How a Renowned University Onboards Its Students Faster 🚀👩🎓
IU University of Applied Sciences currently offers more than 250 prestigious degree programs, attended by over 130,000 students worldwide.
Our onboarding process for distant courses allows us to greet every student by name, reach the correct student group with relevant content, and stay in touch with remote students 24/7. Automating our in-platform communication has reduced repetitive queries towards our student office and increased our student happiness (NPS) score.
Elisa Guttman
Customer Experience Manager, 
increase in Students’
feedback response rate
access to online
support for students
Challenges
IU University of Applied Sciences offers its remote students access to an educational platform, “MyCampus,” which consolidates two types of content:
- Administrative-Organizational Agenda: This includes tasks related to student onboarding, university administration, communication with remote student communities, etc.
- Learning Modules: This section provides study materials and additional learning content.
The adoption of the first type of content faced several challenges:
- A high volume of repetitive questions was directed to the university's student office, indicating that students felt overwhelmed by the amount of information.
- Low student activity on the MyCampus platform suggested that students were uncertain about the actions they should take before starting and during their free trial.
- A drop-off in students’ accounts during the free trial period.
- A lack of opportunities within the platform for providing feedback or reaching out to university personnel.
Solutions
An interactive onboarding flow now guides the university's remote students (from the DACH region and English-speaking countries) through the 'MyCampus' platform. This journey starts with the sign-up process and continues throughout the trial period, leading up to the conversion into a paid student account.
The university's Customer Experience Team has designed this flow with the following Product Fruits elements:
Welcome Tour: Introduces students to the “MyCampus” educational platform, highlighting its most relevant information and providing instructions to get started. The Welcome Tour leads students to launch the Onboarding Checklist.
Onboarding Checklist with Feature Tours: Helps students quickly accomplish necessary steps before diving into their studies (for example, reviewing the courses, picking a course, enrolling in a selected course, etc.).
Flashing Beacons and Tour Cards: Draw students' attention to recent news and updates relevant to their distance studies.
Feedback, Adoption Meter Widgets, and In-App Surveys Allow students to provide feedback or place queries. The direct feedback loops make it easy for the university to understand where MyCampus needs improvements or what content is necessary to help students succeed.
Segmentation: Enables the university team to deliver personalized content to its students. For example, thank you cards with feedback forms after a free trial expires, a reminder card about the Checklist if students do not proceed with the onboarding, or excluding from communication those who have already seen the Welcome Tour once.
How it works:
Welcome Layer: Once students sign up for the "MyCampus" platform, a Welcome Tour is displayed, featuring personalized greetings and instructions. The final tour card includes a strong recommendation to initiate the Onboarding Checklist widget.
"MyCampus" platform's welcome page with the Welcome Tour, Onboarding Checklist, and the Feedback widget
Welcome Tour (first card) Welcome Tour (last card)
Onboarding Layer: The Onboarding Checklist, accompanied by Feature Tours, guides students through the essential steps they need to complete before diving into their chosen learning module.
Onboarding Checklist with Feature Tours
Recognition and Feedback Layer: After completing key onboarding steps, students receive congratulations or thank you cards, and are invited to provide feedback.
Recognition and Feedback Cards
Engagement Layer: Throughout the trial period, the MyCampus platform captures students' attention with important updates through flashing beacons (Tooltips) and Tour cards.
Flashing Beacon Tooltip (Hint)
Trial Feedback Layer: At the end of their one-month free trial, the University team gathers valuable feedback through CSAT and other surveys, which consistently yield a very good response rate.
End of Trial Survey
Thanks to in-app surveys, the University team achieved a 50% higher response rate compared to previous email communications. For example, responses revealed the usefulness of the Checklist (NPS 33) and the Welcome Tour (NPS 40). Based on student feedback, the Customer Experience Team regularly updates the content and flow structure and provides personalized assistance when necessary.
Benefits of Automated Onboarding
- Personalized guidance through the student’s agenda
- Reduction of repetitive student queries
- Relief for student office personnel
- Product improvement based on student feedback
- Positive impact on customer satisfaction NPS score
- Fostered two-way communication between remote students and the university
Plans:
Following significant success in the German and English-speaking markets, IU University of Applied Sciences plans to extend the automated onboarding flow to additional markets. Moreover, leveraging valuable student feedback received in recent months, the University's Customer Experience Team is working on UX improvements for the “MyCampus” educational platform.
IU University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Onboarding Flow Chart
Profile
IU International University of Applied Sciences is a state-recognized educational institution and the largest university in Germany by number of students, as well as one of the largest EdTech companies in Europe. With more than 20 years of consistent educational experience, it currently offers more than 250 renowned bachelor's, master's, and MBA programs in fields such as Architecture & Construction, Design & Media, IT & Engineering, Marketing, Human Resources & Law, etc., in various study formats (in-person, virtual, or hybrid) to over 130,000 students from all over the world.
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