Many Views of Athabasca University

Abstract

Due to the increasingly competitive atmosphere in higher education, providing excellent service to students is more important than ever. Institutions must provide good services that initially attract students to their institutions, but they also must continue to offer students the services and support that make them feel valued and help them achieve their educational goals.

Conference sessions are designed to showcase the innovative customer service strategies that institutions of higher education are implementing (e.g. alternative delivery systems and 24/7 customer service hours) while staying committed to building relationships with students.

I will be attending the conference as a delegate as well as running a breakout session to promote our use of www.askau.ca as a tool for providing high touch - high tech services to our student body.

Benefits to the University are exposure at an International level in a city of higher education, Cambridge MA, exposure to our www.askau.ca tool which has been award best practice status from http://www.centss.org/

Benefits to the information centre are from the topics that will be covered Corporate Customer Service Models and how they relate to Higher Education Integrating Technology Developing and Maintaining a Student-friendly website How is your staff doing? Attracting and Retaining Online Students

Benefits to me are networking opportunities with my peers for tools and techniques research, further development of my public speaking skills, gaining knowledge towards developing existing staff as well as training tools for new staff