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What people are saying
"Cranium Cafe has provided an option for us to academically advise students who live
outside our local service area. We are confident that this method of advisement will lead
to an increase in our enrollment."
Susan Larsen
Director of Student Success Snow College (435) 283-‐7317 susan.larsen@snow.edu“I’m impressed with the product that has evolved. The possibility of keeping in touch with
students on a one-on-one basis, and having the ability to do so on a schedule of my
choosing, enables me to talk to a broad student base and bring that personal touch back
to online learning.”
Becky Smith
Dean of Academic and Community Outreach Dixie State University (435) 652-‐7836 bsmith@dixie.edu"Using Cranium Cafe for our initial academic advising appointments with new students
has been amazing. The ability to share a screen as you talk to a student makes the process
so much easier. You get to see each other visually as well as hear each other. This beats
just talking to a student on the phone while you try to talk them through the steps of web
navigation without knowing what they are looking at.”
Deb Vickery
Director of The START CenterWestminster College dvickery@westminstercollege.edu
Case Study
Snow College Increases Enrollment with Cranium Cafe
The Situation
After several attempts to increase enrollment and the amount of advisement sessions, the numbers at Snow College continued to drop. Meetings with advisors are crucial in higher education institutions — most importantly for student success, but also for enrollment and retention. Newly enrolled freshmen often fail to register for classes simply because they are overwhelmed or feel unsupported. The students who are most likely to complete their degrees feel connected with the campus and specifically with advisors. Students are also busier than ever as they constantly negotiate schedules with families, jobs, academics, and extracurriculars. Susan Larsen, Director of Academic Advising, discovered that many students struggled to fit an extra trip to campus in their schedules. So while the college needed advising to become more accessible, they were actually facing additional obstacles. It was at this point that the college began exploring options for online advising.
The Solution
Snow College evaluated different options, including Skype and Google Hangouts, but took special notice of Cranium Cafe. Larsen was ultimately impressed by “how easy it was to use” and she knew the
importance of finding a FERPA-compliant solution. The college liked that it made advising more
accessible to students without losing the benefits of an in-office appointment, so Cranium Cafe was soon implemented in the Academic Advising Department.
The Result
Cranium Cafe gives Snow College these features: • Students and advisors can meet face to face
• Advisors can set their availability through the Office Hours tab so students can set up appointments
• Students can initiate instant meetings or schedule meetings for later through the Office Hours tab • Students and advisors can upload and mark up documents together during their meetings • The Archives tab lets advisors and students save and replay their meetings
• With the Share Screen feature, advisors can show students how to navigate the college’s application pages or the course registration site
• Website integration allows students to access their advisors right from the advising homepage
"Cranium Cafe has provided an option for us to academically advise students who live outside our local service area. We are confident that this method of advisement will be an asset to our students and to our Student Success Center." says Larsen.
Case Study
Adams State University and Cranium Cafe
An integrated online advising solution that works
Adams State University is a public institution in southern Colorado. They live by the motto “Great Stories Begin Here.” Founded in 1921 as a teacher’s college, Adams State has expanded to offer dozens of undergraduate disciplines of study in addition to master’s degree programs and a doctoral program. Most of their programs are offered online for increased accessibility for distance learners and full-time
professionals. Adams State University aims to enhance southern Colorado’s “educational opportunity,
economic development, and cultural enrichment.” (https://www.adams.edu/about/)
Adams State’s Office of Extended Studies offers distance learning opportunities in undergraduate studies, graduate studies, K-12 educators, and high school students. Through eLearning, online instruction, personal correspondence, face-to-face classes offered beyond the ASU campus, and professional development opportunities for K-12 educators, Adams State offers a comprehensive online education portfolio.
The Situation
How do you engage more than 600 degree-seeking students from a single distance learning office? How do you create effective communication between more than 7,000 enrolled online students with their advisors?
Adams State faced this problem, and worked to find a solution.
As an institution offering comprehensive distance learning opportunities for its students, Adams State worked diligently to keep up with phone and email communication with their distance learners. It was a priority for the school to facilitate communication between students with their peers, instructors, and advisors. Adams State was looking for a solution to engage its students, make online advisors more accessible, and facilitate the question-and-answer process for distance learners.
The Search
Carissa Watts, Director of Advisement and Recruiter for the Office of Extended Studies at Adams State University, says they knew they needed a few features: availability and calendaring functions, instant chat, and website integration. In addition, any product needed to be intuitive and FERPA compliant. The biggest challenge, Watts said, was convincing the administration about the need for this product. Watts immediately began getting campus stakeholders on board with product implementation. Watts said she was persistent in her desire to implement Cranium Cafe, and the affordable price point sweetened the deal for administrators. The process took about two months to cultivate buy-in and sign the contract, and the Cafe was fully implemented by November 2014.
The Solution
Adams State University tested Blackboard Collaborate and completed a training for the program, but it “was too much for our students.” After hearing about Cranium Cafe at a NACADA Region 10 Conference, she knew she wanted to bring it to her institution. “Just the way the features were presented made me
want this service right then and there for our students and advisors. I did not have to do much searching after this presentation since I knew Cranium Cafe was just what we needed.”
Watts believed in Cranium Cafe as a tool to offer the in-office experience to off-campus students. The video and meeting collaboration software provided easy options for advising distance learners, and the instant chat functionality allowed enrolled and prospective students fast and easy communication with their staff.
Cranium Cafe offered chat and collaboration functionality for prospective students in addition to degree-seeking students. The Cranium Cafe team worked with Adams State to customize the interface to display on their website in an engaging way. Watts said this created “an aggressive form of marketing for
students to use this feature.”
After featuring the Cafe interface at the top of search results and their webpage, Adams State has seen amazing and effective results.
“Cranium Cafe has exceeded our expectations. We did not expect to be as busy as we are with the chats that were coming in during our peak time of spring 2015 course registration. We are seeing that students who are using this feature seem to find it easy and convenient, and that is what we wanted for our students.” –Carissa Watts
The Results
Since implementation, 27% of website visitors navigate to the Cranium Cafe page to chat instantly with an online advisor. Since November, ASU has seen an increase in the number of people chatting with them through the Cafe. At the beginning of November, they immediately saw 67 people per week engaging through the platform; most recently, the number has increased to more than 130 people per week chatting with the staff. That is an average of 26 people per day utilizing the Cafe's functionality.
The Adams State team was innovative in its implementation: as an added incentive, every degree seeking student who chatted with them received a 4GB Adams State University USB drive. In addition to a “live online chat” icon at the bottom of every email, they drove engagement through the Cafe to record levels – and saved themselves time in the process.
“I think Cranium Cafe has had an impact on our student learning by students being able to get accurate and fast information that they can apply to their knowledge of Adams State. They can then make an informed decision by the information they gain through the chat. Cranium Cafe has also provided an option for students to seek clarification that may not be understandable on the web site like it should be.” – Carissa Watts
The increase in student usage has decreased call in the office as students utilize the chat feature rather than calling the main line. In addition, this allows them staff to better track common student questions to improve their website and offer clarification before students need to engage the staff.
