2 ways to use tech to improve the student experience

Student life can be full of stressors. Many students are juggling work, family, and school at once—all while striving to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It can be enough to break even the strongest wills. Understanding this struggle, universities are tasked with making the student experience as seamless as possible from a logistical point of view.

From an academic standpoint, students are working hard enough to succeed. Worrying about “housekeeping” items is not something they necessarily have extra energy for. Keeping the level of confusion and frustration associated with all that goes into attending a higher education institution at the lowest possible level is key. This is a critical factor when trying to improve the student experience at any institution. Academic workload is challenging–no student wants to have to add to this challenge unnecessarily.

Two of the biggest areas where we see this happen occur at the bookends of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, universities must accommodate students’ seating needs and at the end, they must facilitate an efficient exam process. These are two areas where institutions must be vigilant to improve the student experience.

Seating

All institutions want to be able to make any accommodation necessary for students with special needs and disabilities. Specifically, this is an issue at the beginning of any semester. Depending on the nature of the special need or disability, where a student sits in a classroom can be of particular importance. And with spaces limited and only so many seats per class, this can be a challenge.

Additionally, this all must be addressed anonymously and handled in a sensitive matter so as not to call any undue attention to the students with these special requests.  Thus, universities must be able to get the student the seat they require in order to accommodate their disability.

These needs can come in many different forms. For example, one student may need to sit close to the door or window to accommodate anxiety.  Another may need to sit up front for purposes of hearing or seeing the professor more clearly. What many students don’t like to do, however, is draw attention to themselves in these situations.  Many schools began creating groups dedicated to accommodating students.