Technology in Higher Ed: 2023 Edition; Introduction
Welcome to 2023, everyone. With the new year upon us, we wanted to take an opportunity to review the technology landscape in higher education. This multi-part series will dive into technology and how it can be used in higher education, including Enrollment Management, IT, Student Affairs and more. From the application for admission to the alumni giving platform, technology powers interactions throughout the education experience. Each interaction contributes to a person’s relationship with the institution and those “transactions” (as we’ll call them throughout the rest of this series), no matter how small, help develop a deep relationship and trust with the institution. The ways students, alumni, employees and fans engage with your institution through technology should contribute to a positive brand relationship.
With a little over six years under our belts in the industry, we know the higher education landscape. That said, although this series uses commerce terms like “transaction” and “customer”, these are simply terms used to describe the individual and personal interactions that take place throughout a student’s time engaging with an institution. We recognize the significant difference between higher education institutions and a traditional transactional business.
In e-commerce, the term “frictionless commerce” has made a few laps in recent years. Frictionless commerce refers to the idea of reducing the “friction” that may prevent customers from completing a transaction. It starts with suggesting the right products on the homepage, includes optimizing the product page so the “Add to Cart” button is conveniently located perfectly within reach at all times, and continues even beyond using integrated payment methods like ApplePay, Google Pay and PayPal for easier checkout.
Employees across a higher ed organization can think of interactions a “customer” makes with the organization as a point of commerce. Thus, reducing friction in the higher ed landscape is enhancing interactions to make it as easy as possible for the customer to get the result they seek. And customers are not all students. How simple is it for a high school guidance counselor to book a group tour? What about a parent that needs to find the balance of their student’s account? How about an alum that wants to designate a relatively small gift to a specific fund? Each of these scenarios includes some level of complexity. Do the systems in place make it easy for them to accomplish their goal? Beyond easy — can the systems create a delightful experience?
Reducing friction entails implementing processes and systems that create pathways for designated scenarios. However, it is important to note that frictionless does not imply cold or impersonal. Despite everything your high school physics teacher taught you about conservation of energy and friction creating heat, a frictionless transaction is not one that is cold or devalues the service and touch of a human. Humans are an invaluable part of each service model and should be empowered to do what is best to serve their customer.
The goal of this series is not to make the case to replace humans with tech. Instead, we aim to present how technologies used across higher education can empower staff and create delightful experiences for customers. First, we’ll take a deep dive into Enrollment Management. Before jumping into that article, it’s worthwhile to think about:
- When is the last time you/your team did an inventory of all the systems used in your department? Be sure to include both department systems and enterprise level solutions.
- What functions/tasks do each system perform?
- What overlap exists between systems? Are there un/underused features in any systems?
Ivy.ai is the leader in artificial intelligence powered chatbots, purpose built for higher education. Our bots are designed to make every interaction delightful and are pre-trained with millions of student questions and pre-populated with answers extracted from your website.
2023 Technology in Higher Education Review:
- Series Introduction (this article)
- Part 1 — Enrollment Management
- Part 2 — IT Help Desk
- Part 3 — Student Affairs
- Part 4 — Academic Advising & Career Services
