The rising need for an integrated system to streamline academic procedures is regarded as a major driver for the growth of global cloud computing in the education sector. Most educational institutions rely on IT technologies and services to manage administrative processes effectively. These processes include admissions, registrations, and management of students, teachers, courses, and libraries. As education continues to adapt and adopt cloud computing, academic institutions enjoy several benefits. These include increased collaboration between students and institutes, enhanced innovation and learning, improved higher educational outcomes and administrative efficiency, and seamless information sharing.
The prolific use of mobile devices has significantly improved connectivity for academic institutions, students, and teachers via portable devices such as cell phones and tablets. With the addition of high-speed cloud connectivity, processes such as receiving management emails, tracking progress, and working on various tasks become simpler. Developed economies have even embraced a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy and set up robust IT infrastructure to allow students to bring devices to classrooms.
Verified Market Research says that cloud computing in the education sector was valued at $23.81 billion in 2021 and is anticipated to reach $173.62 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 24.70% from 2022 to 2030.
What is Salesforce Education Cloud?
Salesforce Education Cloud comprises different objects and tools designed to simplify procedures for students, teachers, and others involved in the educational ecosystem. The objective is to enhance personalization in areas of student experiences, learning paths, and other aspects.
The Education Cloud is constructed on the Education Data Architecture (EDA), replacing the Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA) suite of 2016. The EDA is a pre-configured data model specifically tailored for the education sector. It acts as the foundation for collaboration between educational institutions and the customer community. Through its objects and relationships, EDA facilitates a seamless connection of each student account to an administrative account, ensuring a comprehensive record of student addresses, relationships, and affiliations. With this framework, educational institutions are better positioned to efficiently manage student information and have a clear data overview.
Salesforce Education Cloud also goes by Salesforce for Higher Education. It simplifies student and teacher workflows by integrating various components within the Salesforce platform. This consolidation enables users to efficiently manage their data from a single location.
Education Cloud offers a 360-degree perspective of both student and institutional data. This allows staff members to access relevant information about students and their academic journeys including their areas of study, educational interactions, and other pertinent details. This holistic understanding enhances decision-making and facilitates a more tailored educational experience.
With all relevant information readily available, staff members can enhance student experiences and provide them with additional opportunities for the future. The streamlined processes offered by Salesforce Education Cloud eliminate concerns about excessive time and financial resources being expended. This allows staff to allocate more time towards teaching and learning, ensuring that students receive the attention and support they need to thrive academically. By minimizing administrative burdens, Education Cloud empowers educators to prioritize their core mission of education.
Salesforce for Higher Education encompasses several key features that contribute to a comprehensive and efficient educational ecosystem:
Admissions Connect: This feature combines admissions management and applicant engagement in a single platform, providing a streamlined CRM (Customer Relationship Management) approach to admissions processes.
These include:
Salesforce Student Success Hub for Higher Education: Designed to foster effective support, collaboration, and connection among students, staff, and faculty, this platform serves as a centralized hub for student success initiatives.
Accounting Sub-ledger: By consolidating fundraising and accounting data, this system enhances transparency between the non-profit and education sectors, facilitating better financial management.
Elevate: This integrated selection of fundraising solutions offered by Salesforce.org focuses on empowering non-profit organizations. While primarily available to US users, individuals outside the US can also leverage the broader Salesforce ecosystem.
Experience Cloud: Working in tandem with Education Cloud, Experience Cloud enables project creation such as an alumni resource center. This informs graduates about postgraduate opportunities and enhances engagement within the alumni community.
These features collectively augment the educational experience, supporting students in their academic journey and guiding them toward future endeavors beyond education.
How Salesforce Education Cloud Enhances Student Outcomes
Salesforce Education Cloud provides valuable solutions for students and educators at every stage of the K-20 student lifecycle and beyond. A Total Economic Impact study conducted by Forrester Consulting shows that higher education institutions have benefited from it in many ways including enhancing revenue, increasing enrollment numbers, cost savings, and student retention.
Educational institutions have been able to:
- Drive up their ROI by 195% over the three years. This includes payback in just seven months.
