OPTIMIZE Newsletter

Ideas in Action

A successfully humanized digital experience connects the content to the viewer on an emotional level and maintains a satisfying, authentic, interactive experience that is welcomed.

Much of our world can feel robotic and impersonal from ordering a pizza to requesting a ride. The magic happens, the memories happen, and the impact happens, when we open the door and exchange a smile with the person delivering our food or hop in the car and have a great conversation with a stranger. Maintaining that human touch in a digital world is an Advantage Design Group^® specialty. 

• confident,
• inspired,
• prepared,
• celebrated,
• included,
• and excited to join your institution and contribute to its impressive legacy.

Connective elements such as accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion, are already interwoven into the Advantage Orientation^® platform through its design, content, and capabilities. Vibrant and diverse representatives guide your students on their immersive orientation journey that is accessible on any device. What’s more, Advantage Design Group^® provides you with the tools and training you need to keep your online orientation viable, maintaining your investment’s usability, relevancy, and longevity.

An Advantage Orientation^® introduces students to who you are: a partner they can trust.

In this Issue..

Discover the latest platform features, fresh video production ideas, and on-demand orientation videos, all working together to humanize the experience.

What's New in Video Production

Merritt College is a public community college in Oakland, California serving approximately 6,000 students each year. The institution's anthem is "put students first." Frances May, who leads Merritt’s Student Accessibility Services, chose Advantage Orientation to serve the college’s disabled student community. 

But how do you show students how you put them first? With the help of our video production crew and writers, Merritt’s orientation platform features a unique set of videos that reflect the student population in ways you may not have considered before, including their abilities. The results are inspirational and empowering.

Why Choose Merritt College?

Introduction to Safety & Policies

Here’s an overview of what’s new and improved inside Advantage Orientation^®.

• Unified Accessibility Experience + Built-In User Preference Selections
• Guest Access: NEW Preferred Name + Social Media Login Options for Prospective Students & Families
• NEW Game Slide Option Controls: Scored/Not Scored & “Skip to Reveal”
• NEW Form Slides: collect and receive information
• Enhanced Report Usability: side-bar filter controls, centralized data view, faster data load
• Improved Items of Interest Report to Rate & Track
• NEW Multi-Language Edit Mode: Side-by-Side Text Views & Image Customization
• Just In Time: schedule content releases for greater timeliness and relevancy

More Ways to Upgrade

To add these features to your platform, you'll want to request a proposal from your Client Success Specialist. Upgrading your platform includes a fresh interface design. You'll also want to think about your video content. Are your videos current? Would content currently experienced as text on the screen be better served through video? As always, you have options! Start by consulting with your Client Success Specialist to customize a development and implementation plan.

Students with disabilities often don’t know they can request accommodations. This live-action video includes motion graphics to describe disability support services, the types of accommodations most often provided, and valuable tips students can use to prepare to make accommodation requests.

Preview the Advantage OnDemand^TM Catalog

Advantage OnDemand^TM is a growing portfolio of orientation videos that address a wide array of topics. With one subscription, you gain access to high-quality orientation video content at a fraction of the cost to produce just one video. These latest releases are relevant to just about any audience.

Scroll through the entire index of orientation video titles then reach out to your Client Success Specialist to learn how to get started.

Training Tips for Greater Success

One of the most practical features of your Advantage Orientation^® platform is the checklist. Your audience can access it by selecting the check mark among the other Discovery Tools displayed on the home screen. Our designers also created a way to include it within the content of the Next Steps section, because after all, the good stuff is worth repeating, right?

Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your Checklist feature.

1. Review your Checklist Items Completed Report

It’s always a smart move to lean on the data generated within your platform before making changes. Is the checklist being used, and if so, is your audience completing it? Do your survey responses include feedback for the checklist? You can analyze your checklist data from both aggregate and individual (disaggregate) views. You may even want to sample a portion of individual listings to look for patterns, comparisons, or potential alignment with other data points in your platform. Most importantly, if your audience is completing the checklist, are they completing the task in real life?

2. Review your checklist items to make sure they are up to date.

It may sound obvious, but if your policies or procedures have changed in a way that impacts what you need students to do next, make sure your checklist reflects these changes.

3. Do you have too many or too few checklist items?

While there’s no set standard for the number of checklist items you should have, the goal is to apply the Goldilocks Rule to get it just right. You’ll be able to make a more informed decision about the number of steps you want your audience to take from your report analysis.

4. Insert links where appropriate.

If completing the checklist item depends on access to other online resources or information, you can insert the link with your checklist item to make taking action easier and more convenient.

5. Personalize a Checklist for Each Member Group

Yes, if you are using the Profile Member Group function within your platform, you absolutely can create a personalized checklist for each group. You can find easy-to-follow instructions on how to set a checklist for a specific member group within your administrative panel. When you log in as an administrator, select the icon at the bottom of the left-hand menu to access your Support Site. Look for “Taking it to the Next Level – Advanced Topics” and select “Checklist Items: Set to Specific Members Groups.”

We hope you found value in this edition of OPTIMIZE.

If you have questions and want to learn more, please use the form to connect with your Client Success Specialist.