However, many institutions are still bogged down by manual processes. Examples include student enrollments, purchase acquisitions, absence requests, and more. 

Handling these processes manually wastes an enormous amount of time. Adopting digital transformation initiatives can improve operational efficiency and enhance the learning experience for students.

In this article, we’ll look at what a digital transformation in education means and how you can start to automate your educational institution’s processes.

Click the links below to navigate to the section that interests you most:

• What Does Digital Transformation in Education Mean?
• How to Apply Digital Transformation Initiatives to Education
• How to Digitize and Automate a School Process
• Educational Forms and Processes to Automate

What Does Digital Transformation in Education Mean?

Digital transformation is the use of new technology to adapt to changing markets. It allows companies to streamline operational processes and deliver more value to their customers.

Digital transformation for the education system means meeting the growing demands of students and transforming core administrative processes.

Students today are more connected to the Internet than ever before. An estimated 58% of 8th grade students say they use the Internet to help with their homework almost every day.

Examples of digital transformation in education include:

• Allowing students to register from their mobile devices
• Automating vacation or sick day requests for faculty
• Reducing paper usage through the use of digital forms
• Digitizing the flow of forms as they move through departments

The use of digital technology in education allows institutions to streamline internal processes and reduce tedious tasks like manual data entry.

Let’s look at a real-life case study. 

Escondido Union School District, like most school districts, spent a lot of time processing paperwork and obtaining signatures. Using frevvo allowed them to automate several workflows, including absence records, budget transfers, and more.

The use of digital tools to streamline processes have eliminated the need for Escondido Union School District to print and send documents out for signatures, saving time and hassle. 

Digital transformation in education also improves the student experience. 

For example, you can automate processes in financial aid, admissions, and registrations for incoming students.

Instead of getting bogged down by manual paperwork, students can log into a customized portal and move through any administrative processes even faster.

How to Apply Digital Transformation Initiatives to Education

Whether you’re an educator or administrator at an educational school, here are ways that you can apply digital transformation initiatives to your processes.

#1. Go Paperless

Schools in the educational sector go through a lot of paper. 

Examples include transportation requests, absence records, purchase requisitions, etc. 

The amount of paper that gets printed and used in schools can quickly become a huge expense for school districts. 

A school with 10,000 students can spend $200,000 a year on paper. That doesn’t even consider other costs like printing supplies or the time that educators spend on printing and retrieving documents.

One digital transformation initiative that you can apply to your educational establishment is to go paperless. With frevvo’s forms workflow software, you can build online forms that match existing paper forms.

Here’s an example of an online form in frevvo for new hire onboarding:

You can even take the online forms you built and set up workflows that automatically route each form to where it needs to go. There’s no need to print them out or spend money on postage fees. 

Another benefit is that new hires don’t have to waste time figuring out who to send forms to. 

This is just one example of a process you can digitize. Going paperless won’t happen overnight, but it can lead to improved processes when implemented correctly.

#2. Automate Processes

Inefficient processes cost businesses in the long run — they take more time to process and are more prone to mistakes. The same is equally true for inefficient processes in the education industry.

We found that 71% of schools do not use electronic signatures for permission slips and other documents. Parents have to print out documents, sign them on paper, and mail them to the school. 

Collecting parental signatures is a prime example of a process that can be automated. 

With frevvo’s school workflow software, you can automate these day-to-day tasks and save everyone time.

With the form builder, you can add form fields to collect electronic signatures. Then you can set up workflows to have parents receive, sign, and submit the form digitally from any device.

Automating online forms isn’t just convenient for parents. It’s also beneficial from an administrative standpoint, as it eliminates the need to print out forms and waste time chasing signatures. 

#3. Use the Cloud

The cloud plays a key role in achieving digital transformation in education. It promotes collaboration and enables schools to manage internal processes.

Accessibility is another area where the cloud has a positive impact. Up to 46% of employees say they find it challenging to find the documents they need. They have to physically walk to filing cabinets and rummage through it to locate the paperwork

#4. Embrace Mobile

More people are connecting online via mobile devices than ever before. An estimated 96% of Americans aged 18 to 29 own a smartphone.

Mobile is another key digital transformation initiative that you must adopt in this digital age. 

Students increasingly rely on mobile devices to perform a variety of tasks. They will likely feel frustrated if they can’t access the information they need in a flexible format.

With our mobile form builder, you can create responsive, mobile-friendly forms and workflows that work on any device — no coding necessary.

Students can complete registration forms from the convenience of their homes or on the go from their smartphones while running errands. 

All online forms are mobile-friendly out of the box, so you don’t need to do anything else.

How to Digitize and Automate a School Process

Every organization can benefit with workflow automation. It can be a little overwhelming in the beginning, so follow these steps to get started.

#1. Choose a Template

Administrators and employees can use frevvo’s software to automate any school process. 

Build a form from scratch or use one of our education-specific templates.

We’ll use health consent forms as an example. These forms are necessary as they collect information about the parent and, most importantly, provide authorization in the event that their child needs medical attention.

Here’s an example of a health consent form in frevvo’s form builder: 

#2. Customize the Form

The health consent form you see above is fully customizable. To make any changes, drag elements from the palette into the form.

You can also change the settings of individual fields to make them required. 

For example, you’ll want to make the signature field required to ensure that you have parental consent to administer health services to their child.

#3. Create a Workflow

The next step is to create a workflow that automatically sends a completed form to the right individual or department. 

With the visual workflow editor, you can have forms routed based on certain criteria that you set. 

You can also configure individual settings and even set conditional rules for each step.

#4. Configure Where Data Gets Sent

In frevvo, you can have form submission data sent to your SQL data or business application. 

Here’s an example of how you can route forms in frevvo to the cloud:

When documents are stored in the cloud, administrators can easily locate the files they need. A teacher can also access the database to pull up any relevant forms in the classroom.

#5. Test and Deploy the Workflow

Be sure to test your forms and workflow to ensure that everything is working. You can see how your workflow will work on mobile devices before deploying.

Mobile-friendly forms are especially important as more administrators, teachers, and students access the web using their mobile devices.

By following the steps above, you can digitize forms and automate everyday workflows. Let’s look at what you can automate.

Educational Forms and Processes to Automate

There are likely dozens (if not more) processes that your educational establishment depends on to get work done. 

Here’s a look at just a few processes that you can get started with in frevvo.

New Faculty Onboarding

The onboarding process is key to making a lasting impression with new hires. Having an automated process means that office staff can complete the necessary paperwork and start contributing on their first day.

You can also create onboarding workflows for teachers that streamline the necessary paperwork and provide the resources they need to succeed in their teaching careers.

Parental Consent

Parents typically need to sign parental consent forms for their child. These forms may be used for sports activities, field trips, information release, and more.

Here’s an example of a field trip permission form: 

We’ve put together a list of consent form templates that you can use. Parents can then sign them electronically and even have a PDF copy emailed to them.

Student Registration

Educational institutions typically handle a large influx of student registrations in the fall — a process that requires a ton of paperwork. 

Managing registrations can be difficult without a system in place.

Automating this process in frevvo saves administrators, parents, and students time. Students can also check the automated system to register for classes or find other options.

Faculty Travel Request

Faculty may need to travel for different reasons. 

Examples can include field trips with students or even traveling to other institutions for important talks.

With frevvo’s school workflow software, you can digitize faculty travel request forms and create a workflow that automatically routes them to the correct department. 

Emergency Contact

Having parents fill out emergency contact forms for their child is vital for continued health and safety. 

These forms include details, such as emergency contacts, release authorization for specific individuals, and other medical information.

Use frevvo’s free emergency contact form templates to get started. There is even a multi-language option.

Time Off Requests

When teachers need to take time off, they need to submit requests in advance so that a substitute teacher is ready. 

Having an automated workflow for time-off requests streamlines this process and makes it easier to find a replacement. 

Here’s an example of a time off request form in frevvo:

Faculty can then fill out and electronically sign the form.

Maintenance and IT Requests

Broken or damaged equipment in the classroom can have a negative impact on student outcomes. 

Teachers must be able to submit the necessary forms to address those issues.

Filling out these forms online means that teachers can quickly submit them. You can build workflows that route those forms to the maintenance or IT department. 

Transportation Requests 

Whether for field trips or sporting events, you need to arrange transportation to get students and faculty to their destinations. 

Digitizing transportation requests means you can arrange buses or vans well in advance instead of getting bogged down by paperwork. 

Conclusion

Digital transformation in education allows schools to meet the needs of their students through the use of technology. 

A good place to start is digitizing online forms and automating common workflows. Taking these steps can improve overall efficiency and enhance the learning experience.

frevvo’s school workflow software makes it easy for you to turn paper forms and processes into automated workflows — no coding experience necessary. 

Get started today with a free 30-day trial.

The post How to Get Started With Digital Transformation in Education appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Teachers can become frustrated and take matters into their own hands to get the tools they need to provide learners with a successful learning environment.

Keep reading to find out how schools can benefit from automating their purchase order workflows to improve efficiency and transparency while gaining greater control over their spending.

Contents:

• The Importance of the School Purchase Order
• The School Purchase Order Workflow
• Automating School Purchase Orders
• How to Automate the Purchase Order Process with frevvo

The Importance of the School Purchase Order 

A purchase order is simply the document a school uses to place an order from a supplier and finalize the terms of payment. 

