2024 was a transformative year for Kira Talent, showcasing the launch of groundbreaking tools like Live Interview Recording and significant enhancements to our Review Platform. These features were thoughtfully crafted to streamline your workflow, making it easier than ever to identify top candidates in your applicant pool with efficiency and precision. Here are 6 standout highlights from this year’s feature releases at Kira Talent (and a few sneak peeks for 2025)
Discover what’s new at Kira
- New Live Interviewing features
- Enhanced Review Platform
- WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards compliance
- Customizable score calculations
- Bulk-unassignment
- Ravenna Integration
- Coming Soon to Kira - Mobile compatibility
1. Virtual interviewing just got better
Live Interviews, on-demand insights
Experience the best of both worlds with Live Interview Recording in Kira Talent. Schools can choose to have conversations and responses during their Live Interviews captured for future review and analysis, bringing a new layer of transparency and accountability to the interview process.
Capture every critical moment, from preparation to response sessions, creating a complete and accessible record for your admissions team.
Revisit and analyze these recordings in Kira’s intuitive Review Platform, where interviews are neatly organized by station.
Make confident, defensible admissions decisions by revisiting recorded interviews for scoring calibration, training, and committee discussions, helping your team make data-informed decisions.
Visualize, organize, optimize — all in one dashboard
Transform how you manage your Live Interviews. The Circuit Visualizer’s intuitive interface offers unparalleled visibility into interview scheduling and execution.
Effortlessly switch between organizing logistics and understanding interview flow by toggling between list and timeline view. Admins can track participant statuses, send Broadcast Messages, or dive into the details of specific interview stations — all from one centralized dashboard.
Follow applicants through their interviews with a color-coded schedule that shows their movement across stations at a glance. Hover over any station or participant to view key details, copy email addresses, or check which questions are being asked where.
Sort and locate specific applicants or reviewers in a pinch with a robust search feature that allows you to quickly pull up interview details or schedules for any participant.
2. Applicant review made effortless
Empower your reviewers with an easy-to-use dashboard designed to track progress and improve productivity.
Easily track review progress with visual indicators designed to keep reviewers organized and on schedule. Kira’s intuitive dashboard provides a clear snapshot of each reviewer’s workload, including the number of applicants assigned, the number of reviews completed, and how many are still pending. Reviewers also get an estimated time to finish their remaining tasks, helping them stay efficient and focused.
Watch, assess, and score, all on one screen, with Kira’s side-by-side response and rubric layout. This intuitive interface allows reviewers to watch responses and score them simultaneously, ensuring a seamless and efficient review process. Expandable rubric definitions provide clarity for accurate, consistent evaluations, while uploaded documents—like essays, resumes, or forms—are displayed in their original format for effortless assessment. Everything you need, all in one user-friendly screen.
Let Kira handle the grammar checks, while your reviewers stay focused on what truly matters. Available as an optional feature on the Review Platform, Kira highlights spelling and grammatical errors in written submissions and provides both the current and maximum word count for each response.
Learn how Kira’s Review Platform can streamline your reviewing process.
3. Accessibility, elevated
Accessibility is essential to fostering diversity and inclusivity in higher education. By adhering to WCAG 2.1 standards, we’ve gone above and beyond to ensure the Kira platform aligns with your goals—delivering an accessible and equitable admissions experience for all.
Help applicants confidently submit their best work without barriers, with features built to assist individuals with visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments.
Break down barriers and deliver an inclusive experience that reflects the principles of holistic review, empowering your team to identify top talent without compromise.
Learn more about WCAG 2.1 standards and why they’re important for your admissions process
4. Calculate your scores your way
In 2024, Kira added two new methods of calculating applicant scores — Total Sum Scoring and Dual Calculation.
View final scores as the sum of individual competency scores, rather than the standard average score with Total Sum Scoring.
Combine average competency scores with reviewer scores using the Dual Calculation method. Incorporate competency weights into the calculations to ensure that the final scores accurately reflect your team’s priorities and expectations.
Effortlessly monitor an applicant's progress with detailed, downloadable reports that provide comprehensive scoring insights.
Score calculations are seamlessly integrated across all API endpoints and webhooks, keeping your workflows efficient, streamlined, and fully connected.
