TechBuzzard 
Educational intelligence is a critical component of universities that want to design student-first programs focused on empathy and career preparedness. With automation and digital transformation, gathering data to take action is straightforward. Every decision will change students’ trajectories to greater success inside the classroom and beyond.
What Tools Help Gather Data About Student Success?
Find out what organizations enable universities to track data without the tedium so learners get the best education possible.
1. Watermark Insights
Watermark Insights has over 20 years of expertise in higher education data and enabling universities to take action. Its products make visualizing the most complex metrics for measuring student success simple, helping create the most actionable, high-value goals for every semester.
Institutions already navigate the complex world of tracking grades and funding, and software from Watermark reduces data entry requirements. It allows schools to spend more time securing investments, meeting compliance and guiding students on the most fulfilling educational journey. Watermark’s Curriculum Strategy feature is ideal for reimagining a program that requires a refresh. It uses student feedback to inform the outcomes, ensuring the most essential stakeholders are included in the equation.
Its solutions collect everything you need to know about student success into a clean, customizable dashboard. Simplify accreditation processes without taking time away from students. This is where the Course Evaluations and Surveys feature comes into play — it gleans powerful feedback from students and translates it into the next best steps. Watermark Insights also partners with Lightcast to investigate how its course offerings correlate with the job market.
Another feature is the Faculty Success platform, which offers countless services competitors have not yet embraced for measuring student success, including:
- Customizable CV imports
- Research-informed reports
- Configurable faculty activity reporting
- Profile syncing based on a university’s website
2. Hello Mongoose
Hello Mongoose is a conversational intelligence platform for higher education. It boasts 10% higher enrollment rates, 98% retention rates for those who opt in and a 300% increase in charitable giving. The software is SOC 2-certified, meaning it prioritizes safeguarding student data. It protects learners and their information while making organizations more compliant with regulations.
The software uses many features to learn about students while keeping them engaged. Mongoose Text is a messaging system that can perform outreach, including asking applicants if they have questions or if students need financial aid help. It also has an AI-driven chatbot and WhatsApp platform so users have versatility in how they communicate with institutions.
Administrators will love the Mongoose Insights intelligence platform. It translates what it learns through conversations into goals. Every word is carefully considered as a behavioral and sentiment analysis to keep students involved. It is also an ideal platform for maintaining interested donors. The follow-ups and event notifications are automated, targeting disengaged individuals to remind them why school matters.
Reviewers say it helps them reconnect with those who are not answering phone calls and prevents feelings of isolation. Every department, including admissions, advisement, housing and enrollment, could gain something from using Hello Mongoose.
3. Druid AI
Druid AI is another conversationally focused artificial intelligence platform. Its goals are to make student life easier to handle, empower faculty and ensure learners get experience that will translate into the job field. Here are some of the stats Druid highlights:
- 60% time reduction in helping students with submitted documents
- 30% boost in student satisfaction because of relevant, 24/7 support
- 55% of universities have AI agents and give staff higher-value work
The AI agent is Druid’s claim to fame. It contains a solution library with over 500 skills, ensuring it can solve as many student problems as necessary. It even accounts for variations in multiple processes. For example, Druid streamlines enrollment by guiding students through the following steps, clarifying documentation submissions and having an instantaneous response time to handle problems in real time.
It is also a teacher’s assistant, helping grade assignments and answering questions about their student demographics. Administrators, teachers and more can do all these things without manual data entry, so they can focus on more important responsibilities that will support student success.
A case study from Georgia Southern University demonstrated the value of these programs. The institution experienced $2.4 million in added revenue after using Druid because of its increased reputation. Enhancing accessibility to student services and reinforcing an engaging community were key to the success.
4. Holon IQ
Holon IQ bundles education and workforce intelligence into one dashboard. Its robust suite has helped academics and governments alike, proving its ability to transform how organizations establish a productive, digital-first culture. Some of its top users include Vanderbilt, Arizona State and Western Governors University. It also has the power to support some of the world’s largest tech companies, including Google and Apple.
The platform is completely customizable, allowing administrators to create data visualizations with a student-centric focus. It encourages schools to push into new verticals, including online programs and upskilling collaborations with other businesses. The insights leaders gain from Holon IQ will guide them on what matters most based on their students’ success metrics and needs.
