Another year begins, and for many, another lockdown too. Positive thinking in this context is not necessarily easy. Worries about the economy, job security, family stability, balancing childcare responsibilities, and general uncertainty about a great many things are enough to test the resilience of any one of us.
On the surface, scrolling through LinkedIn on any given day might give you the impression that the world is continuing as normal, and most people are on solid ground. Alongside the sharing of quarterly reports and industry trends, however, we see an increasing level of conversation and engagement around wellness and mental health.
A growing number of commentators are encouraging the sharing of emotion and vulnerability on LinkedIn; some from the angle that it makes issues of emotional wellbeing and mental health more visible in professional contexts, or even helps to form more authentic relationships via social media that can help your career. That is all well and good, and geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is all in favor of this, but these things are a positive by-product of the real focus, and that focus is you. This year let's focus on the inner you. Coping strategies, managing expectations, growing and developing or consolidating and reflecting. This is your year, and here are our #geNEOusTips to help make it, we hope, a little better.
It might seem that everyone is using lockdown time to learn Mandarin or launch their new coaching practice, but this is only the small cross-section of what we see on social media. The reality is that many people are silently experiencing fatigue, anxiety, or just want to hunker down and get through this in any way they can.
There is nobody ahead of you on this path, because it is your path to walk alone. Wherever you are on that journey, it is enough. You do not have to make yourself a self-improvement project. As the World Economic Forum tells us: Everyone, in their own way, is doing their best to cope with the enormous challenge of COVID-19. The most positive and human way that we can respond is with compassion and kindness to ourselves and others."
A lot of the studies done on working from home show that home working can really increase productivity. And it makes sense, right? No commuting, fewer interruptions, more quiet space, and control. But these studies were done before the pandemic. This is not a normal situation, and those studies are not relevant to what we are experiencing now.
Researcher Nicholas Bloom predicted at the start of all this that productivity would be far lower from home. Even for those without children to support, these are not calm times for many of us. A survey reported a third of US adults experiencing anxiety in June 2020, and that number is set to rise with lockdown fatigue on the rise and an increasing economic squeeze.
This is not meant to be pessimistic, but realistic. It is OK to feel unproductive. It is OK not to feel OK. Let's keep those expectations in context, and be as kind to ourselves as we can.
Now that we have established a baseline, what can we do if we really feel able and ready to take positive steps towards feeling better?
We are our own worst enemy at times. Negative thoughts are powerful and can actually shape the way we think, feel, and see ourselves. No wonder! As humans, we are hardwired to focus more on negative thoughts than positive ones, and it is completely natural. This is known as the negativity bias, and it is a real thing. It really is a protective mechanism from a time when humans were constantly on the lookout for threats. We pay more attention to negative information, and we remember negative events far more strongly. As Eckhart Tolle tells us, you are not your thoughts; you are only the person listening to them, and that means we have control, and we have choices. If we are all programmed to think more negatively by default, then this means we need to make a conscious effort to really flip to positive thinking. Neuroscience research tells us that self-talk reinforces self-concept. In other words, when we tell ourselves "I am achieving nothing, I am failing", we will not only believe it, but the pre-conscious brain will actually prioritize the admission of information to confirm it. Yes, really. Negative thoughts make us view ourselves in a worse light and produce more of the same kind of thinking. So what can we do? Affirmations are a good start. This is when you say things like "I am enough. I am doing my best" or "I am learning and I am growing", and repeat it silently or (even better) out loud to yourself a number of times. Writing it down also works. There is real science behind this, and it is a relatively easy way to make a positive impact on the way you feel by slowly rewiring the circuitry of your brain towards positivity.
On a related note, gratitude journalling is another great way to focus on the positive and minimize the negatives out there that we just can't control. Consciously bringing to mind to good things in your life for which you are grateful is a positive way to start and/or end your day. The University of Berkley has some excellent tips on gratitude journaling, and for those who wish to go further into reflective journaling and would like prompts and structure, the DailyOm has some great programs.
Exercising some direct control over our lives is important for psychological and emotional vitality. Switching off social media and especially the daily news will limit our exposure to all those many things that are just not within our own control.
In their place, there is lots we can do to actually add some structure to our day and focus on what we can do.
Eating well, getting fresh air, taking some good self-care time, and making space to just be; all of these are important. What we can add here is connection. Picking up the phone or scheduling a Zoom call with a colleague, friend, or family member is a good thing to prioritize. These should be people who make you feel better, not worse; who are supportive and not critical.
The surprising thing here is that helping them feel better helps you too, and it's called the helper's high.
It is not a conscious choice for us to forget about how others around us might be feeling when we are stressed or anxious. We focus on ourselves and that is just the way it is, as we try to find solutions or examine what we see as the problem.
The strange thing is that despite it being the last thing we might feel like doing, helping others around us really does help to change things.
Even just making time to think and reflect on how others around you might be feeling can be a powerful tool to break the cycle of negative thought.
Helping others releases "feel good" neurotransmitters in our brains, and reduces stress. It also boosts our immune system's resilience, which is pretty handy at the moment. The positive connection that comes from helping others is an amazing thing, where both parties benefit and feel better.
Psychologists call this a “virtue cycle” but it’s really just “smile, and the world smiles with you”. This is not something to think about if you are really not feeling able to do so as we all know you cannot pour from an empty cup. However, if you find yourself turning inward too much in a way that's just not helpful to the way you feel, why not give it a try? Something simple like taking a treat over to a friend or colleague, or sending messages of love and support to those around you, can make a big difference in a day.
Later this week, we will be talking on an episode of #geNEOusChats about how we can cope with these current challenges applied to education.
Indeed, the world of education is going through its own challenges, and sharing ideas and experiences on how we are getting through it seems like a positive thing to do. So why not join us on LinkedIn or contact us if you have experiences or insight that you would like to share with our community. We hope that this has been useful, and extend our wish to help and support our partners and colleagues in 2021.
Welcome to 2021 in education. Welcome to a new year of new possibilities and clear resolutions and.....sorry. It's an easy trap to fall into; the making of resolutions, the setting of goals and attempt to let go of things that do not serve us well, in favor of things that do. That was all very standard each new year, but that was when the world trundled along on a reasonably predictable axis.
We have had a chance to step back this year and reflect, and that gives us a huge opportunity to look at things differently and perhaps reevaluate. How are you feeling about setting resolutions and specific goals this year? Does it feel the same?
This article in Forbes magazine starts out with a really good idea of really reflecting on how you grew and what you learned in 2020 before even thinking about goal setting for 2021. That seems really healthy, as we need to take a moment to celebrate growth under difficult circumstances, and that will mean different things to different people.
Where the article might not fit so well with the realities of our current situation, in our opinion, is immediately following the reflective practice with talking about SMART goal setting in the same old way. "Be specific and measurable for each one. That means, including amounts and dates, such as, “I’ll be promoted to the Director level and receive a $15,000 raise by June 30th 2021”
You don't have to do that. There are other ways to look ahead and set goals and intentions in 2021 which actually acknowledge that there are situations we cannot control. By focusing on intentions, rather than "resolutions" this year, we think about how we want to be, rather than what we want to do. 2020 was a year of learning and change, and there are great opportunities for growth in 2021 for those who seek a journey and not a destination.
At NEO Academy, we are ready to show up for 2021 in education; for our team, partners, colleagues, and community. Here are our intentions.
"You gotta roll with it" said Oasis, and that's a mantra for 2021 that we can all get behind. As Erica Lockheimer of LinkedIn Learning said recently, "2020 has reinforced the importance of adaptability." This is crucial, and those of us looking for things to return to a familiar and consistent pattern will likely be disappointed.
Learners and learning guides in all levels and sectors of education had to shift to remote working in 2020, and we saw a period of what commentators, unhelpfully, referred to as "panicgogy" instead of pedagogy. Courses were quickly shifted online, and stories arose of teachers who had forgotten to put pants on (the US English kind!) and captioning software that made marriage proposals out of maths questions. Hype aside, it was a tough year for everyone, but we got through it by a shared understanding that we were all doing our best and "perfect" was just not possible.
