The University of Gloucestershire optimizes student support services with AI

The University of Gloucestershire, a higher education institution with approximately 12,000 students across four campuses, needed to digitally transform its student support services to reach students more effectively in their time of need. Hoping to boost their service staff capabilities, the University of Gloucestershire collaborated with LearnWise AI to introduce our digital AI assistant.

Before implementation, the university's physical helpdesks handled around 60,000 inquiries per year, with many more being directed to second-line support teams. The existing web-based self-help resources, though valuable, presented challenges in terms of accessibility, usage, and maintenance.

LearnWise was introduced to tackle these challenges head-on, aiming to provide a single point of access for support.

The Solution

• Institution-specific content for better AI LearnWise was seamlessly integrated into student portals MyDay and SharePoint. The AI assistant was trained on out-of-the-box support content and institution-specific material unique to the University of Gloucestershire. By collaborating closely with the university, the LearnWise team was able to identify and collect essential support content such as PDFs, offline materials, and pages from the institution's website.

• Bridging Knowledge Gaps A bonus of training the AI on institution-specific content was that the process also uncovered knowledge gaps in support content. Addressing these knowledge gaps helps students get the help they need while reducing escalations to support staff, and keeping the online content library up to date.

With LearnWise, Nic Earle, Strategic Academic Project Manager, was able to see what resources needed to be added and we worked together to add to, modify, and resolve any gaps. This proactive approach not only tailored the AI's capabilities to better serve the university community but also set a standard for ongoing improvement in educational support services.

• Smart triage and intelligent routing Effective support escalation routing is crucial for both students and help desks, as it ensures timely and accurate resolution of issues, enhancing overall satisfaction and efficiency. While LearnWise aids in the resolution of the majority of support questions, there will always be support requests that require the attention of help desks. 

The University of Gloucestershire set up specific help desks to manage escalation routes and optimize ticket resolution. LearnWise’s integration with the most popular ticketing systems such as TopDesk, FAQtory, and ServiceNow makes the triage and routing process seamless within the platform.

The Results in Numbers

• Reduced Support Load: Once implemented, LearnWise reached an AI Resolution Rate of 98.1%, significantly reducing the burden on human support staff. To date, over 6,500 unique users have interacted with LearnWise, while providing over 14,900 answers. 
• 24/7 Availability: Students and faculty now have round-the-clock access to support, enhancing the overall user experience. Out of 9,756 conversations, only 184 were escalated to human support staff.
• Growing adoption: The AI assistant has supported over 6,500 unique users, showing early and growing support.

Looking Ahead

The University of Gloucestershire plans to expand LearnWise's capabilities by integrating more knowledge sources, such as the timetabling system, assessment data, and the Careers Hub. These integrations will leverage student-specific course information and setup to allow even more accurate answers for specific situations and contexts.

Through this collaboration, the University of Gloucestershire has demonstrated a forward-thinking approach to leveraging technology for the betterment of its student support services, showcasing a successful application of LearnWise’s capabilities in a real-world educational setting.