When the correct protocols are followed, creating, authorizing, and finalizing a purchase order is a simple process. However, many school staff members dread filing a purchase order because they associate the process with mindless admin tasks, needless back-and-forth, and slow approval processes. 

When purchase orders are managed correctly, they can help schools operate smoothly and let educators focus their attention on what they do best: teaching. 

A solid procurement workflow also helps schools manage their spending and supply management with greater accuracy. That means budgets are followed – and that future budgets are informed by the school’s actual needs.

In many states, it’s also required by law that schools process and duly authorize purchase orders prior to placing any order that will use district-managed funds. 

The School Purchase Order Workflow 

Most purchase order workflows follow the same basic steps, although some are far more efficient than others. 

Some schools may also have additional steps in place.

• Some schools require that employees first complete a purchase requisition form which is used to compile the purchase order.
• A school administrator may ask each teacher to consolidate purchase requisitions for all the teaching supplies they need into a single purchase order. 
• Many K-12 schools and school districts will have a tender and/or quotation procedure in place to ensure that they select the vendor that offers the best price and quality. 

Depending on the expenditure, the purchase order may be subject to various internal and external approval stages by superintendents and/or district boards before being finalized and sent to the supplier for fulfillment. 

Upon receiving the purchase order, the vendor will typically prepare an invoice containing a price breakdown, total to be paid, and terms of payment and delivery.

Of course, the more stages and parties involved, the more time-consuming and tedious the PO process becomes. This results in bottlenecks and delays and teachers purchasing the items they need themselves. 

Unfortunately, their attempts to expense these purchases after the fact are often unsuccessful.

What are the steps involved in a purchase order process?

While each school’s PO process looks slightly different, most will follow more or less the same steps. 

Let’s take a look at the steps typically involved in the purchase order process:

1. A teacher completes a purchase requisition form.
2. The teacher submits the form to the grade head or assistant superintendent for approval, typically by email or by hand.
3. The approver reviews the requisition form and may return it to the employee for revisions or clarifications.
4. The approver signs the requisition – printing it, signing the paper document, scanning it – and emails it to the person responsible for creating purchase orders.
5. The person responsible for procurement may initiate a tender process or source quotes to identify the best vendor fit.
6. The purchase order is compiled, which often requires error-prone manual data entry.
7. The purchase order is submitted for internal/external approval, which may again involve printing, signing, scanning, and additional back-and-forth.
8. The finalized PO is sent to the vendor.
9. Once the vendor accepts the purchase order and issues an invoice, the PO is considered binding.
10. The invoice is paid or added to the school’s account for later settlement.
11. The vendor delivers the goods or service and the purchaser or requester verifies compliance with the order specifications.
12. A record is entered into the school’s bookkeeping system.

As you can imagine, some of these steps can take weeks, particularly when board approval is required. 

As such, the more clearly-defined and streamlined your school’s procurement workflow is, the less of a bureaucratic nightmare it will be for your staff. 

When processes like purchase order workflows are easier and faster to execute, there’s higher morale and faster turnaround times, and teachers have the tools they need to create an engaging learning environment. 

Automating School Purchase Orders

Automating your school’s purchase order workflow can remove bottlenecks, improve efficiency, and support the success of teachers. Each step in the process takes place the way it’s supposed to, every time. 

Here’s how you can use automation to improve your purchase order workflow:

• Digitizing your purchase order forms to say goodbye to missing papers, typing errors, and overflowing filing cabinets.
• Streamline the approval process with electronic signatures so nobody in your PO approval process ever has to print-sign-scan again.
• Create customized, intelligent forms with required fields, rules, and error-checking to reduce back-and-forth and get purchase orders right the first time around.
• Use automated notifications and reminders to fast-track approvals. Forget about forms languishing in inboxes or on desks for weeks at a time.
• Use conditional routing rules to make sure each purchase order reaches the right person or people for approval, complying with your school or district’s authorization rules. 
• Automatically pre-fill forms with known information such as the requestor’s details to save time and reduce errors. Plus, automatically update your SQL database or ledger from completed forms.
• Integrate your workflows with your accounting software to consolidate all your procurement data in one place. Make your financial controller’s life so much easier.
• Get detailed, reconcilable financial reporting for greater insight into your school’s spending. Eliminate fund misappropriation, deliver meticulous expenditure reports, and better plan for the future.
• Use workflow reports to optimize your procurement process for the ultimate efficiency.

Sound good? Let’s talk about how you can (easily!) make it happen.

How to Automate the Purchase Order Process with frevvo

With frevvo’s workflow automation software for schools, you can set up your PO workflow in minutes. There’s no coding or I.T. required.

You can use simple, drag-and-drop tools to build forms and workflows. Or hit the ground running with any one of more than 30 templates that you can quickly customize to your specific process.

Here’s exactly how to automate your school purchase orders with frevvo:

Step One: Create a Purchase Order Form

The first and most important step is setting up the form that everyone in your school will use to create purchase orders. 

To make things even easier, you can select an existing purchase order template and customize it to reflect your needs and organizational culture. 

Step Two: Configure Your Form

Use the drag-and-drop form editor to customize your form, adding the fields you need, and configuring the rules in accordance with your school’s unique requirements. 

Easily add electronic signature fields to make your PO approval workflow easy to use — even on mobile devices.

Step Three: Design Your Purchase Order Workflow

Next, use the drag-and-drop workflow builder tool to create the steps involved in your procurement workflow. 

The example below is a basic one and doesn’t pertain specifically to schools and the rules that they are subject to. We’ve included it simply to give you an idea of what a frevvo workflow looks like.

With frevvo, you can create conditional routing rules within your workflow to make sure all the prerequisite approval and authorization stages required by your district are observed. 

For example, you can require that purchase orders in excess of a predetermined amount are reviewed by a higher authority, as seen in the example below:

Step Four: Purchase Order Routes to Approver 

Once you have your form and workflow in place, staff can begin using your new automated workflows. 

Once a form has been completed and submitted, it is automatically routed to the relevant party for approval. Subject to rules concerning expenditure amount, additional approval stages may be triggered. 

Each approver simply adds their digital signature to the relevant field.

Step Five: PO Routes to Finance for Processing

Once the required approvals have been obtained, the purchase order routes to the person responsible for actually placing the order and keeping procurement records, who will sign the order and send it to the vendor for processing.

Step Six: Purchase Order Is Processed by Vendor

The vendor now processes and confirms the purchase order and sends the school an invoice detailing payment and delivery terms.

There you have it – that’s really how simple it is to automate your school’s purchase orders with frevvo. You can easily extend this workflow to include additional stages such as purchase requisitions and invoice approvals for an optimally streamlined and secure procurement process.

Visit our website to read more about automating workflows for K-12 schools with frevvo.

The post How to Automate Your School Purchase Orders appeared first on frevvo Blog.

It’s estimated that the average school uses 2,000 pages per day, which quickly adds up to 360,000 pieces of paper over the course of 180 school days.

Between the classroom (handouts, worksheets, tests, homework, report cards, permission slips, etc.) and administration (application forms, student records, newsletters, HR and accounting, etc.), there’s a lot of paperwork to manage and track for administrators, teachers, and students–on top of an already-packed list of responsibilities.

Plus, aside from a substantial environmental impact (the U.S. alone is responsible for 30% of global paper usage), all of those papers cost money. Aside from the cost of the paper itself, paper-based processes also require costs like storage, printer ink, photocopier toner, repairs/maintenance, staples, and more.

With these issues in mind, in this post we’re going to discuss:

• Benefits of Paperless Schools
• How to Become a Paperless School in 4 Easy Steps
• Eight More Ways to Reduce Waste In Schools

Benefits of Paperless Schools

Going paperless has a number of benefits for schools, including administrators, teachers, students, and budgets:

Save Money

All that paper, printing, and photocopying adds up to a significant expense. Going paperless can save school districts upwards of $200,000 per year. 

Save Time

In a paperless school, teachers can save a lot of the time formerly spent printing and making photocopies, handing out pages, collecting assignments, and so forth. Instead of paperwork, teachers can spend more time working with their students.

Streamline Learning

With a good digital learning solution, teachers can set assignments and homework online and the system will automatically track whether students have completed their work or not. Even the grading of certain types of tests and assignments can be automated by pre-programming acceptable answers or setting multiple-choice assessments. Submissions of assignments like essays and research projects can be performed online with ease, so there’s no need to print them out. 

Make More Resources Available

You can also use online student portals to make a variety of learning formats available (such as podcasts and YouTube videos in addition to online quizzes and assignments) to cater to different learning styles and capabilities. Additional (extra-curricular) resources can also be made available to encourage self-study among curious students.

Better Organization

When all assignments are submitted the same way, it’s much more organized than when some students submit printed copies, others email the teacher, and yet others submit (often indecipherable) handwritten assignments. Aside from making the teacher’s life easier, less paper frees up shelf and cupboard space for other uses and makes for tidier, less cluttered classrooms, creating a more pleasant learning environment. 

No More Lost Papers

When homework is completed digitally, the dog can’t eat it. In a paperless school, there’s no risk of an assignment or permission slip or indemnity form going missing – or worse, a stack of ungraded assignments getting lost. There’s always a backup, somewhere. 

