Page 15 - CT Innovation in Education, 2021

CONTINUAL REEVALUATION. Institutions don’t like being locked into long, complex and expensive projects where they don’t see a return until the very end. While the implementation is staged, at each phase the institution can reevaluate based on what they’ve learned so far and choose to pivot because priorities have changed or student preference has evolved.
INTEGRATION WITH EXISTING SYSTEMS IS ESSENTIAL.
A successful solution must play well with an institution’s existing applications, including student information, learning management and content management; human resources; constituent relationship management; and reporting and analytics. That makes the solution easier to implement and
it generates more value out of the existing investments. We have partnered with industry consortia, including Unizin and RHEDcloud, to produce many of the connections required; but sometimes custom connectors are also needed.
STUDENT SUCCESS INITIATIVES CAN BE FOUND IN ANY KIND OF SCHOOL. We have found success in community colleges, research universities and private liberal arts colleges. In each case, we have brought the technology — AI models trained through public data sets — while the individual school has supplied the local knowledge and its own data for retraining the model to generate the most value. The good news is that training the model doesn’t require much technical knowledge. It
can be as simple as loading new questions and answers into a Google Doc, and the solution will automatically learn from that document.
STUDENT SUCCESS DOESN’T HAVE TO COST A
LOT. Institutions look for solutions that are sustainable and affordable — this was a strong driver in the development of Student Success Services. We want this technology to help all types of institutions, even the ones that aren’t currently using Google Workspace for Education. As with everything we do at Google, we don’t want anybody using a tool we’ve built because they have to, but because they want to.
As schools struggle to fill the enrollment gaps and keep current students on track, artificial intelligence and machine learning can lend a helping hand. Google Cloud Student Success Services combines best-in-class security, application choice, ease of use and a high-touch student experience to help transform the academic lifecycle, from attracting and enrolling students, to supporting them in their learning efforts, and then watching them graduate, move into their careers and eventually return to the college as alumni, supporters and fans.
Jesus Gomez is a strategic business executive focused on Student Success Services in Google Cloud’s public sector, with responsibilities for education and research.
Student Success Services
Attract and support the next generation of students while optimizing operations and improving financial sustainability
Learn more
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