5. Easily balance reviewer workloads
Is one of your reviewers falling behind? With Kira’s new bulk-unassign feature, you can quickly lighten their load and keep your reviews on track.
Redistribute assignments in seconds by selecting the number of applicants to unassign to ensure your team stays on schedule and your review process runs smoothly.
6. Simplify enrollment with Ravenna
Kira’s integration with Ravenna Admit® streamlines the enrollment process for K-12 private and independent schools, keeping your process organized and connected.
Invite applicants directly through the Ravenna HUB and receive real-time updates as they complete their Kira assessments.
Track progress and share insights with your enrollment committee. Kira scores are synced with Ravenna, giving you centralized access to all your data in one streamlined platform.
Coming soon — Kira goes mobile
Experience the same seamless Kira platform you know and love, fully optimized for mobile browsers. Available for iOS and Android users, applicants can easily record video responses and submit written answers directly from their mobile devices.
Stay tuned for the official launch date and get ready to experience Kira in a whole new way.
Be the first to know when this feature launches by subscribing to the Kira Talent newsletter.
Offering an integrative curriculum that seamlessly combines foundational sciences with practical clinical training, the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) allows its students to gain early hands-on experience, equipping them with the skills and expertise needed for thriving careers in veterinary medicine.
“We have a futuristic curriculum,” shared Dr. Jacque Pelzer, Associate Professor of Practice & Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions at the College of Veterinary Medicine. “We teach basic sciences and clinical sciences side by side for the first two years, giving our students early access to clinical faculty, and early entry to clinical rotations in our teaching hospital.”
“We are committed to diversifying the veterinary profession,” Pelzer continued. “We’re looking for applicants who come from underserved communities and intend to return to those communities to establish veterinary practices.”
“We’re very mindful of the costs associated with applying to veterinary school, and we’re passionate about reducing those barriers and setting a new, more equitable status quo for veterinary school admissions processes,” she explained. “With Kira Talent, we’ve been able to interview more applicants, expanding access and opportunities for a wider pool of candidates.”
Opening the doors to a new generation of medicine
“With Kira, we have been able to interview 30% more applicants than in previous years,” shared Pelzer. “Nationwide, the applicant pool for DVM programs has remained the same for 5 years. Underrepresented minority students are often missing from that applicant pool, but we’ve made great strides at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in recruiting and retaining them.”
“With Kira, we’ve seen a 16% increase in diverse applicants enrolling in the DVM program,” she continued.
“Kira has been instrumental in this effort, allowing us to cast a wider net and attract a more diverse range of applicants.”
Using Kira’s Asynchronous Assessment, the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine delivers an on-demand station-based interview experience similar to the Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs) used by medical schools.
“Candidates are still meeting all the benchmarks to get an interview,” shared Pelzer. “We conduct a holistic review of applicants’ written application and grades, before inviting them to complete a Kira assessment. Once they reach that stage, their pre-interview scores are reset to zero and no longer factor into our final decision-making process.”
“The idea is that everyone we invite to interview has the academic foundation to be successful in our program,” she explained. “With Kira, we are looking for the traits and soft skills that make for successful DVM students, and ultimately, practising veterinarians.”
Keeping bias at bay with horizontal review
“We brought Kira Talent into our admissions process with two goals in mind,” shared Pelzer. “The first was increasing access to our program and reducing cost barriers in admissions, and the second was identifying tools that will help us deliver a transparent and reliable admissions process.”
"When we held in-person interviews, each room had a reviewer equipped with a script designed to ensure a fair process," Pelzer shared. "Unfortunately, this approach often fell short in practice."
“It’s hard to control what goes on in a room,” she explained. “While some reviewers stuck to the script, others did not.”
"With Kira, we not only ensure a consistent interview experience for all applicants, but also actively reduce bias in the review process."
Discover the nine most common forms of bias in admissions and how Kira helps mitigate them
“Applicants see recorded videos of our staff and faculty asking them questions, so they are truly all receiving the same experience,” Pelzer continued. “Once the assessment is completed, we conduct a Horizontal Review.”
“In this process, our reviewers evaluate a single station across all applicants, concentrating on one specific competency to ensure consistent and focused evaluations,” she shared. “Each station is scored by two independent reviewers.”
“We’ve seen that reviewers use the rubric in Kira more accurately than they did in person.”
