How to Create a DIY Student CRM with No-Code Tools

When you’re running an online learning program, it can be difficult to keep a pulse on student engagement. 

You might have engagement data scattered across a variety of different platforms - an LMS, community platform, Zoom, Slack, Google Calendar, survey data - the list goes on. 

With all that data in so many different places, pulling it all together to analyze and take meaningful action can be extremely time consuming and is often out of reach for busy course runners.

Nevertheless, collecting and taking action on this data is essential for live online learning programs and can mean the difference between high completion rates or high churn rates.

After all - why collect that data in the first place if you can’t even use it to intervene and prevent churn?   

Fortunately, no-code tools can offer effective solutions. Below we’ll share how you can build your own student engagement tracker using Airtable. One quick caveat - this requires an intermediate to advanced knowledge of no-code tools (Airtable, Zapier, etc.). 

Not tech savvy? The Virtually analytics suite might better suit you. Sign up for the waitlist here. 

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Steps for creating your own Student Engagement Tracker 

1. Create an Airtable base

2. Create a separate table for each tool you’re using (i.e. Slack Engagement Data, Circle Engagement Data, Attendance, Survey Responses, etc.). 

3. Use Zapier to port raw data into each respective table

Examples:

1. Community data (Circle → Airtable)
2. Assessment data (LMS → Airtable)
3. Applications (Google Forms / Typeform → Airtable)
4. RSVP data (Google calendar → Airtable)
5. Attendance data (Virtually → Airtable)
6. Survey data (Virtually / Typeform → Airtable)

Learn how Virtually automates attendance and survey data collection here. 

4. Create different views to parse through raw data and extract important insights

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Still not quite sure where to start? Duplicate our starter template here.

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Collecting the data in your Student CRM is a great first step, but it’s what you do with that data that really matters when it comes to student success and retention. 

A Student Relationship Manager (SRM) can help you take that next step. SRMs can automate data collection, flagging students using custom triggers, and student outreach to offer support.

Virtually’s SRM does all this and more. Click here to sign up for our waitlist. 

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Read Next: The 3 Indicators of Student Retention & Success

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