Navigate Student Guide for Faculty and Staff

Students must be active Virginia Tech students to login into the app.

1. From the Apple App Store or Google Play
2. Search “Navigate360 Student” to install the app
3. Once installed, search for “Virginia Tech”
4. Use your VT login credentials to login
5. Don’t have a smartphone? You can still access Navigate Student on your desktop. Visit vt.navigate.eab.com

• When accessing Navigate Student for the first time, students will be prompted to enable push notifications and complete the Welcome Survey.
• University wide announcements may appear at the top with options for students to see their class schedule, checklist items, or Navigate calendar.

• Navigation within the app is easy, with a quick launch icon that allows students to quickly choose the most used features within Navigate: appointments, hand raise, my docs, and account.
• To access other features, students can tap on the waffle icon which will load all applications within Navigate Student.

The Welcome Survey allows Virginia Tech to identify more information about students and send communications to specific student populations. Student responses can be used to customize the student experience in the app by triggering actions such as additional to-dos, tips, and notifications that can be sent throughout the academic year. 

Professional advising staff as well as other campus partners are able to search for student responses in Navigate Staff to provide proactive outreach based on student response topics. Staff can also view students' responses on the Student Profile, using the “Checklists” tab.  

Students are asked three questions, with a “check all that apply” response structure. The survey is launched once each summer and remains open for the academic year. Students can resubmit the survey to update their answers at any time by clicking “Retake Survey” in the Account feature.

 Staff are welcome to preview the current edition of the Welcome Survey. 

After clicking on the Appointments Icon, students will see three tabs:

• My appointments- upcoming appointments
• My Team- student's assigned staff
• History- past appointments

Students can schedule an appointment by clicking on the “schedule an appointment” button where they will be asked a series of questions to identify their meeting request.

• The type of appointment is an overarching descriptor like “Undergraduate Advising” or “Cranwell International Center”. Students will only see descriptors relevant to them
• Then, the student will choose a service, indicating either a major or meeting topic
• When selecting a date, students will see surrounding available appointment dates as well
• After tapping “find available times” students will be able to choose an appointment instance in the appointment picker

Students will receive to-dos, tips, and events based on their responses to the Welcome Survey. They may also receive staff assigned to-dos and can create their own as well.

• To-dos are items that students may receive notifications, prompting completion. They are actions students should or need to take to move forward.
• Tips are bite-sized guidance related to a specific concept on the Welcome Survey. Students will receive tips based on resources and topics they identified as something they care about. 
• Events remind students of important dates while connecting them with helpful resources. Events can range from workshops, career fairs, to important deadlines like FAFSA applications.

Students can check off or dismiss to-dos. Staff can view checked-off to-dos in the Checklist tab on the student’s profile.  

Checklist items will sort by due date, with the closest upcoming deadline shown first. After due dates, flagged items display next in the list. Finally, items without a due data display last on the checklist. 

Students can filter their checklist by category or status. Categories may include to-do, personal to-do, staff to-do, tip, and event.

Students can view their class schedule by clicking on the Class Schedule icon on the main landing page and view their schedule by weekly calendar view or by list. 

Students can click on an individual class to view class details including the instructor, day/time, location, and a description.

If a student is enrolled in a current and future semester, they can use the filter icon to toggle between the current and future term.

Hand Raise allows students to “raise their hand” by issuing a referral on themselves, leading to direct connection with support staff across campus. Upon submission, students will receive an auto-email with resources that may support them while waiting for a staff member to reach out directly. In most cases, a staff member will contact the student within three business days, typically via their Virginia Tech email account. 

To submit a Hand Raise, students can select the Hand Raise icon on the quick launch menu, then click ‘create a hand raise’, choose the appropriate topic, associate with a specific class they are enrolled in if applicable, add comments, and click ‘submit’.

It is very important for students to include a comment explaining why they are reaching out for help so staff can provide the most accurate support possible. However, students should know that other staff may be able to view the comments.

There are four topics students can choose when submitting a Hand Raise:

• I need help with an academic concern- used when a student is having difficulty in a course, registering for classes, experiencing conflicts with an instructor or classmate, etc.

• I need help with a non-academic concern- used when a student is having difficulty outside of the classroom including roommate conflicts, finding involvement opportunities, experiencing a loss, etc.

• I need to change my major - provides students with instructions on how to schedule a transitional appointment; to connect with staff, the student will need to follow those instructions. (This hand raise is not available in the summer.)

• I need help with basic needs (food, housing, living expenses)- provides students with resources from the Dean of Students Office and Food Market. Dean of Students staff may reach out to the student with more information specific to student comments.

Students can view if they have a hold on their account and what the hold reason is but will need to use HokieSPA to view hold details. Students cannot resolve holds in Navigate. Additionally, holds information is delayed by one day so a new hold may not appear the day it is placed and an old hold will not appear as resolved until a day after it is resolved- this is because holds information is sent from Virginia Tech’s SIS in a nightly sync. 

Resources is a directory for students to learn about physical and digital resources that are critical to their success as students. There are two Resource types- People and Places. The People tab will provide students with their assigned success team, including their assigned academic advisor. 

Places Resources are broken into categories, including academic support, administrative, campus services, career planning, health and wellness, places to eat, student activities, and transportation and safety. Students can peruse categories to find resources that meet their needs. Alternatively, they can use the search bar at the top of the page to search for a resource.

Each resource has a description of services as well as contact information such as website, phone number, email address, and hours of operation (if available). 

Students can favorite specific resources by tapping the heart icon next to the resource name which they can easily refer to in the Favorites icon in Navigate Student.

Staff can view which resources students have favorited on the student’s profile below the main overview section. 

Study Buddies lets students connect with other students in their class sections who are interested in studying together outside of class. Faculty and staff may promote the use of Study Buddies for students looking to join study groups, improve their engagement in class, and make friends.

Students can access Study Buddies on the main landing page by selecting the Study Buddies icon next to the quick launch. Students will see a list of classes they are enrolled in for the term (they may also see classes for a future term using the filter icon). 

Students can select a course they are interested in joining study buddies for- note that students may only join the section of the course they are officially enrolled in via HokieSPA.

Students will be prompted to confirm that they are opting to share their Virginia Tech email address with classmates. If the student selects ‘yes’, they will proceed further. If they select ‘never mind’, the student will not be able to see or connect with others through the Study Buddies feature.

If the student has opted to share their information but is the first person in the class to do so, then ‘ONLY ME’ shows. The student is told that once more people join, you’ll be able to email them. Once others have opted in, they appear in the list of Buddies. 

Students will then select classmates they want to email. They can scroll through and click the checkbox next to multiple students or use the search bar to look for a specific classmate who has also opted into Study Buddies for the section.

Then select the ‘email selected’ button which will take the student to their native email application (if using the mobile app). Students should make their VT email account their native email application to avoid sending emails from a personal account.

Very important: before emailing classmates, a message will appear prompting students to use caution when meeting for the first time “You will be taken to an external email application to compose and send this email. Before you send the email, please be mindful about what you communicate to other students When meeting a Study Buddy for the first time, consider choosing a public spot like a campus café or library. It’s always a good idea to let a friend know your plans. Remember to uphold the VT Principles of Community. Have a great study session!”

A student can leave the course’s Study Buddies group on the app at any time. They will select ‘Leave Group’. A message prompt will appear asking the student “Are you sure?” If the student answers ‘yes’, their name will be removed from the Study Buddies list. However, any email threads or group chats created outside of Navigate will be unaffected by this change.