Our Work With ACCESS

Background:

Client: ACCESS Program

Industry: Education

Solution Highlights:

Customization to ensure VirtuOwl suited the needs of the program

Continual collaboration to better understand how VirtuOwl can improve for real use cases

Ongoing improvements and partnership to create the best learning environment for students

The Challenge:

The global pandemic in 2020 created a realization that across all sectors, we need a better way to connect when we can't meet in person. Telemedicine became vital when so many could not visit the doctor in person. In one study, the NIH said, "The benefits of telemedicine after its pandemic renaissance are apparent now more than ever: convenient and timely access to care that overcomes geographic barriers, reduced burden on medical infrastructure (e.g., traffic, facilities' wear, perhaps reduced staff needs), and minimal exposure to infectious diseases for all participants."

The pandemic's impact on healthcare was mirrored in other industries, none so evident as education.

There needed to be a better way for teachers and counselors to connect with students in a secure infrastructure where the interaction could be recorded and documentation completed in real-time. Parents faced significant challenges staying actively engaged and informed in their children's education due to a need for integrated and efficient communication and support systems. Administrators were overwhelmed by complex, disjointed systems that hindered efficient management and effective communication within educational institutions. Counselors and teachers were overburdened with administrative tasks, leading to burnout.

The pandemic took a severe toll on teachers, with 567,000 fewer educators in public schools than before 2020. Beyond that, in a study VirtuOwl conducted, 90% of teachers identified burnout as a serious problem. Counselors deal with much of the same, estimating 15-16 hours each week dedicated to administrative tasks, which could be spent with students if they had better tools.

While the pandemic brought many of these issues to light, it was not the first time teachers, students, and administrators needed more support.

In 2020, Brandon Barker and Debra Hays founded VirtuOwl in response to the inadequate systems available to support educational environments during the pandemic. The idea emerged from their firsthand experiences of watching their children struggle with existing systems.

VirtuOwl provides a secure infrastructure to reduce administrative strain, provide additional tutoring and counseling services, facilitate communication, improve record-keeping and documentation, and enhance the educational experience for all involved.

VirtuOwl consists of:

Comprehensive Scheduling System
On-Demand Support
Centralized Communication Platform
Secure and Compliant Data Management
Efficient Record-Keeping and Historical Tracking
Customization and Scalability

When seeking out institutions to implement VirtuOwl, we knew we wanted to work with people who shared our goals and ideals about improving educational outcomes with better access to necessary resources.

That is how we entered our partnership with ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) Virtual Learning Program. ACCESS is "an education initiative of the Alabama Department of Education. It provides opportunities and options for Alabama private and public middle and high school students to engage in Advanced Placement, elective, and other courses they may not otherwise be able to access or schedule. ACCESS offers all of the following free:"

"Supplemental and blended courses available to every 6th-12th grade private and public school in Alabama."
"Credit recovery courses"
"Advanced Placement courses"
"Foreign language courses"
"Alabama certified teachers in all courses"
"NCAA-compliant courses"

*The above information comes directly from the ACCESS website. (https://access.ua.edu/about-access/)*

With VirtuOwl, the ACCESS program would add another level of support to the students involved by creating access to on-demand or scheduled tutoring and counseling sessions and facilitating communication, record-keeping, and scheduling.

ACCESS aims to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public schools and to provide an infrastructure that delivers equitable, quality learning opportunities for all citizens. Their vision is for the state of Alabama to provide equal access to high-quality instruction to improve student achievement through distance learning.

VirtuOwl matches ACCESS because we align with the goals and missions stated above and provide a comprehensive platform that fills in gaps in ACCESS's previous offerings.

We started our initial contract with ACCESS in October 2023. After deploying our solution, we renegotiated a contract in Spring 2024 that included requests for features from ACCESS.

The Solution:

VirtuOwl partnered with the ACCESS Program to deploy our digital platform that streamlines the essential scheduling, communication, and data management processes within the educational system. Our solution is a central hub, providing educators, counselors, students, and parents with seamless, secure access to tools that simplify coordination and improve educational outcomes.

In Spring 2024, our VirtuOwl team met up with the ACCESS team to review how the implementation of VirtuOwl worked for them before our initial contract expired. We received feedback from the ACCESS team about how we could improve VirtuOwl to increase efficiency and improve user experience for the ACCESS Program users.

