Leveraging Technology to Improve Your Campus Communication
Improve communication across your campus, faculty, and students with new technologies
Schools, universities, and colleges have to excel in a variety of areas. They’re expected to know all the ins and outs of not only the subject matter they’re teaching but also the means of passing that information to their students. They need to be experts in connecting with students from all walks of life while remaining impartial to each individual. And, despite the fact nobody wants to think of a school as a business, they need to have an administrative team that can run smoothly and efficiently while adhering to a budget. In short, education teams need to be masters of communication; between the staff, the students, the parents, and their community.
One of the best ways that education institutions can improve their communication is by implementing digital solutions and tools. This can be everything from digital messaging systems, integrated student portals, digital forms, and even mobile apps to improve communication without increasing the burden placed on educators and staff. Here are some ways digital technology has been improving educational communication in and out of the classroom.
Admissions Teams No Longer Need Faxes
While it doesn’t feel too long ago for many, most current college applicants can’t even imagine the struggle of fax machines in the past. Thankfully, faxed applications (and the struggle of using a fax machine) are almost entirely a thing of the past and have instead been replaced with digital applications. Online applications aren’t entirely new, as early as 1998 a nonprofit organization developed the Common Application to even out the playing field of college applications. That organization has only expanded and now helps over 1 million college hopefuls with their universal, digital college application.
But the road to improving university admissions is still being paved. A 2019 report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling noted a 6% increase in the total number of freshman applicants from 2017 to 2018. While the prospect of more students pursuing higher education is always exciting, this doesn’t always reflect an increase in staff to process the application paperwork. By switching to digital forms for applications, universities can minimize data entry, errors, and duplicates to save time. Collaborative cloud storage tools can also allow for multiple administrative staff to view and process the same paperwork, also cutting down on review time or steps in the application process.
“In the fall enrollment period for 2017, each public institution office admission staff member was responsible for 1,035 unique applications, while private institution staff were responsible for 461.”
K-12 Faculty Can Communicate Directly with Parents
Whether it’s permission forms or doctor’s notes, teachers and staff are no longer reliant upon students to be a liaison for their parents. While there are some reasons to encourage students to bring forms home to their parents for signatures, such as empowering students with responsibility at a young age or spurring conversations between parents and their children, some forms are better left digitized. Forms requiring multiple attachments or higher privacy levels, such as medical history forms tend to work better in a digital sense. These allow parents to be comprehensive and clear about their child’s medical needs or include detailed attachments like vaccination records. The best digital forms solutions will have HIPAA-secure configurations that include encryption to meet federal security standards for medical information.
Digital form solutions have come a long way in streamlining communication between parents and teachers, and can even gather parent signatures for permission slips using electronic signatures. But digital forms aren’t the only improved solution. Long believed to be a necessity for higher education institutions, student and parent portals are now being used in K-12 education systems as well. These portals allow parents to log in to view grades and missing assignments, facilitate conversations with teachers, and even coordinate parent volunteer opportunities. Many studies have found that increased parental engagement in a child’s education can boost grades and test scores, increase attendance, and even increase graduation rates. While there is still work to be done to ensure higher adoption rates of these parent-teacher portals, nearly every study conducted on them has shown a positive impact on the student’s educational experience.
“Programs and interventions that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement.”
Group Assignments Are No Longer a Burden
From reflecting on your own group experiences to watching them play out through the students at your institution, it’s no secret that group projects can cause students and teachers grief. Often referred to as a “necessary evil”, group projects do instill important skillsets, like collaboration, leadership, and communication. So what are some ways to better facilitate communication among students? Thankfully, digital communication can absolutely take the lead here. Messaging systems and mobile devices, even social media platforms, are continually spurring new means of communication among students. While the concept of bringing some of these systems into the classroom, when they’ve historically been a means for entertainment, can sound risky, it can also pose many benefits.
