging In
Once the app is downloaded, students and tutors can access it by using the same username and password they use to log into Accudemia in the browser. Users whose schools use Single Sign-on may wonder how to log in since SSO does not require an additional username and password, and the good news is the app makes that easy too!

All the student or tutor needs to do is download the Accudemia app from the app store (currently available on iOS, with Android coming soon) log into Accudemia on the browser as normal, using whatever SSO credentials are already set up. From here, click on the phone icon in the top right of the screen. This will show a QR code that can be scanned using the Accudemia app. To do this, click, “Scan QR Code” on the app login screen, which will bring up the device’s camera that to scan the code. The scanning of the QR code has to be done directly through the Accudemia app’s login screen to log the user in, and cannot be accessed by scanning the QR code through their phone’s camera app. Once the code is scanned by the Accudemia app the user will then automatically be logged in.

Appointments
One of the great benefits of Accudemia’s cloud-based capabilities is that students can make appointments with tutors from anywhere, and as the center manager you can configure your appointment settings and tutor schedules to be assured that these appointments will always fall within your designated parameters and policies. With the Accudemia app, making appointments is even easier for students, because they can make it through the app and not the browser. To do this, after logging in they’ll tap the “Appointments” option on the bottom menu. They can then follow the same process as they do now in the browser to make an appointment, including adding notes and attaching files to the appointment. 

If the appointment is virtual, then students can also join the session right from the app when the appointment time arrives. They can also make changes to the appointment, including scheduling and adding notes later.

Social Wall
The Accudemia Social Wall is a new feature designed to allow students to connect and engage with each other about topics relevant to their education and support services. Users with appropriate permissions can create channels for connecting with other users about topics such as textbook exchanges and questions about specific courses. Channels can be made private to only include specific users, public to all users or certain types of users at the institution, or global to all users across Accudemia.

While any user can access the Social Wall through the browser, students and tutors can also access it through the app by clicking on the Social Wall icon on the bottom menu. The first time a user accesses the Social Wall, they’ll be shown a quick intro. After that, they can start browsing, joining, and participating in channels. They can click the Search icon to browse available channels to join, and comment on posts on existing channels or start new threads as well. Posts and comments can also be liked for further engagement. If the user manages or is a member of a channel, they can also choose what they receive notifications about on those channels in the app.

Messages and Notifications
The Accudemia app is also a great place for students and tutors to check notifications that they have received regarding things like appointments, the Social Wall, pending surveys, and general announcements. To do this, they can simply tap the Notifications icon in the bottom menu, where they will see all of their notifications, starting with the most recent one. They can tap on one to view more details. Announcements can also include links and videos, which can be viewed in the app once expanded. For pending surveys, students can see a list of ones that are still waiting to be filled out, and complete them right in the app.

If a student or tutor receives a direct message through the app from another user, they can reply directly through the app, view their sent messages, and filter their inbox to view specific messages. They can also send new messages to other users.

There are lots of other things students and tutors can do in the Accudemia app, such as check their personal visit history and see their class schedule if that’s been loaded into Accudemia.  There are more features available but these are the most important functions we wanted to be sure you knew about! Thank you to Nick for reviewing these features, and to Chadd for demonstrating them in the app. If you are not yet an Accudemia user and you want to learn more about Accudemia and its app, or if you are an Accudemia Lite user and you’d like to consider upgrading for access to all the Accudemia app’s features, please get in touch with us to learn more about how Accudemia can help your center!

Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 4/11/2023. Held Tuesdays at 1 pm EST (weekly during the academic year, and monthly during the summer), Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. Check the page about our Monthy Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!

Viewing Session Logs vs. Appointments
To view Session Logs, go to Center Attendance > Session Logs. This will show a list of all visits in your center, but you can use the filters on the left to narrow down what you want to see, such as logs from specific courses or services. Clients sometimes ask how to tell the difference between a Session Log tied to an appointment, and one tied to a walk-in. In front of the date for each Session Log, you’ll see a symbol that will indicate the difference, and you can also hover over the icon for clarification.

You can also navigate to Center Attendance > Appointments to see a list of appointments made both in the past and future, and the past appointments will show whether the student came in for the appointment or not. However, the Session Logs will contain more details about the student’s visit, such as what time they actually signed in and for how long they stayed.

