Situation
Maryville University was looking for a way to streamline the test request process for students and administrators alike by automating how tests were requested, how professors were notified, and how testing appointments were scheduled. The team's ultimate goal was to make this process as easy and efficient as possible while enabling important data to be easily collected and assessed. In the past, a staff member had to manually enter each and every testing appointment into the department's testing calendar in Outlook. This was not only time-consuming, but also increased the chance of user error. In addition, the department used valuable staff hours to collect and report on data as needed, since they did not yet have access to quicker reporting methodology.
“Given that we're now proctoring over twice as many tests as we were last year, this improved functionality has saved so much time!"
Solution
With Accommodate, the Disability Support and Success team no longer has to manually enter each testing appointment into a calendaring system - instead, these appointments now pop up automatically on the Accommodate calendar once a student's request has been approved. Students can now see all of their appointments from the student interface, which eliminates the risk of a missed or forgotten appointment. The university has also configured their Accommodate system to allow the sending of appointment-specific reminder and follow-up emails to students and professors, ensuring proper communication between all parties involved throughout the entire process. Additionally, the team can now tie each testing appointment to specifics such as which student, test room, semester, and course the appointment is for, which greatly enhances and simplifies the department's data collection.
Success
By using the calendar in Accommodate and eliminating their usage of Outlook, the Disability Support and Success team has saved an incredible amount of time and made departmental workflows much easier administratively. The team has made it a point to make user instructions as clear as possible for students and being available if students ever have issues using the system. The department has not had any issues since they started actively using the module in Fall 2015 - "Students have transitioned really easily into using this system," says Anna Kisting, Director of Disability Support and Success.
“In the past, we used valuable student and staff hours to tally and tabulate data as needed; now, this information takes me less than 2 minutes to collect through the reporting module!"
