Before students arrive for their first day of classes, they encounter multiple forms and tasks to complete. Leveraging your student portal to assist with onboarding is an efficient and practical way to eliminate a lot of frustration for new students and those well on their way to completing their education. Using a simple “Google-like” search, OneCampus by TransACT delivers role-based content that students, faculty, and staff can personalize for their needs on any device.
In the video Effective Onboarding, the first in the OneCampus Micro-Learning Series, Senior Business Development Manager Penny Rosner shares best practices from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and Miami University of Ohio (MU). Both universities are excellent examples of simplifying access to essential academic resources by having one unified access point.
WUSTL simplifies onboarding by creating a Pinned Section with resources for students to serve them as they begin the new academic year. To assist students throughout the school year, WUSTL has built a Student Resource Task Center for the services and resources that will come in handy year-round.
Students are at the center of the higher education world, and Miami University (MU) recognizes that productive staff can contribute to students' success. MU assists new and existing staff find what they need to do their job effectively, using OneCampus to connect them to information such as employee benefits. By simply entering keywords in the search bar, staff can locate all resources related to benefits in seconds.
University resources are found by entering a keyword into the search bar in the OneCampus portal. If a staff member wants to learn more about university benefits, by entering “benefits” into the search bar, OneCampus delivers multiple resources related to the keyword. Clicking on any of the resources will take them to the location where they can view more information.
When researching new portal solutions, both WUSTL and MU wanted to improve the user experience for everyone. They wanted a single access point for searching campus resources and an intuitive platform that engages students.
A good onboarding student experience enables students and staff to navigate the campus portal with minimal clicks and frustration. However, campuses that continue working with outdated and cluttered technology open themselves to the possibility that students and staff won't find what they're looking for and miss important onboarding information.
When students search for a service or piece of information - such as grades, programs, financial resources, or upcoming social activities, and can't find what they’re looking for quickly, they often turn to Google instead.
Another factor when considering how a portal plays a role in the onboarding experience is security. When staff and students can't find what they're looking for via campus technology, they will use outside sources, leaving the institution vulnerable to viruses and malware, thereby compromising campus security.
Follow our blogs or watch our LinkedIn page to continue learning with our video-based sessions. Our next video learning session will address mass notifications and how campuses can generate announcements, alerts, and notifications using a central location to keep their constituents informed.
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