- Save as much as $2.4 million in legacy cost savings.
- Achieve an 11% increase in enrollment.
- Attain an increase of 40% in student engagement.
- Increase revenue by around 12.1%.
The Salesforce Education Cloud offers a comprehensive suite of tools aimed at streamlining the student learning experience. These are inclusive of personalized learning features and the ability to monitor student progress thereby fostering higher levels of student engagement. Additionally, Education Cloud facilitates stronger connections between schools and parents through seamless communication, real-time updates on student performance, and better parental involvement.
Improvement through Communication
Salesforce Education Cloud plays a crucial role in fostering robust communities through its efficient communication and student interaction capabilities. For example, Sante Fe College was struggling to be perceived as a top choice for applicants. Using Salesforce’s Pardot, Social Studio, and Community Cloud solutions, the college improved its overall perception. It saw remarkable improvements including a 250% increase in engagement, a 60% surge in digital inquiries, a 75% rise in campus tour requests, a 15% boost in admissions applications, and a 4% increase in enrollments.
Creating Accessible Campuses
With today’s widespread adoption of mobile devices, colleges, and universities recognize the importance of adopting mobile-first strategies to create responsive websites, develop mobile apps, and establish a connected campus environment.
The University of San Diego provides a great example of how Salesforce Education Cloud helped them develop mobile applications that empower students. These apps enable students to monitor their academic performance, track their activities, and even express their emotions regarding specific courses. With the implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and mobile apps, the university significantly improved student engagement and communication, going beyond traditional classroom settings.
Enhanced Communication
Salesforce Education Cloud significantly enhances productivity for schools and colleges by facilitating the breakdown of organizational barriers and workflow automation. Take the example of The London School of Economics and Political Science which migrated their entire data to the Salesforce platform to get actionable insights and facilitate meaningful communication. With access to new metrics, it increased the open rate of personalized emails from 25% to 40% and also the click rate from 2.9% to 11.23%.
The Benefits of Salesforce Education Cloud
Salesforce Education Cloud also comes with several features to help educational institutions to address the ever-evolving needs of today’s students and parents. Here is a look at how these features can work and the benefits they ensure:
The Learning Management System (LMS): A part of Salesforce Education Cloud, it is a cutting-edge platform that facilitates online learning and streamlines course management. This functionality empowers educational institutions to create, deliver, and monitor digital content effortlessly. Additionally, it fosters seamless collaboration and enhances the learning experience by bridging the gap between educators and students. With Education Cloud’s LMS, educational institutions can effectively embrace digital learning, ensuring a more engaging and efficient educational journey for all stakeholders involved.
Scheduling: The scheduling capabilities of Education Cloud make it simpler for educators to plan and organize class schedules and resource allocation.
Pre-Built Apps for Enhanced Learner Journey: Salesforce Education Cloud offers a range of pre-built apps specifically designed to empower educators in supporting every stage of the learner lifecycle. These ready-to-use apps can be easily customized and configured to address the distinctive needs and challenges at various stages of the learner journey. With these pre-built apps, educational institutions can efficiently manage and enhance the learner experience, ensuring personalized support and guidance throughout the entire educational process.
Real-Time Insights: Educational institutions can access real-time insights about students, leading to informed decision-making and positive outcomes through the learning ecosystem. By leveraging the robust features and data analytics capabilities, institutions can gather and analyze valuable information about students, enabling them to make data-driven decisions that drive positive educational outcomes.
Customized Marketing Campaigns: Education Cloud makes it easier for educators to create customized marketing campaigns to reach the right target audience comprising students. Doing this at the right time with a relevant message via a channel that students prefer can be advantageous.
Automated Student Enrollment Scoring: Salesforce Education Cloud provides automated scoring functionality for student enrollment, empowering educational institutions to efficiently and accurately evaluate applicants. By leveraging automated scoring capabilities, institutions can optimize their enrollment processes, enabling them to make well-informed decisions promptly and effectively.