“With Kira, we had the opportunity to design a custom rubric that allowed us to pinpoint the competencies we were looking for,” Pelzer explained. “All together, since transitioning to Kira, we’ve seen significant improvement in our scoring reliability and we’re observing less bias.”
Learn more about the benefits of Horizontal Review in Kira Talent
Feedback that fuels future veterinarians
“We’ve received really positive feedback from applicants,” shared Pelzer. “They really appreciated the practice scenarios on the Kira platform, and the information sessions we held beforehand helped them feel prepared and confident going into their Kira assessment.”
“By the time they recorded their responses, they were at ease and ready to participate.”
“We are committed to delivering a fair and transparent admissions process from start to finish,” she continued. “With that in mind, we offer feedback sessions for our applicants. With Kira, we’re able to give them direct and transparent feedback because we’re not relying on interviewers’ notes. When I show them why a reviewer gave them a certain score, 95% of the time they say 'yes, I remember saying that' and 'yeah, that makes total sense.'”
“That’s been really phenomenal for us, because it gives us the opportunity to support their growth and help them improve,” Pelzer explained. “We want them to go to vet school, and Kira helps us, help them do that.”
The Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) at Dalhousie University stands out as the only program of its kind on Canada’s East Coast and one of just four nationwide. Open exclusively to maritime residents, Dalhousie MPAS is focused on tackling crucial gaps in regional healthcare by educating home-grown healthcare professionals.
"We’re filling a real gap in healthcare by training physician assistants who can directly support primary care in our region,” explained Olivia Bachmann, Manager of Administration and Operations for the MPAS program. “Students who graduate from our program and pass their board exams have a guaranteed job placement in Nova Scotia.”
Yet, Dalhousie MPAS recognized that their in-person interview process was creating obstacles for many applicants they aimed to attract.
“We looked around to see how other programs were solving this issue, and discovered that Dalhousie’s Medicine and Family Medicine programs were using Kira Talent, and seeing great success,” explained Bachmann. “So we decided to make the switch ourselves.”
A healthy dose of innovation in admissions
“In post-graduate medical education, applicants are typically expected to spend weeks travelling to various institutions for interviews that are imperative to their progression within the field,” she continued.
“Kira saves applicants a large portion of the costs associated with applying to medical programs.”
“Conducting interviews online with Kira makes our program accessible to a more diverse group of applicants who may not have the ability to take time off of work or away from other responsibilities to travel to campus for an interview day,” Bachmann added. “While we have a regional residency requirement, applicants aren’t necessarily living nearby at the time of application. For instance, this year we had an applicant who was completing a rural pharmacy residency in British Columbia, yet they were able to participate in the interview from their location.”
A collaborative cure for complexity
“Our admissions process consists of two main components,” Bachmann explained. “The first is the written application, where we collect transcripts, proof of maritime residency, and confirmation of prerequisites, as well as a supplemental application highlighting volunteer work, academic achievements, and research experience. Based on those materials, the top 48 candidates are invited to a Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) in Kira.”
“Building the MMI in Kira was seamless,” Bachmann shared. “We worked hand-in-hand with our Client Success Manager and successfully set everything up in just under four months.”
“The support provided by Kira was instrumental to our success.”
“They provided us with clear objectives and deadlines that kept us on track,” she continued. “As the interview days approached, we had bi-weekly meetings to touch base and finalize any last-minute details.”
“On the interview days, the Kira team was online to assist our applicants and reviewers and ensure that everything went smoothly,” shared Bachmann. “That active communication is a critical part of what made the interviews work as well as they did.”
“We had nothing but positive experiences across the board, from both applicants and reviewers,” she added.
Charting a simple path for faculty
“Kira’s easy-to-use platform was a game-changer for us,” Bachmann continued. “The platform is clear and intuitive, and helpful features such as the ability to hover over the rubric during an interview and see what you should be scoring was very helpful for our interviewers.”
Discover the four ways that Kira's intuitive Reviewer Platform makes the reviewing process better
“But above all else, it was the accessibility that really made the difference,” she shared. “We’re working with physicians, clinicians, active PA’s, people working in our community — they might not have the time to attend a full day of on-campus interviews, let alone training and prep sessions.”
“Kira makes it easier for reviewers to participate in our interviews without it being a burden on their time.”
