The Ada Center's mission is to help college leaders better use technology in support of student success and equity. To further that mission, The Ada Center maintains a library of freely accessible resources for the field, with a focus on tools for MSI and access-focused institutions. As we work to build out our broader listing of resources, we’re currently featuring the following reports and tools. For other materials and interactive exercises, let us know what you're looking for and we'll see if we have materials to fit your needs.
Navigating Student Success Technology: Curricular Resources
5 Step-By-Step Modules for Higher Education Practitioners and Teams
This five-part instructional series is meant to help ease the web of complexity that comes with leveraging student success technology. Each module includes a variety of resources, including webinar recordings, discussion guides, planning templates, group activities, and topical research. The modules are based on six years of insight from The Ada Center’s work with hundreds of MSIs and access-focused institutions. While this series is designed for and with Minority Serving Institution (MSI) practitioners, but many of the lessons here are also applicable across access-focused higher education institutions.
These resources were developed by The Ada Center in partnership with Complete College America and were compiled with generous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Advising Success Network is a roll-out partner and project champion for the curriculum.
Explore more and sign up for upcoming curriculum webinars at https://completecollege.org/navigating-student-success-technology/
Holistic Student Support Technology
Practical Insights and Recommendations for Leaders and Organizations Supporting Institution HSS Initiatives
This report was developed by The Ada Center with input from Phase Two Advisory and generous support from College Futures Foundation (CFF). For more on our work in California, please visit our Spotlight on CA page.
For decades, technology and student success efforts often operated in relative isolation on college campuses. The IT office handled IT, and student success leaders focused on strategy and practice. However, today, these efforts are deeply interconnected. This shift is particularly evident in the realm of Holistic Student Support (HSS). The dedicated cross-campus coordination required for HSS implementation often depends significantly on the seamless setup of a college’s underlying technology infrastructure; the success of one system influences the other.
This report, based on over 7 years of work with California’s colleges, aims to provide California Community College governing and supporting entities with the following:
An overview of the current landscape of HSS technology, both nationally and in California;
Specific insights into California colleges' technology tools, needs, and challenges, including case studies with illustrative technology "maps" from HSS Implementation Network colleges;
Ideas for potential next steps and relevant resources, drawing from The Ada Center's broader national research.
The Ada Center’s Student Success Technology Mishaps Map
Diagnostic Tool for Assessing and Correcting Off-Track Implementations
Technology implementations can go off-track for a variety of reasons. As a result, solutions to off-track implementations can be equally varied. So where do we start?
While technology implementation challenges may come in every size and shape, turning those challenges around begins with the same first step: Accurate, specific diagnostics. The “Mishaps Map” is a tool developed by The Ada Center to help pave a path forward for off-track implementations by figuring out: 1)What, specifically, is going wrong? and 2)Why are these challenges are arising?
Then, equipped with this knowledge, we can then start to think strategically about which next steps and solutions make the most sense for our specific issues.
CRM 101 Guide
Making Sense of CRMs in Higher Education
The term CRM, which stands for “Customer Relationship Management,” is being used to refer to dozens (if not more) of technology products, product categories, and specific product features. Understandably, this wreaks havoc on campuses as teams try to “speak the same language” internally and then navigate an equally confusing CRM marketplace.
This report, based on 50+ interviews with practitioners, researchers, education technology experts, and CRM product vendors, offers a way forward. Consider it your team’s quick primer on the world of CRMs in higher education – what they are, what they can (and can’t) do, and how to prepare for one on your campus.
Advising Technology Procurement and Planning
A Practical Playbook for Higher Education Leaders
Based on research from over 40 institutions that have implemented a wide range of advising technology tools, the Playbook provides step-by-step guidance for leaders and teams seeking to procure new advising tools or hoping to get an ongoing technology-supported effort back on-track.
The Playbook was published in partnership with the Advising Success Network and through generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
To request a hardcopy of the Playbook, please email Brittney Davidson at brittney@theadacenter.org.
Navigating Student Success Technology: A Decision Support Framework for Higher Education Leaders
The Ada Center and the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program created this framework to support leaders in navigating the emerging software landscape. The framework comes in two forms: a 24 X 36 color poster and a complete toolkit.
The poster framework provides a high-level picture of student success technology capabilities available in today’s market along with the inputs—human resources, data, existing structures—required to bring them to life for your college. The toolkit provides a more in-depth look at the student success software capabilities available today, how colleges can effectively harness these capabilities, and example vendors. It's recommended that colleges leverage this framework as they determine which student success software is right for their college.
Software Evaluation Guides
Questions to Ask Before Purchasing a Case Management, Degree Planning, or Predictive Analytics Tool
Developed for Achieving the Dream's Integrated Planning and Student Support Toolkit, this resource provides college leaders with an organized checklist of considerations when purchasing three distinct categories of software tools: case management and advising; degree planning; and predictive analytics. For each of these software categories, the Ada Center provides general commentary on the pricing, integration, and implementation experiences drawn from colleges that have purchased tools from a variety of vendors.
Scheduling for Completion
Lessons from a Statewide Software Implementation
In 2016, the OACC received Ohio Department of Higher Education Innovation Grant funding to focus on the comprehensive use of data analytics in support of course scheduling and resource allocation. Eighteen community colleges elected to participate in this grant initiative. The Ada Center was the qualitative evaluation partner for this multi-year project, exploring lessons learned with respect to student success software implementation. The report is useful for those exploring similar technology investments at a state or institution level.