Nowadays, most of the educational institutions are seeing the value of incorporating new technology into how they operate both at educational as well as administrative level. The fact is that students, parents as well as teachers are increasingly becoming tech-aware and much of their communications are taking place on online – mobile phones, tablets, and computers.
What this means for schools and universities in this day and age is that students are now looking forward to a fully digitized experience when they join; from class enrollment to class transfers, permissions from parents, school applications, and student loan applications, etc. How then can these administrative demands of the ever-growing education industry be met?
Modernizing paper-based processes via the help of electronic signatures is one of the practical solutions to achieving this. Electronic signatures can get rid of physical paper, minimize form errors, and streamline transactions, a noteworthy benefit both to students and staff. Therefore, any educational institution that deems itself as progressive shouldn’t be left behind in implementing e signatures in its operations.
Why adopt electronic signatures for the education industry
1. Streamline student application process
Student applications are the driving force of any learning institution; and, while most them (institutions) provide online application portals, the use of traditional pen-and-paper signatures for acceptance is amateurish. Supplementing application and acceptance procedures with wet-ink signatures is onerous for staff and students and disrupts the process flow. With electronic signature technology, vital student documents can be sent and signed in seconds. If documents or forms go unsigned, the electronic signature service will automatically remind students and parents; and more so, a school official can simply track documents in real-time to avoid any inconveniences. Basically, via an electronic signature solution is bringing speed and visibility and streamlining the processes to benefit all parties involved.
2. Reduce, save and organize
Handling paperwork for educational institutions can be a chaotic process, especially for the colleges and universities. Schools are constantly adapting to the needs of their staff and students, and nearly all changes come with the compliant paperwork requirement which needs to be managed well.
Given how adjustable and nimble learning institutions have to be, it is vital that they have a good administrative structure to ensure everything runs smoothly. To achieve this, colleges need a skilled administrative staff equipped with modern technology. Furthermore, with the price of tuition rising every day, there is growing public pressure on colleges and universities to control costs.
Many education institutions are deploying their systems online and adopting digital documentation. Notably, by implementing e signature solutions like Foxit eSign in colleges and universities, the management can enjoy considerable savings in the cost of paper, faxing, postage, storing, archiving, and safe discarding of documents.
3. Stay secure
With e-signatures, sensitive educational-related documents can be sent to guardians in a secure manner. Digitally signed documents with Foxit eSign allow the user to validate the signer’s identity and the date at which the signature was made. Additionally, sending a document for signature online, instead of posting or faxing it eliminates the likelihood of it being misplaced or being tampered with.
4. Integration with technologies in the school
Many learning institutions have different departments using different systems and technologies. Electronic signatures enable wide deployment of these applications throughout the institution by integrating with the broadest range of solutions including document management systems, sales automation, enterprise content management, and student records management.
5. Support full mobile enablement
Nowadays, it’s no longer enough just to be online; being fully mobile enabled is what matters. A very high percentage of students and parents have smartphones; a majority using them as their primary gadgets for communication. Popular electronic signature solutions like Foxit eSign offers native support for Android, Windows, and iOS so that students and parents can interact with the institutions’ management the way they wish, and wherever they are via their mobile phones.
6. Hasten turnaround time for grants while reducing cost
Schools that need their research proposals funded these days are being put under much scrutiny. Besides that, the recent federal budget cuts for schools mean there are no available grants to cater for undeserving proposals. Researchers must, therefore, produce higher-quality proposals that truly deserve a share of the ever-decreasing funding pie. Using electronic signature solutions in your institution lets you more easily send funding proposals to all pertinent parties. This boosts the chances of grant approvers and institutions to catch and resolve any instances of unmet conditions earlier in the process. So, to improve the delivery, accuracy, and timeliness of proposals, an esign solution is essential.
7. Brand image of the institution
Today’s students, parents and teachers/professors prefer almost everything done digitally. They value learning institutions that enable them to interrelate digitally and are unconvinced of those that don’t. Keeping your operations digital and using an innovative technology that is environmentally friendly, lets your institute be seen as progressive.
Use cases of e signatures in schools
With electronic signatures, you can automate a range of processes, including:
- Student application forms
- Tuition responsibility forms
- Financial aid and scholarship forms
- Transfer requests forms
- Student petitions forms
- Class enrollment forms
- Interdisciplinary application forms
- FAFSA forms
- Grant request forms
- Scholarship request forms
- Transcript release forms
- Change of major forms
- Title IV authorization forms
- Travel request forms
- Course assignments
- Permission forms
- Progress reports
- Teachers reports
- Offer letters
Making the case with Foxit eSign
To meet and surpass student expectations, as well as accommodate the increased administrative demands, Foxit eSign is designed to modernize and automate paper processes in schools. So, how does Foxit eSign help to keep schools competitive and operationally attractive?
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Foxit eSign provides the expediency of reviewing/signing educational documents from anywhere, despite their format.
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Enables learning institutions and students to electronically sign documents for quick turnaround and faster processing. This provides a convivial and positive onboarding experience for new students, parents as well as educators
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Foxit eSign complies with ESIGN and UETA Act, as well as other security and privacy requirements such as HIPAA. It also guarantees an audit trail of every signed form, improving the evidentiary value of paperwork, starting from consent forms to student loan application documents. This also safeguards students’ privacy by reducing the risk of lost forms and sensitive information being accessed by unintended parties.
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The Foxit eSign platform works perfectly with other applications so that you can import and export documents easily or integrate using electronic signature APIs
Conclusion
By embracing electronic signature solutions such as Foxit eSign, education institutions can expand student services, boost financial performance, improve operational visibility, and minimize their operational costs. The outcome from this is better management of student life-cycle and overall administrative operations of the institution.
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