Everything You Need to Know About Student Success Management Systems

Student success efforts use technology, but it’s not as easy as plugging in a degree-planning tool. A data ecosystem that comprises a data warehouse that collects data from a range of systems both within and outside the classroom is necessary. For today’s retention-focused colleges, a comprehensive student success management system (SSMS) may make all the difference.

But what exactly is a student success management system? How does it work, and what does it actually do to benefit students and faculty? In this guide, we’ll break down what an SSMS is and how it connects students and faculty in all the right ways.

What is a Student Success Management System?

A student success management system, also known as an SSMS, is an all-in-one type of software that connects faculty as well as students to create a support network from initial enrollment to graduation. Such systems can be used for many different things, such as early alert notification, providing advisory services, academic planning, and more.

How Do Student Success Management Systems Work?

A student success management system (SSMS) is a complete technology that connects administrators, instructors, staff, and advisors in a coordinated care network to support students from enrolling to graduation and beyond.

The practice of student achievement, as well as the technology landscape that surrounds it, have undergone significant changes. SSMS is a reflection of organic change as well as a transformational vision. Student Success Management Systems, like other categories you may be familiar with, such as LMS, CRM, or SIS, will hold a variety of feature sets that will be put together as a cohesive whole.

So, what is a student success management system, and how does it function?

An SSMS is a campus-wide enterprise-level system that connects thousands of users. The system must be able to link administrators, advisors, support offices, instructors, and students, as well as allow them to collaborate on specific student success concerns. This cross-silo collaboration underscores the growing scope of the student success problem, which now encompasses the whole campus.

To build emergent value, an SSMS combines point solutions. Each point solution was designed to handle a particular problem; however, users realized over time that combining point solutions yielded superior results. An early student alert system, for example, is more effective when combined with an analytics product that can suggest which classes or degrees to target, and even more effective when combined with a CRM that coordinates communication and intervention.

Users are well aware of this, which is why they’ve been attempting to piece together these solutions for years, generally by adding extra displays to their workstations. Consolidation helps the CIO in particular since they will have fewer vendors to deal with, a cheaper total cost of ownership, and a better experience for both staff and students.

Student success management is an emerging subject that is supported by SSMS systems. Progressive schools and universities are rapidly adopting a new set of KPIs (key performance indicators) and policies that go beyond first-year retention. These KPIs represent the complete aims of a school attempting to enhance return on education by including broader definitions of persistence, credit productivity, and post-graduation outcomes.

Such measurements may appear simple, but they are quite complicated and require much practice as well as technology-enabled guidance and tracking. The Student Success Management System must be designed to assist schools in implementing these innovative methods.