Anthology Reach in the Spotlight at EdgeCon 2021
January 15, 2021 – Anthology’s Vice President of Product Management, Dr. Jennifer Beyer, presented alongside Dr. Ahmed El-Haggan, Vice President of Technology & Advancement and CIO at Coppin State University, at EdgeCon 2021, the premier forum for education technology in New Jersey and the surrounding region. Building on analyst research, student surveys and real data provided from Coppin State from the past several years, Dr. Beyer discussed the more personalized and cohesive student experience that higher education has been steering toward, noting that institutions who are unable to adapt to this approach will be left behind.
“There is a person behind that Student ID number. Rather than treating all student experiences and pathways as equal, institutions need to acknowledge just how much choice and customization is available to each student,” Dr. Beyer urged. “If there are areas that stop or slow the student from achieving their goals, they need to be identified as early in the student lifecycle as possible.”
Some of the key areas where more personalized messaging can make a significant impact on student success are: individualized communication strategies, academic advisement, and clarity regarding financial aid processes. Having the proper data infrastructure in place to mold these personalized experiences and communications, can be a challenge for many institutions.
Coppin State University is a Baltimore-based member institution of the University of Maryland. As a historically black, four-year university, over 60 percent of their student body consists of first-generation students. Relying on data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, Coppin State saw that their student engagement numbers were not reflecting the student experience they wanted for their students, especially within the critical first-year and first-generation populations. After months of self-study, they turned to Anthology to assist with the technology solutions to reach their goals—to increase student engagement to 80 percent within a five-year period. In order to do this, they needed access to holistic data and tools that could ensure they were engaging students in a more meaningful way throughout every step of their academic journey.
“This is where the CampusNexus Engage solution really excels,” Dr. Beyer illustrated in her presentation. “It helps break down the data silos, empowering staff and faculty with critical data views. As a student’s record grows and evolves over time, their individual portal experience evolves right along with them. This type of customization can make a big difference in a students’ experience and engagement.”
Anthology’s CampusNexus Engage (now Anthology Reach) is an intelligent CRM platform that allows higher ed institutions to respond to students’ needs and experiences across multiple integrated communications channels. It also keeps track of a students’ journey over the entire learner lifecycle, breaking down departmental data silos and creating a more comprehensive view of the student from which to draw for future communications, interactions, and guidance. Working alongside other existing systems as a single data repository, CampusNexus Engage enables institutions to create sophisticated and highly personalized engagement strategies to aid in recruitment, retention and career services.
Watch the full presentation, Transforming the Student Experience, as seen at EdgeCon 2021.