CourseKey’s career college software and student portal was built with trade, allied health, nursing, and cosmetology students in mind.
A huge consideration for any organization when embarking on a new platform implementation is how will the people who use it every day adapt to it and will they even like it?
The same questions come up when career education organizations are considering adopting CourseKey. School leaders worry about what students will think about using the platform in their programs and the student portal. Luckily, many of our partner institutions across Allied Health, cosmetology, and trades programs have been able to help us in answering those questions.
Below are five common responses.
1. Career students love having real-time visibility into their records with a student portal
Almost all of our partner institutions utilize CourseKey Attend, which not only places the responsibility for checking in and out of class on the students but provides them with visibility into their attendance records through a student portal. Their students love being able to pull up their records at any time through their CourseKey career student portal to check their standing. Students have embraced the increased ownership and accountability for their attendance, monitoring their time and absences to make sure they maintain eligibility for continued enrollment.
As Ashley Kozar, Enrollment Associate at Paul Mitchell The School, St. Louis, explained, students can see right away that they forgot to check out of class instead of finding out a week later and having to deal with it then. With real-time visibility, her students are bringing issues to the attention of their instructor immediately, saving them the painful process of resolving mistakes on their record much later.
Students also appreciate receiving instant confirmation that they’ve checked in or out of class instead of being uncertain that their time was counted. This is especially helpful for online classes where communication with instructors is less frequent than in-person classes.
For cosmetology students in particular, having immediate access to records in their student portal is making staying on track to graduate easier. They know at any time how many services they’ve completed and how many more they still have to go. By switching from paper worksheets to digital tracking, partner institutions have empowered students to easily keep track of their progress.
2. Students cite auto-graded assessments as valuable for effective learning
Many of our partner institutions leverage CourseKey Engage, which allows instructors to push out auto-graded assessments and quizzes to their students devices during class. Their students love the immediate feedback loop that allows them to see how well they did right away and which questions they got wrong. Now that students can check their performance any time they want in a student portal, they’re doing a better job of studying the material they need to focus on to score better on future exams.
3. Students like saving time in and out class
Students like being able to save time by checking themselves in and out of class through CourseKey instead of waiting their turn at the sign-in sheet or waiting as their instructor spends the first 15 minutes of class on attendance.
Additionally, students are relieved that they no longer have to wait in line to check out. Once class is finished, they check out immediately on their own device and head to their next appointment.
4. Students are pleased with touch-free attendance to limit the spread of germs
Over the last year, a lot of students have had anxiety about returning to campus for hands-on course components. They’ve been worried about how safe their school’s precautions really are. Luckily, most of our clients have prioritized campus safety.
Prior to using CourseKey, students typically checked in and out of class using a sign-in sheet or biometric scanner. Not only did those methods only allow one student to check in at a time, which required students to stand in line, they facilitated the spread of germs among students and staff members. By eliminating a shared surface and allowing students to check in and out on their personal device, students have felt safer when checking in and out of class during these times of uncertainty.
5. Students enjoy the convenience of having a student portal on their mobile device
Educators have traditionally rejected the use of mobile devices in school, but CourseKey leverages the capabilities of students’ devices to transform them into learning tools. Today, Millennials make up the largest share of career ed students and Gen Z students are starting to enroll, as well. These are students who are used to leveraging technology for everything. These students enjoy using CourseKey because it lets them conduct classroom activities like taking attendance, engaging with the lesson, completing assessments, and accessing their records through a medium they’re familiar and comfortable with.
Creating a world-class student experience
By using digital tools to gather comprehension, engagement, and attendance data, administrators can analyze trends and use their findings to help students succeed. Whether it’s reaching out to individual students that may need extra assistance or a reminder of their standing, or making course-wide adjustments to review class material a majority of the students missed, admins can leverage the data collected to support students on their way to graduation.
Would the students at your institution appreciate the benefits outlined above? Learn more about the CourseKey platform by requesting a demo below.
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