CollegeNET's StandOut AI Video Practice Prepares Students to Excel in Job Interviews

The StandOut® video interviewing system boosts confidence and develops critically important interviewing skills in the age of social distancing

Here's the latest customer feedback about StandOut:

“As soon as we looked into StandOut, we understood it was more impressive than anything else on the market. The bank of questions, the ability to customize questions, and the AI speech recognition all blew us away. It perfectly complemented the work we were already doing on career and professional development. It’s really a plug and play model – we were up and running with it in three days. And the students immediately loved it. It’s easy to use; they can review and re-record their practice interviews, and they get instantaneous feedback. We see it as a game changer.” – Bradley Bond, PhD., Dean and Associate Vice President for Graduate Studies at Northern Illinois University Graduate School

“The platform is intuitive and quick to learn – easy for students and advisors to navigate. Our students have the ability to re-record and watch their practice interviews; they can reflect on and share their responses with me, as well as invite feedback from their peers. Feedback can include verbal or written commentary about eye contact, distracting mannerisms, clarity of speech, answering all parts of a question, and so on. This kind of experience boosts students’ confidence, helps them learn to speak clearly, and succinctly, and to elaborate effectively. They tell me StandOut interviewing practice is their favorite part of the course.” – Elizabeth Wilkins, Ph.D., Professor and Coordinator of Graduate Career and Professional Development at NIU

“StandOut builds online interviewing skills that are critically important especially now, during COVID-19. The system’s bank of questions and the ability to customize questions were huge selling points for us. Plus, closed captioning allows for accessibility, along with visually reinforcing the questions being asked.” – Elizabeth Wilkins

Learn more here:

https://corp.collegenet.com/pdfs/CN-F-861%20NIU%20Customer%20Success.pdf 

The 2020 Social Mobility Index (SMI) Recognizes Schools that are Advancing Economic Opportunity, Even in the Face of a Pandemic

California and New York colleges and universities dominate the list of top 20 institutions in advancing social mobility.  

See the 2020 SMI rankings here

The 2020 Social Mobility Index has been released at a time when Covid-19 is disproportionately affecting low-income students, forcing them to abandon, delay or alter their pursuit of a college degree and the potential that degree provides for social mobility.

"One of the many silent killers of this disease is that it is taking higher education away from too many students," says Dr. Marcheta P. Evans, President of Bloomfield College in New Jersey. "Those affected the most have been first-generation college students and those who face tremendous economic and social challenges to begin with. Ultimately, we are seeing our own epidemic in higher education. Great students, students who in the process of creating generational change for themselves, are being robbed not only of an education but the opportunity and the ability to create a better future for themselves." 

"We may all be in the same storm, but we are most certainly not all in the same boat," Carol Christ, Chancellor at UC Berkeley, stated in her recent pandemic message to students.

Higher Education is the most important asset in reducing the growing wealth gap in this country

According to Jim Wolfston, President of CollegeNET, Inc.,"If we can distribute higher education across the economic spectrum, we can optimize our nation's human capital development, prepare the next generation for citizenship, and ensure social and economic opportunity.

"Unlike other college rankings that are aimed primarily at helping students select a college," says Wolfston, "the SMI helps families and policymakers determine which colleges are addressing the national problem of economic mobility. Administrators have a better chance to help strengthen US economic mobility and the promise of the American Dream if they can identify and learn from colleges that are skilled at doing this."

Learn more here: https://socialmobilityindex.org/

CollegeNET Continues to Help Schools Power Through the Covid Crisis

We're excited to be providing more customers the technology they need to overcome these challenging times.

Here's the latest customer feedback about CollegeNET's Covid-19 solutions:

"Even though we were all dealing with job related restrictions due to covid-19 and social distancing, not a single bit of the customer service experience had been lost while working together remotely. We fully attribute this to the excellent team at CollegeNET."
       -- Brian Popa, Technical Systems Director, Eastern Kentucky University

"This is superb! I am sending out my results to some of the areas that have been asking for data to get some feedback. To me this is pretty magical and finally gives us an idea of building traffic I am beyond excited. Thank you!!!"
        -- Lynn Chin, Assistant Registrar, Stony Brook University

Learn more about CollegeNET solutions for powering through covid at collegenet.com

CollegeNET Presents “Powering Through Covid Via Innovation” during the 2020 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, Oct. 27-29

The Annual EDUCAUSE conference, "The Best Thinking in Higher Education IT," is being held online for the first time, October 27-29. During an era of unprecedented challenge, the EDUCAUSE conference brings together professionals and technology providers from around the world to search for solutions to the urgent issues facing higher education today.

