TECH TALK SESSION
For this week’s Tech Tip session, Software Specialist Jorge Rodriguez showed off a powerful tool in Accudemia that deserves a bit more attention: student profiles.
Student profiles offer the ability to categorize students in unlimited ways, making it easier to report on and communicate with them. They’re similar to User Groups but differ in how data is displayed, utilized, and reported on. Profile data can be entered manually by either center staff or students themselves, or imported, which is the method we generally recommend whenever possible.
Admins can set up profiles by going to the Control Panel and finding the Profile Questionnaire module under Web Site Settings. A profile can have unlimited questions (available types are open text field and multiple choice, with the option for one or multiple selections) which can be required or not required, and which can be weighted for more accurate reporting.
Questions can also be spread across multiple pages, which we recommend if you have many profile questions that could be categorized separately. For example, the first page could be devoted to the student’s academic details (major, minor, entering GPA, etc.), and the second page could be dedicated to the student’s extracurriculars (sports, Greek life memberships, etc.).
As mentioned above, importing is the preferred way to enter profile data, but sometimes that is not possible, either because the data is not stored in another location (such as an SIS), or because the admin is unable to secure access to it. In these situations, we recommend having staff or students enter the information. Students can enter their profile data by clicking on their avatar in the top right corner of the screen when they log into Accudemia. Accudemia doesn’t prompt students to enter their profile information, so we recommend sending out reminders through the messaging system or putting a note on the homepage.
Alternatively, staff with permissions can enter the data themselves. To view or edit an individual’s profile, go to Administration -> User Accounts and search for the individual whose profile you want to edit or view. From there, you’ll see a tab that says, “Profile.” Some staff may only be able to view profiles, not edit them, so be sure you review each role’s permissions to make sure everyone has the access you need them to have.
Whether you import or manually enter the data, you’ve worked hard to make sure your profiles are set up and recording important information about the students you serve, and you deserve a reward. And in Accudemia, reports are your reward 😉 Okay, maybe just if you’re a data nerd, but many of our clients are, and one of the biggest things they want to know is, how can I report on this information I’ve collected?
There are two reports related to profiles in Accudemia. The first is the Users Detailed Profile. This allows you to pull the User Profile for one or more students into an output format of your choice. Although you can pull individual profiles, as we mentioned above, this report makes it easier to view the profiles on more than one student at a time or to send that information to a stakeholder who doesn’t have access to Accudemia or doesn’t want to log in.
The second report is Student Profile. This report gives you a more detailed idea of the distribution of your profile responses, and how those responses are represented in your center’s traffic. For example, if your profiles are tracking student majors, this report can show you what percentage of students major in Biology, English, etc. Additionally, it will show you what percentage of your visitors are Biology or English majors. Information like this can be crucial for showing the impact your services are having on students who fall into different categories or backgrounds.
We hope that this article has helped clarify the potential impact that the Student Profile feature can make on your center management. If you have any questions about how to access and use Student Profiles, please contact support@accudemia.com. In our next post, we’ll give some examples of different profile questions and categories and how they can be utilized, so be sure to subscribe so you won’t miss it!
Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for the Accudemia session on 8/31/2021. 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!