Learn how more PA programs are leveraging Kira's flexible format admissions assessments
Consistently ranked in the top 10 business schools globally, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business is known for its rigorous academic programs, emphasis on hands-on learning, and legacy of leadership and innovation that drives everything from curriculum development to admissions.
The business school’s range of one-year master’s programs are particularly focused on preparing students to excel in a rapidly evolving business landscape, combining leadership training with career development opportunities. However, the programs’ admissions processes didn’t reflect the same alignment with the realities of the modern business world.
“Innovation is key in the ever-evolving landscape of higher education,” shared Julia Hoffert, the Director of Admissions and Recruitment for the One-Year Master’s Programs at Michigan Ross. “We are proud to announce a groundbreaking approach to the application process for our One-Year Master's Programs. Coupled with this innovative application process is a new asynchronous interview tool called Kira.”
Designing a multi-program application process
Michigan Ross’ new multi-program application allows candidates to apply to several one-year master’s programs with just one submission, offering flexibility and reducing the pressure of choosing a single path upfront.
“Gone are the days of agonizing over which program to choose,” Hoffert explained. “By offering the option to apply to multiple programs through a single application, we are breaking barriers and expanding possibilities for ambitious learners to tailor their graduate education to their unique goals.”
“This initiative encourages the exploration of multiple programs, allowing applicants to consider, ‘Which programs are avenues to my goals?’ instead of the traditional limiting question, ‘Which single Ross program should I choose?’"
“To ensure that the multi-program application process is efficient, we have combined the common components shared by all programs,” Hoffert continued. “Applicants only need to submit core elements such as letters of recommendation and academic transcripts once, saving time and effort during the application process.”
That's where Kira comes in. With a custom Asynchronous Assessment in Kira, Michigan Ross can efficiently conduct large-scale interviews, ensuring the process remains streamlined while maintaining its depth and thoroughness.
“Kira offers an asynchronous and online interview experience, bringing transparency and authenticity to our admissions process,” Hoffert explained.
Elevating business admissions to match the professional world
“Engaging in Kira's interview process provides candidates with preparatory experience that mirrors the initial interview stages used by many progressive companies today.” shared Hoffert. “Candidates receive practical experience that can be beneficial for their future job searches. They become more comfortable and adept in front of the camera, improve their time management skills, and enhance their ability to deliver concise, impactful responses.”
“Kira serves as a valuable training ground, giving candidates a taste of what they can expect in the professional world while honing their interview skills.”
Kira also provides applicants with the opportunity to get a sense of campus culture and meet the faculty, through videos seamlessly integrated throughout the assessment experience.
“We personally recorded interview questions,” Hoffert explained. “By aligning these questions with our core values — collaborating, learning and growing, doing great things, being an owner, and being inclusive — we not only identify students who will thrive at our institution but also provide them with a clear understanding of what it takes to succeed within our community.”
Flexible choices for tomorrow's business leaders
“One of the significant advantages of this new interview process is its accessibility for all applicants, regardless of their time zone,” Hoffert shared. “In the past, scheduling interviews across different time zones posed challenges.”
“Now, with Kira, these barriers are largely eliminated, allowing candidates to participate at times that are most convenient for their schedules.”
“This process ensures that every candidate is given an equal opportunity to submit their interview, leveling the playing field and making the process more inclusive,” continued Hoffert. “Applicants can now effectively manage their own time, choosing the best moments to record and submit their responses.”
“This flexibility reduces the stress associated with live interviews, allowing candidates to prepare in their own environment and at their own pace,” she added. “By accommodating individual needs and schedules, we aim to make the process more convenient for every applicant.”
“Michigan Ross believes in innovation and providing applicants with the best opportunities to succeed,” Hoffert finished. “The introduction of the multi-program application process and Kira's interview tool are examples of our commitment to excellence in higher education.”
Read the full article from Michigan Ross here.
The California University of Science and Medicine (CUSM) is a mission-focused institution committed to addressing the physician shortage in Southern California. Founded in 2015, the university offers a Medical Doctorate (MD) program and a Master of Biomedical Sciences program, focusing on preparing future medical professionals to meet these critical needs.
“Our local area ranks in the lowest 25% in California for both physician-to-population ratio and health outcomes,” shared Peter Evland, the Executive Vice Dean for University Relations and Admissions at CUSM. “Our mission is to foster improvement and positive change by enhancing diversity in medical education. We aim to reach aspiring healthcare professionals who will return to serve their communities, enriching the field with their diverse perspectives.”