High-End Analytics and Forecasting: Salesforce Education Cloud powers advanced analytics and forecasting capabilities. This ensures that educational institutions are provided with quality insights and enjoy predictive analytics to improve student learning experience.
Mobile Access and Notifications: With the mobile access and notification feature, educators stay easily connected with their students throughout. Seamless mobile access helps users utilize the platform’s capabilities from their smartphones anytime. It also provides real-time notifications to keep users updated on significant events, deadlines, and relevant information. This functionality ensures that educators have constant access to student-related data and timely updates, enhancing communication and enabling them to effectively manage their responsibilities while on the go.
A Single Space for Student Advising: Education Cloud brings all stakeholders – students, staff, and faculty – together on a single platform. With this, students can take advantage of a single advising experience that focuses on their academic life, prospective careers, and their well-being.
A One-Stop Shop for Students: Education Cloud offers a wide-ranging suite of tools to enhance staff efficiency including record-keeping, documentation, and outcome tracking. It also promotes student engagement by unifying data and enabling collaboration, allowing students easy access to answers and support. This creates a cohesive learning environment and improves the overall educational experience.
Support for Conversational Chatbots: By leveraging chatbot technology, educational institutions can ensure that students can access assistance and information anytime, improving their overall experience. The chatbots can handle a wide range of queries, providing prompt and accurate responses, and freeing up staff members’ time for more complex tasks. This feature contributes to improved efficiency, enhanced student support, and a seamless learning environment.
Effective Case Management: Education Cloud ensures that support staff members stay connected and well-informed about campus activities through a centralized platform. This enables them to access all the necessary information to assist students effectively with their inquiries. The platform also offers automated and customizable workflows that streamline the case management process, optimizing efficiency and ensuring that student needs are addressed promptly. By providing an all-inclusive and efficient support system, Education Cloud boosts the overall student experience and nurtures a productive learning environment.
Multi-Channel Fundraising: Education Cloud offers holistic assistance to educational organizations in their fundraising campaigns. It offers a diverse set of tools and capabilities that help institutions efficiently execute and oversee their fundraising endeavors across channels. Educational organizations can enhance the effectiveness of their fundraising initiatives and extend their outreach to a wider audience in this way.
Additionally, Education Cloud enables organizations to closely monitor and assess the efficacy of their fundraising campaigns across platforms. Such insights help refine strategies, identify areas for enhancement, and optimize fundraising efforts. With the multi-channel fundraising functionality, educational organizations can unleash their maximum potential and achieve financial targets.
Conclusion
Education Cloud is a robust and influential tool that provides comprehensive support to students at every stage of their academic journey. While Salesforce initially gained recognition as a CRM platform, it has evolved into a pivotal resource for enhancing student success. With its extensive range of features and capabilities, Education Cloud empowers educational institutions to effectively address the needs of students and promote their overall achievement.
Salesforce Education Cloud is bringing about a revolution in the education sector by offering a comprehensive platform that caters to the specific challenges faced by educational institutions. This innovative solution encompasses a wide range of powerful features including student lifecycle management, engagement tools, advanced analytics, and alumni management capabilities. By leveraging these tools, educators are empowered to create personalized and impactful learning experiences for their students, ultimately driving improved outcomes and success in education.
New customers who join Salesforce will automatically gain access to the Education Cloud. For institutions that already have the Education Data Architecture (EDA) installed, be assured that core capabilities such as EDA, Student Success Hub, and Admission Connect will continue to be relevant and supported.
If your institution has not yet explored the features and benefits of the new Education Cloud, now is a great time to start. Stay informed about the latest updates and enhancements in Education Cloud and consider how your institution can leverage these new capabilities to enhance its educational processes and drive positive outcomes.
Salesforce Education Cloud is a cutting-edge and user-friendly platform that brings numerous advantages to students, educational institutions, and alumni. With its robust educational data capabilities and interconnected campus infrastructure, it stands out as one of the top platforms tailored to meet the distinct needs of educational institutions.
As a Salesforce solutions provider, we offer a variety of services in Salesforce Education Cloud. If you have any queries in this regard, feel free to reach us at services@suyati.com.
