Northeastern University, renowned for its experiential education, boasts a diverse array of programs that offer students hands-on learning opportunities. Students across Northeastern use a customized Symplicity system called NUworks, which is a centralized repository for career readiness, co-op, experiential learning, and career design. Each school at Northeastern utilizes the system differently and customizes the system for what makes sense for their students with the data stored in a centralized place, owned and managed by the institution. At the cornerstone of each school at Northeastern is a focus on cooperative education.
The cooperative education program at Northeastern University’s D'Amore-McKim School of Business plays a pivotal role in career readiness by immersing an average of 2,300 students, annually, in four- to eight-month cooperative education experiences managed and tracked through Symplicity CSM. Overseeing co-op program operations at the undergraduate level for D’Amore-McKim is Koreena Geisler-Wagner, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives. In this role, Geisler-Wagner manages various aspects of the co-op program, from operations to data integrity & analysis, program strategy, and being a liaison to the program’s leadership team.
Northeastern University’s Co-op Division joined Symplicity in 2020 to enhance its complex co-op and experiential learning programs. The system's customization has allowed the D’Amore-McKim Undergraduate Co-op team to integrate reflection assignments, student self-assessments and employer assessments, significantly simplifying the process and reducing the need to navigate multiple systems. This centralization is invaluable, enabling holistic tracking of student evaluations, reflections, and other program requirements.
"With Symplicity I can use automated completion tracking because everything is housed centrally in NUworks, saving me time from having to bulk download and reupload into a different system."
Koreena Geisler-Wagner,
Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives, Northeastern University’s D'Amore-McKim School of Business
In 2022, D’Amore-McKim Undergraduate Co-op introduced the use of the Pathways module within CSM. “I was trying to solve the business need of lacking student engagement in our co-op reflection activities,” Geisler-Wagner said. Geisler-Wagner found that sending reflection prompts in a PDF via email hindered students from completing the reflections, rather than the questions themselves. “I was looking for something that would allow students to access all of their information at any given point in time and see their completion progress.” This automation enhanced the student experience, resulting in a remarkable increase in student engagement, from 30percent to nearly 90percent in response rates on surveys, reflections, and more!
The introduction of the Pathways module has automated the work Geisler-Wagner and her team were doing before by tracking completion of reflection assignments as students go through the lifecycle of their co-op program. The surveys and evaluation tools in CSM, combined with the system's ease of use, has contributed to enhanced internal communication and streamlined administrative tasks. “Since everything is already housed within that system, using the surveys module and the evaluation module to manage those reflection requirements, we're able to use Pathways then as a learning management system to help students understand, ‘this is what's required of you’,” said Geisler-Wagner.
Once Northeastern’s Co-op Division moved to Symplicity, “suddenly we had the capacity and capability to house everything in one system, with standardization of requirements across D’Amore-McKim’s undergraduate co-op program,” said Geisler-Wagner. “Using it as a learning management system has been great in terms of being able to collect responses for every single reflection activity that we ask students to complete.”
In a unique partnership, D’Amore-McKim cooperates with the university’s Career Design office (the career services office), which supports students' full-time career transitions. Using Symplicity as a shared platform, students' data and reflection responses are easily accessible, allowing for seamless collaboration between the two entities. "Everything related to a student’s co-op experience lives in that system," said Geisler-Wagner. “Instead of asking graduating students to meet with their co-op coordinator, we asked them to meet with Career Design by RSVPing to attend one of the workshops they're already hosting… And being able to include that RSVP link in the Pathway as part of their reflection requirements was huge!”
Making Data-Driven Decisions
One of the most significant impacts of Symplicity's integration is the access to data that was previously untapped. By using the Pathways module to enhance student engagement with reflection prompts, Geisler-Wagner's team collected a substantial dataset for analysis. “They're engaging, and now we have the data that we need to make informed decisions about where the program is going,” said Geisler-Wagner.
"From a Co-op Coordinator perspective, I think being able to get a full picture for what that student's experience has been, all within their student record, is really powerful. The user friendliness to pull the reports I need and customize them is critical to our work and is a major improvement from our old system. I cannot speak highly enough about CSM when it comes to reporting."
Koreena Geisler-Wagner,
Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives, Northeastern University’s D'Amore-McKim School of Business
This data offers invaluable insights into students' experiences, engagement levels, and the effectiveness of the D’Amore-McKim Undergraduate Co-op program. With this data, Geisler-Wagner is excited for the opportunity to generate informed and strategic program improvements. “For the first time ever, we now have sufficient data to analyze the responses we've been collecting from students for years,” Geisler-Wagner expressed.
Geisler-Wanger is able to go into CSM and design her own custom reports for her team to report to Northeastern stakeholders. “From a Co-op Coordinator perspective, I think being able to get a full picture for what that student's experience has been, all within their student record, is really powerful. The user friendliness to pull the reports I need and customize them is critical to our work and is a major improvement from our old system. I cannot speak highly enough about CSM when it comes to reporting.”
Northeastern University's D’Amore-McKim School of Business' partnership with Symplicity demonstrates the transformative impact of integrating CSM to enhance co-op and experiential learning opportunities. Through the strategic implementation of modules like Pathways, Symplicity has streamlined processes, fostered effective interactions between students and career services, and empowered data-driven decision-making for Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
Coupled with the ability to communicate directly with their Customer Success Manager at Symplicity, CSM has provided Geisler-Wagner’s team with a sense of being heard and understood, fostering a partnership that enhances the user experience.
The holistic approach to student engagement, learning management, and collaboration among career services teams has led to unprecedented levels of student participation, contributing to a richer experiential learning journey for Northeastern University's business students.