Find conference details and registration at:

https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference

CollegeNET’s virtual booth, “Powering Through Covid Via Innovation,” will showcase patented video interviewing and scheduling technologies that boost efficiencies -- especially during times of social distancing. Learn how Series25® Scheduling and StandOut® Video Interviewing enable institutions to:

• Stress-test “what-if” scenarios to optimize your campus distancing plans
• Experiment and optimize room capacity adjustments in bulk
• Create alternative schedules to minimize transition congestion
• React to, update, and synchronize needed changes with the super-fast LYNX SIS interface
• Offer interviews to all prospective students without the need to meet in person
• Preserve the major benefits of in-person interviews through Dynamic Scripting™ 
• Learn and apply best practices via our social distancing consulting services

Here’s what customers are saying about CollegeNET technology for social distancing:

Series25® Scheduling and Modeling Facilities for Social Distancing
“The Optimizer has been a phenomenal help. I’ve been able to run scenarios for leadership and am able to inform them on what will and won’t work. We never could have done that before!”
 – Michael Gable, The Ohio State University

StandOut® New Patented System for Safer, Scalable Admissions Interviewing
“The StandOut platform was incredibly helpful and easy to use. StandOut was a success and a great tool overall for the transfer students applying to Yale.” – Marisa Kogan, Yale University

University of Hartford Creates Award-Winning Calendar with 25Live Publisher

When a massive redesign began on the University of Hartford website in 2018, administrators turned a critical eye to their existing calendar systems.  

“We’re a very decentralized university, and a lot of our schools were using their own systems for scheduling,” says Leonard Bretton, Hartt Facilities Manager and 25Live Administrator. “Some used HTML pages to show events; some made their own Outlook calendars. At the time, we only had about three offices using 25Live and only five calendars from those offices. We really had to start thinking creatively about how we were going to bring everything together.” 

Over the course of 15 months, Bretton worked with Craig Campbell, Director of University Web Communication, to overhaul the university website and online calendar. While Campbell and the Office of Marketing and Communication created a new, modern design for the site, Bretton brought 19 university offices and organizations into 25Live and used the Publisher tool to create readable and accessible online calendars. 

 “We needed a forward-facing calendar that was readable, accessible, and that wouldn’t duplicate events,” says Bretton. “Publisher gave us the tools to do that.”    

When the new website launched, administrators submitted it to the 35^th annual Educational Advertising Awards. The EduAd Awards is the largest, oldest, and most respected educational advertising awards competition in the country. Sponsored by Higher Education Marketing Report, the 35^th Annual EduAd Awards received over 2,350 entries from over one-thousand colleges, universities and secondary schools from all fifty states and several foreign countries. 

Judges for the Educational Advertising Awards consist of a national panel of higher education marketers, advertising creative directors, marketing and advertising professionals and the editorial board of Higher Education Marketing Report. Judges award Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Merit designations to those entrants whose programs and materials display exceptional quality, creativity and message effectiveness.

The University of Hartford site was recognized in five categories, including a silver award for its online calendar. 

“Getting this award and seeing what other schools did who placed even higher really let us feel validated that we’re going in the right direction,” says Campbell. “Is it perfect yet? No. But the backbone has been setup. We’re at a point where we’re able to make better decisions, and we know we have the tools to continue improving.” 

A Message from CollegeNET

The Real Way to Affirm that Black Lives Matter Is to Deliver on Equality of Opportunity.

It is often said that in the face of injustice, silence is complicit. However, words, even righteous ones, are also complicit if they are spoken devoid of innovative action and ideas. Systemic racism in the United States persists not because people in our country have been silent, but because those who have spoken have, for too long, believed righteous words alone are sufficient. They aren’t. The theory persists that if one speaks righteous words, there will be others out there who will be inspired to act, innovate, and somehow solve the problem. Or that if enough people band together to speak righteous words, then a new “movement” will generate change. Thus, words form a kind of emollient, a righteous soothing. So long as my heart is “in the right place,” I’ve done what I can. I can take solace that I am one of the good people who has added my voice for justice.