Improved Teacher-Parent Communication

How many notes from teachers, requests for volunteers, and other paper-based school communications have ended up crumpled up at the bottom of a school bag and never reached their destination? Sending parent communications digitally significantly improves the chances of the parents actually seeing the communication and responding accordingly. As demographics change, digital communication makes it easier to connect with parents in the language of their choice.

Easier Data/Signature Collection

Implementing digital forms allows schools to collect information, such as student emergency contact information, allergies/medical conditions, parent-teacher meeting schedules, RSVPs for awards evenings, volunteer signups for fundraisers, sports events and school plays, etc. What’s more, digital forms that can capture electronic signatures make it far easier for schools to get important documents like permission slips, indemnity forms, report cards, etc. signed in a timely fashion – especially when they come with automated reminders that prevent parents from forgetting about them.

More Engaged Learners

Today’s students are accustomed to using smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, so using them for schoolwork is a natural progression. Incorporating digital technologies in the learning process inside and outside the classroom can lead to higher engagement levels by keeping students’ attention in a way paper often fails to – particularly when elements of gamification are applied to the learning process. 

Moreover, digital learning environments are more equipped to cater to different learning methods and capabilities through a variety of media such as audio, video, and virtual collaboration tools. In fact, teaching children to be comfortable using computers and technology equips them with highly useful skills such as video editing, coding, or simply virtual collaboration skills, all of which set students up for success in later life – an appealing prospect for parents.

Uninterrupted Learning

Paperless schools that already make use of online learning are able to shift to fully-virtual education with relative ease when extraordinary circumstances call for it, whereas schools that rely on paper-based processes struggle to adapt and many schools lose valuable teaching hours as a result. 

As you can see, going paperless has many benefits for your school’s administration and education capabilities – not to mention its reputation. Maybe you’ve already decided that going paperless is the right thing to do. But where do you begin?

How to Become a Paperless School in 4 Easy Steps

Going paperless may sound like a daunting task that requires massive investment in technology infrastructure, but it doesn’t have to be.

Whether your school is just starting down the digital path or has already embraced online tools like e-learning and business process automation, the odds are you can benefit from digital tools like school workflow automation software to streamline your processes and go paperless. 

1. Identify Your School’s Needs

The first step to successfully transitioning your school to a paperless model is identifying your school’s unique needs. If your school still relies on paper-based processes for everything, your switch to a digital, paperless school will look very different from a school where there’s a laptop on every desk, automated administrative and education workflows, and an established e-learning solution in place. 

Start by assessing the current state of affairs to identify areas where you can reduce paper use through digitization and automation.

2. Switch to Paperless Forms

One of the easiest changes you can make in terms of going paperless is replacing all your paper forms with digital forms. Use a forms automation solution like frevvo to access simple drag-and-drop form builders that you can set up in minutes and fully customize to match your existing paper forms. 

3. Automate Paper-Heavy Processes

By embracing digital forms, you’ve already started down the path of automating your paper-heavy processes. Now you can take those digital forms and set up automated routing that ensures that each form goes where it needs to go when it needs to go there. 

Need a parent’s permission for a school outing? With frevvo, it’s easy to set up a permission workflow with notifications and reminders. The parent will receive the form digitally, sign it electronically on any device including their mobile phone, and submit the form.

You can even set frevvo up so that your forms automatically populate your database. No more staff time spent on data-entry and cross-referencing. No more nagging students to return paper slips that they misplaced weeks ago. 

You can automate internal workflows like purchase orders, vacation requests, expense claims, and just about any other business process.

4. Embrace Electronic Signatures

Electronic signatures are a game-changer when it comes to going paperless. Even if you’re already sending documents that need signatures electronically, we’re guessing the odds are that many parents are still returning them as printed documents or printing them at home, signing them, scanning them, and then emailing them back – IF you ever get them back.

With frevvo’s online forms, parents can sign and return forms instantly, making their lives – and yours – easier. 

Correctly executed electronic signatures are every bit as binding as a signed piece of paper.

Other than automating your internal workflows using workflow automation software, here are some other ways your school can start going paperless:

• Switch to the cloud: when you store all your data and documents in the cloud, you can help eliminate paper waste because everything becomes digital. Apps like Google Drive and Dropbox allow everyone to access documents on their computers or mobile devices so there’s no need to print on paper.
• Digitize paper-based notes, printed teaching material, and paper-based communications such as school newsletters and memos. 
• Implement printing and copying quotas and track each person’s usage. You can even use leaderboards to celebrate staff who save the most paper.
• Use paperless statements from banks and service providers
• Embrace e-learning for homework – and even classwork.

Eight More Ways to Reduce Waste In Schools

Schools use a lot of paper on a daily basis, and the reality is that paper-based processes tend to take longer, and they’re bad for the environment.

In addition to going paperless, there are many small changes your school can make to promote sustainability by reducing waste and increasing efficiency. Let’s take a look at a few of the changes you could make:

Recycle Electronics

Most people recycle products like paper, glass, metal and plastic, but recycling electronics is less common, which is concerning given how frequently consumer electronics and office appliances get replaced these days. 

In 2012, only 29% of electronics purchased in the U.S. were recycled. In 2017, the UNEP predicted that the world would dump 50 million tons of electronic waste, mostly consisting of smartphones and computers – the equivalent of about 20,000,000 elephants.

To reduce electronic waste in your institution, set up a dedicated bin for electronic waste and have someone collect it and take it to your nearest electronics recycling center monthly. 

Some manufacturers even have recycling or trade-in programs where you can receive credits or coupons by bringing back your old electronics. This can save you money as well as reduce waste.

Switch to LED Lightbulbs

Lighting constitutes about 10% of energy use in commercial buildings. One of the quickest and easiest ways to save costs and help the environment is switching the type of lighting you use. 

LED lighting is mercury-free, recyclable, and free of the PCB carcinogens found in T12 fluorescent light sources. Compared to incandescent or CFL light bulbs, LED light bulbs last longer without losing quality over time. Even though other types of bulbs might last as long, they tend to dim as they near the end of their lifespan in a way that LED lamps don’t.

LED technology has become much cheaper of late, so that it’s easily the better investment. You can also combine LED bulbs with sensors so that the lights switch off automatically in spaces that don’t need to be lit.

As an added bonus, the type of lighting used in schools can even impact factors like focus and eyestrain, helping you to create an environment more conducive to learning.

Reduce Printing and Ink Usage

While ink usage is closely related to paper usage, we felt printing deserved a separate mention on account of how bad it is for the environment.

Ink cartridges are particularly dangerous for the environment because one cartridge takes about up to 450 years to decompose. Most ink cartridges in the U.S. get dumped straight in the trash rather than being recycled, which then fills up landfills with 350 million cartridges each year.

Here are some tips for reducing ink waste in your institution:

• Reduce the number of printers 
• Only print essential documents 
• Use energy-efficient printers
• Always recycle cartridges

Reduce Water-Use

In public buildings like schools, water mostly gets used in kitchens and bathrooms. 

Colleges and schools typically have large cafeterias and/or dining halls, and dormitories and athletic facilities offer shower and laundry facilities for students, faculty and staff. All of this can add up to a lot of water usage if you’re not taking precautions to save water.

Here are some tips to make your institution more water-wise:

• Use low-flush toilets
• Use eco-friendly dishwasher and laundry settings
• Use eco-friendly water faucets that regulate water usage
• Add aerators to your faucets to reduce water usage
• Ask students and faculty to report leaky faucets and address drips and leaks immediately. 

Provide Sustainable Lunch Options

Team lunches and cafeterias can also be a big source of environmental waste. Schools and colleges in particular often use disposable trays, utensils, and processed foods that often travel far from their source locations. In NYC alone, public schools discard about 850,000 styrofoam lunch trays every day.

Providing vegetarian or vegan options in your cafeterias or participating in initiatives like Meatless Mondays can make your institution healthier and more environmentally-friendly.

Currently, about 83% of global farmland is dedicated to raising livestock for meat consumption and produces 60% of all agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Research shows that a vegetarian or vegan diet produces fewer carbon emissions, reduces water waste, and even promotes a healthier diet. 

Encourage an Eco-Friendly Commute

A recent study in Sweden showed that switching the commute from car to bike produces more than double the effect on the environment compared to introducing congestion taxes. It also resulted in 449 years of life saved annually from reduced exposure to vehicle emissions and improved air quality.

If your city has a bike-sharing program, encourage your employees to participate by providing a commuting stipend – which can also be used for public transportation – or offering membership. If that’s not an option, promote a carpooling schedule to help staff save on gas as well as reduce carbon emissions. 

Drink Coffee the Right Way

For large offices that need to serve coffee to many employees at different times of the day, the quickest way is often to use wasteful methods like single-serve espresso machines, which produce a lot of plastic waste through pods. Considering that Americans drink about 587 million cups of coffee each day, that is a lot of waste.

Paper cups are another huge source of waste: Americans throw out 80 billion single-use cups each year. 

Not only that, but the process of cultivating and transporting coffee beans can also have a devastating impact on the environment. It can hurt wildlife, ruin habitations, and generate a lot of water waste.

