Providing the campus bookstore and staff additional support with industry-leading technology

We are very excited to announce our newest   partnership with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS). Southern is one of the largest seminaries in the world, and it is committed to offering students a deeper, richer, and stronger educational experience. With so many invaluable responsibilities in the daily operation of the campus bookstore, SBTS decided to have a trusted technology partner to help alleviate the tedious management of a course materials program that would free the staff to focus on the parts - and people - that matter. Enhancing the bookstore with Akademos technology will optimize the dedicated on-campus store in an online setting.

Before joining Akademos just a few weeks ago, I worked for many years as a college English instructor at the University of Connecticut. As an “elder millennial” who grew up at the dawn of the Internet age, I was always interested in how the current generation of students relates to technology. I noticed two things: 1] college students are living more and more of their lives online and 2] many students, inundated with technology, crave the embodied experience of the physical campus environment.

Visit any college dorm room in America and it becomes obvious: students don’t operate on a typical 9-5 schedule.

Instead, they’re active at all hours, and this impacts everything from when they eat to when they study and even how they shop for course materials for their classes. While most people shop online at 8pm on Monday, students may be in prime textbook buying mode at 5am on a Sunday, accommodating their social, work, and class schedule.

To help students easily find and choose the right course materials at any time, Akademos has implemented a number of customer support programs to make getting the right course materials easier and quicker than ever before.

There’s no better team member than Akademos’ Senior Customer Experience Manager, Ben Plunkett, who has been delivering stellar customer experiences for students since 2014, to explain the improvements he and his team have implemented, what it means for students, and how it helps universities support their students.

The 2017 College CFO Survey report highlights an accelerated rise in students leaving 
the college bookstore and business administrator concern over the impact of textbook prices on student performance and persistence.

The John Jay College of Criminal Justice hosted the 13th Annual CUNY IT Conference last week, and we were thrilled to sit in on their panel, Beyond the Physical Bookstore: Realizing the John Jay College Online Bookstore.