This month, teachers, academics and experts from across the education sector came together at EduTECH, Australia’s largest education event, to explore the latest technologies and trends shaping the future of learning.
Over 10,000 attendees poured into the Melbourne Convention Centre to learn from the world’s leading education technology players and education leaders on how new technologies like robotics, data analysis and AI can support mainstream learning.
With education technology and AI continuing to evolve at a rapid pace, attendees were also keen to learn how to stay ahead of the curve with their own digital transformation.
The Simplus | Infosys team was on the ground to soak up all the insights, as well as chat with visitors at the Simplus booth about how to leverage Salesforce Education Cloud to help achieve their student recruitment, retention and fundraising goals.
We also hosted a couple of roundtable sessions on leveraging CRM technology to transform education experiences, sparking thought-provoking conversations on one of the most pressing challenges facing higher education institutions – how to connect the dots between the ever-growing pools of disconnected data.
Let’s unpack the top takeaways from this year’s jam-packed event.
Understanding GenAI and how to use it
Kicking off the two-day conference was a keynote by Dr. James Curran, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Grok Academy – an Australian ed-tech charity that aims to educate learners in computing.
James remarked that while Generative AI represents an incredible opportunity, it is still a relatively immature technology within the education industry. Like all new tech, it requires some understanding of how it works, its strengths and limitations to be used safely and effectively.
When it comes to navigating the rapidly changing opportunities for AI, James said it is crucial that all schools can confidently measure the digital capabilities of their students and staff and understand how to progress in their digital transformation journey.
How AI will revolutionise education
The rise of AI has teachers and parents the world over worried about its potential to undermine education as we know it.
But Sal Khan, founder of the non-profit Khan Academy, said it doesn’t have to be the case. In his keynote address, Sal said, “We’re at the cusp of using AI for the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.”
Khan Academy, which offers free curriculum videos that have reached over a billion views, is using the power of AI to make education more accessible and personalised via its AI personal tutor and teaching assistant, Khanmigo. Rather than giving students the answers like other genAI tools, it guides learners to find the right answers themselves. Common Sense Media recently rated the AI educational tool 4 stars, higher than ChatGPT or Bard.
Table Talk: Leveraging CRM to transform higher education experiences
Simplus was thrilled to host a couple of roundtable discussions exploring how universities can harness CRM capabilities to minimise student admin and create better experiences for learners. Simplus hosts Dr Jocelyne Bouzaid and Aadi Ganesan looked at some of the top data challenges faced by the roundtable participants and others in the sector and discussed strategies to overcome them.
A major issue faced by universities today is how to unlock value from vast amounts of data to create better ways of working and engaging with students. Jocelyn explained how relying on multiple systems, marketing platforms and external sources creates a complex web of siloed data, making it difficult for universities to have visibility of the whole student lifecycle and understand how to make it better.
Roundtable participants shared their perspectives and experiences on using CRM tools like Salesforce Education Cloud to unify data, streamline processes, and deliver a more impactful education experience.
The fierce competition for new students
With enrolments in bachelor degrees falling by 12% in less than a decade, one trend we are seeing right now is the fierce competition between universities for new enrolments.
To recapture the attention of prospective students, institutions are increasingly looking to personalise engagement with new and exciting learning offerings that encourage lifelong learning.
This will rely on universities being able to better leverage their data to drive early engagement with students so that they not only attract the best and brightest, but also more diverse and equitable student populations.
Keeping students on the path to graduation
With only a third of students reporting having great university experience, Australian institutions have plenty of room to improve.
Predictive and Generative AI will play a key role in the future in helping universities be more responsive to student needs and keep more students on the path to graduation – and beyond.
For example, CRM + AI can help identify “at risk” students so that universities can proactively engage with them before it’s too late.
Achieving fundraising goals with CRM
We all know that helping students to thrive should be at the centre of fundraising goals. And yet, with federal grants decreasing per student and philanthropic revenue also in decline, universities need more engaging ways to connect with potential donors.
This is why more universities are beginning to take a data-driven and streamlined approach to fundraising.
For instance, with Salesforce Education Cloud, universities can create a timeline of their relationship with a donor, manage wealth and giving information, and add customised alerts to a profile to be reminded when important events are occurring for each donor.
Support the lifelong learner journey with Simplus
Simplus | Infosys partners with leading Australian universities and high schools to create more connected campuses and reshape the student experience from recruitment to retention and beyond.
Find out how Simplus can help you harness the power of Salesforce to achieve better learning outcomes.