To make sure that your coffee-drinking habits stay as eco-friendly as possible, try:

• Using manual brewing methods for small offices
• Using machines with built-in, reusable filters
• Implementing a policy of using only reusable cups
• Encouraging staff to drink coffee at the office instead of grabbing takeaway coffee on the way to work
• Ordering coffee beans produced from sustainable sources

Join an Environmental Coalition

There’s strength in numbers. Join other organizations participating in promoting corporate environmental responsibility, or join an environmental alliance in your city. If your state or city has governmental programs, set aside a day for your employees to volunteer.

To help you get started, here are some organizations and programs you can check out:

• Green Schools Alliance
• Project Green Schools
• Green Schools National Network
• UN Greening the Blue
• The Nature Conservancy
• Practice Greenhealth
• RecycleMania

Ready to reduce your school’s paper usage and digitize your forms and workflows? Try frevvo free for 30 days.

The post The Paperless School: 9 Ways to Reduce Waste and Increase Efficiency appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Student housing forms, faculty contracts, and staff time-off requests are only the start of a never-ending list of documents for which colleges and universities are responsible.  

In the past decade, we’ve seen more businesses ditch their filing cabinets and embrace the benefits of digitization in the workplace. But many in academia still rely on traditional paper-based administrative processes. 

In this article, we’ll explore how institutes of higher education can digitize forms and automate workflows, including: 

• The key business processes in higher education 
• The risks of relying on paper-based processes 
• The benefits of digitizing forms and automating workflows 
• Some tips on becoming a paperless institution 

Key Business Processes in Higher Education 

In many ways, colleges and universities function like large corporations. Things like purchase orders, staff onboarding documents, and time-off request forms are vital for all businesses, and academia is no exception. 

However, in addition to these standard business processes, higher education institutes are also responsible for many sector-specific documents, like student loan applications, housing forms, and curriculum approvals.  

To make things more complicated, they must also contend with an array of departments that each operate with unique workflows and methods of data collection.  

It goes without saying that orchestrating the flow of so many documents between so many departments is daunting–especially when relying on paper forms and records. 

Risks of Relying on Paper-Based Processes 

While schools have historically relied on paper forms to gather critical data, there are multiple dangers associated with this practice.  

Here are some of the most common risks involved with paper-based forms and workflows. 

Loss of Critical Documents 

When paper documents must be transferred from desk to desk for signatures and approvals, there’s a big chance that they’ll be forgotten or mistakenly thrown away. 

There’s also the risk of data loss due to damage. Things like stains, tears, or disaster situations like flooding or fire can destroy vital records like registration forms or loan applications. 

Disjointed Workflows  

An efficient flow of information ensures things run smoothly in a school, but paper-based processes make this complicated. 

For example, if a form needs a signature but the approver is not present, it will most often be left on their desk.  

Without any sense of urgency or accountability, the approver may wind up pushing it aside and forgetting about it. This results in a lengthy turnaround time for review and return, putting productivity on pause in the meantime. 

Benefits of Paperless Forms and Automated Workflows 

There’s a lot of risk associated with paper-based processes, but schools can eliminate many of them by replacing their manual workflows with digital procedures. Here are some of the most valuable benefits of digital forms and automated workflows for colleges and universities. 

Shorten Turnaround Times 

According to a study conducted by Boise State University, professors spend 30% of their time on non-academic activities, such as administrative paperwork. This is incredibly frustrating for faculty members, as it takes time and attention away from their classes.

The consequences are equally frustrating for students, who may be met with long waiting periods for simple requests. 

However, paperless offices have the tools to combat these frustrations. 

By using web-based forms, information can be collected and indexed automatically, eliminating the need for manual data entry or filing. This allows teams to focus on more engaging and productive projects. 

Automated workflows also eliminate communication bottlenecks. By automatically and instantly transferring digital documents to the parties that need them, your school can greatly shorten its review and processing times. 

This eliminates stress for students, faculty, and and staff. Employees no longer need to worry about tracking down signatures, and students can enjoy faster approvals on important documents. 

Improve Data Accuracy 

Having an accurate record of information is crucial, especially when it comes to records like financial aid applications that tremendously impact the lives of your students.  

Electronic forms and e-signatures are one way to facilitate easier and more accurate data collection.  

For example, forms may be incomplete when submitted in a paper-based system. Unless someone is manually scrutinizing every submission, schools can wind up accepting paper forms that are missing required fields or signatures.  

Online forms, by contrast, cannot be submitted unless all required fields are completed. This measure helps to automatically ensure that your records are filled out in their entirety when received, which improves the reliability of your data. 

Reduce Costs 

Lastly, implementing paperless workflows can yield big budget savings. 

By removing the need for physical resources like paper, ink, and toner, schools can stretch budgets further and reallocate these funds toward more valuable expenses. 

Digital workflows also help administrators make better choices for their organizations. 

Automating your procedures can grant real-time data insights into budgets, expenses and process lifecycles. This information can be used to measure & identify previously unseen pain points, allowing you to make more informed decisions. 

Tips on Becoming a Paperless Institution 

The transition to going paperless can seem daunting, especially if long-standing paper practices are in place. Here are a few tips to get your teams started. 

Assess Your Needs 

Begin with a technology survey to assess the current state of your organization. How many of your internal processes currently depend on paper printing? How many faculty, staff, and students have access to the technology needed to complete forms and paperwork online?  

Start your transition by getting the full picture of your current processes, your desired outcome, and what it will take to make that happen. 

Determine Which Forms and Workflows Should be Digitized 

Once you have assessed your needs, look at your current paper-based forms and workflows. Pick a few to start with that can be automated to ease your teams into digital procedures.  

Internal processes may be a good place to begin. Faculty resource request forms for things like instructors’ edition textbooks can be easily created with frevvo’s custom drag-and-drop form builder, and workflows can be configured for the unique needs of each department. 

Get Your Staff On-Board 

While your staff may be resistant to change, you should communicate the benefits of workflow automation and dynamic forms to get them excited. 

Be sure to explain the time savings they will enjoy when their data collection and workflows are fully digital.  

Your teams will likely be eager to get rid of tedious tasks like manually entering data from forms and will look forward to redirecting their energy toward more fulfilling tasks. 

For schools who choose to implement frevvo, you can also highlight the system’s ease of use.  

It’s natural for teams to fear the learning curve that comes with new software. But the best form builders put user experience as their top priority: frevvo does just that. 

Our simple drag and drop form and workflow builder is an intuitive platform that can be picked up by anyone, offering peace of mind for team members who dread process changes. 

Final Thoughts 

When institutes of higher education take steps to automate workflows and digitize paper processes, they bring about improvements that benefit faculty, staff, and students alike. 

If you’re interested in upgrading your students’ experiences, reducing your reliance on paper, and streamlining your back-office procedures, frevvo can help. Find out more by scheduling a live demo to learn how our solutions can be specifically tailored toward the needs of your organization. 

The post How Paperless Processes Take Higher Ed Efficiency to New Heights appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Technology, it seemed, could make learning easier and address different learning methods, for instance by making learning more visual or collaborative. 

Not only that, technology could significantly streamline the way teachers and education administrators communicate with parents about everything from reminding them of homework or tests to getting field trip permission slips signed. 

We had a suspicion that the technology used by many schools is outdated, so we decided to find out how parents feel about the state of technology used in their children’s schools.

So we surveyed parents to find out how satisfied they are with the way their children’s schools use technology for communication.

Here’s what we discovered:

82% of schools primarily communicate with parents using digital methods (email, text, online portals, etc.), while 18% still primarily use analog communications (letters, paper, phone calls, etc.)

76% of parents said that they prefer digital communication over analog methods. 

We asked parents of children at “digital”, paperless schools whether they were satisfied with the communication method used, and 81% said yes. 

Meanwhile, 59% of parents of children attending “analog” schools said that they would prefer switching to digital communication methods.

This would seem to suggest that many parents who are initially averse to digital communication may get used to it and come to prefer it over time.

64% of parents think that their child’s school could use technology more effectively. 

71% of schools do not currently use electronic signatures for collecting parent signatures for permission slips and similar documents. Parents must print a document and sign it on paper.

However, 64% of employed parents said that they do use electronic signatures in the workplace, suggesting that schools are lagging behind in this respect.

This goes to show that just because a school has implemented digital communications technologies, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re doing it effectively.

We asked parents to rate their level of comfort using technology out of ten, and 85% of respondents rated themselves 6+, while 92% rated themselves 5+. While parents might not universally prefer digital communications, this indicates that the vast majority would at least be comfortable with it.

Another interesting finding was that perhaps surprisingly, older parents are almost as likely to prefer digital communication as younger parents.

Methodology

This survey had 597 respondents aged 25-64.

We asked respondents a series of seven questions using an online survey, to which they could respond simply “yes,” “No,” or “not applicable,” except in the case of one question, where respondents were asked to rate themselves on a scale of one to ten. 

It is worth mentioning that given the fact that this is an online survey and multiple questions deal with technology use, our sample is likely to be more comfortable with technology use than the complete sample of parents. 

For this survey, we used Google Surveys, which uses inferred demographics (read this for more information on how this works) which may affect the accuracy of some results involving age.  

The post Survey: How Effectively Are Schools Using Technology? appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Technology has unlocked an enormous opportunity for students of all ages, locales, and interests to gain access to knowledge on nearly any topic and from anywhere.

Even so, only about 30% of undergraduates enrolled in even a single online course in 2017.

