By Shannon Flynn

Technology in education is utilized throughout the world to better prepare students for the workforce and world they will enter. However, some higher education institutions still struggle with the meaning of hyperautomation and how to utilize this newer technology to improve their institutions.

Hyperautomation technology relies on advanced computer software to identify and organize important data to streamline tasks throughout college and university departments. Once thought of as a future possibility is now making headway in organizations throughout the globe.

The following is hyperautomation technology many higher education institutions now use to keep up with business.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) go hand in hand — both help teachers make quick and effective decisions. They can consider factors and variables a human might not and help educators accomplish their goals much faster.

One group that benefits from this technology is admissions. It can track how interested a student is in a school by monitoring how many times an applicant clicks on school emails and how quickly they respond to an invitation. The technology combines those factors with information from applications to make the best acceptance decisions.

AI also makes registering for classes easier, providing recommended courses based on the student’s major. This system can help students secure the right classes before the course fills up.

For some colleges, these tools are essential for identifying which students might end up dropping out. Factoring in grades and attendance, advisors can take early action to assist the student with improving their experience.

Business Process Management

Higher education has plenty of business outside of student well-being. Through recruiting donors, handling athletic matters and maintaining staff development, a lot of paper goes into running a school.

With business process management (BPM), universities can spend less time on everyday tasks and more on creating the best education institution possible. It uses automation to learn, process and organize information via digital workers. It lets documents stay completely digital and tracks them throughout the workflow.

Robotic Process Automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) is an expert technology that can easily comb through and organize data. This is especially useful as colleges and universities become more competitive, making it difficult for people to sort through each application and make the best acceptance decisions.

High schools advise students to put more on their applications than ever before. Each applicant wants to be someone who stands out. However, even a stellar application could get overlooked by an overwhelmed in-person staff.

RPA solves this problem by quickly pulling data such as test scores, grade point averages and extracurricular activities to narrow down the list to those that best fit the school’s requirements.

The data collection doesn’t just work for applications. They can also organize financial aid requests, get students into classes and figure out whether they are eligible to graduate.

Low and No-Code Platforms

Whether used for marketing or communication, email is an essential tool for schools. However, creating stellar marketing campaigns and organizing official documents can be difficult to digitally achieve without years of coding experience.

New low and no-code platforms are changing the games for marketing and admissions teams. They allow a user to drag and drop graphics, videos and documents exactly where they desire. It also allows them to create clear and organized text blocks to share more details. Integrated into many coding languages, it’s easier than ever to create promotions, collect enrollment information, reserve study rooms and so much more.

The automation takes care of complicated coding processes so almost anyone with access can represent the school well through their content.

Intelligent Document Processing

Intelligent document processing (IDP) software analyzes and organizes unstructured content. This is data that could display in many forms throughout documents and emails. Personal information hidden in the body of paragraphs and different date formats are quickly isolated and noted by the IDP system.

It can read information from PDFs, emails, images, as well as scanned and digital documents. It’s great to organize spending information from different departments and eligibility considerations from students.

Using IDP, staff can easily access the most pertinent information throughout university communications.

Process Mapping

Previous hyperautomation tools rely on tracking data from point A to point B. Universities networks carry sensitive information and documents that get stuck in a backfile of important tasks. Through process mapping, administrators can track digital items throughout the school, seeing who has what documents or is handling what information.

Process mapping tools aren’t for spying but for keeping an eye on important information and using current data paths to form more efficient ones. It can be used by anyone with access to ensure that information is handled both quickly and carefully.

Utilizing Hyperautomation in Higher Learning

With so much necessary business to attend to, it’s important for colleges and universities to utilize the tools available to them. With hyperautomation, schools stay more organized and can provide a better experience for students and staff.