RingCentral for Education

When it comes to education, one of the biggest issues currently in focus on a global scale is how do educators continue to instruct, when there are transportation and large public gathering bans in place? What’s more, many teaching institutions are moving toward implementing distance learning for students in remote or hard to reach areas like the far north, making video learning a requirement. Using the RingCentral Video platform can resolve these demands for any teacher that has internet access and a video camera. Students can attend with either video or audio and these virtual classes can be live streamed for multiple concurrent attendees. As well, students can live chat and share content like project files and pictures during the sessions all on a secure platform. Classes can also be recorded for students who cannot attend live sessions or for future reference and content review. 

Curriculum or learning management systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Canvas, or Moodle can even be integrated with RingCentral's APIs. Remote video classes can be scheduled on a daily, weekly, or monthly recurring basis. Video meetings can be launched from within the LMS application and past recorded meetings (classes) can be viewed at any time.

With the API you can send out SMS text messages to a list of students informing them of a time change to a class, an update to an assignment, or a reminder of when an assignment is due. You could even possibly integrate with financial systems to verify and then permit or deny class access to students depending on their standing in the registrar’s office.

RingCentral’s SMS tool is also a great tool to use when connecting with alumni. Keeping the overall student body informed of continuing education classes or new disciplines of study that may be coming to the institution, could help with both furthering the education levels of students while also bringing in more funds at the same time. High volume SMS can also be used in this case by being able to send out personalized messages with the same body of content to the entire student cohort. This same approach can be used when communicating with parents of younger students to let them know when the next bake sale is or to remind them to send entrance fees along with their child for an upcoming field trip.

Another major obstacle in today’s “new normal” of education is that of student recruitment and retention. With the RingCentral API you can interact with potential students via a chatbot to; help them determine what major they may be interested in and, to communicate to them what their choices might lead to in terms of employment at the end of the education cycle, and what  the potential costs of their chosen field of study are. If the interaction with the student goes beyond what the chatbot is programmed for,then a secure connection can be established with a live student recruitment advisor so that the conversation can continue and the connection (or interest) of the student will not be lost. When the final educational path is determined, the chatbot API can forward their contact information and chat history to the registrar’s office for follow up and informational purposes. This chatbot approach can also help to alleviate some of the burden on your student advisors during periods of higher demand like when course registration deadlines are approaching and majors have to be decided.

RingCentral has many integrations that can be used within the education sector.

If your organization uses a platform like Salesforce, then integrations can be done that will allow for better tracking of potential students, their interests of study, and class bookings (sales).

Educators using the Canvas Learning Management System can have RingCentral Video integrated within it to help with scheduling class times, recording video classes, and planning recurring classes. One-on-one student sessions can also be booked with unique access codes so that the session can be private and secure.

The API can also be used to remind the student when specific funding or grant applications are due, what appropriate bursaries can be accessed, and so on. For example, at the university or graduate school level, if a research grant is pending for your physics department, you can send out SMS text reminders to those involved with links to PDF documents for their use. At the high school level you can have the API schedule a video one-on-one session with a guidance counsellor or specific teacher to help students have some specific concerns addressed. The API can even insert an appointment into the appropriate calendar of all concerned parties with additional notes attached so that everyone can be well prepared for the upcoming conversation.

When you think of higher education and the research that is being done in science labs all over the world, you can see how overall team collaboration can be of great benefit. With RingCentral’s Team Messaging platform you can have all the researchers involved from around the world in one secure place. Research documentation, imagery, or recent findings can all be shared among team members. There is no risk of emails being lost or placed in spam by mistake. Instead, conversations can be carried out in real time. Video calls can be placed at will. Screens can be shared with all members. Chat conversations can be spontaneous between colleagues so that ideas and innovation can flourish. Additionally, all the information within the platform can be archived for backup and future auditing purposes.