In addition to the current resurgence of sentiment as emollient, we are watching an historic wave of righteous words serving as new corporate marketing opportunity. By saying they “care,” companies and institutions can take credit for being on the good side of the issue, without offering anything substantive that could genuinely challenge or reform the system.   

At the risk of being seen as also exploiting our nation’s resurging attention to racial injustice, we are writing here to seek attention not to ourselves, but to the ideas we have been putting forward – ideas we believe can generate equality of opportunity and thereby overcome institutionalized racism. We are in the Learning Age. Therefore, if it is possible for us to change the value system of US Higher Education from one that favors “prestige” and wealth, to one that spreads access to higher education across the economic spectrum, we can not only optimize our nation’s human capital development, but provide bonafide opportunity for all citizens, regardless of their economic background or racial heritage.    

Please visit the following links to learn more:  

●      www.socialmobilityindex.org 
In 2015, we created the Social Mobility Index in order to challenge the value system of “prestige” which, by favoring wealth in higher education, deprecates opportunity for Black and Hispanic families.

●      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baytxUfLamI
In 2019, we began production of our documentary, RIGGED, which lays bare a US higher education system that drives the growing gap between rich and poor in our nation.

COVID-19 Response: See What Schools are Saying

The CollegeNET experience goes beyond providing customers with software and tools for higher education. These unprecedented times have come with unprecedented problems, but our team is standing by to find innovative solutions to these unforeseen roadblocks. Here are just a handful of the comments we’ve received about CollegeNET’s support and customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic:

"Please pass on my thanks to everyone at Collegenet for the fantastic response you are having to COVID planning. It's been really impressive and I am grateful for how quickly your company is moving to address all the various concerns we all have. "

- Lynne Chin, Assistant Registrar for Scheduling & 25Live, Stony Brook University

“Yesterday afternoon, I communicated with our scheduling team and our supervisor, letting them know how AWESOME you guys have been during this time of uncertainty for all. We appreciate the fast speed you guys have put into providing solutions to all of your customers' scheduling needs.”

- Gelys Chacin, MALS, Sr. Classroom Planning & Scheduling Analyst Classroom Management, University of Miami

“CollegeNET has been very responsive to the unique school requests as we plan to return students to campus safely. We are very appreciative of the amazing work from our CollegeNET family.”

- Dacia Simpson, Director, Classroom Management Chair, Course Grid & Reducing Campus Density, University of Miami

“Thank you for all of your help and insight. I don't come from a technical background, and your assistance and CollegeNET's resources have made this process significantly easier than I could have imagined! I'm always blown aware with your team's responsiveness and care.”

- Jason Fowler, Coordinator for Departmental Event Advising, UMBC

"Just to pass along how (the overused word) awesome your company and teams within have been responding to left field inquiries and challenges as we all struggle with coming up with plausible solutions to the days unique and uncharted waters.”

- Michael K. Hooper, University of Arkansas

To learn more about CollegeNET’s products and services, go to collegenet.com.

COVID-19 Response Update: LYNX Patch to Streamline Course Schedule Changes

To help streamline the course scheduling changes that may be necessary to keep your staff, students, and attendees safe during the COVID-19 crisis, CollegeNET is adding options to the Series LYNX Interface to make creating date exceptions easier and more efficient. The patches are being released as soon as they are ready and include the following improvements:

• Using the “Add New Date” option in Exclude exceptions will auto-fill the next date (following the previous date you entered), so you don’t have to choose the date again
• The next date will also auto-fill when adding new Makeup and Conversion exceptions to make adding multiple dates in succession more efficient
• You will be able to copy date exceptions to another extract set 

Customer service is our priority, especially during emergencies. If you have questions, suggestions, or tips to share on how we can help you better cope during this difficult time, please contact Technical Support (support@collegenet.com) or your Account Manager (series25implementation@collegenet.com).

Thank you for your continued use of the LYNX Interface and all Series25 tools. Stay safe and well!