Find out how your organization can best leverage its digital transformation by using PDF and eSign tools and working effectively with students, faculty and staff from anywhere.
Tools to support online learning in higher education
Policy and procedure—the bread and butter of any organization’s technology strategy. Yet, in higher education, it often looks more like the Wild West. One department tracks a student’s academic progress through the college’s CRM, while another uses an Excel spreadsheet. One recruiter uses a digital form to take inquiries from interested students at a college fair, while another manually enters paper inquiry cards filled out at the previous event.What is online learning?
Students will say online learning, or remote learning, is a flexible and affordable alternative to the more traditional college experience. Those working within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) see a whole new set of needs necessary to maintain the quality education experience students expect whether taking a course on campus or from their home.6 ways digital processes benefit online learning
1. Higher education marketing and communication professionals need branded and easily customizable digital materials that attract new students who may never set foot on campus.2. Distance learning increases course sizes, requiring a streamlined signature process so professors can respond quickly and share signed documents in a central and accessible space for colleagues.
3. Online learners will process all academic forms virtually, requiring units to provide access to digital, current materials and workflows to avoid bottlenecks—especially at the start of a term.
4. An influx of online learning will require additional personnel to support. In today’s largely remote workforce, human resources must adopt a digital transformation to execute employment contracts and complete the onboarding process.
5. Online learners eventually become part of a large HEI alumni base. Development officers connect with these individuals often and need simple tools for drawing up donation agreements and ways to track/store that information in a central database.
Why are PDF and eSign tools a valuable investment for online learning technology?
Think through the number of units within a large university. Universities house multiple colleges, degree programs and offices supporting academic departments.- How do you rectify inconsistent processes?
- How do you wrangle the dozens of ways these entities approach completing the same task?
- And how do you form the governance needed to maintain those new processes?
A digital transformation means no haphazard workflows
A constant topic of conversation among academic and enrollment leaders is the looming enrollment cliff only two years away. Between 2025 and 2029, the United States will see a 15 percent decrease in college-going populations, meaning higher education institutions must find new ways to set themselves apart.
Remote learning is a perfect example of this.
Some schools already put big money into online course offerings. With 14.8 percent more students registering for at least one online course in 2021 compared to 2019, Higher Education Institutions will miss out on a huge enrollment generator if they don’t establish the tools for a successful digital transformation and an intuitive online learning experience today.
Think of how a secure eSign tool would affect a registrar’s office’s ability to collect student forms. Depending on the academic need of the student , one form could require up to four signatures. A credit overload form typically needs the signature of the student in addition to the signature and approval of an advisor, academic affairs officer, and the department chair.
Questions about where to start with digital transformation? Contact Nitro’s education experts today.
Nitro PDF, eSign, and analytics solutions for higher education
When you partner with Nitro, you will standardize your organization’s digital transformation and scale our PDF, eSign, and analytics solutions to tackle the evolving challenges created by an online learning environment. With a powerful API, you can also integrate Nitro with your existing organizational software.
Even better—Nitro only charges for completed signatures, unlike the majority of our competitors that charge for any requested signature.
Nitro PDF enables your educational organization to:
- Eliminate common productivity bottlenecks by giving every knowledge worker the power to edit and convert PDFs and eSign documents on any device.
- Improve security and efficiency by keeping document workflows digital vs. paper-based.
- Establish a form of governance to maintain consistent, up-to-date documentation.
- Standardize a single PDF solution to simplify IT management.
- See real results through quick adoption and high user satisfaction.
- Reduce costs with the leading Adobe® Acrobat® replacement.
Can you measure the ROI of digital transformation solutions?
For those of you who work in IT management at an HEI—what is one of the first things leaders ask when suggesting a new product?How will we measure the ROI?
Nitro Analytics makes it easy with valuable insights to demonstrate ROI without the guesswork. The system provides automatic calculators and dashboards showing usage, productivity score, and environmental impact across Nitro solutions. This helps you optimize your licenses, user adoption, productivity, and ROI while making a positive contribution to the environment.
Schedule a demo to explore Nitro PDF, eSign, and Analytics solutions for your institution.