How Mesh plays into the trends of Higher Education
The rise of online education, the reinvention of campus experiences, and altering demographics of college students play directly to the benefit of Mesh.
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In order to truly understand how Mesh plays into the trends of Higher Education, it’s important to fully understand what exactly is happening with Universities — large, small, private, public, traditional, community, online, etc.
In short, this is what’s happening:
- The demographics of today’s college students are changing.
- Online education is proving to be more cost-effective and convenient and is experiencing consistent growth.
- Schools are facing a decline in revenue and state and federal funding as they struggle to prove their ROI.
- Traditional Institutions are being forced to innovate and invest in new tools and experiences to better attract, engage, and retain students, as well as prepare them for the future workforce.
While all of these factors trigger an excess of questions and curiosities, they are all very positive changes.
For a long time, Universities have been under the stereotype that they are extremely resistant to change. Our society has convinced students and families that college is a requirement in order to succeed in life. This has given Universities comfort in their operations, experiences, and allowed them to increase tuitions at an absurd rate.
Today, this stigma could not be less true. Students and families have come to realize that where Universities present many benefits to certain career paths, they lack benefit for equally as many, if not more. Proving the worth of spending $100,000 over four years for a degree one can receive online for $6,000 over 6 months is becoming a large challenge for Universities.
As we work to fuel conversations and facilitate collaboration for Universities, we feel very positive that Mesh plays directly into the current trends of the industry. Here’s how.
- Since Universities have been very change-resistant in the past, they have made it very challenging for new tools and startups to penetrate and succeed in the Higher Education market. Now, market forces are giving Universities no choice but to “change” their position on change and adapt to modern practices, try new tools, and innovate their offerings.
- In order to compete for students, Universities are rethinking the campus experience. They are reinventing curriculums and discovering fresh ways to engage students. Typically we think of EdTech products as ways to deliver content, guide students through a learning experience, facilitate curriculums, and administer grades. Mesh is not a tool for any of these things. Mesh is an untraditional, innovative EdTech product that focuses less on the delivery and administration of educational content and more on people. Mesh facilitates a way for Universities to reinvent their campus experience by connecting members of their community from admission to retirement. Mesh is an engagement machine that helps facilitate cross-functional connections and collaboration for students, educators, and administrators like never before. This newfound sense of community and increased levels of engagement create a completely new, beneficial campus experience.
- With declining revenues and decreases in government funding, Institutions are actively seeking creative new ways to generate revenue and optimize their efforts. Mesh not only opens the door for inventive new revenue streams but also aggregates thousands of anonymized macro-and-micro-data points that allow Administrators the opportunity to see unprecedented insights into cross-functional behaviors. Furthermore, adopting Mesh is a cost-neutral transaction, meaning the University will expend a certain dollar amount per annum, and generate the same amount in the form of revenue through technology fees from students — a pass-through fee.
- I have a great friend who once shared a quote with me. That quote is, “Your network is your net worth.” So simple, yet today, so true. It is no secret that one of the most likely ways to land a job opportunity today or become introduced to a prospective customer is through a network connection. One of the greatest unique value propositions of attending one school over another is the size, influence, and interconnectedness of the Alumni base. One can argue this is the sole reason Ivy League schools have the reputation they have. As schools battle over students, the network provided to that student is becoming a more prevalent factor in the decision-making process. What Mesh enables a school to do is provide a way to help students, faculty, staff, and alumni connect, collaborate, and engage with their University’s community from anywhere on Earth, at any time. Not only do unique innovations derive from such a utility, but these trickle-down network effects prove extremely attractive to a prospective student in a world where networking and connections are vital to post-graduate success.
Technology has become the focal point to our lives, yet the majority of academic leaders are not technologists. Many new tools entering the education market are a product of traditional, dated educational thinking.
What none of these tools have to offer is the simple human need to connect, communicate, and collaborate with one another. In order to prepare students for the workforce, they must learn how to work together, collaborate on projects, and leverage the collective skills of the group to achieve a common goal. This is everything.
As education moves more and more online, and students complete their education from separate locations, the need for connecting, collaborative tools like Mesh becomes increasingly important. That is what binds people together and prepares them for the collaborative digital workforce we’re experiencing today.
Mariana Cavalcanti, Ellucian’s Vice president of User Experience, said it best:
“The rise of non-traditional students will force colleges to think outside the box and use technology to deliver a comprehensive student experience. With more non-traditional students coming to two- and four-year schools, colleges will need to use mobile technology to keep them engaged and learning… This goes beyond just online classes,” she said. “Colleges will need to recreate the campus experience through apps and other technology that allows the non-traditional student to feel a part of the university community.”
This quote is both fascinating and exciting because it provides a direct intersection between the current and future demands necessitated by market forces and the value derived from Mesh: a sense of community.
As a student, regardless of age or background, Mesh facilitates a way for one to be connected to their University community, digitally, from anywhere in the world, on their own terms.
