Despite colleges and universities investing in and prioritizing student engagement, statistics show that higher education students across the nation are reporting dissatisfaction, leading to issues like poor grades and even drop out. How can this be? The answer is that student disengagement starts with how institutions communicate and connect with students.
Student disengagement is most often a result of disconnection and to fix it, organizations must implement a unified student lifecycle engagement strategy. A unified student lifecycle engagement strategy brings together the infrastructure institutions already have in place to empower consistent, integrated student experiences. It bridges the gap between schools and their students by bringing the right information to the right student, at the right time. Without it, schools risk not getting their messages through effectively.
Disconnection can ultimately impact your institution’s ability to deliver a seamless student experience campus-wide. In our latest eBook, “4 Causes of Student Disengagement (& How to Overcome Them),” we help identify the common instances of disconnection that cause student disengagement and provide tips on how to solve them. Here’s a look at 3 of those 4:
3 Causes of Student Disengagement
1: Data in your organization is siloed
Are your systems working together across departments to share relevant data and keep information accurate and consistent across campus? If the answer is no, you may need to re-think your engagement approach.
The presence of multiple systems on campus leads to fragmented data, resulting in inconsistent information. This not only frustrates students but also poses compliance risks and creates challenges for IT staff in managing policy updates.
2: Student communication is not personalized
When students seek support via online chatbots or SMS, do they receive generic responses or tailored answers specific to their situations? Today’s students, being digital natives, expect personalized experiences similar to those from their favorite brands. If schools provide irrelevant information, it can harm the relationship and negatively impact the experience.
When students take to support channels to ask a question, they aren’t looking for a generic response. They are looking for personally relevant information that will help them along the path to graduation.
3: Student support channels are disparate
When student support services are scattered across different departments, it can be challenging for students to find the help they need. While some institutions have a central hub for inquiries, others rely on individual departments with their own call centers, office hours, chatbots, or other support services. The availability of these services varies; some may offer 24/7 support, while others operate only during specific hours, like 9-5 on weekdays.
When support services are disconnected, it can lead to confusion and frustration, making students feel disconnected and disengaged from their institution. Additionally, it’s important for support channels to reflect the institution’s voice and brand to create a sense of familiarity and trust for students – something that grows increasingly difficult when communications are being managed through siloed departmental efforts.
Do any of those sound like familiar challenges? You wouldn’t be alone. Institutions across the nation are experiencing the symptoms of student disconnection, and creating a strategy that unifies your approach, technologies, and more is crucial to delivering seamless student experiences that keep individuals engaged, enrolled, and successful. The good news is, you don’t have to start from scratch to deliver a seamless, connected experience across campus. The key is in leveraging what already exists and unifying it to deliver maximum impact on all your existing investments.
To find out the fourth common cause of disconnection, and learn how a unified student lifecycle engagement strategy can help overcome each of these, download the full eBook here!
