Self-service websites can be a school’s best friend

Submitted by Chansone Durden, TG Account Executive Team Manager

Make it simple and they will come — that’s the motto many colleges subscribe to as they put school resources online and at the disposal of students and parents. More institutions are going one better — automate it and they will love you. Like other industries, higher education has quickly found the ease and efficiency of letting customers do it themselves. From applying for admission to picking courses online, many students can complete all the work of getting into college without even setting foot on campus.

Financial aid offices have found self-service websites to be a particular boon. Enrollment continues to grow — some 21 million college students will start or continue their degree this fall, according to federal statistics — while state budgets continue to shrink. Florida offers a case in point. As with many other states, Florida is looking to balance its budget by, in part, cutting higher education funds. This move comes as large universities like the University of Central Florida (UCF) grapple with surging enrollment. UCF’s student population has spiked in the last decade, an increase the university managed partly by automating its financial aid processes, according to Eugene Manselle, Web strategist for UCF’s Office of Student Financial Assistance.

Promoting student self-service culture

“About 2001 or so, when enrollment began rising,” said Manselle, “we started researching systems that could handle most of our financial aid processes.” According to Manselle, UCF considered a number of school-based systems, or SBS’s, before deciding on one that allowed them to tailor Web features and add more functions as needed.

The myUCF portal is one result. The portal provides a central, secure location where UCF students can access resources related to most aspects of their campus lives, from admissions and financial aid to work-study, book purchases, tuition payments, and more.

“Students can register for courses or get their grades,” said Manselle. “They can accept or decline financial aid, or complete online classes.” The portal also offers a “to-do” list for students, which reminds them what forms to submit, what “holds” they may have on financial aid, and what required workshops they have to left complete. All students have to take an alcohol awareness training, for example.

How do students like the website? “I think it gives the students a sense of empowerment and responsibility,” noted Manselle. “It also saves them a lot of time, which is a good thing. They don’t have to visit departments across campus in order to transact business.”

From the university’s perspective, the financial aid website and myUCF are a win-win. Automation cuts print costs; helps the school as a whole promote a more eco-friendly, sustainable business model; and makes a multitude of instructions, policies, and forms available at the swipe of a mouse.

A streamlining formula
Even the best-run businesses can be improved. Good office managers consider every aspect of operations as an opportunity for making the business stronger, and websites are an obvious candidate for making improvements — if only to take advantage of what the latest technology offers.

If you're responsible for content on your school's financial aid website, consider how you can make it a more versatile, information-rich tool for your customers. You'll find that with the right combination of features and functions you can anticipate questions and reduce the administrative burden on you and your colleagues. Here are a few suggested website ideas.

·        Self-serve forms center: Stock your website electronically with federal applications and forms that help you explain the financial aid process, work-study, student job placement, or college and career success. As much as possible, make information that's available in hardcopy form also available electronically. You'll cut time for students searching for information and save them a trip to the financial aid office.

·        Sample spending plans: If they just graduated from high school, your freshmen probably have little experience balancing a checkbook or computing their monthly expenses. Give them a template spending plan to follow so they can plan for costs. A worksheet can help them anticipate annual cost-of-living requirements and provide a handy tool for establishing smart fiscal behavior.

·        Calculators: More colleges are offering online calculators to help students project monthly loan payments after graduation; to gauge the expected family contribution; or even to determine net earnings given a certain salary level. You could also consider offering an expected earnings calculator. A student in a chosen field could compare what he or she might expect for a reasonable wage with projected student loan payments.

·        Feedback conduit: Offer your students a way to rate or provide an opinion about your site or about the services you provide. You'll get useful information on how they use your site and how best to give them the resources they need.

21^st century help

This generation of students was born and bred to the Web, and many students prefer to do all their business there. Take advantage of their savvy, and make them a part of your website automation process. Gather their feedback on website features and then reflect that feedback in improvements or new services. To make sure your website investment pays off, be sure to explore what other schools offer and do some statistical analysis of your website’s most popular resources. This kind of research can form a basis for any services you offer in the future as well as innovations to current content.