The student experience can make a big difference in how much a student learns. It also makes a big difference in whether students continue their education and recommend your institution to younger siblings and other people they know. The following will outline a few things you can do to help enhance the experience of students in your institution.
Smooth Out Your Onboarding
When students are just joining an educational institution, they often aren’t aware of the steps they need to take for a smooth onboarding. Students should receive one message that includes each step they need to take, with detailed instructions, in order, along with all necessary links. Sending one email about finance, one email about course selection, one email about textbook purchasing, and one email about residence safety and regulations increases the risk that students are going to miss something important.
It’s also vital that institutions realize that many students (especially if they’ve just left high school) have no reason to think that there is required reading before their first class. In public education, you get your outline and any assigned reading on day one. Make it clear that students should read the syllabi for each of their courses, noting that some classes have preparation requirements for the very first day. Make it clear that faculty members need to provide a digitally-accessible syllabus for each of their courses. This will help limit the number of students who feel overwhelmed at the beginning of school.
Choose Your Own Device
There are almost no jobs you can find today that don’t interact with at least some technology. If educational institutions want to help prepare students for life after school, they need to embrace devices. Many schools have figured this out and have opened themselves up to students bringing devices into the classroom or to students doing school work virtually. Of course, there are still many kinks to work out of the system. Schools that offer choose-your-own-device education, sometimes shortened to CYOD, present students with the option to learn on whatever device works best for them. This involves ensuring that course materials function on all devices, that security measures are effective on all devices, and that students who don’t have devices and the technology they need to actively participate in digital education are given devices. Students are, of course, allowed to use their own devices as well.
Support Staff Introductions
Schools vary widely when it comes to what sort of support they’re offering. At the minimum, every student should be assigned a guidance counselor and given an introductory meeting with this person. Far too often, students have highly outdated ideas of school and career options from their parents and television. If they have someone they can turn to when they’re feeling lost, confused, overwhelmed, or curious. A study conducted in 2020 on nearly 33,000 college students in America found that 50% had depression or anxiety, or both. People today are under a lot of pressure, and if you think that’s silly, consider this detail of modernity: the average working American worked more hours than a Russian peasant pre-revolution or that the average American slept for nine hours every night in 1910.
Healthy Food Options
This is non-negotiable. Do you know those mental struggles mentioned above? They’re multiplied by a diet heavy in sugar. Organic, hormone-free, non-GMO food options need to be widely available on campus, especially if your institution forces first-year students to get a meal plan. Sugar-free salad dressings need to be available, but not simply salad dressings filled with aspartame or some other kind of sweetener (even Stevia) but actually, healthy dressing made from oil and vinegar. Halal, kosher, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and other common allergen-free foods need to be available. Not simply one alternative option but several options so that kids aren’t forced to eat the same thing every day if they have dietary restrictions.
Chemicals And Fragrances
Many students have sensitivities to fragrance; some get intense headaches and brain fog. School should be a scent-free environment. While many institutions subscribe to this idea, they don’t consider the issue of fragranced cleaning products or other cleaning chemicals that produce a ton of volatile organic compounds. Clean, fresh air is vital for brain function. Consider air filtration and indoor plants if the air quality is low in your area.
The above should have provided you with a few simple ways you can improve the student experience in your educational institution. The majority of these tips are easy to adopt and help mitigate things that ruin the student experience, like confusion, poor mood due to bad health, difficulty focusing, and accessibility.