That needs to continue, by embracing the change that is happening in education. The more we resist it and try to apply band-aid "solutions", the more we reinforce the idea that "normal" was working, and we let a golden opportunity slip from our grasp. Education has to change and the pandemic has presented us with an accelerated breakdown of existing norms and structures. If we can learn to become a bit more comfortable with the lack of stability, and take time to really focus on broadening and deepening the skills that will support a learning revolution, then we might just create something incredible from all of the upheaval. We can only do this if we manage expectations, think towards long term transformation instead of short term fixes, and embrace uncertainty as a necessary path to growth and change. That means traditional institutions becoming more agile, adaptive and open to the needs of a new generation of learners, and a world that is changing more quickly than we could have imagined. In 2021 we are going to "roll with it". We are prioritizing the learning of new skills and finding new ways to help our partners do the same. We also intend to continue our open conversations with partners and peers around the world, and make sure that whatever happens, we are ready to adapt and be where we are needed most. 2021 is not a level playing field in which we can see goals clearly and set markers along the way. The best we can do, is to be ready.
We are big on this one. We have always said that education is a circle, not a line, and that collaborative practice is the way we can grow together with a shared purpose of serving our learners and institutions.
The events of 2020 have made this more important than ever. Sharing knowledge and know-how has always been important for progress, but has not always come easy to those positioned in a competitive environment where we advance by outpacing others. There is a way we can all grow together.
We intend to keep collaborative practice at the centre of our approach to working within our own team, but also in the way we work with others. Solutions are found through dialogue, learning and listening.
Collaboration is built on connection, and the year of "social distancing" in 2020 really should have been "physical distancing". This year, we intend to work harder at building authentic relationships with our remote team, and with our partners. Something as simple as picking up the phone or sending a voice message instead of email, can make a huge difference to mitigate feelings of isolation.
We want to talk more with partners, innovators and thought leaders to share ideas and insights that can help us all. We will be reaching out to more of you to take part in our #NEOchats series, and we hope you'll join us. As always, feel free to reach out if there is something you want to share with our network.
Leadership coach Sir Norman Drummond once opened his talk with a question to the audience: "Who are you? Why are you living and working in the way that you are?." This is a question worth asking ourselves as we start the year. Having a sense of purpose and making sure that what we do support that purpose and it aligns with our core values, is essential to good mental health and internal motivation.
Routines are not always a bad thing if they are used for the right things. Obama once famously said that he had a wardrobe of identical suits, so that there was one less decision in life that he had to make. A healthy routine and healthy work habits can automate (neurologically speaking) a lot of things, leaving us free to really focus mindfully on the bigger things.
How can we know if we are moving in the right direction, if we don't seek out the high ground when we can? Being eternally busy with decision fatigue, and ticking things off the to-do list can be mistaken for progress. In fact, often we are just treading water, and tiring ourselves out without really changing anything around us. This has to stop. It's time to rethink busyness versus business.
One of the main reasons NEO Academy has always focused so strongly on supporting education institutions to streamline and automate their processes, is for precisely that reason. Creating a space for purposeful work, growth and reflection, is something we need more than ever these days. We intend to continue and improve that service to others, because we know what a positive difference it makes to all stakeholders.
Purpose also means a connection to values. In a year of uncertainty, there are things we need to guide us in the decisions we make, and for us, that comes down to creativity, innovation, trust and integrity. In 2021, we want to find ways to strengthen the way we we connect with these core values, and how they filter into how we work, and who we work with.
Setting resolutions in 2021 is, to paraphrase Aristotle, "like measuring a complex column with a yardstick." That's why we are focusing on intentions instead.
We are entering unknown territory and we are positive about the challenges that brings. 2021 is not the absence of the familiar, but space that has been made available for new growth.
2021 in education will be unlearning systems, approaches, pedagogies and routines that were fit for a world that has shown us it's not about to wait for us to catch up. Underneath the lectures, assessments, lockstep cohorts and synchronous participation, what is it we are really trying to do? What is it that 2020 taught us about what learners really need?
The deconstruction of the old paradigm means space for something better. A learning environment where the joy of learning is prioritized, where the learner directs and constructs their own pathway to become the person they want to become, rather than the one who fits neatly into the Excel sheet of competences and learning outcomes.
There is a middle ground here, where we accept that learners have so many alternatives to the traditional way of doing things, and we need to listen to them if we are to remain relevant and relatable. We have already outlined some ideas on this and there are many more to come.
Our intention for 2021 is to ensure that everything we do is aligned with our core purpose of helping institutions to serve learners in the best way possible, and being present, open and ready to do our bit for the future.
It is still a little difficult to really look ahead to education in 2021, given that 2020 was such a shock. No doubt about it. The routines we had, the things we took for granted, the ways we communicated and connected, and the way we studied and learned. All of these things were so ingrained that they formed habit loops, where the brain settles into a pattern of such familiarity that it doesn't question things and is almost asleep. All of these patterns changed almost overnight in March, and the shock and disorientation followed shortly after. Welcome to the conversations about the "new normal" and "build back better". Welcome to the blank canvas.
Blank is beautiful. So says Naomi Klein at the start of her seminal work "The Shock Doctrine". Klein wasn't talking about 2021, but rather the way in which governments can push otherwise unpopular reforms on people while they are in a state of shock from war, natural disasters, and the like. In Klein's book, she talks about the first stages of this shock as "depatterning". But surely the theory holds for the ability to effect positive change as well?
The question is, if we are given now the chance to wake up from the slumber of ritual and habit, what do we change? Nobody would have wished for a situation like this, but it is here, and it is now up to us to decide what to make of it. What truly belongs on our new canvas?
Look at the statues around you in the urban landscape. Who do we literally put on pedestals to confer on them attributes of grand heroism? The chances are, that you will find more politicians than professors; more soldiers than secondary school teachers. And yet, this year we have seen teachers worldwide, putting their own fears and exhaustion to the side, to stand up and serve their learners in a time when everything else was falling apart. When we were all figuring out the next steps, and trying to get our bearings, education in primary schools and high schools carried on. A report by NCES summarized that "teachers are spending their free time working with students so that they can simply access the digital classrooms. This additional help occurs only after the teachers have spent copious amounts of time planning lessons to keep students engaged and spending boundless energy to motivate students who are highly distracted." Faculty don't join the profession for material gain; that is certain. Learning guides do what they do so that they can make a difference, enrich lives, and make the future brighter. They will be the brightest color on our new canvas, and we must do everything we can to support that vibrancy and never dull it with micromanaged structures and endless new initiatives. We need that passion that makes learning a joy and not a chore. Teachers are heroes.
Take away the pattern of 9 am starts and invigilated exams. Did anyone enjoy that stuff anyway? Take away lockstep learning and synchronous classes as the central mode of "delivery". Take away "you need this because it's in the exam" and let us look at what is left.
The world is opening-up and learners are realizing that they actually have options of their own design. if Higher Education doesn't come to us, then fewer people may seek it out. If Google is offering a direct route into employment with its own certifications, then we can understand the appeal of employment without large tuition debt to pay. If universities are expecting learners to attend virtual classes regardless of their time zone, we can understand why many would opt for liquid learning instead. Even teachers are putting out their own courses directly on Udemy and Teachable. More and more people are finding a way around the traditional institutions. Higher Education has so much to offer but needs to evolve to stay relevant in a changing world.
Learners discovered useful skills around digital collaboration this year, as did teachers and institutions; accelerating the change to a more fluid learning environment. The scene is set for a positive change.
As we discussed in our recent episode of #geNEOusChats, for Higher Education Institutions to survive, they now really have to ask themselves "for what purpose" they operate the way they do. If the answer is about tradition, administrative convenience, or because that's the way things have always been done, well that simply won't do. The next splash of color on our new canvas is the "why" of the learner, and not the institution. What they need, who they want to be, and what the world needs them to be for a sustainable future; these are the lines that give form to everything else.
