Estudias Enterprise: Communication Between Groups

Scenario : At-risk Student Needs Help
To see the power of Estudias Enterprise, take the example of a first-generation college student coming to the financial aid office worried about losing aid because of poor grades. This is a critical moment. The student has recognized that his/her academic goals are in jeopardy and has sought out help.

Ideal Case

1. the financial aid advisor recommends that the student talk to his/her academic advisor
2. financial aid advisor follows-up with the student
3. financial aid advisor follows-up with the student's academic advisor
4. the advisor recognizes that this student would be a good candidate for a student support services program.
5. advisor tell the student about the program, give directions to the program's office
6. advisor notifies director of the program that they should reach out to this student
7. advisor follows-up after a certain number of days to make sure that the student actually made it to the office.
8. When the academic advisor sees the student, he/she would note that the student also had academic problems in a previous semester and upon further inspection, would notice that the student was eligible to graduate or transfer and might need to be referred to another department.

Unfortunately, schools simply do not have the resources to go through all of these steps with every student. This means most likely neither the student's academic advisor nor the Student Support Services office will know about this student that needs help. Most busy students (especially ones that are already having academic problems) simply do not have the time or will-power to navigate the many offices and bureaucracy that characterize so many institutions. Unless this student has a lot of motivation already, this student will most likely fall through the cracks.

Solution : Estudias Enterprise
This is where Estudias Enterprise can help. Estudias Enterprise can automatically take care of many of the steps involved, reducing the process to just a few minutes. With all groups using the same Estudias Enterprise interface, it is relatively easy to create automatic, seamless communication between groups.

In the example above, a financial aid advisor would simply direct Estudias Enterprise to refer the student to his/her advisor.

Automated: Estudias Enterprise

1. Estudias identifies this student as a potential TRIO participant based on demographic information
2. Estudias recommend a referral to the TRIO department as well.
3. Estudias sends an email (or print a letter with mailing label) to the academic advisor, TRIO director and  the student.  Alternative workflows exist as well: i.e. when the TRIO director logs on, he can see "My follow-up contacts" and see that he should follow-up with that student, or a list of these students can be automatically emailed to him/her every week
4. Estudias could perhaps also include a hyperlink to the TRIO and academic advising websites with directions and other information. All of this would only take a few clicks. 
5. With all groups using the same Estudias software, Estudias knows if the student followed up with advising and TRIO. If not, Estudias can alert the student's advisor and TRIO director
6. When the academic advisor sees the student, he/she can quickly tell at a glance critical information about a student (such as the fact that the student also had academic problems last semester or is eligible to graduate) without having to memorize arcane commands and wade through many different screens

The financial aid advisor would be able to accomplish all of this with only a few clicks and without having to know about other programs for which this student may be eligible (in this case TRIO) and their eligibility requirements.