Summary

Tufts University needed a way to better support students at scale through proactive advising and holistic degree planning. While it was important for them to adopt technology that made it easier to track student progress and communicate with other departments, a key component of their search was finding something that resonated with the modern user experiences their students are used to. Additionally, like many institutions, their advisors were spending a lot of time printing out transcripts and degree sheets to understand what classes students still needed to take, leaving less room for more valuable discussions with students about their career interests and goals. Tufts turned to Stellic for a student-centered solution that would eliminate manual efforts and ensure students were better supported throughout their journey towards graduation.

The Challenges‍

One of the biggest roadblocks that advisors faced was strategically tracking a large quantity of students. Without an alert system, advisors were unable to quickly identify students who may have received an incomplete grade or withdrawal. Most student/advisor meetings were spent pulling up paperwork and comparing transcripts with checklists that weren’t digitized, so Tufts began their search for a proactive degree planning and advising solution that would require a minimal lift from their IT team.

‍“We were looking for technology that could work with our existing infrastructure. Stellic was a flexible, user-friendly solution that hit all our checkboxes with a low barrier to entry, fast integration, and a student-centered team.” - Briana Bouchard, Academic Coordinator, Tufts University‍

The Solution

Since adopting Stellic’s advising & planning platform, the advising team at Tufts University has been able to save a significant amount of time when it comes to reviewing student progress. When preparing to meet with students, advisors can now view a student’s history and previous notes through the platform. Students and advisors can then collaborate on the same plan simultaneously, and walk through what future semesters will look like together. After meeting with students, advisors can easily add notes and log a concern directly into Stellic, communicate with students and other staff members, review student plans, and send reminders to students about recommended courses - all through one, centralized system.

“The ability to just pick up where I’ve left off with a student and easily understand what requirements they have remaining has been a huge turning point and time saver. My meetings with students are much more efficient now.” - Briana Bouchard, Academic Coordinator, Tufts University‍‍

‍The Impact‍

Moving away from paperwork and manual progress-tracking has also allowed advisors to dedicate more time towards holistic student support. Bouchard notes that many of her students now come to advising sessions prepared with future semesters already planned out, allowing them to engage in richer conversations around research opportunities, co-curricular activities, and career goals.

“I absolutely love Stellic! So much better than trying to plan a schedule through our SIS.” - Student, Tufts University

Another notable improvement has been the ability to leverage analytics to identify and reach out to a specific subset of students. Advisors and other administrators can now run customizable, real-time student reports that allow them to check average grades or identify students who are missing certain requirements. From there, they can follow up directly with these students by sending them messages individually or en masse.

Given the user-friendly experience that Stellic provides, the staff and faculty at Tufts were able to quickly jump into the platform, understand and have access to the right student data, and make a collaborative impact on student support. And with over an 80% student adoption rate, students are now planning ahead and empowered to drive their own academic success with effective support from their advisors along the way.