Advising Management
Many academic advisors live in a world of organized chaos. Student support information is often stored in many locations – paper documentation, Excel spreadsheets, campus information systems, and in the minds of faculty members. Appointment scheduling is typically done with pen and paper, and appointment notes are filed into massive folder libraries. Simply the administrative aspect of advising can be incredibly time-consuming. Concepts like student engagement and student retention are great ideals, but advisors are often overwhelmed just trying to survive day-to-day student support, and these concepts end up being neglected. Enter GradesFirst. Our software tools simplify student support and minimize time spent on administrative tasks, thereby freeing advisors to focus on the primary goal of student engagement and student retention. Interested? Read on to find out more.
Student Information Center
Oftentimes, student support information is disorganized and disconnected. Related data is stored in unrelated locations. Unfortunately, storing data in this manner is time-consuming and often inaccurate. With GradesFirst, student support data is organized and easy to manage. It aggregates student schedules, advising reports, progress reports, tutor information, and notes from student meetings into a single database, accessible from anywhere.
Centralized Student Documentation
Quickly review and share records for all types of student documentation. This includes communication records like e-mail, text messages, and phone calls. You can also review and share notes on students, early alerts, and evaluations from tutor or advisor sessions.
Kiosk
Kiosk is a multi-purpose element of GradesFirst that manages check-in’s or appointments at a support facility. It is designed for a diverse range of activities, from academic advising to student study hall. Kiosk works great with touch-screen monitors, iPad’s, and tablets, and it integrates seamlessly with student id card readers. Kiosk tracks visit reasons and visit duration, and it can be used in a variety of ways. Kiosk can power a welcome desk operated by university staff, assisting them with appointment scheduling, accepting walk-in’s, and operating appointment queues. Or, it can be used as a self-help station where students can check themselves in, schedule appointments, communicate with their advisors, or take their place on a walk-in waiting list.
Student Evaluations
After Kiosk handles your appointments and walk-in’s, you can use GradesFirst to generate student evaluations and reports based on those visits. It’s easy for an advisor to request faculty input and quickly receive a response. No paperwork, no forms, no interoffice mail.
Advanced Search
GradesFirst enables precise search functionality. Need to see all your Football Linebackers? Freshmen in English 101, Section 3? Juniors with a GPA less than 2.5? You can do it in seconds with GradesFirst.
Calendar
Simplify time management with the GradesFirst Calendar. It is tightly integrated into the advising, tutoring, and classes modules, and it includes data from all of these elements automatically. For example, if a student signs up for an appointment with an advisor, the meeting is automatically added to both the student and the advisor’s calendars. Or, if an advisor tries to schedule a meeting with a student during one of their class periods, it will notify them and prompt that there is a conflict, asking to confirm if they still want to book that time.
Organizational Tools
The GradesFirst calendar also has handy organizational tools such as drag-and-drop appointment editing. Need to change your appointment from Tuesday at 1 to Thursday at 1? Just drag the box from one day to the other. Or appointment categories, which will color code meetings by type, enabling quick recognition and organization. You can also do basic tasks like printing your calendar, or changing the scope of your view.
Appointment Availability
Most advisors have specific office hours that they’re available for appointments. These can be entered into GradesFirst, and this information is automatically displayed when people need to schedule a meeting with them. This visibility makes it easy to find a time that works for both parties. When making group appointments, GradesFirst cross references the schedules of every attendee and suggests possible appointment times based on everyone’s availability.
Calendar Sync is a Snap
It’s easy to sync your personal calendars with GradesFirst. Our software integrates with Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook, Zimbra, and any calendar that uses the iCalendar file format.
Online Appointment Campaigns
The feature enables an advisor to request that specific students select a date and time in which to schedule an appointment. This is in contrast to the advisor creating appointments for each and every student, which can be a time consuming task. Appointment campaigns are commonly used when an advisor must meet with all of their students at least once per term.
Travel Letters
This feature automatically determines all classes, assignments, and appointments that a student will miss due to a school activity. Then it will notify the affected tutors, advisors and professors that the student will be absent due to this school event.
Appointment Reminders
In our fast-paced society, it’s easy to let appointments slip through the cracks. But for student support teams, missed appointments can create significant headache and expense. For busy students, missed appointments can mean decreased engagement. To address this, GradesFirst can send automatic reminders for upcoming advising appointments via text message or email.
Detailed Reporting
GradesFirst provides a vast array of reports that give advisors excellent visibility into what’s happening in GradesFirst. Track student assignments, absences, dropped classes, at-risk students, study hall activity, tutor appointments, tutoring no-shows, tutor payroll, progress reports, kiosk visits, and Facebook app users.
Powerful Administration
Advising Management is a snap with our administration tools. Easily mass edit your data and assign Student Advisors, Coaches, Sports, Categories, At-risk status, Tags, and Weekly Study Hall Requirements.