Enhance Your Center Sign-ins with the Social Wall and Chat Features
The Social Wall is a brand new feature in Accudemia that allows your students and staff to connect in a secure social environment. To leverage the social wall to help with your signed-in students, go to the Social Wall and create a Group Channel. This will be a channel accessible only to the people you invite or add directly, and you can also remove users at any time. After creating the channel, you can invite or add the students who have already visited your center, and you can also post a join code in your center or on your center’s webpage.

Many users have expressed interest in the ability for students to enter a pre-session survey that will help their tutors and support staff prepare for the visit. In your center’s Group Channel, you can create a post that asks students pre-visit questions, and have them answer those questions in replies. If you want these responses to be private, you can also send these questions via chat. The Manage Center screen, accessible by going to Center Attendance > Manage Center, will show you who is currently signed in, making it easy for you to communicate with these students. You can even set up a text message advising them to check their chatbox in Accudemia or the Group Channel on the social wall.

Enhance Your Center Announcements with the Social Wall
You can also create what’s called a Center Channel on the social wall, which is a public channel that anyone can see. Each center can have one Center Channel associated with it. This is a good place to add announcements about your center, such as reminders about your policies, changes in hours, and upcoming events. You can post URLs that will automatically become hyperlinks when posted and pin important posts to the top of the page.

Use the Social Wall to Form Study Groups (and Do Other Cool Stuff for Your Class)
Another type of channel in the social wall is a Class Channel, which is accessible only to students enrolled in a specific course or section, depending on how your courses are set up in Accudemia (most import them as sections for more accurate reporting). You can either manually add the course’s students or automatically add them while setting up the channel.

This is a great place to encourage students to build study groups, post videos relevant to your subject or lessons, or remind students about upcoming deadlines.

Thank you to Nick for providing these great tips! We’re very excited about the Social Wall, and these are just a few of the endless ways it can be helpful for your students. Again you can watch the full presentation here. We hope to see you at the next Accudemia Session!

Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 3/14/2023. Held Tuesdays at 1 pm EST (weekly during the academic year, and monthly during the summer), Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. Check the page about our Weekly Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!

TECH TALK SESSION

February’s Accudemia Tech Talk took place on Valentine’s Day this year, so in honor of that, Senior Support Specialist Nick Armstrong focused on ways you can show Accudemia some “love,” by changing the look and feel of your Accudemia account to something that makes sense for your institution and center. Click here to view Nick’s full presentation, or read on for a summary!

Login Page
If your account isn’t using SSO, you can customize the look of your Accudemia login page to make it more aesthetically pleasing, and help students understand what they’re signing into. To customize this screen, go to Administration > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes, and set the scope to the college or institution level.

Here are some of the things you can customize:

• College Name: Normally, you’d want to keep this as your actual institution’s name, but if your account only has one center, you may want to consider changing it to your center’s name, so students understand what specific services they can receive through Accudemia.
• Welcome Instructions or Message: This can include formatted text and images. In his presentation, Nick even showed attendees how to code a background image. Yours doesn’t have to be complicated to look nice, but if you know HTML, you can utilize it here!

Homepages
Using the same path as above to get to Appearance and Themes, now head to the section, “Homepage Widgets.” These customizations can be set at either the center or institution level. Most widgets are only available for Institutional licenses, but all accounts have the option to customize their home screen with things like announcements and calendars.

You’ll be able to adjust the visibility of the different widgets by user type, so if, for example, you’d like students to see some widgets but not others, you simply check the boxes corresponding to each widget in the student column. Note that some widgets are only available for certain user types.

Users can adjust which version of the homepage they see by selecting available locations from the drop-down menu on the top right. So if your account has more than one center, and each one has different information they want to display or make available, students and other users will be able to easily toggle between those views.

If you have an Accudemia Lite license or above, you’ll be able to display news and announcements on your homepage. Go to Administration > Control Panel > Announcements to edit the customizable fields for the homepage.

In this section, you can add a title or introductory text, a teaser that appears on the screen before the user clicks, “View Full Article,” and the welcome text, which is a customizable field that contains whatever relevant information you’d like students and other users to know.

Kiosk
The kiosk is the screen that students and tutors use to sign in to your center for their attendance to be counted. You’d typically want this to be customized at the center level since each center will likely have different policies and preferences for how students sign in and what information is collected.

To customize the kiosk, go to Administration > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes, and then select your center from the drop-down menu. From there, navigate to the section, “Sign-in Station Screen.”

One decision you’ll want to make on this page is the type of header your kiosk will use. “Full content” allows you to design and customize the header yourself and include information about your center and other features such as images. “Logo only” will display only the logo uploaded in the “Update Logo” field. Note that this does not necessarily have to be your institution’s logo! If your center has its own logo (or if you want to have one designed for you), this can also be the logo you display.