For education in 2021, we want education institutions to be places of big ideas and vigorous debate. An environment that is learner-directed; focused on supporting them to meet their goals, and not to fit into our boxes. This is not only possible, but it has already started to change.
https://youtu.be/OxkuveTSKwY
The canvas is already looking vibrant. With only two components doing the talking so far, you may think it sparse, but any Spartan will tell you that silence should not be confused with empty words. Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together, and innovation comes not from noise, but from space and reflection. What comes next, when our old patterns have faded?
What is important to us as a society and why? What challenges do we need to face and how can education in 2021 best serve that? These are big questions that we thought we had years to answer, but the burden of response is now on us. Time has run out, and by returning to our core values, we will find the answers. In NEO Academy we have always found that sticking to our core values of trust and integrity has guided us through every difficult decision and we have no reason to doubt that now. There are challenges ahead, and we know that through creativity, collaboration, and a strong sense of purpose, we will get there. We hope that the more traditional education institutions out there can come through this stronger than ever, but we also know that changing traditions of teaching and learning which have endured for centuries, will not be easy. Whatever comes next in education in 2021 , we are here to support our partners in the ways that we can. If we do truly have to start again on the blank canvas, then let's do it together, and let's give it everything we've got! If this year taught us anything, it has taught us that we can do anything when we work together.
We wish a happy and purposeful 2021 to all of our partners, colleagues, and friends. We are looking forward to working with you to make 2021 the brightest color yet.
With 2020 in review, we can say pretty definitively that it has proved to be something of a wake-up call for the Higher Education sector. Over the past nine months, we have looked at those who are disrupting the education landscape and what universities need to do in order to future-proof their offer to students. Here is a look back at the developments and innovations that we have covered on the blog this year.
Despite the gradual but persistent change in students’ lifestyles, job prospects and personal finances, the structure of university courses had not seen much change, until the arrival of Covid-19, when the dominance of long-term courses, synchronous in-person learning, and expensive tuition is finally being challenged. 2020 saw a vast and, many would say, irreversible shift towards home and distance learning, as campuses around the world closed their doors. While this was by no means a seamless transition, it was clear that students and academic staff alike found many benefits to this new way of learning. Once they’d all mastered the ‘unmute’ button, of course.
In September, we discussed the rise of the education disruptors focusing specifically on Google’s latest offering. Through Google’s forthcoming professional training certificate courses, students are not only able to secure more affordable qualifications in around six months, but support with entering the jobs market and securing relevant experience is also including in this attractive offer.
The World Economic Forum predicts that emerging professions, such as those in the tech, programming, and UX sectors, will grow to 13.5% of the workforce by 2025. With that in mind, it is clear that the big players in those sectors – Google being chief among them – are set to continue to challenge the traditional educational bodies with their new learning and training offers. So what can universities do to keep up?
With a decline in popularity of well-established courses such as MBAs, it might seem on the face of it that institutions aren’t nimble enough to stay relevant to their students’ needs. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown quite the opposite to be true. The concept of liquid learning, though not new in its component parts, saw a huge surge in popularity this year.
Described as an ‘infinitely customizable’ and ‘borderless’ approach by IE University, liquid learning offers students an adaptive curriculum that is collaborative, experiential, and uses technology as a pedagogical tool, rather than for the sake of the technology itself. With a blend of asynchronous and synchronous learning, it is a more democratic approach to higher education, attracting a broader age range than would be typically expected for undergraduate and postgraduate applications.
The biggest shift in the working world that we saw in 2020 was, of course, the move from office-based to working from home. The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed 83% of companies to scale up their remote working capabilities and 1/3 of all work will be permanently done from home by the end of 2021. This is a dramatic change that seems unlikely to be reversed.
Much like the future of education, the future of work looks to be liquid. With a rise in the popularity of remote working for both companies and employers, it is clear that the urgent need for flexibility and innovation brought about by the Covid-19 crisis has kicked this gradual shift in working culture up a gear.
For liquid workers, the future of work means the ability to choose contracts and projects that suit their specific skill set. Working remotely would be their primary option, leading to international work forces based all over the world. Over the course of their professional lifetime, this means working for a greater number of employers.
For employers, this liquid workforce offers a wider pool of potential employees and contractors to choose from. Moreover, businesses can have a blend of fixed and liquid employees, as giants such as Google and Amazon have done for a long time. Highly-skilled professionals can be brought in to fit the needs of a business as they evolve, without being restricted by location or tied into long contracts.
Initial concerns about any negative impact on productivity that working from home may have had have proved largely unfounded. Thanks to more strategic use of technology and the incredible success of video platforms like Zoom, teams are continuing to collaborate and create together, even when they are permanently physically apart.
That said, please remember: working from home is a work in progress. If it’s something you’re still getting to grips with, we shared our top tips for staying focused, productive, and well when working from home. We hope these will serve you well both now and into the future.
As regular readers of the blog will know, staying true to our core values is integral to our work at NEO Academy. Within that is our commitment to inspiring and supporting the future generation, so what better way to round up our year-in-review than looking at what 2020 has meant for Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
While 16-24-year-olds in the UK are less likely to have experienced working from home as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a 2017 study found that nearly half of older Gen Z-ers had actively sought out and taken on freelance work that year. The next generation to enter the workforce are seeking variety and work with integrity and purpose, with career development and financial freedom also high on their list of professional priorities. If the future of work seems to be meeting their expectations, how can the education sector ensure that it is supporting them too?
Voice and choice in higher education are important for Gen Z, as we wrote about in October. Giving students the ability to choose when and how they learn not only suits the fluidity of modern living but when it is done well, improves academic outcomes and reduces drop-out rates – benefiting both universities and students.
As well as the practicalities of how education is being delivered to our young people, we looked this year at the importance of what is being taught by schools and universities too.
We asked whether our young people studying in the best possible environments (pandemic aside) are developing the right skill-set to support themselves in their academic and professional futures. We looked at the increasing weight given to developing so-called ‘soft skills’ and how schools are working to encourage better collaboration and leadership. Emotional resilience and positive communication skills are being increasingly valued by academic and business communities too.
In September, we discussed the intersection of sustainability and education, and how embedding aspects of the circular economy into teaching and learning will hugely benefit our young people in schools and universities. As well as working to make our institutions physically more environmentally-friendly (something which may potentially be aided by the rise in distance learning and use of technology in the classroom), there is a clear need to improve the sustainability and longevity of how and what young people are learning, too.
If we want to equip the next generation for the future jobs market, we need to recognize what is not working and act to change it, fast. What is clear is that the world isn’t going to wait for us to catch up.
2020 has shown that flexibility is integral to the future of education. Universities need to go with their in order to stay relevant and sustainable.
It is clear that the next generation of students and workers are demanding more of their educational and business organizations, with a liquid workforce that needs work to be as malleable as the rest of modern life. What is great is that we have already seen institutions (traditional and not) responding to this need to adapt.
As we quoted Timothy Devinney in August, “maybe this is the crisis that Higher Education had to have”. We at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) will be keeping a close eye on this evolution in education and will continue to report on these innovations as we move into a new year of this exciting new era of education and work. Next week we will look ahead to 2021 and discuss our hopes for what comes next.
The teacher in front of you may still be an actual human (or pretty close, at least) but behind the scenes, a lot has changed already. The same tech that helps Spotify recommend songs in your playlist, for example, is already in use to help students choose their next modules and courses in online learning environments.
Last week we looked at the application of AI to create a more personalized and enriched experience within the field of Education Marketing and Admissions. Beyond this, where might AI and the future of education lead us? How might it make the teaching and learning experiences more fulfilling, more effective, and more personalized? Let's look at 4 practical examples of things happening right now that we predict will become the norm very soon.
There is oh so much more potential here. Most research in this area will throw up the name David Kellerman, and this is where it gets interesting. Kellerman is really using AI in his Mechanical Engineering courses, and showing the world that AI is not just about data mining and algorithms, nor is it about far off embodied technology where machines have developed a human level of cognition.