Following the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling on affirmative action, CUSM implemented significant changes to their admissions process. These adjustments were designed to align with the new regulations while continuing to uphold their mission.
“We reviewed our admissions processes to ensure that we were delivering a holistic process that was race neutral,” Evland shared. “That's where Kira Talent came in.”
A team of professional reviewers trained on your rubrics
“We learned about Kira from the University of California, Irvine,” Evland shared. “We did some research and discovered how Kira’s Reviewer Services could help us create a streamlined admissions process that complies with all the new regulations.”
Reviewer Services in Kira Talent gives admissions teams access to a team of 30K+ professional raters with experience scoring for the GRE®, TOEFL®, and Praxis® tests. Reviewers are trained to score each custom Kira assessment, and are monitored in real-time for performance.
“Reviewer Services allows us to go outside the institution to score our assessments, which eliminates any potential for bias on the part of our faculty, while retaining all the benefits that come from conducting interviews,” explained Evland.
“We’re so impressed by the efficiency with which the Reviewer Services team reviewed applicants and provided us with scores.”
“For the past seven years, I’ve led, coordinated, and scheduled the applicant interview days for the CUSM MD admissions process,” shared Belinda Taylor-Batchelor, the Executive Director of University Relations and Admissions at CUSM.
“It was long and tedious work, scheduling the admissions team, applicants, and faculty over seven months. Kira has streamlined that process.”
“With Kira, we work with our faculty to prepare the interview format, questions, and process up front, so they’re still included in the process,” Taylor-Batchelor continued. “After applicants finish their assessments, Kira’s Reviewer Services takes over the scoring process and provides rubrics for our admissions committee to evaluate.”
A full suite of insights on applicant integrity
“Kira’s Applicant Integrity Metrics were the final piece of the puzzle, giving us a bird’s eye view of an applicant as they work through the written portion of their assessment,” shared Evelyn Aguirre, Assistant Director of Admissions at CUSM.
“Kira automatically alerts us of suspicious behaviours such as copy-pasting text or browser refreshes, so we can take a closer look.”
“It’s a great system,” Aguirre continued.
“Kira gives us access to all kinds of integrity data, helping us make confident and informed admissions decisions.”
An assessment designed for your applicants
“Our applicants love the flexibility Kira provides,” shared Aguirre. “They didn’t have to reschedule classes or work to attend an interview.”
“They valued how personalized the experience was,” she continued. “The integrated videos throughout the assessment created that connection, even as everything was delivered remotely.”
“An applicant reached out to us to share how much they appreciated the personal messages and questions recorded by our faculty and integrated into the assessment,” shared Taylor-Batchelor. “That means we’re doing something right.”
Boston University’s College of Communication (COM) is known for its dynamic approach to media, journalism, film, and communication studies. With a focus on experiential learning, COM equips students with hands-on skills and opportunities to work in a variety of fields, from public relations to emerging media platforms — even counting several Pulitzer Prize winners among their alumni.
Located in the heart of Boston, the college offers a collaborative environment where students engage with innovative technologies and industry professionals to prepare for successful careers in the rapidly evolving communication landscape. For the creativity-focused programs, a traditional admissions process couldn't provide adequate insight into the skills and traits that made for successful COM students.
“In an effort to get a more comprehensive understanding of applicants' soft skills, we asked applicants to upload a video of them answering a standard question," shared Laurie F. Nichols, Assistant Dean of Graduate Affairs at Boston University COM. "However, it wasn’t always an authentic representation of their skills. They could prepare in advance, read from a script, or even memorize their answers.”
Unsatisfied with this process, COM sought out a dynamic assessment that would give students a better way to represent themselves as creatives.
“That’s where Kira Talent came in,” Nichols shared.
Giving applicants the tools they need to write their story
Boston University COM uses Kira’s Asynchronous Assessment to gain a more authentic view of applicant ability across 10 of its masters’ and PhD programs.
“With Kira, you can see the authenticity in the applicants’ responses,” Nichols continued.
“Having that true sense of their communication skills—especially in a field like communication where both written and spoken English are paramount—was a game changer.”