Most education is still done on co-located campuses and in classroom settings. And most institutions, even those with progressive technology adoption, remain firmly rooted in in-person instruction.

This means that most schools and universities function primarily in the traditional sense. From a business perspective, the operations of most educational institutions are driven by processes that assume the day-to-day work of the administration will be handled in person and on campus. 

In other words, many schools aren’t prepared or equipped for remote work. 

This creates a problem. 

On the one hand, the continued functioning of schools and universities is critical to many facets of a functioning society. But, on the other hand, the institutions themselves are often ill-equipped to adapt to a circumstance where the staff and administrators aren’t able to report to campus. 

Day-to-day operations like managing paperwork and recordkeeping are often dependent on physical and analog processes performed under normal circumstances.

So, what happens when that’s not possible?

While much has been said about the benefits of moving instruction online, relatively little has been done to digitize the essential functions of most campus offices and departments.

According to data from our 2020 survey on technology use in schools, 64% of parents feel their child’s school could use technology more effectively. 

How can institutions keep their essential business operations functioning in times of instability or uncertainty? 

What Is Business as Usual in a Crisis?

When it comes to everyday administrative tasks, schools and universities are not all that different from any other business. 

Sure, there are many realities and challenges that face educational institutions that aren’t apparent for many corporations. But, if you zoom out to look at the day-to-day workings of a school next to those of any small business, they look incredibly similar.

The essential functions for an operating school include: 

• Recordkeeping and paperwork.
• HR functions like onboarding, travel approvals, and vacation requests.
• Finance tasks like accounts payable, purchase orders, and budgeting.
• Student and parent-facing activities like registration, consent forms, and financial aid.
• Other kinds of forms processing, such as facilities use.

These are the core functions that keep the school itself operating—just like a business. 

In that sense, schools and universities can learn a lot about transitioning to remote work from the path paved by the private sector in recent years. The idea of digital transformation has driven many businesses to rethink their core, day-to-day operations. In fact, 70% of companies say they’ve already created or are working on a digital transformation strategy.

Businesses in nearly every industry have learned over the last several years, not only the benefits of moving work online—ease, efficiency, cost savings—but also the advantages and flexibility that it provides when “business as usual” simply isn’t a reality.

Enabling remote work can become both an operational advantage and also a contingency plan.

In the case that schools are not operating as normal and the administration is working from home or remotely, these essential functions must still be performed. But if outdated processes require physical paperwork to be completed and signed or on-premise software to be accessed from the school’s local network, it can stop a school’s functioning dead in its tracks.

Let’s look at some of the ways in which schools can enable and prepare for remote working scenarios to keep important functions working.

Remote Working for Schools and Universities

Workflow automation software like frevvo enables schools and universities to automate or digitize much of the work that goes into day-to-day administration. 

During normal times, this can be a boon for efficiency and productivity. But, it can be even more important during uncertain times, enabling staff and faculty to continue operations remotely to keep essential services running smoothly.

K-12 schools, colleges, and universities can all benefit from implementing digital workflows.

Most importantly, with a flexible solution, your team will be able to quickly and easily create solutions for any number of essential tasks that may need to be managed by a remote team.

Our education customers most often implement digital workflows for common administrative tasks, such as:

• Registrations or admissions
• Parental consent
• Emergency contacts or communications
• Staff and faculty scheduling and requests
• Transportation requests
• Purchase orders and accounts payable
• Staff onboarding
• Information release forms

The critical business functions of the school should be accessible and manageable when administrators aren’t in the building, whether they’re temporarily working from home or the staff is forced to work remotely due to unforeseen circumstances.

How Montgomery County Community College Digitized Over 140 Paper Forms with frevvo

Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) in Pennsylvania was able to use frevvo’s dynamic forms to migrate a broad range of administrative tasks and paper forms into digital workflows that are accessible to staff regardless of where they’re working.

The HR, Finance, Academic Affairs, Registrar, and Advising departments were all able to use workflow automation tools to build customized forms and workflows for even complex processes, without having to write custom code or spend months (or years!) of IT time creating custom solutions. 

Workflows were built with integrations into existing systems and software and built-in security that met the strict requirements for accessibility, privacy, and data retention. 

In total, MCCC migrated over 140 forms and processes into digital workflows.

For each one, they used frevvo to build and customize the data collection, routing, approvals, and data storage using a few simple steps.

Step 1: Choose a Workflow Template (Or Create Your Own)

Getting started with digital workflows is simple with frevvo. 

With an array of more than 30 pre-built templates, most day-to-day education processes can be created with a simple click. For custom workflows, users can quickly start from scratch and use the drag-and-drop editor to create the form and workflow they need. 

Step 2: Customize the Form with the Drag-and-Drop Editor

Using a simple and intuitive interface, users can quickly customize each form to capture the exact information they need throughout the workflow. Forms can capture basic inputs like names and dates, but they can also integrate with existing systems to offer pre-populated options, handle digital signatures, and other advanced features.

Step 3: Add Logic or Dynamic Behavior

Pull in custom fields based on the end user’s behavior or add logic that customizes the form based on field entries and selections. You can even connect your SQL database, allowing the form to auto-populate certain fields.

With just a few clicks, you can build a dynamic form that can handle a variety of use cases with no programming knowledge required.

Step 4: Create the Workflow

Once the form is submitted, you can use the visual workflow designer to quickly construct a workflow that determines when, and where and to whom the data gets routed within the organization or to outside contacts. 

Based on the defined steps, each stakeholder will be prompted to complete, review, or approve the submission before it moves on to the next stage. In addition, conditional logic can be applied here as well to customize the workflow based on the original inputs or conditions. 

This makes it simple to build flexible workflows for handling a range of real-world scenarios.

Step 5: Adjust Visual Properties as Needed

As a final step, you can easily add names, labels, and design elements to make the workflow clear and concise for all users. 

Step 6: Deploy the Workflow

That’s it. 

Once the workflow is finished, it’s ready to be rolled out. All frevvo forms and workflows are designed to be mobile responsive, ADA and WCAG compliant, and offer localization support and all of the critical features you need to create and deploy digital tools to everyone on your team.

The software is offered in both cloud-based and on-premise versions so you can choose a deployment option that best fits your security and organizational needs.

Prepare Your Institution for Remote Work Today

We live in a time defined by both incredible technological advancement and uncertainty. This presents real-world challenges, but also a massive opportunity. 

No institution should be left unprepared to face the realities of changing circumstances when the means for enabling remote work are available, accessible, and easy to implement.

Schools, colleges, and universities can reap the rewards of remote work while also strengthening their institutions and fulfilling their core mission.

Taking the first step is as simple as signing up for a free trial to see how frevvo can help you transform and bolster your business and educational operations.

Try frevvo for free and see what’s possible.

The post The Business of Education Must Go On: How Schools & Universities Operate Remotely appeared first on frevvo Blog.

What Is Higher Education Workflow Automation?

Simply put, workflow automation is the process of automating the sequence or chain of events that need to take place in order for a process to be completed. For instance, automating the admissions workflow might streamline the process by electronically routing documents to the right people at the right time without manual email or phone calls. Additionally, the process of notifying students of changes to their application status – as well as other communications – might be automated.

Workflow automation in higher education not only reduces time-consuming busywork, freeing staff up for more important tasks – it also reduces the margin of human error, which has real world consequences for both students and administrators. Critical decisions like admissions and financial aid often hinge on these central processes. 

Staff may struggle to juggle admin with the rest of their workload, resulting in students becoming frustrated by long waiting periods for simple requests that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to process and provide feedback. 

In fact, fifty-five percent of education managers spend an average of a full workday on “manual, repetitive tasks” per week, according to a 2018 report.

Moreover, when academic staff are preoccupied with administrative tasks, their research and teaching suffers. As such, workflow automation that reduces the administrative burden academics face can be an effective way to attract top talent. 

Assessing Workflow Needs for Colleges and Universities

In order for workflow automation to be successful, your staff needs to buy in and your processes need to be clearly defined. While automation can do wonders in terms of making processes more efficient, its success is dependent on having a systematic roadmap. .

To determine how you can best benefit from workflow automation, it’s important to assess your institution’s workflow and identify your unique set of needs and challenges. This will allow you to establish which automation solutions will improve your operational efficiency.

Step 1: Assess the Current State of Existing Workflows

Take time to audit the workflows you currently have in place, paying special attention to any areas that could be more efficient.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Which workflows do we currently use?
• Which processes require the most paperwork?
• Which document management systems do we already have in place?
• Which workflows involve the most people/roles signing off?
• Which processes involve the most communication?
• Which workflows are used frequently by various people?
• Which workflows are already automated to some extent?
• Which data security measures (backups, cybersecurity) do we currently have in place?

Step 2: Monitor and Evaluate Current Workflows for Inefficiencies 

Now that you’ve identified which workflows your institution uses, the next step is to gather some information about how you can upgrade (read: automate) these processes to improve workflow efficiency and save time.

Some things to consider include:

• Redundancy/repetition (e.g. the same information being entered multiple times)
• Manual tasks (e.g. copying and pasting information, formatting and reformatting, sorting information)
• Wasted resources (e.g. paper forms where digital could be used, space taken up by physical storage)
• Employee satisfaction with current workflow (e.g. complaints, recommendations) 
• Communication issues (e.g. scheduling, notifications, channels used to communicate)
• Barriers to success (e.g. avoidable bottlenecks and delays)
• Overall efficiency

Of course, having specific metrics and real-time data that you can analyze will make this much easier. For instance, by timing workflows, you might discover that manually scanning, renaming, filing/uploading and approving a document typically takes ten minutes, whereas automating this workflow could reduce the time to 30 seconds.