Right now, Kellerman is making lives easier for teachers and better for students, and it's all thanks to AI. In class, he is your typical tech aware teacher, using shared digital screens and collaborative teaching and learning tools to provide a richer experience. But it's outside the class where things get seriously impressive.
In the digital platform, an AI question bot (QBot) is at work. This bot has scanned every single interaction in the platform, every second of video recordings of the classes, and even recognizes images like schematics and diagrams. When a student types in a question, the bot will try to answer it. Maybe it will respond with an answer that was already there if the question has already been asked (we know how easily things get buried in chat forums). Perhaps it will send a timestamped section of the video in response, where the question is addressed in a recorded class. If it can't answer, it will notify a (real) Teaching Assistant who is best placed to answer.
This way, the TA has the time to actually answer the question properly, instead of spending hours repeating info or directing students to sources. The quality of responses is incredible, and student satisfaction has jumped to 99% in his classes.
If you are an accomplished digital native, you can access and deploy the open-source version of the Qbot. Just imagine how much this technology could improve the online learning experience right now when learners need access 24/7 to content and guidance across time zones. It is surprising that this technology hasn't yet been adopted as standard.
The tech here is less flashy than Kellerman's QBot, but for the survival of institutions in the future, a personalized approach to student retention is imperative.
Studies vary, but to give you an idea, just over 15% of students dropped out after their first year at US colleges in 2015, and in the UK that number was about 7% for the same year. The cost of this to an institution is huge, considering not only the loss of tuition fees but also the huge cost of recruiting those students in the first place.
We also have to think about the students that leave. Do they feel like they "dropped out" and that the fault was theirs? What stories do they tell themselves that may follow them through life and inform future choices? Some students just realize that a course of study is not for them, and that's actually a good thing, but losing students for other reasons is just bad news all around. When academics had figured out the behaviors that students displayed before dropping out, they were able to program that into an AI system at Ivy Tech, which then identified the students at risk of leaving and flagged them for personalized support. The dropout rate was cut immediately by 3,100 students (out of just under 17000 the year before), and the program continues to be refined and its success rate improved each passing semester. Sheila MacNeil of Glasgow Caledonian University recently said that she was far more interested in using AI to improve the quality of teaching and learning and not just focus on improving "the business of education". There is no reason that AI can't tackle both, and that's good news for everyone.
OK, perhaps the word "coaching" is a bit far fetched for AI, but that's the word used by The University of Michigan in their Ecoach program. It is used largely in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) classes at the moment, tracking student progress as they work their way through various tasks, problems, and projects. Ecoach learns the bits that students find easier and more challenging and prepares them for the tricky bits with extra support. It also suggests other resources and areas of interest if a student displays an interest in something particular.
Shadow Health is another example of what is known as "adaptive courseware", and one which is genuinely impressive. Using a "conversation engine", which is AI-powered, Shadow Health lets medical students practice clinical interactions with simulated characters. For example, "Doris" arrives at the hospital with pneumonia and the medical student needs to carry out an investigation and recommend a course of treatment. The AI engine is checking whether the information is covered, if the tone is professional and if the right questions are asked. It can't teach doctors to have better handwriting, sadly, but you have to admit that this is pretty special technology.
Up until now, the advance of AI into education has been quite delineated. By this, we mean that "automatable" tasks get automated and "human" tasks stay human. The passive end of knowledge acquisition can be machine-supported and learner-directed, while humans deal with conceptual stuff like critical thinking and creativity. That line is now starting to blur, especially as education as a model gets disrupted, and that's where things get interesting.
Take for example a new application called Packback, which monitors discussion boards and tracks not only engagement from students, but curiosity. This tool not only moderates entries and provides real-time feedback to students on writing effective posts, but also identifies which posts are likely to be challenging, thought-provoking and curiosity inducing, so it can put those to the top of the thread. Now Packback is presumably using a more advanced version of the tech that Grammarly use to tell you if your email sounds bossy or polite, but Hayley Sutherland at IDC predicts something that goes further. AI That can tell how you feel from your facial expression! The Centre for Neuroscience at Duke University can already do this in quite a reliable way; using machine learning to connect human microexpressions to emotional states. Can you imagine being in a lecture where the professor says something that sounds way too complex to follow? Your face registers confusion and up pops a bot on your screen: "you appear confused. We have flagged this point for follow-up discussion in the forum".
We don't have the answers. While it is crystal clear that anything which can be automated certainly will be, the question is where the limits lie. Much of the discussion of AI and the future of education centers around risks; privacy, loss of human connection, labeling students and categorizing them, etc. These are all very real and certainly valid. However, let us not lose sight of the tremendous benefits that are within reach.
More personalized learning and more learner-centered collaborative working are what the new trends in education demand and AI is perfectly placed to support it. Teachers with less stress from routine tasks and more time to facilitate deeper learning and human interaction; all of this is just around the corner. As experts in automating the marketing and admissions end of the process, we at NEO Academy are keeping a keen eye on technological advances that will support our clients to offer students better service. However, as passionate advocates for a new paradigm of education that gives learners the experience they deserve, we think AI can and should be a central part of that. Keep an eye on our blog for the latest news and ideas around the future of education and contact us to chat, discuss, or engage.
AI in education marketing and recruitment is a hot topic, and no question about it. AI is set to revolutionize much of our world in ways we can't yet quite be sure about, but even now there are advances that are nothing short of incredible.
We'll be doing a two part article on AI, with part one looking at its application to Education M&R, and part two looking at AI in education itself. First, let's clear up a common misunderstanding about which advances in our field are automation and which are AI.
Well let's begin by saying that knowing the line between automation and AI isn't actually that easy. In general terms, when a human gives a machine strict parameters and the machine always operates within those parameters, that is classic automation.
Examples of automation would be when someone clicks on the "subscribe" button on your landing page and automatically receives a welcome email with their name at the top. Programming your social media posts with HubSpot to go out at a certain time, and setting the analytics to measure engagement is another example. Automation can get a lot more complex, such as when the prospective student opens an email about a particular course, thereby showing interest, and is moved to a high priority workflow for more intensive follow up from the admissions team. This is still automation, however. The parameters and workflows are all predefined, and the software can't "learn" from the tasks it carries out. Automation is something that saves a huge amount of time, effort, and resources, and completely changes the results you can get. We know because we work with automation every day, and we see the substantial difference it makes to our clients and partners. AI on the other hand is much more complex. We have heard tales of an increasing number of companies claiming their product is AI, when it really is automation. While automation can be complex, it can't use the data it analyzes to make its own predictions, and that is the key difference. Even if the decision tree is multi-level, if it always follows set patterns, it is automation. If it learns from the decision tree to make new predictions and recommendations and then changes the processes in that decision tree, then this is machine learning, otherwise known as AI. Phew!
A study commissioned by Microsoft found that more than half of US Universities already use AI, and just over a third have AI as part of their core strategy. It is commonplace to find that AI was first introduced in the Marketing and Admissions department, but to do what?
Some US Universities use AI to mine data on prospective applicants; recording exactly how quickly they open the marketing email, and how long they spend reading it, so that they can prioritize leads by those "demonstrating interest". This data is then fed back into complex algorithms to determine the efficacy of the marketing strategy and to recommend changes for the next approach.
Personalized services can also come from AI-powered processes. For example, AI is being used now to identify "summer melt" applicants, who pay their deposits in May but don't show up in September. These applicants will receive personalized text messages, and other interventions to support them in following through on their initial decision.
The same technology can also help to identify students who may potentially engage more with their studies, or may in fact need some extra support; something we'll look at in part two of our AI feature next week.
Where things get seriously interesting, however, is in the area of student selection and admission.
This is where things start to feel pretty futuristic. Alice Gast at Imperial College of London is one of several key figures advocating for AI in selecting students for admission to university courses. Imagine an AI bot trawling through your social network data, your psychometric test results, your resume, and the transcript of the interview to determine whether or not you are a good fit.
This isn't science fiction. Amazon already tried to use AI in their recruitment process. As Alexa herself will tell you, Amazon is a world leader in the implementation of AI, but they got this one wrong. Their results tended to discriminate against women, and the program was scrapped.