“Kira made it easy to keep consistency across our programs, while allowing them to individualize based on their needs,” Nichols shared. “We initially set up 14 competencies and gave each program the freedom to choose which competencies and questions they wanted to use. It made the set-up process so much easier, because everything was already laid out. Some competencies were used by only one program, while others were adopted by five.”
“The flexibility that Kira provides is invaluable,” she continued. “Each year, we reassess if the competencies we’re using are helping us find the best candidates. It’s been a great way to ensure we’re still continuously assessing the qualities that make students successful.”
“We’re seeing stronger cohorts with higher levels of communication skills, both written and spoken.”
Knowing when your applicants go off-script
“We’re getting a better picture of our applicants,” Nichols continued. “Kira’s applicant integrity metrics have been especially helpful for our admissions team.”
"With Kira, we can track typing speed and browser refreshes, and the platform automatically highlights any unusual activity for further examination,” she explained. “It helps us ensure a high level of academic integrity in the admissions process.”
“Kira has helped us reduce bias, assess applicants more authentically, and ultimately find students who are the best fit for our programs.”
“It’s been a great addition to our admissions process,” Nichols added.
Learn more about how Kira helps mitigate the nine most common forms of admissions bias
Streamlining a seamless process
The seamless integration of Kira’s streamlined Reviewer Platform made everything from building assessments to following rubrics a smoother experience for both staff and reviewers.
“Kira has streamlined our admissions processes,” Nichols shared. “Before Kira, we spent significant time trying to access and organize applicants’ video submissions across a myriad of platforms.”
“With Kira, we don't have to worry about video quality or compatibility. Everything is organized and accessible, all in one platform."
"Our reviewers can log in from anywhere, access their assigned video responses, and review candidates on their own time,” Nichols added. “It's a much more cohesive process, which helps us make more informed admissions decisions.”
This quarter at Kira Talent, we're bringing you new ways to upgrade your admissions process, with a focus on transparency and accuracy in the review process.
Updates and new features:
Interview live, re-watch on-demand
Get the best of both worlds with the ability to record Live Interviews in Kira Talent. With Live Interview Recording, you can capture critical moments in both the preparation and response phases of an applicant's interview, and revisit them with the admissions committee, as a reference for any scoring inconsistencies, or whenever else you need to.
Record applicants, reviewers, and observers during prep and response time throughout your circuit, ensuring a complete record of each interview stage.
Review and analyze your recordings in Kira’s Review Platform. Recordings are organized sequentially by stations, helping you better understand the applicant’s journey through your interview process.
Keep it concise
Help applicants submit concise written content by setting strict word limits in your Kira assessment. This new feature can help you curb excessive content in responses and encourage clarity and precision in applicant submissions.
Encourage applicants to shorten their answers with automated alerts that highlight the number of words they need to remove before they can submit their response.
Maintain consistency across applicants and enable reviewers to assess written responses fairly by having them evaluate roughly the same word count per submission.
Coming Soon: Total Sum Scoring
Customize score calculations in Kira to better reflect your scoring priorities. Total Sum Scoring, coming at the end of November 2024, is the latest addition to Kira’s score calculation options. With sum scoring, users will be able to see applicants’ final scores as a sum total of their individual competency scores, rather than the standard average score.
Tally up the total and revisit past scores with downloadable reports consisting of the reviewer summed score and the applicant average summed score to track an applicant's journey throughout your assessments.
Continue your seamless integration workflows with total sum scores available alongside average scores in all API endpoints and webhooks.
As one of the first institutions in the United States to offer a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, the University of Cincinnati is an established trailblazer in nursing education. Their programs are designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, emphasizing both practical experience and academic excellence. A combination that drew the interest of applicants from across the country.
"When we conducted our admissions interview in-person, we had applicants who would have to move mountains to attend,” shared Krista Maddox, Sr. Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing.
The college realized how these barriers were impacting the diversity of students enrolled in their nursing programs.
“We had cut ourselves off from a wealth of applicants because of geographic constraints."
“We needed a virtual solution that could support our existing interview structure,” Maddox explained. “When we found Kira Talent and saw how the platform let us isolate individual characteristics in an applicant, it became an integral part of our process going forward.”
Uncovering deeper applicant insights
“At UC College of Nursing, we utilize a holistic admissions process modelled after the American Association of Medical Colleges AAMC) recommendations,” Maddox shared.
