askUCL one year on!

It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by and, to celebrate, here is a round-up of all the achievements of the Student Success Platform project so far:

• On 11 June last year, askUCL Student Enquiry Management was launched for eight SRS teams simultaneously - the Student Enquiries Centre, Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Student Funding, Student Visa Advice, Immigration Compliance, Student Records, Study Abroad and International Student Support
• In August the Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing team began using the Case Management and Appointment Management functionality
• In September six academic departments went live using the UCL Tutoring functionality as part of a pilot
• Finally, in December the Examinations and Casework and Governance teams started using Enquiry Management

There has been no let-up this year

• In May, Case Management and Appointment Management launched for Student Visa Advice and Student Funding Advice teams
• Last month the Study Abroad and International Student Support teams gained access to develop their processes through Case Management and Appointment Management in UAT and will go live later on in the summer
• Preparations are underway for the Admissions Team to go live with Enquiry Management in September

SID comes into its own

During the current covid-19 situation, askUCL has facilitated the SEC and other on-boarded teams to work seamlessly from home and to continue their interactions with students entirely online. Two notable successes have been:

• The Coronavirus – Return Home Notification Form used by over 7,500 students giving the Immigration team the ability to track who has left the country due to the coronavirus situation, and provide support on their return to the UK
• The creation of the Student Support and Wellbeing (SSW) Outreach team, see separate article in this newsletter, which has brought staff together from across UCL to contact as many students as possible, support them and raise any concerns with the Disability, Mental Health and Wellbeing team

Staff have benefitted from using SID

• All student interactions (enquiries, cases, appointments) logged via SID can be viewed (depending on access permissions)
• Live student data is pulled from SITS into SID
• FAQs cover all areas of UCL, lessen students’ need to raise an enquiry which in turn reduces pressure on all teams
• Standard responses and FAQs can be manipulated to aid and quicken a reply to an enquirer
• Bulk enquiries function for the times the same response is needed for a number of enquiries

Take a look at our stats! 

In addition to the above SID benefits, all information in SID can be used for reporting purposes. For example, we can see the total number of enquiries for each month, and the yearly total, but we can also break down enquries by team.

The Student Success Platform project is, well frankly, a success!

Terminology lowdown

Student Success Platform project – focused on student enquiry management, case management, and personal tutoring, supports a holistic approach to managing and tracking student interactions effectively and is key to the student experience

askUCL – provides students with a comprehensive knowledge base of nearly 800 FAQs, allows them to Log an Enquiry and view all enquiries and appointments

Student Information Desk (SID) – provides a comprehensive audit trail and data analysis tools, delivers consistent information between services and students

Enquiry Management - enquiry tracking, enquiry categorising, email harvesting

Case and Appointment Management - secure case notes, locked down permissions to notes, appointment booking

UCL Tutoring - all enquiry, case and appointment functionality, tutor dashboard to view tutee information