Single software solution maps entire student journey for uni

TechnologyOne customer James Cook University is using technology to improve and optimise the student experience and an element of its ongoing digital transformation.

James Cook University in North Queenland offers great flexibility in their learning programs for students, after going live with TechnologyOne’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform

TechnologyOne customer James Cook University in North Queensland has taken flexible learning a step further than most other institutions. Under a program called JCU Flex, students in some faculties can mix up their learning modes to match their own needs and external commitments.

One week they could live stream classes, the next they could take classes on demand at times of their own choosing and the third week they could attend lectures and tutorials in person.

“It’s a step ahead of studying remotely, which is what a lot of other universities are doing,” says JCU chief digital officer Geoff Purcell. “The JCU Flex subjects are taught in much smaller, more intimate spaces than large lecture theatres.”

The university uses multiple cameras for Flex classes so students feel as if they’re in the room and to provide an equivalent experience regardless of whether the student attends in person, streams live or takes the classes on demand.

Students will also choose which of JCU’s four campuses they study at – Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane or Singapore – and could do a year in each if they so choose. Classes in one location will be streamed into the other three.

JCU also encourages students at its North Queensland campuses to do a trimester or even a term in Singapore in the same course. “We think that’s offering an international flavour to the North Queensland experience that we haven’t traditionally offered,” says Purcell.

Flex is one of the ways the university is using technology to improve and optimise the student experience and an element of JCU’s ongoing digital transformation. The university is currently mapping the entire student journey and how it is supported from a customer relationship management perspective. It is aiming to have a single customer relationship system that will manage the entire student journey – from initial inquiry, through application, then enrolment, through the study period, to graduation to becoming an alumnus and then continuing with lifelong learning.

“That’s an example of where we’ve got multiple CRMs that do that at the moment,” Purcell says.

JCU has recently gone live with TechnologyOne’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for Financials and Student Management and is planning an ambitious roadmap of additional features, including adopting further modules from TechnologyOne to further improve the student experience, bolstering student support and improving compliance reporting.

TechnologyOne said the move to SaaS will also help JCU reduce its total cost of ownership, with a single solution built on a single code line for its finance, budgeting and student management, eliminating the need for multiple vendors, multiple points of failure and complex ecosystems driving up costs. It’s also an example in the shift of focus that comes with digital transformation. Whereas information technology used to be chiefly focussed on technology, digital technology focusses on people, process and place as well as technology.

According to Chandan Potukuchi, chief technology officer at TechnologyOne, JCU is a great example of an institution that is connecting with its students.

The domestic market for students is competitive and universities are trying to make their technology and applications highly engaging for students, he said.

Students used to base their selection of university on where their parents studied or whether their friends were going there, but their demands have changed.

“It’s now about the experience they’re getting at institutions. They want to go to an institution that has a richness of technology, a simple offer, a balance of online and on premise,” says Potukuchi. “Universities want to make sure their offering is really streamlined, and that they are digitally ahead of the curve and JCU is a great example of that.”

Data is central to digital transformation and improving the student experience. As such, JCU has built a business intelligence and data warehouse group.

“Professional and technical staff can get access to that information, can analyse it and slice it and dice it in different ways to identify correlations in data and identify trends and then respond, making decisions that are based on data rather than decisions that are based on intuition or experience,” Purcell says.

JCU’s deputy vice chancellor, Indigenous education and strategy Professor Martin Nakata has for some years been researching retention rates for Indigenous students and has used the information to implement programs to improve retention and success rates of these students. Success rates for Indigenous students almost mirror those of non-Indigenous students, Purcell says. The program examines the wellbeing and mental state of students instead of being reactive after a student has failed to submit and assignment or missed a class.

“That’s too late for a lot of students, particularly Indigenous students,” says Purcell. “You need to be doing a pulse check on those students periodically as they go through, particularly in first year, because first year has the highest dropout rate.”