One study even found that the ability of higher education students to interact with their peers and professors on a wider, social platform meant an increase in participation and dissemination of discussion. As students continued to engage with their peers, they were able to dive deeper into the topics and present more well-rounded discussion topics back to their professors. While social media will still primarily be for entertainment purposes, the groundwork is being laid for wider sharing of subject materials, and a more conducive environment for interaction and discussion.
“For every 10% increase in student’s engagement, there would be an increase in student academic performance at a comparable rate…. Application and usefulness of the social media in transferring the resource materials, collaborative learning and interaction with the colleagues as well as teachers would facilitate students to be more enthusiastic and dynamic.”
Of course, social media isn’t the only way students are utilizing digital tools to facilitate better communication during group projects. Digital collaboration tools like shared digital document processing for documents, spreadsheets, and even presentation slides allow multiple students to access individual projects simultaneously. They can also allow different students to add their own parts to a presentation or essay while suggesting edits or changes to the parts provided by other students. Video conferencing tools have also expanded access for remote students to be able to join in for class-wide presentations without being physically present.
Student Privacy Has Reached New Heights
With an increased need for communication comes an increased need for privacy and security, and thankfully digital solutions are often able to provide that. Though many don’t often see digital solutions as a secure method of communication, it’s often because the platforms they generally think of don’t boast high-security protections. Today many private communications take place in the digital realm, from online banking and legal documentation to telehealth visits and prescriptions, online security continues to grow and improve.
Moving enrollment forms, everything from tuition contracts to a medical history form template, can streamline the admission process for your prospective students, as well as the staff processing those forms. Oftentimes, in paper form or even a PDF, manual data entry is still required, as well as storing the form details somewhere safe (or the cost of professional shredding and secure disposal if you aren’t storing the paper forms). Using a digital form solution instead you can save time, and rest assured that private medical data, banking information, or legal contracts can be safely encrypted and stored in a protected cloud storage solution. While different solutions have different features, the best ones will offer automated integrations that seamlessly transfer your data where it needs to be, offer HIPAA-secure encryption levels and access tracking, and even custom user accounts that limit who can access certain parts of your account.
School Safety Takes the Front Seat
School safety is always going to be a hot topic, and a priority for your students of any age, as well as their parents, and your staff. Thankfully technology has been improving safety-related communications in addition to operational communications. Whether your school or university is considering ID-tagged locking mechanisms, video surveillance platforms, anonymous tip lines, or even predictive analytics based on crime rates in the area, there’s a technological solution available.
“An overwhelming majority of college students (97%) say they consider their personal safety as they go about campus daily life and try to protect themselves.”
While perception is a key part of safety, the discrepancy between how safe students feel and how safe their parents feel varies drastically. An anonymous survey found that only 59% of K-12 students felt safe at their schools, while family members felt 72-79% assured in their student’s safety. The number of college students actually increased when it came to concerns about their safety, with a separate survey citing that 82% of college students were concerned about their safety on campus for the upcoming semester. One of the best ways that new technologies can help address these safety concerns is by making themselves apparent to students, faculty, and visitors.
Implementing a video surveillance system, for example, can provide detailed information about the goings-on even in remote parts of the campus, but sharing details about the system may go even further in helping students feel safe. Make sure your staff and students alike all understand that the cameras are constantly running and if they’re actively monitored at all times. Additionally, letting students know that there are emergency helplines or direct connections to local emergency services available can also ease many concerns. In other words, while it’s important for your security platforms and staff to communicate to each other, it’s also vital that you communicate your security abilities with everyone on campus. Knowledge and understanding can go a long way in helping students feel secure, while also deterring criminal or violent acts on your campus.
About GoFormz
Whether your university needs a digital form for faster application processing, or your remodeling business needs forms for construction permits, and everything in between, GoFormz has your solution. With a completely flexible, no-code-required form builder and proprietary technology to digitize an exact replica of your existing paper forms, there’s no challenge GoFormz can’t conquer. Bring your communication processes to new heights with GoFormz.
