WillowSoft | University

The Challenge

In Australia, Indigenous students who attempt university study often do not succeed at the same rate as their non-indigenous counterparts. At the national university level, indigenous students' success rates between 2016 and 2019 increased by less than 1%. It makes James Cook University's (JCU's) 7.5% increase in Indigenous student success rates even more incredible (Higher Education Statistics). Join us in celebrating the remarkable achievement of Professor N. Nakata's and his teams work at JCU's IERC, which has brought about the largest improvement in indigenous success rates among regional Australian universities between 2016 and 2019. It is a testament to him and his teams unwavering commitment to improving indigenous students' success. Together, let's continue to strive for excellence and empower all students to achieve their full potential.
WillowSoft’s work with JCU IERC has confirmed that many Indigenous students enter university without adequate preparation for academic learning, which hinders their success. To tackle this challenge, WillowSoft has been working closely with Professor N.Nakata and his team to ensure our platform can highlight the specific capabilities that each Indigenous student needs to develop in order to become effective and efficient learners in the under-graduate student context.

(R)e-imagining Indigenous education

A guide for universities dedicated to helping Indigenous students succeed

WillowSoft operationalises an evidence-based framework that supports academic learning and pastoral care for Indigenous students at your university. It informs the delivery and organisation of support services for Indigenous students by providing staff with a comprehensive understanding of each student's level of academic readiness and under-preparedness. By utilising WillowSoft, staff can easily develop personalised, proactive plans to address each student's unique requirements and improve their academic outcomes.

Improved Student Success

The platform has already supported JCU IERC to significant improvements in subject passed and completion rates, increased speed of course completions, and effectiveness of staff engagement and ability to provide targeted interventions. WillowSoft's purpose-built platform and services are designed to deliver automation of workflows and business processes.

Live Dashboards and Analytics

WillowSoft's live dashboards show the student cohort performance with analytics to drill down and identify problem areas. WillowSoft Analytics machine learning identifies patterns of contributing factors for success or failure and is used to tune goal settings on feedback and interventions. This allows Indigenous education support staff to have a holistic view of the student on one screen. Multi-disciplined teams can be assigned student cohorts based on location and study area preferences and have a team view for their students.

Early Identification of Student Challenges

WillowSoft includes a facility to support quantitative and qualitative feedback of students. Research indicates that students can face challenges that affect their learning engagements, motivations to persist, sense of belonging in the university, and social-emotional well-being at any time. Identifying the right type of support at the right time is crucial for their success. WillowSoft makes it safe and easy for students to ask for help when they need it the most. Using regular check-ins, WillowSoft helps Indigenous centre staff understand how their students are coping and develop early interventions.

Efficient Task Management

WillowSoft case plans and workflows help support staff interventions, streamline day-to-day work, and create a truly coordinated team for student success with 360-degree student profiles, multimodal student communications, and in-app appointment scheduling.

Automated Alerts and Notifications

WillowSoft has customizable automated alerts, notifications, and exception reporting. Admission funnel alerts, offered, admitted, enrolled, etc. Enrolment Status alerts, dropped or withdrawn subjects, poor result notifications, etc. Tutoring notifications, notification to review tutor sessions, tutor hours alerts, contract start and end, etc. Automated movement of students to correct case plan based on their subject selection. Smart task management, based on set case plan activities, reminders to call about end of study period results, TAPS tasks. You can also manually create future dated tasks.

At-Risk Student Alerts

WillowSoft's student success analytics and predictive modeling help universities understand which interventions are working and how to best adjust individual student learning plans. Standardized reports offer insights into ongoing staff support activities, and team dashboards continually monitor student progress to identify opportunities for appropriate student support.

Tutor Management

Supplementary tutoring for underprepared learners is a critical part of any student capacity building approach to support. All supplement tutors use WillowSoft to provide feedback to staff about the students. WillowSoft identifies subjects and students requiring tutoring and matches tutors with the right skills to the right students. It also manages the tutor onboarding time allocation process and an ISSP reporting.

Research-Backed

A key objective of WillowSoft is to allow our users to apply research-based strategies that assist Indigenous students in their academic journey, such as the approach outlined in Professor Martin and Vicki Nakata's book "Supporting Indigenous Students at University." Consequently, University Student Support Centres and support staff can offer students the most current and efficient methods of academic and pastoral support, enabling them to achieve better academic results.

Event Management

WillowSoft event management software offers a range of essential features, including customizable event websites and registration forms, attendee tracking, and communication. Event organisers can also measure the effectiveness of their events and use real-time analytics and reporting to inform future planning.

WillowSoft University Platform

Introducing WillowSoft