By Seth Marc Kamen
What is Digital Maturity?
Digital Maturity refers to an organization's ability to respond to the developments and shifting trends of technology quickly. In enrollment management, this may include digital communications, online events, web pages, student records, document imaging, learning management tools, and more. The more willing an institution is to pursue these opportunities and how creative they are will determine how they engage, enroll, retain, and graduate the future learner.
Why is it important?
Higher Education has slowly been entering the digital age. COVID-19 accelerated this change; institutions were forced to move functions and services online. Until then, most of these processes relied on in-person or paper touchpoints. The pandemic pushed the sector forward and exposed the need for a digital-first approach, marked by three important benchmarks:
- Learning can happen at any time, meaning that learners can access high-quality, rigorous content when it meets their needs around work, family, community, and other life commitments.
- Knowledge gathering can happen anywhere the learner is connected to the Internet.
- Access can occur on any device, with particular emphasis on mobile devices and smartphones that may be the sole connections to the Internet for some learners,
How do you integrate digital maturity into your SEM plans?
Dr. Tom Green, Director of Strategic Enrollment Management at Salesforce, begins the integration conversation by saying, "the pandemic accelerated many things in higher education and exposed areas where we were vulnerable or hadn't developed digital solutions for our students, faculty, staff, and leadership. SEM has always evolved and adapted to meet new needs. Where will they intersect? "
To help institutions identify this intersection and where they stand in their digital maturity, Salesforce will be partnering with AACRAO to present their SEM Digital Maturity Model. The model, which AACRAO members will be able to complete for free, juxtaposes current levels of SEM readiness, meaning the extent to which the institution has strong SEM structures, practices, strategies, and communications in place, with the level of digital commitment and execution. Each institution that participates will receive an assessment score, which can then be used to begin planning of, implementation of, or expansion of digital maturity. The event will be held on June 16 and July 21.
Learn more and RSVP for the workshop here.