Education Cloud Keynote Recap: Innovative Lifelong Learning for Everyone

Trailblazers all over the world from K-12 schools, higher ed, and Salesforce.org are working together to achieve Sustainable Development Goal #4 — increase access to quality education. During the Education Cloud keynote at Dreamforce, we heard from San Mateo County Community College District (SMCCCD) and Arizona State University (ASU) about their digital transformation strategy. There are three parts to digital transformation that helped them on their path to success.

1. Become a digital-first school: Make it easy for students to get what they need and to use self-service tools.
2. Gain access to actionable insights: Empower everyone to take the next best action for students.
3. Get a 360-degree view of students: Personalize and streamline the student experience with integrated data.

What does this digital transformation formula look like in practice at SMCCCD and ASU?

SMCCCD: Supporting Lifelong Learners Across Three Campuses

Equity and social justice are key to the mission of San Mateo County Community College District, and part of this means addressing challenges with housing, access to transportation, and food insecurity.

To make college more accessible, the community college district is focused on eliminating achievement gaps across all demographic segments. With the SMCCCD Promise Scholars program, students can get comprehensive support that’s beyond just tuition assistance. The program covers fees and transportation, books, and more, all of which are barriers that can prevent students from being able to pursue higher education. Students also receive support services to help them graduate on time so they can start their careers or go on to four-year institutions throughout their journey of lifelong learning.

Salesforce.org Education Cloud helps the district support lifelong learners across three different campuses (Cañada College, College of San Mateo and Skyline College) while also driving real-time report metrics on student outcomes. Salesforce Advisor Link Pathways, a new Education Cloud feature, will help counselors guide students on their pathway to success from day 1 with collaborative degree planning. Counselors will get notifications of new students in their queue automatically and will be able to see student interactions in one place — texts, emails, etc., — so students don’t have to repeat the same information across multiple departments.

SMCCCD can tailor journeys in Marketing Cloud to all types of students, including first-gen students, to help support them throughout their education journey. Students across the district will also be able to use an Einstein Bot to ask questions 24/7, even if they’re off campus. Counselors can then review the chatbot transcripts in real time and add additional resources in a follow up email, e.g. transportation vouchers, academic support information and more. The new Einstein Template for Recruitment and Admissions will also provide the district with intelligent insights into upcoming classes, making it easier to understand who their prospective students are, where they come from, and what they intend to study at one of the three campuses.

“Students don’t just interact with just one department. With Education Cloud, we can bring all of that cross-departmental data into one dashboard, one place, and that can make a huge difference in student retention and completion.”

– Dr. Karrie Mitchell, Vice President of Planning, Research and Institutional Effectiveness, San Mateo County Community College District

ASU: A Campus of Lifelong Learners

Another example of making education accessible, personalized, and inclusive for 21st century careers is Arizona State University. Enrollment is up 10% at ASU and the school recently welcomed their largest class ever this year, with over 119,000 students, 35% of which are first-generation. U.S. News and World Report has ranked ASU the most innovative university for the last 5 years.

One way that ASU draws in new students is a “choose your own adventure” online quiz for transfer students. It’s an interactive way for prospective students to see what they can focus on — and this quiz kicks off a customized email sequence using Marketing Cloud, with four personas focused on content that maps to goals around affordability, environment, outcomes, and prestige. Students are supported by a personalized experience from the beginning of their journey with ASU.

ASU and Salesforce have been design partners for the past year to leverage blockchain technologies to create a Trusted Learner Network (TLN) that can keep track of an individual’s learning accomplishments at all stages of their life and allows the institutions to issue, verify, and share a student’s learning accomplishments.

Today’s lifelong learners are likely touching several different educational institutions throughout the course of their lifetimes and blockchain technology allows ASU to reflect that reality in this new concept of the learner record.

At ASU, a personalized approach doesn’t end at enrollment. The My ASU account that a student creates as part of their application remains with them throughout their journey. ASU looks at each student as a unique individual and does everything they can to help them succeed. Through Service Cloud data integrations and analytics, ASU is empowered to support their entire student body.

“Investing in innovation and tech is an investment in our communities.”
– Donna Kidwell, CTO, EdPlus at ASU

To learn more about Education Cloud and our product innovations, watch the Education Cloud Dreamforce 2019 keynote video.

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P.S. Save the date for Dreamforce next year! It’s November 9–12, 2020 in San Francisco.