Student ID Verification Services Are Becoming Indispensable
Online education has experienced a massive boost due to the popularity of remote learning, digital courses, and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, online student identity verification has come to the fore as a simple & secure way to verify student identities & onboard both students & staff cost-effectively.
The manual & paper-based methods of student verification that are quickly being replaced are neither scalable nor convenient for educational institutions. They often result in lost student documents, long search times, errors in verification resulting in incorrect student documentation, low productivity for administrators, and massive expenses incurred due to inefficient storage.
Online student ID verification has become a necessity for educational institutions due to –
- Instant & secure student verification
- Error-free ID authentication
- Remote & cost-effective student onboarding
- Safe storage of student IDs & data
- Easy student ID & profile management
Student identity verification solutions enable educational institutions to reduce verification & storage costs by 60-85%, secure sensitive student data, and onboard large numbers of students remotely and instantly.
Leveraging the best student identity verification provider ensures that student IDs are verified using the latest AI-powered techniques & that student details are authenticated to a high degree of accuracy.
Additionally, students can interact with administrators online to ensure that all the required documents have been submitted and the requisite procedures followed.
Before examining what these digital solutions can do, let’s first go over the many problems educational institutions face when verifying students manually.
Manual Student Verification – Problem Areas
Educational institutions that still rely on manual & paper-based methods of student verification take 5-10 days to verify a single student’s ID documents, with administrators sometimes spending half their time simply searching for the right document.
Manual ID verification is, additionally, not scalable. As institutions increase the size of their student bodies, paper-based document verification simply can’t keep up with the sheer number of IDs to be verified.
Securing the sensitive data obtained by administrators through student IDs is also an important concern. Paper-based ID verification and storage leave student data vulnerable to data loss and even theft. Educational institutions topped the list for organizations with the most recorded ransomware attacks in 2021, with 44% of institutions experiencing ransomware attacks, according to research by Sophos.
Manual student ID verification is weighed down by several issues.
Since student onboarding & verification are such integral processes, any inefficiencies or errors in these processes could potentially have dire consequences for students including – lost ID documents, incorrect student information being processed, lost scholarships & attendance, and inaccurate student profiles.
How can educational institutions overcome these problems & provide students with a hassle-free and digital onboarding experience?
This is where the Edtech sector comes in.
Digital Student Verification Providers – Where Edtech Comes In
While Edtech companies offer educational institutions several tools to facilitate and improve the learning experience, student verification, including digital student onboarding, remains a largely undigitized area with a lot to be desired.
Undoubtedly, the learning & education tools offered by Edtech businesses have played a massive role in helping students better navigate their lectures & courses. However, the task of improving students’ experience will still be incomplete if students aren’t also offered a convenient means of verification.
Student verification occurs far more frequently in the educational sphere than one would expect – students aren’t just verified before joining an institution, but also before examinations, for scholarships or grants, or even biometrically before entering lecture halls or classrooms.
An easy & robust means of verification will also go a long way in helping students continue their education, as immutable and securely stored student records are necessary if they enter academia after some time away.
Educational institutions, therefore, require a convenient and cost-effective method for verifying students digitally, for several situations and reasons –
Without the appropriate student verification process in place, any technologically advanced solution for improving education will be rendered ineffectual and obsolete. Student verification is often the first step before students are permitted to join courses and take exams, making it the step that most requires digitization.
Edtech businesses now need to bolster their offerings with online student verification services to provide educational institutions with a more complete package that will help students improve their knowledge acquisition skills and enable digital verification.
By providing institutions with a secure & cost-effective means to digitally verify students, Edtech companies can solve a crucial problem for the education sector and help to drastically improve process efficiency & reduce costs for schools and universities.
So how exactly will digital student verification look in action?
Online Student ID Verification – How It Works
Online student identity verification leverages several technologies to digitize every step in the verification process.
Here’s what the digital journey for students will be like with an online student identity verification software.
The online student identity verification procedure can be leveraged for several processes involving student verification.
Student identity verification software can also be leveraged to quickly & securely onboard staff, faculty & ensure that all information is stored in a centralized manner.
However, this is just one of the many advantages of an online identity verification solution.
Why Schools & Universities Need Online Student ID Verification
Educational institutions stand to reap several benefits by integrating with online student identity verification solutions –
- Instant & remote verification
Online verification enables students to be verified instantly, resulting in a 99% reduction in turnaround time. With online education becoming increasingly popular, remote ID verification will enable students to be verified from anywhere, using just a phone with an internet connection.
- Near-zero error rates
AI & OCR ensure that verification error rates are kept to a minimum. ID verification solutions extract the relevant details from uploaded student IDs or ID images and verify these details using standard databases.
- Secure data storage
Student onboarding data is extremely sensitive and needs to be secured in a way that paper-based documents are simply incapable of being. The student data processed by identity verification solutions are stored and processed securely. Restricted user access and GDPR compliance add further layers of security for student data.
- Reduced expenses
By digitizing student verification, educational institutions can reduce costs for storage, manual verification, courier costs, and expenses for paperwork such as forms and envelopes. Increased productivity and efficiency also work to slash expenses and ensure that student verification is a smooth process.
- Hassle-free, digital experience
Offering students convenient onboarding experiences is often underrated and undervalued. By providing students with a streamlined process for all types of verification, educational institutions can reduce the levels of stress experienced by students and help them focus their attention on more important matters.
SignDesk – Award-winning Online Student Verification Services
SignDesk is a leading document automation solutions provider, assisting businesses and enterprises across various industries in developing a smooth workflow process. Our award-winning KYC & ID verification solution is leveraged by businesses & organizations across sectors to digitally onboard customers at half the cost and with twice the efficiency.
Our digital ID verification solution leverages OCR & AI techniques to instantly extract relevant customer details from images of IDs and verify these details in real-time. Facial matching features enable photos on ID documents to be matched with live images of customers captured during the onboarding process.
ML-enabled fraud filters mitigate ID fraud by identifying fake IDs and GDPR-compliant application workflows secure all data collected.
SignDesk’s KYC verification solution is additionally equipped with video-enabled features for organizations to connect with customers via video calls and interact with customers using a custom chatbox. Liveness detection algorithms and comprehensive ID support further secure our ID verification solution, and easy integration via APIs, web portal, mobile SDK or widgets allow businesses to start onboarding digitally with minimal support.
Our KYC verification solution has been awarded the Global Banking & Finance Review’s Best Onboarding Solution in India for 2020 and InnTech’s Best AI/ML solution in 2020.
Are you ready to automate onboarding digitally? Book a demo with us now!