However, it's certainly not the last we will hear of this. Deep neural networks need a huge amount of data to draw on if their decisions are to be accurate, and so it is only a matter of time, and not necessarily know-how. IBM's Watson is already the front runner for the application of AI to the student selection process, and with their resources behind it, we are looking at a real shift in this direction in the not too distant future.
Though it may seem creepy to be "artificially" selected as a candidate for an undergraduate degree, there is a flipside in that AI has no moral agency, no consciousness, and therefore, no bias. Humans, on the other hand, carry deep-seated unconscious bias that has plagued the world of admissions for so long that it has become almost normalized. Perhaps AI can help us to be truly objective?
True AI-powered chatbots are probably the best-known frontline use of AI in education marketing and recruitment. In 2018, a special bot built for the University of Murcia was able to respond to students' questions with an extremely high rate of accuracy, as well as dealing with over 800 enquiries in one single day outside of office hours; a huge advantage in international admissions, dealing with numerous time zones simultaneously.
Most AI bots now will use learnings from pilots such as this to determine where the enquiry needs to be passed to a human to deal with. Companies like Conversica are working hard to make sure that learning is continuous on the nuances of human communication and that politeness is always the approach. If you manage to make an AI chatbot angry, then call your therapist immediately.
The study author from the Murcia chatbot pilot observed that no humans lost their jobs as a result of the bot's handling of huge amounts of enquiries, and that admissions team members were instead freed up to spend more time building relationships, solving more complex issues and following up on things they may have otherwise missed in the hectic workflows of a busy university. That being said, there are naturally a few legitimate concerns around the use of AI in education marketing and recruitment.
Both Gen Z and the forthcoming Gen Alpha are reputed to be less concerned about privacy than the millennials before them. They expect personalization and customization, and only a data-driven service can offer that.
But that is not the whole story. AI only works well with access to huge amounts of data, and because AI evolves in the way it analyzes and interprets data, it will also, therefore, create new personal data. The user ticks the box or signs the consent form to use the data that they initially provide the institution, but if new data is created through AI that can be used to identify or target them, this is a clear breach of data protection laws in many countries.
In such a situation, the institution would have to contact the student to request permission for the new layer of data, and who really knows where this new generation will draw the line. In a more general population, nearly two-thirds of respondents to a Genpact survey in 2018, said they were uncomfortable with AI being used to make decisions using their data without their knowledge. This is clearly a situation that developers will find challenging.
What we do know, is that with both Gen Z and Alpha, when they are interacting with our institutions, their perception of purpose is critical. If they believe in what you do, the causes you support, the values you uphold and embed, then they are more likely to be flexible with the information you hold on them and how it is used.
For years now, AI in Education Marketing and Recruitment has been ever more present. We have seen first hand just how much more efficient an institution becomes with the right kind of automation and the training to support it.
AI is a logical extension to this, giving a level of personalized service that can only be good for students making the important decision about where and what to study, and taking the strain off an increasingly stressful environment for staff.
Where the technology is used to augment the experience for everyone and not to replace humans with bots, we're all in. Where data is used with consent to provide an enriched experience for those interacting with our institutions, we're in. Where AI in Education Marketing and recruitment goes beyond this is uncertain, but next week we'll be looking more broadly at its application to teaching and learning, so check back on our blog for more on this fascinating field.
It basically explains all the great ideas and big theories in science in a way we can actually understand, and the personalities and contexts behind them.
Something that repeated itself all throughout the book, was the way in which groundbreaking discoveries were often not made by one person, but often by at least two scientists in different parts of the world, who each didn't know what the other was doing. This meant that progress slowed, and they often didn't realize the significance of what they had found out until much later. This was, of course, pre-internet, and look at what has happened since. Through knowledge sharing and instantaneous communication, the speed of progress is breathtaking and exponential. Scientists were finally able to collaborate worldwide.
Yet inside many modern organizations, those lessons have yet to be learned and there is still a lack of a collaborative culture. Some team members are isolated, while others are insulated, and projects lack critical input and feedback until something gets flagged at the sign off-stage. Now, with more and more remote-based team members, excellent project management tools like Trello can really help give a better service to our clients, but are sometimes being used as a band-aid, as though the technology just works on its own.
It takes more than that to build a collaborative culture at work. Collaborative working is really important to our team at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) and here are our 4 #geNEOustips on how it can be done.
HBR gives a great example of how this can be done, by looking at Nokia. They go by what is known as a "gift culture"; freely giving the gift of time to new hires, and taking the time to go through the network, identifying who might be useful or interesting to talk to and about what.
The new team member will then take the responsibility to set these meetings up, and again more time is freely given. HBR credit this with creating a mentoring culture from inception, but there is one more thing. A gift culture helps team members to really internalize that asking for help is not "bothering" others, but is actually encouraged.
We are all busy, and we all have moments of extreme pressure, but learning to always keep the door open to others is healthy and productive for the team as a whole.
It's not a given and it doesn't always just happen organically. When a project is at hand, actively create situations and scenarios where your team will collaborate. There are a lot of lone rangers out there, who will happily drift off and do their own thing if collaboration isn't actively included in the workflow.
It should be noted here that "dissenters" who tend to avoid collaboration are a top priority for specific inclusion in collaborative projects! We would also suggest including "unlikely" team members in projects now and again. This freshens things up and can produce new ideas and insights when someone with an external perspective comes in cold.
We also don't want our team members to get siloed in their own project types all the time, as not only is this potentially boring for them, it's a single point of failure for the organization if that person leaves and takes critical knowledge with them. Cross-pollination is just a good thing. Period.
Brainstorming is a great way to start off a project. Even if you think it's cut and dried and something you've done a million times before, never underestimate what the creative process can reveal. Even if only minor tweaks come from this, the major win is that the collaborative mechanisms of the team are strengthened. Good brainstorming as part of a design thinking process means that the best ideas emerge when things get "silly". Because of this, those in leadership roles will really want to consider one thing, and to be open and honest with yourself about it: can your team get themselves into this creative space with you in the room?
Is there anything more complex than human behavior? Not even the mysteries of the universe can compete, and that means we have to be patient. New habits and behaviors take time. Lots of it. A new team member might be used to working alone, or may be reluctant to ask for help. Another might be stuck in their own bubble, and not find it natural to stop and offer time to others, beyond what they consider necessary.
It's ok. We'll get there. Taking time to notice and recognize good collaborative behavior is important, so that it is reinforced. Blog about it, talk about it, build it in from day one, lead by example and maximize the way you use technology to support it but above all, give it the time it needs to take root. Cultures do not change overnight.
It's still prevalent today, that soft skills training, coaching, mindfulness sessions, reflective practice, etc, are for huge organizations with a bloated HR budget. Not so. We can all agree that not every one of us is skilled at empathetic listening, networking or collaborative problem-solving. Cultural differences can compound this, and if you don't believe us, try to compare yourself with a colleague from different culture using Hofstede's calculator. The research has a few holes in it, but it's still fun.
If the budget is tight, team members can hold a session for peer training, free courses can be recommended and reflective activities like 360-degree feedback sessions can be built into the calendar. It takes real action, time, and effort to make this happen, but it's worth it. Not only does a collaborative culture make organizations more resilient and efficient, it also helps your team members to grow both personally and professionally. They might just stick around for that kind of perk.
When we help our clients in education marketing and recruitment to optimize their processes through bespoke CRM and training, we come from the standpoint of doing things collaboratively right from inception.
Building in the workflows to facilitate good communication and knowledge sharing is about more than avoiding errors. It's about making room for growth, and taking space to see the new angles and insights that can bring. Though it does take time for collaborative cultures to form (we really weren't kidding about that), we can at least assure you that when you partner with us, we're in it for the long term, working alongside you to support these transitions and helping you succeed.
That's what collaboration is all about, after all.
Inspiring the next generation is something at the core of geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s sense of purpose, but this is something that is easy to say, but much harder to actually do. Regular readers of our blog will know that we often write about how important our core values are, and we have to admit that this is an incomplete picture. What good are values, really, unless they translate into action? That means practicing what you believe. This way, the values are reinforced and become something real and tangible.
