Communication can be a struggle between parents and students when it deals with academics. Sometimes parents have difficulty finding their students grades while other times students get an influx of emails to pay their bill despite if their parents pay the bill.
Coordinator for the Office of Family and Parent Programs Tess Gibson wants parents to be involved in their student’s academic life.
“Students with a parent or family member invested in their academic progress leads to higher GPA’s and retention rates,” she said.
Gibson saw a great need for an online program that compiles all of a student’s information into one location. She learned of the company CampusESP at the Association of Higher Education Parent and Family Program Professionals in November 2015.
“They were able to determine the problem, how decentralized everything on college campuses can be for parents and family members, and created a product that found a solution,” Gibson said.
Gibson surveyed Auburn parents to see if decentralization was a problem for parents.
“I was able to do a family engagement survey through the company during December 2015 with the Auburn University Parents’ Association which compared Auburn among a national average, and in most categories,” Gibson said. “We scored higher than the natural average in many categories that determined family engagement. It was clear in reviewing those results that this was a needed product on our campus.”
Gibson partnered with CampusESP to create an application for Auburn students and parents that would be entitled Family Portal. Family Portal launched on Monday, Oct. 9 and proved to be successful in Auburn parent test groups.
“The test groups responded well. Parents and family members were thrilled that everything they need is now in one centralized location,” Gibson said.
Gibson wants parents to know that anyone who is not a current member of the Auburn University Parents’ Association, they can go online and sign up for free.
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