Transcript EnrolNow!
EnrolNow! Step by step from offer acceptance to orientation – letting the business process, and not the database, drive admission Leah Clapton – Manager, Student eServices, Curtin University Today I’ll be discussing… − What is EnrolNow! − The history of EnrolNow! – why did we do this? − EnrolNow! – screens and demonstration − Student feedback − Lessons learnt − Plans for the future Some background information − Student Central includes Student Service Centre, University Admissions Centre, Fees Centre, Graduations, Examinations, Scholarships, Classes Management, Student Systems – and my team, Student eServices − The Student eServices team is the central contact point for the development of online services in Student Central. We are responsible for the student portal, but also develop websites and complex web applications. We have a very user-centred design approach, and involve students in the design of all of our systems. − We’re a small team and while we have one developer, we’re mostly focused on the business side of projects, and work closely with Student Systems and Curtin IT Services. - Our Faculty Student Services Offices are not centralised. We worked with the four main Faculties on this project: Curtin Business School, Health Sciences, Humanities and Science & Engineering. Some background information − “Enrolment” covers offer acceptance, admission, enrolment and registration in classes − OASIS (Online Access to Student Information Services) is our student portal. − eStudent is the online student view of the Curtin student database (Student One). Students can use eStudent to update their address, accept their offer, enrol, class register, check their results and so on. OASIS Sydney OASIS Singapore OASIS Bentley What is EnrolNow? What is EnrolNow! ? − EnrolNow! is an online system accessed via OASIS, the Curtin student portal. OASIS automatically displays EnrolNow! to enrolling students using the “EnrolNow1” & “EnrolNow2” roles in OASIS − EnrolNow! streamlines the admissions and enrolment process and aims to hide complexity. −Students are stepped through the process of accepting their offer, completing their eCAF, enrolling in units, registering for classes, completing other tasks and attending StartUp (orientation) week. It is all personalised for the student. Why EnrolNow? Identifying a problem… − Until this year, first year students were admitted and enrolled using both online and manual (face to face) processes: – Students received offer letter containing some offer acceptance instructions, maybe their enrolment session details and a web address to find more information (“CurtinStart”) – Student accepts offer online via OASIS and eStudent – Student attends enrolment session and is manually enrolled. Often this resulted in a long wait in a queue at the Faculty office – Student is sent away to class register online − Faculty staff need to assist every student – which is extremely time consuming Previous process Plan A: Admissions web site Enrolment focus groups In August 2009 we ran five focus groups (21 students in total). The main purpose was to better understand student’s thoughts on the admissions process in preparation for designing a new Admissions web site. In the groups we explored: – – – – – What students thought “admission” and “enrolment” meant Discussion of students experiences enrolling at Curtin Offer letters – are they needed? Or is email or a postcard sufficient Detailed enrolment instruction documents/pamphlets – good/bad? Tested mock-ups of a proposed Admissions & Enrolment web site Previous experiences… Horrible! “Why do you have to do everything in person?” There should be a warning ‘be prepared to spend a long time in queues’ It didn’t have step by step Enrolment focus groups What we learnt: − “Enrolment” – from a Curtin student point of view, encompasses acceptance, admission, enrolment and class registration − It is really important to students to have a physical, formal offer letter. Email was good, but in addition to the actual letter. Glossy postcards were considered to look too much like “advertising” – Students also didn’t like too many instructions on their offer letter – they wanted to be able to put their offer letter on the fridge to show people, not have to carry it around with them. −Curtin students won’t read pages and pages of instructions – even if printed in a nice, clear booklet Enrolment focus groups What we learnt: −By far the biggest complaint students had (other than waiting in very long queues) was the lack of understanding about what was coming next. −They felt confused and lacked confidence as to what they were supposed to be doing. eStudent was considered to be frustrating and complicated. −Students felt like they were being drip fed information −They really wanted a clear “step by step” guide, so they knew exactly what was coming next Plan B: EnrolNow! But then… − At the beginning of September, Health Sciences approached me as they wanted to online enrol their first year students (Domestic only, at Bentley campus) − Knowing the feedback from the focus groups, and the problems existing students have re-enrolling, we decided that we would customise OASIS for these students, so that these students would have a step by step guide. −Deadline was mid November – 9 weeks away – for the Preliminary offer round. − As there was interest from all of the Faculties, I expanded the scope to include them, too. At this point, I assumed each Faculty enrolled students the same way. Other OASIS tabs hidden Clear step by step progress bar Personalised based on the student’s