To speak honestly, we are still finding the best ways to truly live our core values every day. The more abstract the value seems, the more difficult it can be to find concrete ways to express it. Take, for example, our core belief that we have a responsibility to inspire the next generation of learners and workers. Sounds great, but how on earth do we actually do that?
Whether it was just luck, or perhaps the alignment of the stars, two fantastic organizations invited us to be part of their events last week, Tuesday 17th November, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s Founder & CEO Alejandra Otero gave a talk at Learnlife's [RE]LEARN, the Learning Innovation Festival.
On Thursday 19th, it was over to USIL in Peru for Global Entrepreneurship Week. So, what did we talk about, and what does this have to do with values?
Learnlife is an amazing organization, based in Barcelona with a bold vision for a new education paradigm worldwide. NEO Academy aligns completely with the way they see the future of education, and taking part in this event was a great way to connect with other like-minded colleagues and peers. As we've already said, we feel that those of us working in education need to share experiences and ideas, whether you're in academics, or student recruitment. We all make change possible together.
We gave a talk about EaaS to expand the idea of the circular economy into our own field. Rather than learning about the circular economy, we raised the idea of education itself being part of the circular economy. So much attention is given to circular systems and product cycles, but services can be circular too. As circular products look at cutting down on packaging, so too can education.
Classrooms with fewer walls, more transversal learning and more integration with the "real" world outside. Less packaging around learning experiences means more learner directed choices too. From hybrid or online learning to liquid learning, Education as a Service in the circular economy is as fluid as the future it serves. Adaptability is the key. Similar to products, we also have to think about the way we distribute and use learning. Episodic learning events that fit our needs at any given time, rather than overarching four-year programs that stay static and still.
Google showed the way forward here with its professionally relevant micro credentialing approach. "Pay per use" modules and customizable pathways are far better suited to a future that promises to be as unpredictable as it is challenging. In the circular economy, a lot of attention is given to repair as a way to extend the life cycle, and why should education be different. When studying a masters degree in 2020 that has not updated its content since 2012 (this happens a lot!), you can be forgiven for wondering why we don't have more collaboration between learners and course designers to improve the content. We need open, fluid channels of feedback and improvement each and every learning cycle.
Learners very often find better ways to explain content than they heard in class, more relevant analogies or more incisive sources to support learning. Keeping the channels open to more collaboration with learners to improve the content continuously will keep things up to date in a way that is learner-directed and sustainable. And finally, at the end of a product lifecycle, the idea of buyback could translate into the service of education as an incentive to lifelong learning. Might the learner have access to resources and support (even in a managed peer to peer network) beyond the official end date of their course or module? How might they be incentivized and supported to return to further formal learning when they need it, and how might they be best equipped for independent learning on their own terms?
As we entirely rethink the current approach to education, geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) proposed EaaS model was able to stimulate some reflection and further thinking, and our values push us to collaborate with our peers in this field to make a contribution in any way we can. We would warmly welcome any further comments or input as we develop this framework.
If we want to make a difference where it counts, we need to at least be visible and present to those next generations coming into our institutions, our profession and their futures. As part of Peru's Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020, we had a great chance to connect directly to an audience of female entrepreneurs about what the future might hold for them, and how they might shape it. Gen Z are less tolerant of a glass ceiling than any generation that's gone before them, so it's not enough to just be visible.
The fact that geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s Founder, Alejandra, took the entrepreneurial path to build a successful organization as a young woman, well that's something a confident young Gen Z woman would likely already see as possible for herself. What she may not see, however, is what that path is like. That is why we were so honored to be a part of this; not just to be visible, but to engage, share and be authentic about what the life of an entrepreneur looks like. Alejandra focused not on the apparent successes, but on the formative events; failure, inspiration and values.
Rather than give answers, Alejandra asked questions. How do we learn from our failures? Where do you get the inspiration from, that enables you to inspire others to come with you? How do you find your own values and sense of self worth, to keep a steady hand on the wheel when you could easily get lost? How do we derive strength from reflection and vulnerability? These are the realities of being an entrepreneur, and it is not a life for everyone. This is the approach we feel is instinctively right. To be available for open and honest engagement with the younger generation is where we feel we can make a difference.
This Thursday 26th November we will be posting Alejandra's talk about learning from failure. In the weeks afterwards, we'll also post an interview with Alejandra Otero about her pathway to a leadership role, and the lessons she has learned along the way. We hope you will join us and let us know what you think.
What is more, if you are an organization from anywhere in the world, which has young people that might benefit from talking to us about our profession of Education Marketing and Recruitment, or women in leadership roles, entrepreneurship or just what it's like to be working globally with a diverse team in an exciting environment, contact us.
We would love to connect with these groups, so that we can continue to learn more from each other.
Hiring Generation Z has received quite a lot of attention from researchers and business leaders. Gen Z was born between approximately 1996 and 2010 and, as with all distinct generations, they are products of the world they grew up in; the major events, the technology, the instability, and the hope. This generation saw the first black president of the USA and a woman who just missed the White House by a fraction. They have been surrounded by the rise of social responsibility as a force for change.
They also witnessed the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and sluggish political action on climate change. They have grown up in a world where both hope and despair exist side by side, and they are not about to sit still and be compliant with the status quo. They are more likely to speak up, and that's a good thing.
If you're hiring a Generation Z to manage your social media channels, don't be surprised that your tone of engagement becomes more authentic and less formal. If you hire a Gen Z to run your paid media campaigns, be prepared to be asked often for feedback, and to be given suggestions on how things might be improved. This generation has grown up in a world vastly different from X's, Y's and Boomers, and even the vaunted Millennials are moving aside for Z's to drive things forward. In Gen Z, the energy of youth is not wasted on the young.
So how do we mentor, and not manage this generation when hiring Generation Z?
How do we help them bring their voices and values to the core of our teams and organizations to make them better?
Gen Z is not looking for "stability" in the same way their parents might have. Hopping from job to job is pretty normal, rather than a negative point on the CV. Research suggests that Gen Z will change jobs an average of 10 times between the ages of 18 and 34. Why? Career development and financial freedom are uppermost concerns, and who can blame them? Saddled with increasing student debt in many countries, and with stagnant wages in many sectors, they are not about to wait for things to change.
With that desire for progression, expect to receive many requests for feedback, opportunities to grow and learn, and the incentives to match. If not, they are likely to jump ship in a candidate-driven global market. Collaborative work in a flatter hierarchy can be a great fit to provide less top-down relationship dynamics, and project-based working is a great way to provide diverse workdays and varied tasks.
Gen Z is also the most diverse generation in history and more progressive than even millennials on a range of social issues. More than 37% of Gen Z's know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns, and most are aware and accepting of the changing nature of gender identity. They would certainly expect to see this as an option on your CRM and web forms, for example.
Authenticity is a hallmark of Gen Z, and so they can certainly see the difference between the corporate BS and actual action, and they're not easily fooled. This generation didn't grow up with a high power distance perception between themselves and "authority" and approach it with more than a pinch of salt. As they are less hierarchical, just level with them. Drop the superfluous business terminology and get to the point.
If you suggest that a Gen Z "leverages blue sky thinking", expect an eye roll in response (and quite right too). Authenticity means connecting emotionally too. When you say "how are you", it's not just small talk. Expect to talk about mental and emotional wellbeing, and how things are really going. There is less division between work and their life outside it now; especially so in the case of remote workers.
This means training for a start, and 84% of Gen Z expect training opportunities to be provided on the job as a minimum, and this means well-explained, properly thought out support. This is, of course, in everyone's best interests. Showing appreciation, and giving authentic and constructive feedback, is hugely important. Often. This means not only a pat on the back for a job well done, but having meaningful time to reflect on progress, milestones, and next steps in development. Being entrusted with purposeful work helps enormously too in mentoring Gen Z.
