Colleges and universities try mightily to centralize student resources and communications into one place — from web-based portals to mobile apps. But ask any student and they’ll say getting things done at their school is still a jumbled, confusing process.

Artificial intelligence has ushered in a new age that calls on us to reimagine how we support and empower students on their educational journey.

Our answer is StudentHub, an AI-first student success application, and the newest addition to our Element451 CRM platform.

Rather than a portal that simply provides an entry point to academic and administrative departments, StudentHub lets students actually DO things from a unified interface. And they don’t have to do it alone. AI assistants are an integral part of StudentHub.

Let’s take a look at more StudentHub features and compare them to popular portal and chatbot options on the market.

We’ll pay particular attention to how each stacks up in the key areas that make for wise technology investments.

What’s a wise investment? One that is cost effective, of course. But, even more, one that students will actually use to stay on track and enrolled.

AI-Powered Functionality

The breadth of AI features varies across our list. When choosing a student success app, we strongly encourage asking the company about its AI plans. Will AI be added on here and there or is it a critical part of the product’s roadmap?

• Element451 StudentHub: StudentHub is AI-first, meaning that every aspect of it leverages AI. For instance, thanks to natural language processing, students can talk with it like a human instead of a traditional software query box. StudentHub’s generative AI search also gives students a cutting-edge search experience across campus. Rather than getting a list of confusing links, students get conversational answers to their questions, along with hyper relevant sources from the school’s knowledge base.
• EAB Navigate: While the full Navigate360 platform (more on that below) offers AI tools for content creation, the AI tools for students is limited.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: You might be surprised to know that Jenzabar added AI technology in 2020 to its chatbot. Because the app is focused more on chat, and less on a full suite of student success support, its AI capabilities aren’t as rich as other options.
• Pathify Portal: Pathify enhanced its platform with conversational AI features this fall.

Setup and Launch

Time-to-value is a critical consideration when making any institutional purchase. All of our choices here are part of bigger platforms. For example, StudentHub is part of the Element451 CRM. EAB Navigate is part of EAB’s Navigate360. So you’ll need to consider the initial time to get ramped up on the bigger platform as well as launching the student success application.

• Element451 StudentHub: Can be set up and launched in as little as a few hours, thanks to the no-code, rapid setup we offer for the Element451 CRM itself, and our suite of tightly integrated products.
• EAB Navigate: Typically requires several months for full implementation and integration with existing systems.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: Setup time varies but generally takes several weeks to months, depending on customization needs.
• Pathify Portal: Implementation time can range from a few weeks to a couple of months.

Technical Know-How Required for Staff

Thankfully all of the student success apps in this roundup are generally easy for students to use. It’s the staff experience that you’ll need to consider to ensure that the information students receive is accurate. Staff members will be the ones maintaining content.

• Element451 StudentHub: Minimal tech skills required. New and refreshed content is automatically pushed up to the StudentHub student success app. Configurations are also simple to implement through StudentHub’s authoring interface.
• EAB Navigate: Moderate technical knowledge required for implementation and management.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: Moderate technical knowledge required, especially if integrated with Jenzabar's SIS.
• Pathify Portal: Minimal technical knowledge required for basic management. Offers tools for admins to connect systems without coding.

Chat Features and Availability

Students are using ChatGPT and other advanced AI chat tools in their daily lives. Their expectations for useful chat experiences will only grow stronger.

• Element451 StudentHub: StudentHub offers an infinite team of always-on AI assistants that can actually complete tasks, like registering a student for an event. Regular chatbots can’t do that. Schools can configure the type of activities their AI assistants can do, and provide round-the-clock support for a variety of areas, e.g. financial aid, career, academics. Students can type or talk with AI assistants. Voice activated chat opens up a world of convenience for busy, on-the-go students.
• EAB Navigate: Includes a traditional chatbot that can answer straightforward questions, but lacks advanced conversational capabilities and can’t complete tasks.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: Features an AI chatbot available 24/7, but with a more limited scope of responses.
• Pathify Portal: As mentioned, Pathify now offers conversational AI features for chat, but lacks the sophisticated AI abilities of options like StudentHub.

Early Interventions

Course correcting before it’s too late is a proven strategy for encouraging students to do well in their classes and persist in their academic program. Here’s how the apps handle early interventions:

• Element451 StudentHub: The Element451 CRM uses AI insights to identify at-risk students early, prompting timely outreach via StudentHub push notifications, AI assistants, connecting students with the right in-person resource, and more.
• EAB Navigate: Allows faculty and staff to flag students who may be struggling academically or personally and features a Coordinated Care Network that links advisors, faculty, and support staff to provide comprehensive support to at-risk students.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: While it doesn’t offer early interventions in the way the other apps do, it does automatically flag concerning questions students might ask so they can be assigned to a human to reach out and support students.
• Pathify Portal: Similar to Jenzabar, early interventions on Pathify are limited.

Task and Appointment Management

For time-stretched students and those who are still developing time management skills, the road to success is paved with to-do lists.

• Element451 StudentHub: Centralizes tasks and appointments with AI-powered reminders and scheduling assistance.
• EAB Navigate: Strong focus on appointment scheduling and management for advising and student services.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: Chat dominates functionality in this app. Task and appointment management isn’t included.
• Pathify Portal: Includes task management tools and integrates with existing appointment systems.

Notifications

Notifications go hand-in-hand with task and appointment management. Students (like all of us) are used to helpful nudges to make sure things are done on time.

• Element451 StudentHub: Delivers both in-app and mobile push notifications, with AI-driven personalization for optimal engagement.
• EAB Navigate: Provides in-app alerts and push notifications for important updates and reminders.
• Jenzabar Mobile Chat: Again, chat is the star here, so notifications aren’t the focus.
• Pathify Portal: Features customizable in-app and push notifications for various campus updates and personal reminders.

Analytics

Every app on the list includes analytics to track and improve how students use the app. We recommend asking to see dashboards and other reports to make sure that the analytics match what your institution needs to continually optimize your student support efforts.

In Conclusion

You can expect increased demand from students for AI-powered tools that simplify their lives. At the end of the day, students want to be able to focus their attention on academics, rather than institutional bureaucracy.

The application that best lets them do that is the one you’ll want for your school.