Conducting surveys of faculty, administrative staff, students, alumni, and even applicants can be an invaluable means of discovering inefficiencies and areas for improvement.

Step 3: Create an Automation Roadmap 

Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, the next step is to map out your workflows. 

A swimlane diagram is a good way to visualize individual workflows and map how they intersect with one another. Label each stage of the workflow with information such as which roles or departments are responsible and how long it typically takes to complete each stage.

Remember to include conditions that must be met in order for the workflow to progress to the next stage, and what happens if these conditions are not met (e.g. if a set deadline elapses or there is information missing).

Once you have your process maps in place, you can set about automating your workflows.

Workflow Solutions for Higher Education 

Higher education institutions including colleges and universities can benefit substantially from workflow automation solutions. Not only do admin and faculty benefit from higher education workflow automation – improved operational efficiency impacts students too.

Admissions Processing, Financial Aid and Registrar Admin

Much of the admissions and financial aid application process can be automated, including the collection, indexing, and approval of substantiating documents such as academic transcripts, letters of recommendation, not to mention the capturing of application forms themselves.

Automated admissions workflows can reduce incidences of misfiling or documents being lost by ensuring that everything is uniformly digitized and that missing documents are flagged early on. When implemented correctly, automated digital systems improve data privacy and security.

User-friendly, streamlined admissions forms that guide applicants through the admissions process with helpful messages and prompts, timely notifications, and even live assistance, will give today’s tech-savvy applicants a lasting positive impression of your institution. Automating your admissions process also results in much faster turnaround times. Of course, the sooner highly desirable applicants receive acceptance letters, the sooner they begin seriously considering your school and the higher the chances they choose you over competitors.

Processing financial aid applications is another key process that can benefit from automation, as delays and missing documents can determine prospective recipients’ futures.

Each time a student wishes to register for a class, drop a subject, or change majors, they create a significant amount of admin work for the registrar’s office. The same applies to administration surrounding graduation, academic reinstatement, transfers from other universities and even non-routine updates to student information. However, it’s entirely possible to automate these workflows and expedite the approval and routing process.

Communications and Marketing

Alumni, donors, prospective students, current students, and faculty – regardless of your audience, automating aspects of your communications and marketing strategies allows you to improve community relations. 

By automating communications workflows, you can maintain a consistent presence and tone across various communication channels including email, social media, SMS, app notifications, and even live chat. AI and chatbots can significantly boost engagement (and reduce the pressure on support staff) by automatically answering common queries and directing more complex questions to the most relevant human staff member.

A representative of St. Catherine University discussed the institution’s recent successes with using workflow automation to streamline its communication on a podcast. Through automation, the university is able to establish and maintain a conversation with students from the first point of contact (marketing) through admissions, registration, throughout the course of their education, and beyond. 

By implementing an uninterrupted communications strategy, the university is able to offer students a sense of continuity and personalization that makes them feel seen and listened to – delivering a level of customer service that makes students more likely to engage, not to mention share their positive experiences with others. 

A good communications strategy should also take change management into account, timeously informing staff of new policies.

Student Support 

Enabling students to feel connected and equipping them with tools to seek assistance or counseling if they need it, improves their chances of graduating. Nearly one in 10 students who left higher education without a degree had completed at least 90% of their program requirements, according to a study published in 2018 by Civitas Learning. Reasons cited for leaving school included a perceived unhelpfulness and lack of support for students, in part stemming from slow responses to questions and requests. 

Implementing automated roll-call and attendance record-keeping allows instructors to gauge student engagement with the curriculum. This enables them to intervene early if they notice absenteeism. Likewise, mandatory online assessments can improve student engagement with subject matter and give faculty a better understanding of comprehension levels, enabling them to make informed decisions about whether interventions such as remedial classes would be helpful.

Providing support for international students, disabled students and marginalized students is also a key concern for institutions of higher learning, and workflow automation can make it simpler to facilitate this support. Moreover, in the wake of numerous recent allegations about sexual assault on college campuses, higher education institutions would be well advised to implement mechanisms for reporting such incidents and ensuring that action is taken.

Curriculum Approvals 

Wouldn’t it be remarkable if we could automate the curriculum proposal approval workflow? The good news is that we can. It’s possible to standardize the curriculum proposal process by creating templates while allowing flexibility through customizable forms that can be tailored to meet each individual department’s workflow needs. Doing so not only increases collaboration and transparency but also efficiency.

When you have an efficient approval workflow in place, proposals are automatically routed to the relevant department, person or committee for feedback and approval, notifying relevant stakeholders at each stage of the process. Forms can also be configured to include labels and helpful messages as well as fields for additional input, facilitating easier completion and collaboration.

Purchase Orders and Faculty Travel Requests 

Purchase orders and travel request forms – and any other processes that require the release of funds – typically involve back-and-forth between numerous different people in numerous different departments and at different levels, often spanning spreadsheets and various communication channels. 

Creating automated workflows for approving POs and business travel requests can significantly save time by ensuring that forms are fully completed with the requisite information the first time around, and reduce unnecessary bottlenecks by automatically routing request forms to the relevant signing authority. Automation also makes it easy for institutions to implement new or temporary policies such as blanket bans, sending out notifications to all affected parties. 

PTO and Time-Off Requests

In some regards, higher education is just like any other industry. One key similarity is the need for effective, user-friendly human resource management and all the associated administration. Tasks such as handling payroll, approving paid time off (PTO), sick leave and vacation requests can be streamlined using workflow automation. 

Something as simple as processing PTO requests can amount to hundreds of wasted hours per year if performed manually, particularly when requests are returned for additional information and changes, and delayed responses create frustration and even resentment. However, when this workflow is automated with time-off request software, email updates (and reminders) are sent automatically and requests and approval can be made effortlessly from anywhere – using a mobile device.  

Staff and Faculty Onboarding, Development and Training 

As is the case with student recruitment and registration, much of the faculty recruitment and onboarding workflow can be automated. This is particularly critical in an industry where it’s not unusual to have to onboard hundreds of new employees ranging from student workers to service personnel, to academic and administrative staff. Given all these roles, it’s a wonder that anyone manages to do it without automating the numerous forms and contracts required to comply with state and national requirements while providing a smooth onboarding experience.

Beyond onboarding, various aspects of performance management such as peer and student reviews can be automated, as can certain types of training and development workflow, such as applications for grants and additional certifications.

Using frevvo for Higher Education Workflow Automation

While the potential of workflow automation is clear, all this talk of automation can be intimidating. Scarce I.T. resources are often overloaded, mobile apps are expensive and difficult to use, integration with internal data such as a student ERP system is difficult, and security breaches are far too common. That’s why it’s important to choose a user-friendly system that doesn’t require any coding knowledge or help from IT. 

frevvo is a great choice because its 100% visual form builder is so simple that anyone can use it. With a drag-and-drop user interface, 25+ field types, customized styling, data sources, and powerful layouts, create any form you need without any coding.

With frevvo’s visual workflow designer, it’s also easy to automatically route digital forms and data to the right people at the right time. Drag-and-drop steps in your web browser and configure business logic using point-and-click wizards.

With our connectors and APIs, it’s also easy to integrate with existing systems and software, including student information systems like Banner, Colleague, and Jenzabar, as well as apps like SharePoint, Xerox DocuShare, and Google Apps – not to mention security protocols including Shibboleth and other SAML authenticators. 

frevvo’s forms are all mobile responsive right out of the box, allowing today’s tech-native students to submit applications from their smartphones and offering traveling faculty the luxury of approving requests such as internship applications with a tap on their mobile device. frevvo also helps to facilitate ADA and WCAG compliance right from the word go. 

A Step-By-Step Guide to Building an Automated Workflow with frevvo

Creating an automated workflow is easy with frevvo’s higher ed form and workflow tools. Here’s how it’s done, in four easy steps.

Step 1: Start with a pre-built Template or Create Your Own

frevvo offers a free 30-day trial so it’s easy to get started. You can choose from more than 30 pre-built workflow templates or create your own from scratch.

Step 2: Drag-and-drop to Customize Your Form

Now you can use the drag-and-drop function to customize the pre-built form to meet your needs. Add or remove fields according to which information you need. 

Step 3: Use the Visual Rule Builder to set up Business Logic

You can also include dynamic behavior – without code – using frevvo’s powerful visual rule builder. Visual business rules can show/hide sections, auto-populate form fields, perform calculations and more. This gives you full control over the information that you collect and how it’s treated by the form. There’s no coding required. 

Step 4: Define Your Workflow

Drag-and-drop workflow steps and use straightforward, visual wizards to create the rules your workflow will follow and set the conditions under which forms are routed to which specific people or roles, and whether notifications are sent and to whom. You can also set conditions under which forms are returned, for instance, if a specific field is not populated.

The visual workflow tool allows you to easily map out each step of the process to make sure that the information is routed to the required party at each stage of the process. 

Basic Travel Request Workflow In Action

To show how the process works, let’s look at an example.

