KSU Navigate, a new technology platform more than two years in the making, will fully launch on Nov. 18, giving 91ֿ students an easy and efficient way to schedule tutoring and academic advising putting them on track for success in their coursework.
The new platform is the latest innovation in 91ֿ’s nationally recognized student support services.
Eboni Pringle, Ph.D., interim senior vice president for the Division of Student Life, said the administration realized the university needed to improve and enhance student support when it came to arranging a meeting with an academic advisor or engaging in tutoring. KSU Navigate will offer that enhanced support and eventually do much more.
“It was about meeting students where they are,” Pringle said. “It puts the information and the access at their fingertips in easily accessible ways that previously we haven’t been able to do.”
Pringle described the former website-based scheduling process as “clunky” and said it didn’t meet students where they are now, using their phones as their primary technology for activities and tasks.
The new experience begins with downloading the KSU Navigate app, either for iOS, Android or desktop.
To begin, a student must head to their app store for the free download of the version that best suits their phone or desktop. The KSU Navigate website offers instructions for downloading and using the app every step of the way.
John Jewell, Ph.D., associate dean for Academic Student Support Services in University College, said the app will bring consistency across all university departments, colleges and campuses.
“It’s extremely important because it provides the same student experience across the university, so every student is going to have, via the app, the same experience making an appointment with an advisor or making a tutoring appointment,” he said.
For tutoring, the app has been fully functioning since the beginning of the fall semester, and Jewell said students have been embracing it and the data shows it has helped to connect students from all campuses.
Students who may need tutoring, for example, may not be able to find an immediate appointment on their campus but may be able to sign up for a virtual appointment with a tutor on a different campus, enabling the student to get the timely help they need.
Charity Miller, director of university advising in University College, said the same is true for the advising side of the app. If a student needs to speak with an advisor and their own isn’t available, the app can show them what advisors are available to help them to fit the student’s schedule.
“We want them to be able to have the choice to get in and to see another advisor because we want them to get the service that they need,” Miller said.
During the testing that has taken place to date, the student feedback has been very favorable on the scheduling through the app because students don’t have to answer as many questions before they can make an appointment for help, and the whole process is simpler and easier, she said.
“The system is more student-friendly,” Miller said.
Another feature of the app is that after advisors log their notes from an advising session, the student will then have access to those notes to review at any time.
“So, if there’s something they don’t remember, they can reference that in the advising summary and go back and see that information,” she said.
To create the new app, 91ֿ partnered with EAB, a leader in higher education innovation, to use its Navigate 360 academic success platform and customize it for 91ֿ students under the name KSU Navigate.
“The success of this effort would not have been possible without the collaboration with our Division of Information Technology and the leadership of Holly Slocum, executive director of IT, and Jennifer McDonough, Ph.D., senior associate vice president for the Office of Strategy Management,” Jewell said.
Learn how to use the KSU Navigate app.
Particularly for first-generation college students, who are navigating a complex unfamiliar environment, the app puts help right at their fingertips, he said.
“The platform fits so seamlessly with our Flashes Take Care of Flashes culture,” Jewell said. “We know some students are reluctant to ask for help because it’s not normalized. This helps normalize that help-seeking behavior so that they can be successful.”
The app was tested through a pilot program in the College of Nursing, College of Arts and Sciences and all Regional Campuses.
Early data from the pilot program shows that students are using the app and are finding the help they need, Jewell said.
For now, the app will enable students to schedule meetings with an advisor or schedule tutoring. In the future, though, the app and platform can be expanded to include areas such as financial aid or housing.
For instance, currently, instructors can issue an “early alert” for a student who may be falling behind in a course. That program would be integrated into KSU Navigate so that the instructor can connect with the student through the app and tutoring or other help can be scheduled in the app with a few taps on their phone screen.
“Now instead of telling the student ‘Hey, you should go to the Learning Center for tutoring,’ it’s live. The faculty or staff member could make a referral and then someone at that service point says ‘Hey come in.’ So, the power of this system in its totality is that the loop gets closed,” Jewell said.
As a tool, KSU Navigate will enable faculty and staff to connect to students in a meaningful way and give them a 360-degree view of a student, but the platform also helps faculty and staff by making it easier and more seamless for them to help students and each other, Pringle said.
“Information is power and this really powerful tool helps support our community because we all have access to information that wasn't available to us in the past," Pringle said.