Remove the hassle in scheduling. The other key capability for education professionals to integrate is online scheduling. That not only means that the staff have their online calendar accessible from anywhere, but also giving new and existing students a way to view academic staff availability and choose a time for a meeting that works best for them. Online scheduling can be part of the institution’s website, or accessible via a link on each of the professor’s or counselor’s email. Either way, it will eliminate the need for multiple emails and phone calls back and forth to determine a best time for a meeting. Online scheduling software will also take care of reminders to avoid no-shows and give both sides easy way to reschedule if necessary.
An example of these tools in action: Pasco eSchool, the second largest school district in Florida, is one great example of how impactful online scheduling can be. With 70 teachers spread over 7,000 students, each was required to have a monthly meeting – averaging at least 100 meetings per month. Additionally, the district receives 31,000 course requests for each student, averaging 4 to 5 courses per student. As an eSchool, scheduling digital meetings a key driver for success of the entire district as face-to-face contact was minimal.
Online scheduling allowed them to streamline the district’s entire scheduling system and help staff consolidate their scheduling efforts in order to meet student needs and automate how these colleagues could schedule meetings. Teachers now have more time to teach rather than rearrange schedules. Pasco teachers can customize their schedules, easily display availability, and automatically respond to appointment requests. Students can set teacher appointments anytime, anywhere on any device—all of which eliminated tens of thousands of administrative tasks each year.
Education professionals can set themselves up for better success by being proactive about how to deal with administrative tasks that take up nearly one-third of their week. Seemingly simple online engagement technologies can make a tremendous difference. While relatively simple to adopt, the savings these technologies provide is tremendous.
Ran Oelgiesser is chief marketing officer of vCita. He has nearly 20 years of experience in helping startups and large organizations with technology, product management, and marketing across a variety of sectors. Prior to vCita, Ran was a co-founder and vice president of product marketing at Kidaro (acquired by Microsoft in 2008).
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