Given that this generation is total digitally native, why not ask them to help some of the other team with new technology, workarounds, and creative quirks they may not have known about. Peer teaching is hugely empowering after all. Hiring Gen Z then micro-managing them is probably the worst approach to take. They'll figure things out themselves and a guide at the side would suit them far better than a sage on the stage. They already make up 7% of the workforce and of course, this is growing all the time, so taking some time to really think about a proper mentorship approach for future hires is a good use of time.
Gen Z is purpose-driven, and integrity matters. In fact, two-thirds of Gen Z want to make a positive impact on the world through their work, have grown up with access to information at an unprecedented rate, and so they are going to ask why? Talking with any employee about the appropriate use of technology at work, use of time, organizational culture, etc are all valid. With Gen Z, however, you may need to justify things rather than say "this is just the way we do things". Explore the "why" together in onboarding so that it is internalized in a collaborative way, not handed down from on high.
If you can't justify something and have to say "that's just the way it is", then perhaps it's time to change it anyway.
Education marketing & recruitment is a fast-moving sector. We all know this. Tools change, trends shift, strategies evolve. Gen Z is coming into our teams right now, and geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) is hugely positive about this new generation and the adaptability and sense of purpose they bring to the table. We are already dedicated to supporting our clients to reach Gen Z as prospective students. To support you in onboarding, and guiding a new generation in your team, we can also purposeful and engaging training with our Sales Academy.
Don't hesitate to reach out and connect with us to talk more.
WhatsApp in Education Marketing and Recruitment is something we have been discussing with colleagues this week, and the discussion has raised some interesting questions about the use of this tool in our profession. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are both front runners in instant messaging (outside of China) and both owned by Facebook. Though there are more users registered on WhatsApp, Messenger is more heavily used. The thing is, that Facebook is an established social network, so talking to or being approached by prospective students on Messenger is a given standard in most organizations. Talk to professionals in this field about using WhatsApp to connect with prospective students, and you'll see that there isn't a lot of agreement.
Some of our clients use it regularly to talk with prospective students and swear by it as an efficient tool for real-time communication, which the students really appreciate. Others say it is a personal app, not a business one, and that even the WhatsApp Business App is really not suited to what we do. They both have a point. At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we work B2B and have more personal relationships with our clients and partners, and so WhatsApp is clearly a great tool for us, and one we depend on.
To push this further, we have helped many of our clients to set up WhatsApp as a channel of communication with their prospective students, and have helped them to integrate it with their own CRM, so that all communication is in the same place. To plant our flag right at the start, we're all for WhatsApp to reach out to prospective students, if it's used in the right way. So why would we use this tool in our profession, and how might we make the best use of it?
Well, how could we not mention this first? It really is amazing that a tool like this remains free. For larger organizations, the WhatsApp Business API, which is customizable and can be used for larger teams, does charge for different levels of service. The basic app, however, is great for smaller organizations, and it looks likely that it will remain free to use for the foreseeable future, though some paid add ons are coming our way.
WhatsApp users send 65 billion messages per day, and with the blue tick system leaning on us to open and respond, it's no wonder that there is so much traffic. We haven't yet seen conclusive data on message open rate for WhatsApp use in business, but let's just say that the most conservative figure out there is 90%. How does that compare to your MailChimp open rate?
You are considering 3 different high schools or four different universities. You have some doubts about your first choice and go to get in touch with their admissions team. There is only the option to send an email through the web form. While you're waiting for a response, you try your second choice institution. They are on WhatsApp and answer your questions right away, to an app that's already in your phone.
No navigating to a chatbot, and it feels that bit more personal. After all, there is the conversation sitting right above your last chat with a friend. Email responses can often feel "canned" and less personal, and they address a lot of information in one go. For short clarifications, follow-up questions etc., email really isn't the most agile of tools. This simple thing can make a difference in the decision-making process. Gen Z are the "always on" generation, looking frequently at WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok, so meet them where they are.
Now we know there is a lot of hesitation around potentially using WhatsApp in Education Marketing and Recruitment. There should be. For us at geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we never see tech tools as a solution in and of themselves. It is critically important to examine how they should be used above all.
"As universities, it is undeniable that we are struggling ever increasingly with getting students to read our emails or webpages. The need to “break it down” and make information clear and accessible is compelling. Speaking to students via WhatsApp is an incredible opportunity to do so.
This requires the right setup as well as the support of the institution, and not just in terms of technology. We found a good balance in encouraging our local reps to communicate with students and families in the way they deem most effective: very often WhatsApp (or local alternatives) is THE answer.It is our role to seek customer-centered approaches while preserving the professional image of the university."
Ilaria Bossi, International Recruitment Manager
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
Firstly, you'll need to connect your WhatsApp Business account to a phone. Think carefully how you do this, as it may become an integral part of your communication strategy, and the first decision is critical. Normally, you can use your regular office number, but if you can't then you might think about using a virtual mobile number to connect to your account. This means that one of your team members can use the web interface and one can use the mobile interface at the same time.
You should also make sure you have a verified account, so that the blue tick appears next to your name. Prospective students will know they are talking with the real deal, which is important in a world of phishing and phony accounts.
So what will you do? You might want to put the WhatsApp option on your website right away, or just use it for follow-ups once contact and conversation has been established. The former option really encourages much more engagement. WhatsApp is a personal tool, so contacting prospective students first on this channel is not always appropriate. Best case scenario, they come to you, and when they do, be ready. Otherwise, contact them through other means first, to then have a better engagement on WhatsApp without seeming like a stranger.
What automatic replies do you have for out of hours? Are you ready to be responsive to inquiries on this new channel, and do you have prepared chunks ready for common questions, which sound appropriate to the tone of a more personal channel? Do you have your high frequency images, documents and files ready to share with prospective students? When they ask questions about the campus, or the classrooms, a quick image over the chat will help visualization enormously.
Things can get messy pretty quickly if this isn't done well. One colleague is following up on a question from a prospective student, which has already been answered by WhatsApp. We all do it. Messaging an organization on different channels to get a quick reply is pretty standard practice, and that means your channels must be integrated with your central CRM. It is always recommended calling on expert help to set up the integration. Because WhatsApp itself is such a deceptively simple tool, we have seen many organizations use it as a "complement" to their core communications.
Very quickly, they see the engagement rocket, and just are not set up to deal with this shift in a way that keeps information in the same place. That is where prospects are lost, and stress levels rise. If you want to increase engagement and retention in a way that fits the needs of your audience, we're happy to come on board and help. We can support your business to automate and integrate the process right from the start. It's what we do.
Our colleagues who are hesitant to use WhatsApp in education marketing and recruitment have good cause, but perhaps for different reasons. At geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy), we would only recommend caution on the how but the why is crystal clear. WhatsApp is a personal tool, but as long as a prospective student contacts you first on the channel, or they have given you consent to call them by providing their phone on your forms, they are giving you permission to engage.
This is not an invasion of privacy, but rather a service that fits the needs of a new generation, and for which they will thank you.
The Harvard Business Review wrote that "no profession in business has a more complex reputation than sales", and yes, even for our world of education marketing and recruitment, it is complex.
It is complex not just because of the cliched and outdated image of a pushy alpha male salesperson who says anything just to crush numbers and targets like hapless foes. No, there is another reason, and that reason is the gender imbalance at the top. Surveys vary in detail, but the broad picture is always the same. Women occupy the majority of the junior and mid-level roles in Marketing and Recruitment, but in the very top roles, it is still much more likely to be a man who sits in the chair.
Now, finding examples of inspiring women in sales leadership is not a problem. The issue is that women at the top of this profession should stand out as having succeeded despite the profession.
The Boston Consulting Group report that "there are fewer women leaders in sales than in any other business function except supply chain and logistics".
Now that's a problem, and it is compounded even further for women of color.
For young, ambitious women in Business Schools or professional training, they already know that the road to the top of any profession within business may be more challenging for them. Though things are changing, the latest reports show only 29% of top leadership positions worldwide are held by a woman. The world of sales, in general, falls even shorter than that figure. In our world of education marketing and recruitment, though it's hard to get precise figures for the industry, we have found that women occupy many of the key positions in marketing and admissions, but not the top C level roles.