Here are the basic workflow actions your automated travel request will follow.

Step 1: Employee Completes Request Form

You can include as many (or few) information fields in this form as you want. Once all the fields have been populated, the employee clicks a button to route the form to their manager.

Step 2: Manager Approves (or Denies) Request

The manager considers all the information and either approves or denies the request in accordance with the form’s rules. If they approve the travel request, we move to the next step. If they decide that more information is needed, the form will return to the requestor. If they deny the request, the requestor will receive a notification to inform them of the manager’s decision.

Step 3: The Request is Optionally Routed to the Next Approver/Stage

Next, the request will be routed to any additional parties that need to sign off on the travel request. Given the fact that expenses are involved, there may be several stages of approval before a final decision is made. At each stage, notifications are sent to the relevant parties, as well as reminders should they take too long to move the form along to the next stage of the workflow.

If the user requires travel assistance, the workflow may route to the Travel Desk.

Step 4: HR and Finance Do Their Thing

Once the decision is finalized, the finance department can authorize payment(s) and HR can take the next steps. Thanks to the fact that everything is online, this is a painless process.

Automate Your Workflows with frevvo

Give frevvo’s user-friendly higher education workflow software a try. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to change the way you view admin forever. You’ll save time, money, and remove employee frustration – not to mention reduce paper waste!

The post The Guide to Workflow Automation for Higher Education appeared first on frevvo Blog.

The most advanced schools have started having simple tasks become fully automated. Fully automating tedious tasks is the stage you want your school to be in. This article illustrates the benefits of workflow automation for schools, which processes can be easily automated, and offers a step-by-step guide on how schools can use one platform, frevvo, to get started.

The Benefits of Workflow Automation for Schools

Among the many benefits of automating common processes in schools, a few stand out. When schools automate key processes, they reduce waste, save time, attract top staff, and are more organized.

Reducing Waste (and Saving Money)

Over 40 percent of school waste is paper. Much of this isn’t paper used by the students, but rather forms and other documents being printed and kept by teachers and other staff. Schools are commonly strapped for funds. Rather than cutting back on crucial staff or other necessary supplies, schools can save money by cutting back on paper consumption. By automating everyday forms and workflows so they’re digital, schools reduce paper waste as well as help the environment.

Saving Time

A report by Software Testing and Big Data Hadoop states 20 percent of work hours are spent on repetitive computer-based tasks. Schools aren’t immune to this statistic. Consider all the forms a secretary may have to file or enter into a computer each day. Parents return forms for volunteering, who is allowed to pick their child up from school, emergency contacts, and more. 

Secretaries deal with forms from teachers as well, such as time off requests. There are administrative forms for finances and so on. If some of a secretary’s tasks were automated, he could then focus more on having positive interactions with parents and on assisting students rather than paperwork..

Attracting Top Talent 

The Great Districts for Great Teachers survey, conducted by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), found workflow management to be one of the top influential factors for signing on and retaining the best teachers. In general, the more time teachers can spend directly with students, the better. Teachers know this and don’t want to waste precious time each day organizing permission slips and other forms when there is higher-level work to be done.

Automation Helps Organization

When school processes are automated, everything is kept electronically. This prevents loose pieces of paper from being misfiled or going missing. There isn’t any confusion on whether a parent turned a form in on time or if someone forgot to approve time off for a teacher. Reminders can be automatically sent to people who have forms they need to fill out and they can save time by using an electronic signature rather than taking a trip to the school.

The Best Processes for Schools to Automate

It’s impressive just how many processes schools can automate these days. However, it can be overwhelming to go from zero to one hundred in automation, so let’s take a look at some of the top tasks schools can automate first.

Registration & Admission  

Admission applications and registration forms all typically happen before the school year even begins. Summer is a busy time for families and filling out the same information for all of the children in your family is a burden. It also takes staff endless hours to organize all of these forms. 

When this process is automated, it saves both families and staff time. Additionally, staff doesn’t need to worry about clarifying illegible handwriting or unanswered questions on forms. As far as course registration, an automated system allows students to be instantly aware if a course is fully booked so they know to find an alternative.

Parental Consent   

Schools use a variety of consent forms, including ones for sports activities, field trips, volunteering, health, information releases, and more. You can use frevvo’s free templates for all of these forms. There is even a multi-language general consent form. Parents can sign electronically and have a PDF copy emailed to them for their records.

Emergency Contact

It’s essential for schools to have parents fill out emergency contact forms. In the event of an emergency, it’s critical for administrators to have information about the student, their emergency contacts, doctor contact information, and more, easily accessible. frevvo’s free emergency contact form templates can be created in multiple languages, signed electronically, and emailed or saved to Google Apps.

Sick Days & Paid Time Off

When teachers need to take a sick day, they are typically required to have plans ready for a substitute teacher as well as fill out any necessary forms for the sick day. Having an automated process means office staff can learn more quickly that they need to find a replacement and it reduces the stress of an already ill teacher.

When office or other staff put in for vacation days, the process is unnecessarily long and complex. A form needs to be completed and confirmed as received. Then, an administrator needs to be notified and approve or reject the request. If rejected, the staff member needs to adjust it for approval. When finally approved, human resources processes it and marks it on calendars. Alternatively, with workflow automation, emails could be sent automatically and approval can be completed with no printing or signing of forms.

Maintenance & IT Requests

If a window is broken or a computer isn’t working, teachers don’t have time to stop teaching and grab a form from the office to fill out. Teachers need to be able to put these requests in on a computer, without leaving the classroom. Filling these forms out online means the requests won’t get lost, the staff that needs to help is notified immediately, and there is an automatic log of when requests went in and when they were fulfilled. IT help requests can also be useful for tracking trends and figuring out patterns of technical issues.

Transportation Requests

Transportation is needed to transport athletes and coaches to away sports events, to take classes on field trips, and other situations. Without approved transportation well ahead of time, these events cannot take place. Therefore, it’s essential that the process of requesting and approving transportation be simple. If there are no available buses or vans on the day of a field trip, that information can’t be learned last minute.

How to Select an Automation Solution

Once you’ve decided what processes to automate first, it’ll be easier to choose a school workflow automation system. Your options will vary depending on whether or not your staff members are experienced in writing code and what processes you want your workflow automation to include.

If you want a system that is easy for any staff member to use, frevvo is a good option. With frevvo’s cloud-based software, there’s nothing to install. Anyone can use the drag and drop designers to create online forms and workflows without programming experience. There are pre-built templates for popular forms, such as emergency contact forms, absence requests, consent forms, travel authorization, and more. All of these forms are mobile-friendly so parents can fill them out from their phones if they prefer. 

Automating K12 Processes with frevvo: A Step-By-Step Guide

Many people see the benefits of school process automation, but aren’t sure what to automate first and if it will be worth the time. With frevvo, schools get a variety of unique features that will guide them on what to do, saving time and money.

Step 1: Choose a Template — or Create Your Own

Once school administrators or employees have logged into frevvo’s cloud-based solution, they are presented with an array of template applications that are easy to use and require no knowledge of computer programming.

Install any template with a single click to get started quickly. A dozen of frevvo’s education-specific applications are pictured below.

That said, users are not limited to pre-built templates; frevvo places no restrictions on what forms and workflows you can create and you can start from a blank canvas and design exactly what you need.

Step 2: Drag and Drop to Customize

frevvo makes it easy to customize any template as needed. It’s fine to leave templates in the shape they’re in or customize as needed. Simply drag and drop fields with frevvo to add additional requirements for forms, such as email addresses, or to conversely simplify them.

Step 3: Point and Click to add Dynamic Behavior

Templates already contain visual business rules for common dynamic functionality. For example, they automatically set today’s date or employee information, perform calculations where appropriate, etc. It’s easy to customize or add rules to create dynamic forms that fit your exact requirements using frevvo’s built-in Visual Rule Builder.

Step 4: Control Where Forms Go

Once a teacher or other school employee fills in a form, it often must go to others, such as a school principal or district human resources representative. frevvo’s visual process editor allows forms to be routed to whomever they need to go to in whatever order, with title changes easy to make within the program. Using the aforementioned visual rules, you can also route the form conditionally depending on data entered in the fields.

Step 5: Adjust Visual Properties as Needed

Properties can be adjusted for each step within workflows. Whether it’s tweaking messages or conditions for users, it’s easy to configure steps visually.

Step 6: Deploy the workflow

Deploy your workflow with a single click. You’ll automatically benefit from features like:

1. Mobility: Forms and workflows are automatically responsive and will work on all mobile devices.
2. Security: frevvo will encrypt your data throughout so it’s safe and secure. Only authenticated and authorized users can access the workflow.
3. Compliance: Built-in ADA and WCAG compliance means no employees are left out.
4. Localization: It’s easy to make your forms and workflows available in multiple languages.
5. Flexibility: Choose cloud or on-premise to fit your needs. All features are available in both versions.

Example: School Time Off Requests Workflow

Using an automated time off request workflow is a simple process for school employees.

Step 1: School Employee Fills Out the Form

The first step is for the employee to fill out a time off request form. Schools can deploy the form into a customizable and branded portal so it’s easy for employees to find. 

Step 2: A Principal (or Other Supervisor) Reviews the Request

Once the employee has filled out the form, it will automatically forward on to the next designated person in the school’s chain of workflow command and send a notification. While this is often a principal, users are welcome to set their own chains as noted above.

