1. What business problem(s) did your organization / project face, and why did you choose a digital adoption strategy to help you solve it?
At Ivy Tech Community College our customers are our students. Student Retention & Success drives all strategies and initiatives at our college. Therefore, the Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) team prioritized improving the student experience by creating in-app guidance there first!
Students are expected to be familiar with roughly 40 different software platforms from registering for classes, to their digital classroom, submitting support tickets, and communicating with college staff. Students would regularly feel technology fatigue, and this could hinder some students from being successful in their academic careers. To alleviate this issue, the DAP team began by focusing on how to create the Student Experience on the following platforms: MyIvy (Service Now – Service Portal), Health Sciences Student Application (Salesforce), IvyLearn (Canvas Learning Management System), and our registration platform.
Pain Points:
- Users were not completing mandatory tasks efficiently.
- Users were confused by website elements.
- Users can complete the process, but it is inefficient.
- Users can find, or take time, locating important web pages and documents.
- Users are unable to complete the process at all without support.
- Users can complete the process, but with errors.
- We don’t yet know what’s wrong with the process.
2. How did you use WalkMe, in conjunction with other strategies and technologies, to address your challenges?
MyIvy – SNOW Service Portal
Smart Walk-Thru’s were used as a Welcome Tour to orient new students to their dashboard. Cross-application shuttle workflow was used to correctly direct students to the enrollment support center instead of generating IT support tickets incorrectly. This was a huge win to expedite students to the right team to get the help they needed. SmartTips were added to define helpful tools to assist students with organizing their favorite apps. Automation was used to eliminate unnecessary clicks to quickly get students to the support queue they need.
HS Student Application – Salesforce
ShoutOuts were used to inform users of missing information needed in order to proceed with their application. SmartTips were used to provide additional context to the time it takes for pre-requisite course processing, eliminating the creation of lots of unnecessary tickets from students. Shuttles were placed to drive students to helpful knowledge base articles needed to answer FAQs relating to the application process.
IvyLearn – Canvas LMS
SmartTips were used to properly guide students to their correct inbox to not miss important messages from their faculty, financial aid, and other support departments. SmartTips were used to assist students navigate their LMS dashboard. SmartTips were also used to help students locate their instructor feedback. Smart Walk-Thru’s & Launchers were used to help both faculty and students know where to start with a brand-new virtual proctoring system.
3. How does your digital adoption strategy, especially with regard to WalkMe, impact or benefit your end-users (customers and/or employees), your team, and leadership? RM Front End empowers RMs to deliver excellence in Wealth Management: To perform daily activities more efficiently and to deliver a differentiated client experience. WalkMe aids our end-users by ensuring:
WalkMe’s DAP has positively impacted the student experience at Ivy Tech. New students have navigation guidance just-in-time, without needing to wait for a live staff member to show them around commonly used platforms. Our Health Science application is a complicated process, and the DAP guidance has significantly reduced the need for unnecessary support tickets with common questions. In addition, students can locate important messages from the college to ensure they do not miss out on time-sensitive requirements. DAP allowed the college to provide support on new features to students, in addition to other resources, to help with successful adoption.
4. How has your digital adoption strategy, especially with regard to WalkMe, helped your organization better achieve its mission, goals, or values?
IvyLearn deployed inbox DAP guidance to assist users navigating to the correct email for students. Since deployment, 183,705 users clicked and 1,089,293 interacted with the DAP guidance, helping students navigate faster to access those time-sensitive messages.
HS Student Application went live for the first time in March 2021 in Salesforce, and within the first year accumulated 3,153 tickets. The following year, in March 2022 DAP content was launched to assist students with the application process. Since DAP went live, the tickets decreased by 53% for the same 12-month time frame.
MyIvy launcher engagement data has 58,133 interactions. The goal of DAP guidance was to reduce students submitting tickets to the wrong help desk queue. An invisible launcher with Smart Walk-Thru was deployed to route students correctly. Many students who engaged with the Invisible launcher truly needed the Enrollment & Registration team instead, which cut down the amount of incorrectly routed tickets by half.
5. What about your implementation or success makes you most proud? Why?
For the MyIvy platform, the DAP team is proud of our innovative use of an invisible Launcher with a Smart Walk-Thru to improve upon native UI of the platform to help students get to the correct support team. For MyIvy & IvyLearn we are proud of the engagement rate for both systems since they are the most used of any platform of the college. HS Student Application is a success due to the decreased amount of support tickets relating to frequently asked issues by students. For Canvas LMS, the DAP team is proud of the cross-team collaboration with the system administrative team for that platform to create a bridge between the IT and Ed Tech worlds.
6. Please share any additional information about your role in the project, your results, and/or your vision for the future that supports your submission.
Our team of 4 has shown the value of DAP across multiple applications used by students and staff. By integrating DAP within our framework, Ivy Tech has improved optimization with enrollment and administrative processes, resulting in efficiency and reduced costs. Endorsing digital adoption enables us to stay agile and responsive to changes at the college, leveraging data-driven insights to work proactively, rather than reactively. This tech-savvy approach not only enhances higher education, but also positions the college competitively, attracting both students and staff seeking innovative and digitally equipped learning environments.
Ivy Tech DAP Team: Ryan Blastick, Michelle Hall, Channing Gabe, & Christine Ring Grice
7. OPTIONAL: If you're using WalkMe outside of the project described in this submission, please share additional examples.
The Ivy Tech DAP team has WalkMe on the following systems for both student and staff users:
- ServiceNow (Environments: Service Portal, Platform UI, Agent Workspace, Service Operations Workspace, and CSM/FSM Workspace)
- Salesforce (Environments: Donor Portal and Health Sciences Student Application)
- Workday
- Tableau
- Canvas LMS
8. Company Blurb
Founded in 1963, Ivy Tech Community College is the #1 largest singly-accredited community college in the United States. Ivy Tech offers 75 academic programs serving 177,115 students with over 6,500 employees across 43 locations in Indiana.
We are a diverse open-access college that fuels Indiana’s economy through excellence in teaching and proactive engagement with industry and community partners, embedded in a culture of innovation that empowers all students to learn and succeed.