You can also choose to include card reader instructions, which we do recommend if your kiosk is attached to a card reader. This helps students understand how to use the device if they have never used it before, and what to do if they don’t have their card with them.

You may notice buttons at the bottom of the kiosk screen such as one that allows users to see students signed in, or one that can add new students. For obvious reasons, you probably won’t want all of these buttons to display on a student-facing kiosk. To disable these buttons, go to Administration > Control Panel > General. Select your location and navigate to, “Sign-in Station Settings.” This will allow you to disable or enable any of the bottom buttons, as well as decide whether to display the student’s ID number while they are typing.

Thank you to Nick for showing our users some ways to make the Accudemia experience more unique for their centers! If you would like to learn more about the different processes he discussed, be sure to watch his full presentation. We hope to see you at the next Accudemia Tech Talk!

Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 2/14/2023. Held Tuesdays at 1 pm EST (weekly during the academic year, and monthly during the summer), Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. Check the page about our Monthy Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!

TECH TALK SESSION

In this month’s Accudemia Tech Talk, Senior Support Specialist Nick Armstrong detailed some of the ways you can make managing tutors in Accudemia a little bit easier. Note that while most Accudemia accounts are based in Tutoring or Learning Centers, the word “tutor” is interchangeable with any support person who meets with students in any area using Accudemia, including advisors or coaches. You can watch Nick’s full presentation here or read on for a summary!

Getting Started
Using Accudemia to manage your tutors has several advantages, even if your center doesn’t use appointments, but it can be a little intimidating at first due to all the options. Nick broke the process down into some shorter, helpful steps.

• The first step is to add tutors to their assigned courses. To do this, go to Administration > User Accounts in Accudemia (this information can also be imported, but follow this path to add the tutors manually). Note that if your tutors are also students or instructors, they may already exist in Accudemia as users, and you simply need to find the user in the search bar, and assign the additional tutor role to them. Once you open a user’s information, you can find what roles they have been assigned to and add more roles under the Security tab. Aside from importing their assigned courses, you can also add them manually or copy them from semester to semester.
• The next step would be to add the tutors’ schedules. This is a must if your center will offer appointments, but it can also be useful for walk-ins as well, to allow students to select from available tutors or to allow you to have a better idea of coverage in your center for different courses and services. To get to the schedules, go to Center Attendance > Staff Schedules from the main Accudemia menu. Tutors can be given the option to build their own schedules, or you can build the schedule for them. Schedules can be created by clicking and dragging, and each shift can be specified for the number of students a tutor can work with, and what services or courses they can help with at that time.

Finally, Nick reviewed additional permissions that can be given to tutors or staff members. These can be accessed in Accudemia by going to Administration > Control Panel or Administration > Advanced > Role Group Templates. Permissions include allowing staff to manage their own schedules, edit their own session comments, bulk sign out students, and more.

Managing Center Attendance
When tutors are conducting their sessions, Nick showed a few ways you can use Accudemia to make their jobs a bit easier, such as setting up quick sign-in stations to track students in non-centralized sessions, showing them how to make appointments on behalf of students, how to integrate their Outlook calendars with Accudemia, and how to assign Tutor Tasks. Some tips may or may not be relevant to your center’s specific needs, but we definitely recommend taking a look at Nick’s tips to see which ones might help your staff!

Helpful Reports
If you’re giving your tutors additional admin permissions, Nick recommends keeping an eye on the User Roles & Permissions Report, which allows you to see what permissions have been assigned to which users, to make sure everyone has the permissions you want them to have. Additionally, the Permissions by Role Template will allow you to review the permissions given to each custom role you’ve created in Accudemia. 

The Tutors with Connect Links report shows you which tutors have had Connect Links added for them to help students virtually, along with a list of the link URLs. The External Calendar Integration Status report shows which tutors have had Outlook calendars successfully linked to them. If you’re using Tutor Tasks, then Tutor Hours with Tasks report shows the hours your tutors have signed in for work, along with any tasks they selected during sign-in.

Watch Nick’s full presentation to get more details and learn even more tips for managing Accudemia. Thanks for reading!

Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 1/10/2023. Held Tuesdays at 1 pm EST (weekly during the academic year, and monthly during the summer), Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. Check the page about our Monthy Accudemia Session to find out more about our next session and for more ideas about helping our students achieve success!