Success Story
Industry
Higher Ed
UFL Delivers Fast Aid Assistance During Student Crises
May 4 2020
Launch date for Aid-a-Gator
12,000
Form submissions
$10+ million
Funds dispersed
Overview
During a time when many organizations around the world had to quickly design plans and contingencies, higher education institutions were also forced to rapidly adapt. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff at the University of Florida in Gainesville developed several key initiatives to provide aid to students and help staff and faculty through new online processes. The university used FormAssembly to generate secure online forms quickly for maximum reach and impact. With over 4 million Salesforce records populating EDA objects in the org, a personalized user experience was achieved by leveraging the pre-fill connector.
New processes to address wide-spread systemic need
Challenge
The COVID-19 crisis presented many significant challenges. Not only was there a shift in the way that students were able to attend and finish on-campus courses, but there was also an immediate need for tangible assistance.
In terms of course completion, students and faculty were faced with a dramatic change in procedures. Although communication was still critical, methods of instruction and assignment submission were forced to adjust with little time to prepare.
Additionally, the crisis presented unique hardships for students and staff that had lost reliable income, housing, and other resources. The university needed to find a way to understand these hardships and distribute existing funds to support those in need.
With little time to plan and prepare, having a data collection platform that offered powerful flexibility and security was crucial.
Fast, connected web forms
Solution
In navigating both of these challenges, university staff were able to create new data solutions that offered security, speed, and efficiency. With little time to plan and prepare, having a data collection platform that offered powerful flexibility and security was crucial. Enterprise Salesforce Team members were able to implement and release two major form solutions at the beginning of May 2020 that garnered thousands of responses in a short period.
The university’s Aid-a-Gator program is a longstanding initiative to deliver resources to students and staff in need. These needs often appear in times of emergency or crisis, and funds have been used in the past after natural disasters, like hurricanes. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic rapidly increased the number of students and community members who needed to request different types of financial support.
What’s next?
The University of Florida maintains a variety of FormAssembly use cases year-round, including event registration forms, student admission forms, faculty feedback surveys, and more. The university plans to use FormAssembly in its return-to-work and COVID testing projects.