Step 3: The Request is Automatically Filed with HR

As a final step, the school time off request form can automatically be filed with the district’s human resources department, ensuring that the document is clear, has all its necessary information, and will be securely stored. Considering the vast number of documents that go missing in non-automated environments, this step might be the most valuable of all.

Adapt and Improve Workflows as Your School Needs It

Nothing stays the same for very long in education. Schools are constantly getting new mandates from their boards, districts, or government agencies forcing them to implement new tests, accountability measures, and processes. 

With a customizable workflow solution like frevvo, schools can stay on top of all the changes in the world of education, creating and customizing new forms as needed and being ready to go in different directions at a moment’s notice. All of this can help teachers have a better experience, save schools time and money — and ultimately free up more resources to help students thrive.

The post School Workflow Automation: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on frevvo Blog.

Schools must be very careful when they plan activities for students. Whether it’s a study tour, sports activity or even simply using the student’s personal information for a media event, it is of utmost importance that the school first gets the necessary consent forms signed from the parents to avoid any confusion later.

Consent (or permission) forms are an important way to ensure clear communication and dialogue between students, their parents and school teachers and administrators. They need detailed information about the activity in concern as well as clear reasons for the consent being sought e.g. risk of injury or risk that personal information such as a photo may be accessible on the Internet. A well-designed consent form and a systematic, formal process for obtaining that consent protects schools from needless legal risks and exposure, and saves everyone time and unnecessary headaches.

What’s on a Consent Form

Consent forms contain important information including:

• Parents’ name and contact information.
• Student ID, name, grade and other details.
• A clear description of the consent being sought.
• A way to acknowledge that the information has been received.
• Parental signature and date.

Challenges with Consent Forms

As we saw above, consent forms are crucial. It seems simple enough but schools face many challenges securing the necessary permissions.

• The school needs to send these forms to parents / guardians and ensure they receive it. But, that’s easier said then done. How often have our kids forgotten to give us forms or paperwork? Kids forget about permission slips, lose paperwork, spill food or water on paper forms, accidentally rip them up etc. Ensuring that the request for consent reaches the parent in the first place is important.
• Another challenge is ensuring that parents accurately fill in these forms and sign them. Parents forget information, forget to sign or make mistakes. That leads to tedious, manual checking and unnecessary rounds of back-and-forth. It wastes teacher time and parent time and, in the worst case, could cause students to miss important activities.
• Finally, storing and maintaining paper consent forms is another arduous and expensive task for schools. Paper costs money (the average school could use 28,000,000 sheets of paper each year) and it’s bad for the environment.

Electronic forms solve many of these problems

Digital (paperless) consent forms are a simple, affordable and practical solution. In fact, a typical school might use digital forms and processes in many areas – administrative tasks like absence records, and new hire onboarding as well as things like emergency contact forms.

For consent forms, schools can email electronic versions to parents or provide access from a secure portal. This ensures that parents receive forms and can complete and sign them anywhere and on any device. Mandatory fields and form validations guarantee that parents fill in forms correctly. A simple button click submits the completed form to the school.

In addition, electronic forms save data digitally. It can be in a SQL database, some other internal business system or, your forms software probably saves the data in a repository. Since the data is digital, it’s easy to access and analyze e.g. for the Field Trip to the Wadsworth Atheneum, list the students who did not obtain consent from Mrs. Hunt’s class. It’s much easier to sort and extract this type of information from electronic data instead of paper forms in a filing cabinet.

Let’s take a look at a few example consent forms commonly used in K-12 schools and Universities.

Permission form to use Google Apps

Schools and universities are increasingly using a wide variety of digital technologies for teaching and learning. One of the most common applications is Google Apps for Education – a suite that provides email, collaborative documents etc.

Read more: Combine frevvo with Google Apps for paperless schools

Several Federal regulations such as Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and others govern technology use in schools. It’s important for schools to obtain parental consent before providing access to students.

In addition to saving time that would be wasted manually e-mailing these forms around, tracking them etc. the electronic version below is much easier to use. Parents can access it on any device, sign without printing and the system automatically uploads the signed form to Google Drive.

Multi-language General Consent form

This is another common K-12 consent form. Students may be photographed, videotaped and interviewed when participating in various activities at school. These pictures or videos could appear in school magazines, websites, reports or other publications and media. Additionally, the school may wish to include student information in their school or class directories. Given privacy legislation, any disclosures of this kind require explicit consent from a parent or guardian.

Another situation that almost always requires explicit consent is for health screenings (e.g. vision, hearing, or dental). State regulations often mandate health screenings. Once again, these regulations require that a parent or guardian sign a permission form. The school must store the form somewhere and reproduce it on demand.

Timely consent is also extra-important in some cases e.g. when the screening or media-related event is scheduled for a specific date. A delayed consent form can cause ripple effects e.g. a student missing out on an overseas performance tour because she doesn’t have a health screening form due to a missing consent. As before, digital consent forms ensure timely turnaround e.g. they can have automated reminders built-in so parents are notified multiple times until they complete the form.

Multiple languages make the consent form easier to fill

In our modern world, K-12 school districts, particularly those in larger cities, have to consider the needs of parents whose native language is not English. Ultimately, you don’t want students missing out on educational activities because parents could not understand what permission was being sought. As a result, many schools are providing important documents including consent forms, emergency contact information etc. in multiple languages.

With frevvo, you can easily create forms in multiple languages. They will also automatically render in the appropriate language based on the browser’s settings.

Consent Form for sports participation

Sports, by their very nature, are active. There’s always the possibility that a student could sustain an injury, even a severe injury. Medical conditions could prevent students from participating in certain activities and it’s also important that coaches and trainers know any medical history such as allergies so that they can administer emergency treatment if required e.g. at an away game.

Prior to participation it is very important for parents to explicitly understand and acknowledge the risk in allowing their students to participate in sporting activities and explicitly grant permission for things like coaches administering emergency care.

As before, digital forms ensure that parents read all the disclaimers and can sign digitally without printing.

Health Consent Form

Health emergencies don’t just happen while playing sports. Schools often have to administer treatment to students for minor symptoms like headaches, fever, pain etc. To protect themselves and avoid legal issues, schools should obtain consent from parents/guardians before they can administer health services like providing ibuprofen or acetaminophen or letting the school nurse or doctor examine and treat the student.

As before, digital forms are easy to use, signed electronically and eliminate errors and omissions. In addition, since the data is digital, it’s easy to retrieve at any time.

Information Release Withholding Form

Under Federal and State law, school districts may share student directory information with authorized individuals, organizations and/or officials. In most states, schools clearly identify what actual information is being released and which entities might receive it. However, most states also allow parents of minor students as well as adult students to limit the release of their information or to prohibit it altogether. Typically, this means filling out, signing and submitting a form every year.

Online consent forms are perfect for this scenario. Not only are they easy to submit but the system can also remind parents and students of the need to submit a withholding request each year.

Consent forms are ubiquitous in schools and colleges. It’s tedious, expensive and inefficient to rely on paper. Electronic versions have extensive advantages:

• Digital forms are much easier to use and can be completed by students, parents or guardians at any time from anywhere and using any device.
• They practically eliminate errors and omissions resulting in reduced back-and-forth. That saves time for busy parents and teachers.
• With automation and reminders, it’s easier to ensure that the proper consent has been obtained well in advance. As a result, students are less likely to miss out on educational activities.
• Most important, since teachers and students save time by not having to chase down paperwork, they can spend more time on what’s important – education.

The good news is that digitizing your consent forms is easy with modern, visual school workflow software like frevvo. Anyone can drag-and-drop to create forms, route them to people and apply dynamic behavior. Check out the short 6-minute video below to learn more.

A fully, functional 30-day trial is available anytime. Click the button below, sign up now and get started on your journey to a paperless school district.

The post How Online Consent Forms Better Serve Students and Parents in Your K-12 School appeared first on frevvo Blog.

According to the NYC Government, the paper discarded during the school year in one NYC school added up to 28 pounds for each student, teacher, and staff member. A standard sheet of laser-printer paper of the usual thickness, either US “letter” size or international “A4” size, weighs 4.5 grams. That means 100 sheets weighs almost exactly one pound. Put the above two together and you get about 2,800 sheets of paper per person every year in a single school.

For a district with 10,000 students, teachers & staff, that’s 28,000,000 sheets of paper. At Staples, a pallet (200,000 sheets) costs $1,400. So, our 10,000 student school district spends at least $200,000 every year on paper. And, that’s not even taking into account printers, toner & other supplies which could easily double or triple the cost.

Imagine if that was all electronic. If a sheet of paper holds about 2K of information, all 2,800 sheets would fit into about 5.5MB. For our 10,000 student school district, all the information would fit on an inexpensive flash drive and you’d have some room to spare. And, you don’t even have to spend money – you can put it all in Google Drive with unlimited free storage for education.

And, it’s not just money you’ll save. You’ll help the environment too by saving 2,500 trees and 55,000 gallons of oil.

Of course, you can’t just stick millions of sheets of paper on a flash drive. The reality is far more complex but you can start chipping away today.

It’s easy to reduce paper usage in your school workflow software like frevvo. Interested in learning more? Contact frevvo today.

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