San Antonio, Texas – November 12, 2020 – The Feik School of Pharmacy, within the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, was founded in 2004 with the mission of educating and graduating a new generation of highly-trained, culturally-competent, caring pharmacists and patient advocates to serve communities across Texas and beyond. The Feik School of Pharmacy is a learner-centered community dedicated to advancing healthcare quality in diverse populations through innovative methods.
To best provide for the continuity and safety of students and staff, the University of the Incarnate Word Feik School of Pharmacy (UIWFSOP) recently partnered with SEAtS Software to deliver a powerful student engagement software that tracks student attendance as well as provides COVID-19 Early Alert contact tracing.
Ireland-based SEAtS Software is a leading global vendor of student success solutions, helping educational facilities of all types engage and retain more students. SEAtS Software works with Enterprise Ireland, Ireland’s trade and innovation agency, who partners with Irish enterprise companies to help them start, grow, and win export sales in global markets.
“Enterprise Ireland is thrilled to support SEAtS as they deliver this innovative platform for students, academics, and staff in order to encourage better student engagement and retention. Better, safer attendance and participation is very likely to lead to improved overall academic achievement and outcomes,” said Jessica Baker, Vice President of Digital Technologies, Enterprise Ireland.
The University of the Incarnate Word wanted to enable students to capture attendance online and on-campus, saving time for both students and staff. With online attendance tools, the students can check-in through live links for all online Zoom lectures. For in-class attendance, students can check-in using the SEAtS Attend Mobile App using Bluetooth iBeacons located in each teaching space.
Research has shown that attendance increases success in an academic program, and it is essential to help pharmacy students learn professionalism. UIWFSOP wanted a faculty- and student-friendly method to take attendance and promote the importance of time management.
The university had been searching for a faculty- and student-friendly method of taking attendance. They first discovered SEAtS in January 2020, then the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With the SEAtS introduction of thermal devices to monitor student temperature and a change in university policy requiring mandatory attendance tracking, the platform provided the necessary solutions.
"This meant that we could automatically check students' temperatures as they arrived on campus and utilize contact tracing methods using the attendance data," said Maize. "We saw SEAtS as an option to track attendance and temperature with a strong automated system in their workflows."
Regarding pandemic safeguards, with SEAtS Contact Tracing tools, UIWFSOP will track and trace community transmission and move swiftly to alert students and staff of any potential risk. The platform also provides an Early Alert, where the workflow emails alert staff to "at-risk" students, so the staff can prioritize critical early-intervention steps to maintain the highest standards. With available SEAtS thermal scanners, the university can capture the students' temperatures as they present themselves to campus for an additional level of screening.
"The SEAtS automated workflow will reduce the need for staff to monitor and communicate with students, faculty, and student services," said David Maize, Dean of the University of the Incarnate, Word Feik School of Pharmacy. "It will greatly save us time so that the reason for the student’s attendance problem can be solved instead of the time-consuming task of determining who is actually absent."
Additionally, the platform has helped the university reduce paperwork by moving away from manual attendance systems, saving the staff valuable time and improving accuracy. The platform's cloud- and mobile-ready tools have increased student engagement and attendance, promoting student success and operational excellence.
"SEAtS is delighted to add Incarnate Word to our student success family, and we are excited to partner together in driving student engagement, retention, and better outcomes," said Noel Dooley, CEO, SEAtS Software. "Incarnate Word is committed to continuous improvement. SEAtS Students Attendance App and Dashboards puts the shared information that Incarnate Word Leadership, Staff, and Students need to succeed at their fingertips every day."
SEAtS Software was established with the vision of building the world's most effective student success software in higher education, making it possible for each student on campus to achieve their full potential. Today, SEAtS Software delivers solutions to world-renowned institutions in the UK, the US, and New Zealand.
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About SEAtS Software
SEATS is a shared platform designed to align and drive student and institutional success programs.
The SEAtS cloud solution tracks real-time class and online attendance and analyses student engagement and performance. Not only that, SEAtS Solution prompts critical interventions and roadmaps advisor follow-ups with failing or under-performing students. For more information, please visit: https://www.seatssoftware.com/.
About Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish State agency that works with Irish enterprises to help them start, grow, innovate, and win export sales in global markets. Enterprise Ireland partners with entrepreneurs, Irish businesses, and the research and investment communities to develop Ireland's international trade, innovation, leadership, and competitiveness. For more information on Enterprise Ireland, please visit https://enterprise-ireland.com/en/.