Throughout this feedback session, we created a prioritized list of features that could be improved or expanded to better assist the students, teachers, administrators, counselors, and parents using VirtuOwl. Since our meeting in Spring 2024, we have worked tirelessly to make those customizations and updates available.

The more extensive updates they requested included the following:

An update to the workflow when booking an on-demand tutoring or counseling session
A reorganized weekly report to better demonstrate relevant statistics on users
The ability to utilize a session chat before and after a session as opposed to just while a session is ongoing
A referral feature allowing educators to refer students to another educator who is the best suited to aid with the specific tutoring or counseling that the student needs
An improved whiteboard in sessions allows all participants to interact instead of only allowing the educator to utilize it.
A test feature that provides feedback on AV issues before a session begins to help reduce the number of missed sessions due to technical difficulties

The platform has been customized for ACCESS with robust communication capabilities, including chat options available before, during, and after sessions, allowing continuous and targeted support. Additionally, an intuitive referral feature empowers educators to connect students with specialized staff members as needed, ensuring each student receives the appropriate guidance and resources. This targeted approach improves the student experience and optimizes resource allocation across educational teams.

VirtuOwl's on-demand support feature has been particularly impactful, providing immediate assistance to students when they need it most. This minimizes delays and keeps students engaged without overwhelming educators. To improve user experience, the platform was updated to reduce the clicks and effort required for everyday actions, consolidating workflows so that all tools and resources are available in one accessible place, the student dashboard. Users can efficiently search for educators based on subject expertise, availability, or other categories, allowing students to connect with exemplary educators for their specific needs.

With an integrated whiteboard function, educators can create interactive learning experiences, allowing multiple students to engage simultaneously on shared digital boards. This feature fosters collaborative learning, enabling students to work with their teachers in real-time, regardless of their physical location.

Our test feature provides essential technical feedback, addressing potential connectivity or hardware issues. This feature ensures minimal disruption during educational sessions, allowing students and educators to remain focused on learning by facilitating access to the camera and microphone settings and notifying users of potential technical difficulties.

We also expanded our weekly reports, breaking down essential user statistics, including the number and type of sessions (classroom, on-demand, or scheduled) and attendance (missed or completed sessions). This breakdown supports educators and administrators by delivering insights on engagement and user trends, allowing for data-driven decision-making.

In addition to the more prominent features listed above, we made a few more minor changes to the user experience, such as:

Educators can customize their availability for individual days, not just days of the week.
Educators can schedule appointments at any time regardless of availability instead of the meeting's specific start/end times.
Automatic force logout due to inactivity
Educators on-demand availability updated when sessions end.
Provide details of why a meeting was not completed. (i.e., the student didn't arrive, the educator didn't come, etc.) instead of "Missed."

The Results:

VirtuOwl has provided the ACCESS program with a robust, secure, and user-friendly platform that has streamlined scheduling, communication, and data management. Our solution has enabled efficient coordination between educators, counselors, students, and parents, improving overall educational support and engagement. The platform’s on-demand support feature has been particularly beneficial, offering immediate help to students when they need it most. This has not only enhanced the educational experience for students but also reduced administrative burdens on staff, allowing them to focus more on direct student support.

After completing the initial implementation of VirtuOwl with the ACCESS Program, the client was delighted with the performance and began utilizing our platform extensively for their summer school program, which saw a significant increase in usage.
In the first 30 days of VirtuOwl’s implementation with ACCESS starting in October 2023, 413 students joined the platform. By January 2024, this number had increased to 13,509. In May, before summer school started, we observed 752 new educators being onboarded to the platform. Our latest reports show that VirtuOwl has successfully onboarded 31,204 students through the ACCESS program.

Additionally, our reports have demonstrated how users utilize the different session capabilities. About 35% of all sessions conducted on VirtuOwl through the ACCESS program are On Demand sessions, and about 48% are scheduled sessions.

We have renegotiated our contract with ACCESS. The new agreement aims to expand our services further and extend the partnership for another year. Over the past year, we have worked closely with ACCESS to provide even more features than requested, ensuring they get the most out of the system. Additionally, the success of our initial deployment has led to discussions about introducing VirtuOwl to 20 other schools or states with similar programs.