The dashboards are expansive, including AI-informed solutions, educational datasets, microcredential strategizing, competitive market maps and a retention framework. Every university department will benefit from seeing their students’ growth areas and potential in one place, enabling the creation of more concrete goals for transforming operations.
Institutions can request a demo or sign up for its education and higher education technology newsletters to discover why digital transformation is necessary in modern teaching.
The Metrics That Matter
Determining the student body’s preparedness, engagement and contentment can take many forms. You can measure the number of graduates and average credit hours, but data can provide a more nuanced, quantitative understanding of higher education with these details. What are the most common metrics for measuring student success that could make the most difference with more advanced technologies?
Classroom Attendance
Absenteeism is a staple data point for many reasons. Many students see dips in academic performance if they attend fewer classes. However, it also reflects on the university.
While learners can miss class for personal reasons, they may skip because of the facility. The classrooms could feel unappealing or include minimal tech upgrades, and the quality of professors may be less than satisfactory.
Behind-the-scenes success for students accommodates every possible reason attendance could go down. This includes:
- Renovating classrooms.
- Having flexible attendance policies.
- Allowing remote connectivity.
- Having empathy for students.
- Incorporating more one-on-one connection opportunities.
- Drafting outreach plans.
Mental Health Support Utilization
After the COVID-19 pandemic, educators saw more students express disinterest in entering higher education. They also witnessed existing learners distance themselves from their studies and dedication toward career progression. Universities must track how much they leverage school-sponsored resources to ensure their happiness and academic commitment.
Universities that fail to prioritize mental wellness for their students will see dropout rates, absenteeism and retention fluctuate. Many institutions track these numbers, but the utilization of mental health services is influential in countless tertiary metrics for measuring student success.
Career Readiness and Job Placement
Judging a student’s readiness requires soft and hard skill analysis. Testing, internships and other projects can reveal proficiencies. Everything from tech literacy to work ethic reflects the learner’s growth because of their chosen university. The university is responsible for conveying expectations so students can align themselves with its vision.
Programs like Watermark use readiness insights to help administrations identify early warnings if a student’s success is in flux. This way, everyone from counselors to professors can help students recalibrate before morale and performance become difficult to manage as the semester ends.
Diverse Enrollment
Schools are an opportunity for people to meet others from different backgrounds. They should also represent a collection of ideas, regardless of identity or ability. Universities have to track diverse enrollment to promote a culture of fairness, anti-discrimination and equality. A balanced student body feels more welcoming to all, which is vital for creating the university of the future.
Many of the world’s best schools have controversial histories in which racism and prejudice tarnished reputations. Administrators must commit to tracking this metric for measuring student success because it lays a new foundation for the type of environment universities should offer.
Frequently Asked Questions About Student Data
Here are some tips for schools on how to apply what they learn from Watermark’s platform.
What Is Education Intelligence?
Educational intelligence uses analytics to inform decision-making. Schools can use data to include or remove programs, update facilities or hire new professors. The possibilities are endless and depend on what metrics colleges want to track and what they want to gain from the data. However, the only way to make the most out of the information is by transforming it into action, which software like Watermark’s can inspire.
What Are the Most Common Metrics for Measuring Student Success?
Grades and graduation rates are some of the most common numbers universities default to when measuring performance. However, these alternative metrics provide a more detailed picture of a learner’s holistic university journey than grades.
What Is the Biggest Indicator of Student Success?
When using these resources, schools want to track the most important numbers. These vary with every institution, especially if they have unique focuses like tech advancement or the performing arts. Course completion may be the most important marker for success at one school, while community involvement could be tops for others.
Administrators can make the most value of every metric by defining clear outcomes for what they want the numbers to look like. Then, they can adjust the college’s values based on this vision. Communicating with students is the next step, as a shared understanding of the university’s goals will encourage them to adapt to these set expectations.
Why Universities Need to Care More About the Numbers
Future generations will have different educational priorities than the students who came before them. Colleges need to use educational intelligence to revise their policies, create a warm atmosphere and establish relevant curricula that entice people to take the option more seriously.
Entities adopting platforms like these will have a competitive edge, maintain high enrollment rates and secure funding to continue providing education for years to come. Request a demo to see how it could perfect your analytics efforts and set students up for a bright future.
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