2024 Back-to-School with Xello’s Founders: Recap

Xello Founders Matt McQuillen and Jeff Harris are dedicated to making Xello a powerful and impactful tool for students and educators alike. They recently sat down for our annual back-to-school webinar with clients to announce Xello’s newest releases, and talk about where we’re headed next. They answered live questions, and shared some data-driven advice that will help everyone focus their efforts to kickstart another spectacular year.

This was a lively call with some great questions and a view to some exciting new developments at Xello.

How Can You Demonstrate CCR Programming ROI?
Districts are always conscientious about budgets, which is why it’s crucial to arm administrators with the program reporting needed to develop insights and spot areas for improvement, and ultimately, instill the confidence you’re investing in the right technology.

Remember, one of the best ways to see Xello program efficacy is for students to actually use it! Luckily, data shows that there were roughly 18 million student logins last year, and educators and counselors spent over 180K minutes on the platform supporting student success.

Matt suggests three techniques to ensure you’re seeing return-on-investment (ROI) and the data behind your students’ success:

1. Get the Xello training you need by any of our many complimentary options.
2. Meet regularly with your Xello Success Manager to set program goals and assess program impact. 
3. Run Xello reports to help make data-driven decisions.
4. Continue visiting the Xello Support Center and Xello Blog for resources and best practices that’ll help you drive transformational change.

How Can Xello Help Educators Manage Burnout?

Educator burnout has been in the news for  years and doesn’t seem to be waning anytime soon. That’s why, as Jeff explains, the issue and data “indicate to us that we need to do our very best to make things easier for educators with everything we do.”

Three actions Xello has taken to reduce burnout are:

• Creating educator lesson plans: There’s no need to create lesson plans from scratch! Educators can save time and sleep well at night knowing Xello has written engaging and standards-compliant plans for you. 
• Meeting the needs of all students: It’s important that your programming is accessible and engaging, which is why Xello is compatible with assistive technologies and invests in video content to connect with students on their level.
• Listening to client feedback: Xello wants to make educators’ lives easier. In the past three years, Xello has released 150+ new features and enhancements based on user feedback and requests – 100+ of those in 2024 alone. 

How is Xello Promoting Student Engagement?

No matter how hard a teacher tries, there is always going to be students who are disengaged with the learning material. However, Matt is proud to report that Xello’s launch of the student dashboard feed helps address that issue – and shared the data to prove it. 

You’re probably familiar with the interactive student dashboard, which allows students to scroll and interact with a personalized and curated feed. Xello predicted that the social-media-like experience would increase engagement, and after the full-year pilot in Kansas, reports showed that: 

• On average, all students that scrolled through the dashboard log into the platform 30% more.
• Students that clicked on the dashboard feed logged in twice as much as everyone else.
• Students that logged in once the year before increased their Xello usage by seven times after clicking on the feed. 

How Does Xello Support College Planning?

Xello is a critical partner for students, families, and educators in the college planning process. In fact, Matt notes that Xello has launched “an absolute treasure trove of new feature releases” to support the planning journey. 

He highlights how students and counselors can take action via Xello by:

• Uploading test scores like GPA and SAT/ACT into Xello.  This gives students a centralized place to manage test results and  information.  And educators get a comprehensive view of student test scores for reporting and analysis. 
• Using Scattergrams, which visually displays students’ chances of admissions on each college profile page to help them make more informed decisions and see what’s needed to help them achieve their goals. 
• Sending documents via Parchment integration for seamless transmission and real-time tracking. This new partnership will expand the reach of our college document sending service of transcripts and letters of recommendation threefold! Students maintain full control over their college applications and counselors can more effectively guide students through their college journeys.
• Viewing and applying for scholarships in the Xello scholarship database, that now includes national, state, and school-added scholarships; and an intelligent-matching tool that suggests scholarships best suited to the student profile, increasing their chances of finding the right opportunities. 
• Sending surveys, such as career pathway surveys and senior exit surveys, to make more informed, data-driven decisions in your programming.

Want to get caught up on college planning tools? Check out our newly updated “Paying for College Blog” where we dive deeper into our most recent releases and Xello Support where you can find resources to help you implement these tools in your schools.

What’s On the Horizon?

As mentioned, Xello is always improving its offerings to ensure smooth implementation and supported students. 

Matt & Jeff shared a little sneak peek of what we’re working on now: 

• Comprehensive support for educators and students: Xello Academy recently launched more free courses for teachers and new elementary videos for grades 3-5
• AI Translations coming this Fall: AI translations will give students access to Xello in more than 130 languages. 
• New Reports: From new state-specific reports to enhanced overall program requirements tracking, we’re working with clients to build on our existing reporting tools to help them demonstrate success and use data to tell their program story. 
• Work-based learning enhancements: Designed to give students more control, reduce the amount of time you spend on administrative tasks, and create a stronger, more collaborative WBL experience for everyone involved.

Q&A Recap

Below are a few questions asked in the Q&A section of the webinar from a range of educators–from those just getting started to seasoned Xello users.

I want to use lessons for grades 9-12 to implement in a half-hour format. What Xello resources will get students going with Xello?

Jeff: There are Lessons that can be completed in 20-30 minutes, depending on the goal or skill you want to focus on. And some of those don’t have prerequisite activities. Please keep in mind that the lessons are built to be self-guided, so that’s absolutely possible!

Note that some Lessons are longer or have prerequisites, so one suggestion is to spend the 30 minutes in class using Xello’s discussion prompts to prepare and help them get the most out of the Lesson, then assign the Lesson as homework or classwork the next day. We also have K-12 teaching resources on Xello Support, like Pacing Guides, that will help you do all this.

How can I incorporate the students’ post-secondary plans in Xello?

Jeff: Here are three ways to do so:

1. We suggest starting within the planning tools in Xello. This includes Goals, Plans, career and school exploration, and the college planning tools. 
2. If you have a template or tool you prefer, create it as an Assignment in Xello and track student progress to ensure all students are considering their post-secondary plans. 
3. Leverage Xello’s Portfolio tool. In this case, you could provide a sample of what a good plan would look like and have them build their own within the Portfolio tool.

What do you think about changes in future career options as a result of technological change? How is this reflected in Xello?

Matt: It’s hard to predict the impact of technology on jobs. We don’t want to scare kids with AI; they’re already worried about what it’s going to mean for their future. 

Instead, we’ve focused on looking at new careers we should add to Xello, based on new technology (ex: Ethical Hacker, Social media Manager, Sustainability Specialist). We also review demand data and make sure demand for different careers is featured (and updated) throughout Xello. 

What Are Clients Looking Forward to Most?

In the end, it’s the Xello program manager/administrator that helps propel the product roadmap. From our Xello Research Panel participants to our Customer Advisory Board members and our close relationships with district leaders, we’re co-creating improvements that address the most important educator challenges. 

And that approach is the most rewarding when we see the live feedback during the annual AMA about what clients are most excited about. And this year didn’t disappoint!

Next Steps for You

Ensure you’re on track for success this 2024/25 by implementing the new Xello functionalities and features. Here’s how:

• Contact your dedicated Success Manager: Your Success Manager is your partner for understanding your school’s data, creating a professional development plan with a training specialist, and providing guidance.
• Take a Xello Academy course: These self-paced and interactive courses contain helpful information you need to launch and improve your CCR practices.
• Visit Xello Support: A go-to resource to find lesson plans, training videos, and more.
• Check out Xello resources: Our blog shares product news, best practices, guides, and client success stories.