Improving the university experience for students with competitive edge technology

The education sector was one of the most heavily impacted when the #COVID19 pandemic hit. Educational institutions were faced with severe staff shortages, high rates of absenteeism, quarantines, and closures. Students and educators experienced increased stress levels due to the lack of human interaction and instructional time. To relieve these pain-points and enhance the #studentexperience, technologies were put to the test.?

Why was it difficult??

Most universities hadn’t prepared for a world-wide disaster to this scale. No-one could have predicted that a deadly virus would have us locked away for two to three years. The lack of preparation meant that institutions were forced to choose off-the-shelf applications that allowed students and professors to communicate remotely, with little knowledge or advice on how to implement or utilise these technologies. It was soon identified that many of the quick-fix applications had their limitations in terms of features and advanced settings which impacted the rich university experience that students wanted.?

So, what DO university students want??

While this may be a broad question, with many different answers, we do know that students want technologies that help mitigate issues that go beyond learning:?

1. Student welfare – both students and parents are increasingly assessing the welfare of students alongside educational performance. The pandemic had some serious implications on many students’ mental health and wellbeing, therefore universities that have the proper capabilities and resources in place to help students are more attractive.?
2. Digital channels – Generation Z and Millennials prefer to use #digitalchannels to communicate, whether this be with family or friends, educational tutors or work colleagues. If universities don’t keep up with the times in terms of communication styles, universities may start to see a decline in the number of young people applying.??
3. International web translations – many UK universities accept applications from foreign students across the globe, and while this can be a very exciting time for these students, it can also be quite challenging. Usually, for most international students, their native language is not English, this can sometimes put up a barrier when it comes to communication.???

How can universities listen to the voice of the students??

By implementing advanced #cloudcommunications capabilities. It’s all about working with existing #communicationtools, where possible, and listening to the technological needs of students in order to enhance their experience. Cloud communications capabilities can:?

• Provide layers of security and support to students by enabling and scaling down the large-scale contact centre used during the clearing period and re-purposing it for #studentswelfare and support services.??
• Enable non-voice communication channels, allowing to address the generational shift and bring together everyone from students, staff, lecturers and academics to Gen Z and millennials to Gen X and boomers that want to communicate, in a centralised way.???
• Allow international students to communicate with their university professors in their native language through web enabled transcriptions. Not only does this help the students, but it also reduces translator costs for the #university.???

Most educational institutions initially adopted Microsoft Teams as their primary collaboration platform, which is great news as 8x8 , one of Britannic’s trusted partners, was among the first to achieve #ContactCentre certified status for #MSteams. This enables the routing of calls directly to Teams-powered users, improving the #studentexperience and supporting omni-channel interactions, call recordings and more.????

Click here to learn more about how Britannic can help your university improve their student experience and cloud communications.