5 ways to support students throughout the semester
January 04, 2022
As the new term nears, student support teams get ready to help students have a successful semester. But the persistent challenge of trying to figure out what to do to best help them remains. The demographics of student bodies are rapidly changing, along with advancements in technology and practices.
So, what are some things student support professionals can start doing today that will help them proactively & effectively help their students throughout the semester? Here are 5 recommendations.
Use data you already have to find potential barriers
A simple way to start rethinking your approach to student support is to look at the data you already have access to. The data you look at can come from two sources:
- Your department’s specific data Of the students you have connected with, how many needed food or housing assistance? How many were part-time vs. full-time, student-parents? What gender did they identify as? You can make data-driven decisions to predict what programs/partnerships will best help you address the most common needs of the most common types of students you’ve served.
- College-wide data If you don’t have a good data collection system in your department, try looking at your college as a whole. Are you at a majority commuter school? Change your approach to take into account that your students are only on campus for a limited amount of time each day, if at all. Most of your students are part-time? Look to boost up programs that address resources that would allow students to have to work less hours so they can focus more time on school.
If you want to learn how you can connect your students to social resources, like SNAP and Medicaid, while also collecting data, check out BestFit’s Quick Eligibility Tool.
Use social media to your advantage
You’ve probably already heard that you need to be on social media and may also feel like the types of students who use your services are not going to interact with you there. In reality, they are MORE likely to interact with you through social media. 84% of social media users are between the ages of 18-29 and 76% have some college education. Running a social media account is perfect for letting your student body know what is available to them and reducing the stigma of needing help.
If you’re hesitant to use social media because you’re not sure how to, that’s okay! You can create a position in your office for a student employee who knows the ins and outs of social media and has a passion for helping their fellow students. Students for this position are often marketing & communications, or design majors. If your budget doesn’t allow for that, there’s several free design resources available for you to make your own social media posts such as:
- Canva: a free graphic design platform with templates for social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. You can invite team members to your free account as well.
- Snappa: similar tool to Canva, however you can only add on more team members with the Pro plan.
- Later: in addition to creating content for social media, you can schedule posts as well. You also get a link to share that allows students to go to a specific link associated with a post
Digitize the use of your resources/services
Similar to using social media, digitizing your services allows you to reach more students on campus. If you’re trying to reach students who are part-time, parents, caregivers, and/or work off campus, asking them to come to your office multiple times for forms or appointments is outdated. Time poverty is real. With digital platforms becoming the standard for this generation of students, making your services digitally available allows for an easier and quicker experience. Digital services can also do a great job of reducing the stigma related to asking for help, especially for social services.
Remember to collect data as much as you can along the way. Using digital tools like Formstack, allows you to create customizable forms and analyze the data from submissions.
Take time to stay informed
In this day and time, it seems like there’s new policy and technological updates every day. Thankfully there’s some great blogs out there to keep you up on higher ed news and practices:
- Inside Higher Ed - Get the latest on news, opinion, resources, events, and research focused on college and university topics.
- Education Dynamics - Stay up to date on how to talk to students from a marketing perspective.
- BestFit - Receive insights and resources around student support when it comes to their social & basic needs.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education - News for college & university faculty and student affairs professionals
- Complete College America - Get articles and resources on new practices in supporting students through college.
Conduct a student outreach survey
Sometimes, the best solution is the simplest one. Simply asking your students what they need in an outreach survey can give you the clearest idea of what you’re up against. It also shows students that their needs are a priority to you, which helps them feel more comfortable interacting with your office.
Conducting outreach surveys can be tricky. You don’t want to seem like you’re intruding in their lives or make them feel vulnerable by answering your questions. Here are some tips on how to structure your survey to avoid these problems:
- Be transparent Introduce yourself and/or the office responsible for the survey. This can be in the body text or attachments of an email. Or in a brief oral introduction if a professor lets you speak to their students. Telling students exactly what you plan to do with this information helps put their minds at ease.
- Allow for open ended questions A lot of times we think multiple choice questions makes it easier for the respondent to answer, and easier for us to understand what we need to do. However, when it comes to topics like basic needs support, there are a lot of nuances, and everyone’s situation isn’t exactly the same. If a student starts to feel like their situation doesn’t exactly fit the situations in your choices, they might not complete the survey and might lose interest in your office altogether.
- Ask at the right time Asking students to tell you about how they are struggling with paying rent while studying during midterms won’t get you the responses you’re looking for. Be proactive and ask students at times where they can afford to answer your survey. The first few weeks of the semester are great times. Students aren’t yet weighed down by coursework and you’ll have time to start implementing solutions.
- Reach students in the right way In addition to asking students at the right time, you need to reach them in the right ways. Emailing the student body is a great first step, but sometimes students ignore emails they consider spam. (Don’t we all?) That’s why it’s important to have a mixture of touchpoints. Create social media posts promoting the survey. Ask professors to spare you 5 minutes before a class to tell students about the survey. Have student workers? Ask them to promote it through word-of-mouth.
It can be hard to figure out how to best help students stay in school and graduate. It's best to work smarter, not harder. Thinking about the problems from the student's perspective will help you see that the best solutions are those that prioritize their time and responsibilities and make them feel seen and heard.