Faculty Contextual FAQs Personalised – at individual student level (name and course) Short instructional text Clear links to help Getting complicated… Health Sciences UG Internal CBS UG Internal Humanities UG Internal Science & Engineering UG Internal Moving from face-to-face to online Somehow we needed to replace: − The enrolment information previously provided in enrolment sessions (eg “If you did Calculus in Year 12, then enrol in Maths 121”). Some Faculties provided detailed Enrolment handouts. − Ability to communicate other tasks to complete – like getting an ID card or filling out Working with Children Forms. − Ability for the Course Coordinator to introduce themselves and provide their contact details. Moving from face-to-face to online Somehow we needed to : − Manage the delay between offer acceptance and admission/CAF approval – How will students know when to enrol? – How would the Faculties know which students to admit? −Offered − Admitted − Study Plan Expanded − CAF approved EnrolNow! demonstration EnrolNow! in OASIS EnrolNow! sub tab in OASIS Notes for external students Tasks at course-level Postgraduate information “Block” screen Offer letter & EnrolNow! Change to offer letters − Removal of Enrolment Session details − Removal of detailed instructions − New email offer (in addition to letter) EnrolNow! insert So, how did it go? EnrolNow! usage − The pilot went live, on time, in November 2009, for the preliminary enrolment round (UG & PG students) − In January, it was used for the main offer round (TISC/Year 12 students) − In total, more than 7000 students successfully enrolled using EnrolNow! What did the students think? − In March we ran wash-up focus groups with students that used EnrolNow! (across all Faculties). The feedback was quite positive and gave us many ideas for improvement to the system − This month we ran a week-long survey accessible by only students that have used EnrolNow!, which over 250 students responded to − This revealed both good, and bad news One word to describe EnrolNow! Efficient Informative Uncomplicated Easy Simple Helpful Organised Effective Guided Easy to use Awesome Convenient Terrific Great EnrolNow! comments Very useful system! I much prefer doing it all online and in my own time because I was working full time during the summer. The step by step process is great! Seemed easier than before simple steps It was a very easy system It was set up really well, easy to understand and follow User friendly process - very clearly set out eg the colours, messages that tell you what step you are up to - well thought through. I can remember having to enrol in person (at Curtin many years ago), standing in LONG queues. This is a great step forward on the former process! It made enrolling very quick and easy.. thank you very much :) Keep up the good work. 7 years ago when I just joined Curtin University, everything enrolment related issues has to be done in person, face-to-face with the people in student services. I see a lot of improvement throughout the years. Survey results Question Strongly Agree/Agree Undecided Disagree/ Strongly Disagree Overall, I was satisfied with EnrolNow! 63% 13% 26% Receiving my offer by email was useful 86% 8% 5% The EnrolNow! card was useful 64% 17% 19% I prefer to complete my enrolment online 69% 13% 18% Easiest step: Accepting my offer (86%) Hardest step: Enrolling in units (36%) and Class Registration (51%) Why were some students dissatisfied? 1. Early system bugs – during the pilot round, we had technical issues that many students commented on in the survey 2. Usability of eStudent functions – students considered eStudent to be confusing and frustrating: – “The OASIS part of the enrolnow process worked flawlessly, couldn't improve on it. The eStudent part, however, was incredibly userunfriendly, very slow to load, frustrating to understand and in several places poorly worded.” 3. Lack of quality control over Faculty provided content 4. EnrolNow! usability issues – Require clearer confirmation of when steps were completed – More online help (eg demo videos) needed – Too much text on some pages, not enough instructions on others Lessons learned If you only have two months, keep the scope small! Ask essential questions at application Processes should be aligned Where possible, automate! Test with students − Students must be involved during the design of online systems − In my three and half years at Curtin EVERY eServices project I’ve been involved in has had students assist in the design via user centred design sessions (focus groups). Except EnrolNow! −In 2009 alone, nearly 100 students attended focus groups for our other projects − Scope should have been made smaller to allow time for appropriate student involvement Plans for the future Short term improvements − Adding our FAQs into the system & adding personalised StartUp Week timetable − Improvements to the administration system and QA workflow for Faculty content − Implementation of auto admit and auto expand for at least some courses – ie avoid blocking students unless essential − Usability improvements based on student feedback − Creation of short videos to assist students − Review of eStudent instructional text and help, and continued work with Technology One to improve eStudent usability Expansion of EnrolNow! − EnrolNow! for International students at Bentley campus − EnrolNow! at other campuses, including partner institutions − Re-EnrolNow! for re-enrolling students Plus continued improvements based on regular feedback from students (EnrolNow! survey will be re-used) and focus groups with students. Questions?