Want improved student experience? Go paperless, says edtech exec

Students in universities across the country don’t want to deal with paper anymore — and neither do higher education staff and employees.

“I did a quick Google Image search of colleges and universities’ forms and it’s horrifying how many paper copies [there are],” Ellucian SVP of Digital Transformation Kari Branjord says in a video interview. “You walk into any one-stop at any institution and there is a rack of forms that you have to go pick and fill out and turn in behind a counter.”

But that’s not how students or university staff want it to work, Branjord says.

“Students don’t want to operate that way, and neither will your workforce,” Branjord says. “That’s turning over in higher ed. The workforce doesn’t want to take a form and key it in.”

Technology can be a part of the larger effort underway in universities to make education more efficient, the Elluican executive says. And by building more efficient processes for students, the lives of the university workforce improves too.

“It sounds really basic, and not very visionary, but honestly, let’s start with taking those horrible processes that are largely paper based and digitize them,” Branjord says.

Branjord on trends in digital transformation:

Branjord on the role of technology in student success:

Branjord on changes in digital transformation:

These videos were filmed in April 2019 at the Ellucian Live conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of a partnership between EdScoop and Ellucian.