Without real and visible gender balance at the top, is it any wonder that young women might look at the profession and lower their expectations of career progression?
The field of education marketing and recruitment is a totally different universe from selling insurance or cars, but yet the word "sales" can apply to both, and that means we have to look at how we present our profession and how we talk about it. We know that in the education field, our focus is on building relationships, listening, solving problems, and being creative. Targets and metrics are hugely important but come more organically as a result of really understanding what people need. People come first, and though we strive to get the best from ourselves, we work as a team.
Finding common ground with our partners and clients, we love the challenge and creativity of finding the right solution, and the connection that comes from helping others succeed in the world of education. Every day is different, and whether we are helping a university to showcase what makes it unique, or connecting students, agents and institutions, we know this profession has a lot to offer.
But does this message get out there beyond the stereotypes? Are young women put off applying for roles in our profession? If you look at an industry and see women becoming scarcer as you climb the hierarchy, that is not the most inspiring start to a career. Those at the top set the tone and the culture, and that matters. We could talk all day about how women are better listeners and tend to be better at building relationships. But we won't. This is not about women's capacity to succeed in sales and marketing; there should be no doubt about that.
We could also talk about company cultures, about supporting maternity leave and promoting gender diversity, but that is also a given. Equity in leadership representation is also not just about reducing the argument to the very obvious economic benefit. Those organizations have the information and resources to do better, and making it all happen is up to them. We're not about to wait.
What we can do, and we can do right now, is to help make this career more appealing and inspiring. By supporting women to add their voices and enrich the profession, we can make a difference. geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) will play our part. Women are less likely to have mentors than men, and of course less likely to see themselves reflected in leadership in this profession. We'll be reaching out to other women, making ourselves more visible, and sharing in our experiences.
This matters. When we see the narrative changing, we believe change can happen. The female lead is a perfect example of positive influence; sharing stories and examples of women who "inspire by lifting others".
Advocacy work by Spencer Stuart finds that "Mentoring up-and-coming women is crucial in building a more diverse pipeline of sales leaders to inspire women who are earlier in their careers".
We couldn't agree more.
In the coming months, stay tuned for interviews with the geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) team and with fellow women in the field. You can also expect more from us each week on our blog.
This month we will be interviewing geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy)'s Founder & CEO Alejandra Otero, and covering her talk at the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola's Youth Without Borders: The Female Entrepreneur Generation event on 19th November. We would also love to talk to young women studying business, and talk about what this career path has to offer, so please do reach out if we can make that happen for your institution.
Let's keep talking, inspiring, and lifting each other. Are you with us?
How many apps have you downloaded and hardly used? How many tools have you trialed and never really integrated? Mobile apps save small business employees about 725 work hours per year, and 92% of small businesses are using at least one cloud-based tech tool. From CRM and cloud-based accounting to productivity and social media tools, there's a lot on offer. The thing is, that there's a lot written about the time savings of using technology effectively, but not a lot of information on just how much time we waste on trying tools that just aren't a good fit. Perhaps this is because we would just rather forget about how frustrating it all can be.
So, the question is- how do we choose the right tool, and how do we do that without the headache?
Many of our partners are working from home right now, and we guess you are too. Liquid working, fluid teams, and project-based working; all of these scenarios are more and more commonplace. Whether you are running an in-house Admissions Team, or a private agency recruiting students for study abroad programs, the chances are that remote working is here to stay for many of us.
It's easy to jump for a technological solution that seems like a good fit. Watching a YouTube ad for any number of excellent digital tools, you might hear them describe challenges you are facing and you shout "Eureka!". You sign up on the spot and start trying to tackle the issues you've been having with remote teams and project deadlines. Perhaps you're working with student recruitment and you can't easily access the office right now to get paperwork and are looking at an off-the-shelf CRM solution to move things online. We would advise against this.
A top-down approach to tech integration means starting from the surface and looking at the symptoms, rather than the causes and contexts. A top-down approach to anything at all is rarely a good idea. In every context, from NGO's to small businesses, a bottom-up approach will ensure any new solution is based on an open appraisal of what your values are, what is important to your organization, what experience you want to deliver for your clients, and how your team is used to working and communicating. It might feel like time you could be spending attacking the surface problems, but doing things this way will pay dividends.
We understand that the situation is pressing, and organizations need to automate just to survive right now, but as a recent survey by Dell has illustrated, businesses can rush into this without really making sure the tech solutions they choose are a good fit for who they really are. By revisiting your core organizational values and reflecting on the dynamic and culture of the team around you, there is a greater chance of getting things right the first time.
How does your team feel about change? What kind of digital skills do they already have and what training gaps can you identify? Can you allocate resources to address those gaps, and how long will that likely take? How does your team work together? Bearing in mind that remote working is looking like a pretty permanent feature of the landscape. Take a look at all of the processes they use, and sketch them out visually. What could be automated? Where is work duplicated? Where are there risks of error, or delay for your students and partners? What are the critical issues that need to be solved and what would the solution ideally look like?
Involve the team as much as possible in these discussions, as buy-in will also help with adoption when you do make the change. The only way to make change even more unpopular is when you impose it. There is a bewildering array of apps and system tools out there, with such a range of pricing and functions, that it takes a great deal of time to make the choice. A colleague may have recommended something, but what are the chances that this tool is equally right for you and your team? We don't mean to sound negative, but to present the challenges in a realistic light. There is a reason that change management has it's very own subject in business schools; there are a lot of moving parts to consider and anticipate, and there will likely be some level of resistance whatever you choose. Look at what your organization needs, and not what will be popular.
Now that you have a clear sense of alignment between your core values, culture, and processes on one hand, and the solution you would like on the other hand, it's time to put them together (not for applause- that only happens if everything goes well!).
Armed with this information, deciding on what and how to integrate a technological solution will be a bit easier. You may for example see a great product/service, but realize that the support is limited and you'll have to wait in line on the tech support hotline or chatbot for any help. Great fun. You might also see that something you were considering actually offers a lot of stuff you don't need.
If you are an education agent, focused mainly on recruiting students for high schools, you may not need 50% of the functions available on the CRM. Save yourself time and money in finding something that actually fits. Inefficiency is very expensive. If you are going for a technology stack, rather than a single tool, they have to work together. Integration is the keyword, so if your social media scheduler doesn't get on with your CRM, and neither of them like the SEO plugin on your website, then things could get tricky.
Ok, you've got your tech, and the team is on board. What comes next is all about being realistic. How much time do you really need to be able to see ROI? What planning is in place for any training gaps which come up? What are the feedback structures to check where things need improvement? It's just not realistic that everything will go perfectly, so planning around eventualities and managing expectations is key. Even something relatively simple like using Trello as a way to manage projects among your remote team means really working through a lot of basic things first, like how to name boards and files, how to manage deadlines, and how to categorize projects.
And then there are more complex things like optimizing HubSpot to manage and track your growing number of leads aiming at boosting conversions.
So much of this is just not possible to plan out in advance. If you plan to go it alone without the support of experts, you may have to plan for productivity to actually slow down before it picks up again, and to keep a watchful eye on deliverables that slip through the cracks.
Many institutions just don't have the time or the resources to navigate these transitions themselves. Education marketing and recruitment organizations were already under strain, where they were either paper-based or using less than optimal CRM or internal processes. The Covid-19 pandemic just tipped that pressure up a notch, and many organizations are laser-focused on just surviving.
We are here to help - geNEOus (formerly NEO Academy) - does not just design and implement a bespoke CRM and automate your sales and marketing processes, only to then disappear into thin air.
We understand that the success of your business can depend on making sure this works well, and that means developing a relationship. That's why we have a track record of working to empower our clients and partners to automate and implement bespoke marketing and recruitment strategies, and offering full in-house training and support to help you move forward independently. We also offer a range of integrated solutions to boost your leads and conversions while you focus on your clients.
Take a look at what we can do for education organizations, and contact us for an informal chat to discuss your needs. We promise - no headaches.
