7 Questions with Qualtrics Head of Education Lee Perlis

• 03/27/23

CT: What are some ways to get a real-time picture of how students are feeling?

Perlis: I was talking to the CIO of Utah Valley University the other day. They support more than 40,000 students across Utah — I think they're the largest campus in the state. And they're on this mission to deliver digital transformation across all these different student-facing technologies, and to create these frictionless student experiences. They're developing integrations, for instance, with their learning management system, so they can post a digital intercept whenever there's a deadline for class that might be coming up or an exam that's coming up. They can then route that over to a course evaluation survey to get a pulse on that relationship between the student and that faculty member.

They're also using QR codes, where a student could, for example, scan a QR code in the bathroom to let the school know if there's enough hand sanitizer — little things like that to make sure students are feeling comfortable. And they actually developed a new app, which I'll call the Tinder for program selections, where students can swipe left or swipe right based upon different programs that they might be interested in. Maybe it's a study abroad program, or maybe it's, "Hey, I want to go into a career in marketing." So they're trying to create these technologies that are seamless for the students to use, and are very similar to what students might use on the consumer side of their lives as well.

CT: Going back to the gap in understanding what matters to students, how do you think today's students measure success? And how does that compare to how most institutions define student success?

Perlis: Students tend to get judged by their GPA. And I don't know if that really looks at the whole picture. For the university, understanding what's meaningful for students is becoming more and more important. That could be: What's their satisfaction level with the university? Are they getting the right services that they need when speaking with an adviser? When they go into the financial aid office, are they getting the right customer service? These "experience metrics" are going to become even more important as schools look to differentiate themselves and really figure out, what's their secret sauce? What makes them unique? And why are students choosing that particular school over another? Having these new metrics to think about student success and student satisfaction is going to be even more important as we move into this next phase post-pandemic.

CT: If institutions need to incorporate these new types of metrics that connect to the student experience, what's the best way to start?

Perlis: It starts with knowing your students. Many schools do a school climate survey or student pulse check. But it's one thing to just take the survey, be done, and not do anything with the data. It's another to put the right people, the right process, the right programs in place to really manage that throughout the entire lifecycle. So it's a) hearing what students are saying, and b) polling your faculty and staff as well, to really understand what they're hearing and what their interactions are with the students, because they're having those more regularly than the administration might be. Combine those two data points together, and that can be really powerful for those at the provost level, those who are focused on student success and student experience, to be able to take that data and act on it.

CT: Is there a culture change needed to assign value to newer types of metrics, as opposed to the traditional measurements of enrollment and retention and graduation rates that everyone's used to?

Perlis: Some of that starts with breaking down the data silos that are on campus today. So many schools get information from their SIS, and then there's different information and metrics that they can pull from their CRM, or from their learning management system. But how do you combine the operational data from all those different systems to really understand the student sentiment, and then ultimately turn that into a system of action? And really work to improve upon some of those metrics, whether those are around enrollment, retention, student satisfaction, etc. Being able to get that holistic picture and understand all those different data points is key to making that happen.

CT: Do you have any final advice for institutions navigating this shift to focusing more on student experience?

Perlis: Similar to how a business might think about working with customers, my advice would be just listening and putting your customers at the center of everything that you're doing, especially as we're moving into tougher times economically. Understanding what that student wants, what that student needs, what your staff wants, what your staff needs, at these critical times, is just going to be so important. Great employee experiences lead to great student experiences. And if you are putting your staff and your faculty in a good position to succeed, they're going to make sure that your students are succeeding, and that they have the resources and holistic support that they need to be successful.