lines-qless-students

‘You can’t improve what you don’t measure’


The collection, parsing, and analyzing of data is today more prevalent than ever in higher education, and some colleges are using that data to eliminate waiting lines on campus.

lines-qless-studentsIt’s something close to old hat for colleges and universities to spend resources analyzing data that will give the school a better idea of how to optimize lesson plans and alert educators of students who are on the brink of dropping out. Using massive amounts of information to save time for students and faculty, however, is something new on college campuses.

QLess, the company behind the innovative mobile technology that eliminates physical lines, leverages data to save thousands of hours for college students and their teachers every year.

QLess was recently integrated into Blackboard, Inc.’s Mosaic mobile platform — a move that means many more institutions could soon be eliminating time-wasting lines with the cutting-edge mobile technology that banks, supermarkets, theme parks, restaurants, and hospitals have used for years.

By adding QLess to Blackboard’s Mosaic, students are able to schedule, edit, or cancel appointments and receive real-time wait forecasts and text messages alerting them when their turn in line is approaching.

QLess founder and CEO Alex Backer said the mobile app has long enjoyed a high participation rate, and he expects that to translate to higher education.

A college that uses QLess can use its analytics to measure wait time by hour, day, or even month, along with determining the maximum amount of a time a student waits on a service such as cafeteria food. QLess can also determine which campus employees are most proficient in serving students the fastest.

“You can’t improve what you don’t measure,” Backer said, pointing out that colleges and universities don’t typically measure how long it takes for a student to get through a campus book store line, for example. “College students have better uses for their time besides just standing in line, wasting time.”

(Next page: How much time can QLess save, and what are other companies doing to optimize data analysis?)

Students using the QLess app can join a live campus queue remotely, while working seamlessly with walk-in traffic.

“These types of mobile features are an excellent complement to Mosaic’s robust platform and we are confident that our integration with the app will result in better student service, far less organizational headaches and happier employees at college campuses around the globe,” Backer said, adding that QLess has saved an estimated 20 million people around 500 years of waiting in lines since the company launched in 2009.

QLess is also considered a very flexible technology that can be customized to fit a certain campus, whether large or small. Backer said eliminating lines could be a critical component to a school’s recruitment strategy.

“Students’ first impression of a college is very important,” he said. “Students right there and then make a decision very often, and waiting in lines is not what you want for those students.”

Higher education institutions in recent years have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in data research and tools. Some universities are putting up this money themselves, while others are relying on government and organization grants.

A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that “open data” alone (Big Data that is made freely available to others) would “unlock $3 trillion to $5 trillion in economic value annually across seven sectors.”

Below are two more innovative companies helping colleges make better use of student data.

Chalk & Wire: This company’s assessment tools, which have received rave reviews from campus administrators and educators, allow a school to organize clear demonstrations of competency and the attainment of learning outcomes. Colleges can use an editor feature to add and organize text, images, media files, and embed forms. Tech support is provided for the upload and conversion of video and audio to streaming formats to enhance the authoring and review process, and Chalk & Wire provides unlimited storage space for campuses.

Civitas Learning: The Austin-based company uses a cloud-based analytics platform to provide real-time suggestions to faculty, administrators, and students by aggregating information from student enrollment data, financial aid profiles and learning management systems. The Civitas tools parse data from more than 3 million student records and 15 million course enrollment records to offer recommendations on decisions like selecting a degree and identifying at-risk students.

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