“Beyond academics, we want to know about an applicant's life experience, how they spend their time, how they've gained experiences that would lead to success as a nurse or nurse anaesthetist,” she explained. “It’s those insights that really help us identify which applicants have the critical skills to succeed in the profession.”
Although UC College of Nursing has been conducting a holistic review in their admissions process for years, Maddox and her team were pleasantly surprised by the value and insight that Kira’s team of experts brought to their assessment.
“Kira helped us enhance our interview process, giving us access to insights which previously seemed unattainable.”
“With Kira’s horizontal review, we’re able to isolate each competency for review and easily assign reviewers to focus solely on evaluating that skill across a wide group of applicants,” she explained. “This helps us ensure inter-rater reliability and gives us a more accurate assessment of applicants’ skills.”
“Our reviewing team typically consists of faculty, staff, clinical partners, and alumni,” continued Maddox. “It was challenging for them to carve out the time to come and spend an entire day on campus for in-person interviews, and that made reviewer recruitment and retention very difficult.”
“Kira has been a perfect way to accommodate their schedules, while ensuring that we deliver the best possible interviews,” she shared.
Opening doors to the next generation of healthcare
The effects of Kira are being felt beyond the admissions process and into the classroom, with UC College of Nursing seeing a boost in the diversity of their enrolled cohorts.
“We have seen an increase in ethnic racial diversity, geographic diversity, socioeconomic diversity, and first generation college students enrolled in our programs.”
“We're a regional program, at a Midwestern school,” Maddox explained. “Historically, most of our students have come from our surrounding area.”
“Using Kira has created access to our program that applicants across the country didn’t have before.”
“Our cohorts now consist of students who come from different geographic areas and have different lived experiences,” she continued. “We’re seeing them work together and learn from each other, which is so important for future healthcare workers.”
“Kira has given us the ability to remove barriers of entry,” Maddox noted. “After seeing how much positive change it brings our cohorts, we haven’t looked back.”
Established in 1945 as a school of contemporary music, Berklee College of Music has evolved from teaching jazz and arranging for big band, to becoming a leading global educator of contemporary music. The school’s network of partner schools around the world, as well as their campuses in Valencia, New York City, and a center in Abu Dhabi, offer students a wealth of opportunities.
Since merging with the Boston Conservatory in 2016, Berklee College of Music has reinvented their admissions process to better match a growing pool of talented musicians across the globe.
“With over 10,000 auditions and interviews a year, and limited human resources at the conservatory, we needed to find a solution that could keep up with the influx of applications and improve the overall quality of our assessments,” shared Damian S. Bracken, Dean of Admissions at Berklee College of Music. “That’s when we brought in Kira Talent.”
Connecting with musicians from around the globe
“We use Kira in the admissions process for two of our master’s programs and two of our undergraduate programs,” Bracken explained. “Those four programs account for around 40% of our total application numbers, and each applicant is offered the opportunity to interview.”
With more than 4,000 interviews to coordinate, Berklee College of Music optimized for greater efficiency with Kira’s Asynchronous Assessment.
“We attract applicants from every part of the world,” Bracken explained. “Being able to provide them with an asynchronous interview gets us the information and insight we need to make confident admissions decisions, without creating any cost or travel barriers.”
“The Asynchronous Assessment also creates critical consistency for how we assess across all of our applicants,” he continued. “We know that applicants receive the same experience no matter where or when they’re completing the assessment — that helps us assess each candidate on a level playing field.”
"Kira is very effective in helping us gauge whether or not an applicant has what it takes to succeed in the program."
"The additional information that we're able to gather with Kira is very valuable," he added.
Getting a new layer of insight with Reviewer Services
When the tempo of auditions picked up, Berklee engaged Kira’s Reviewer Services to help handle the increased workload and ensure that reviews were completed on time, without sacrificing the integrity of their interview process.
"We set a five-day turnaround timeline with the Reviewer Services team," Bracken shared. "Our applicants have five days to complete the assessment, so we felt it was necessary for us to be just as fast on the return."
“That timeline has worked very well for us,” he continued.
“Once our team is ready to get into the final holistic review, we already have all the data that we need to move forward.”
"When I checked through the scores, I was impressed to see how well the reviewers' evaluations reflected what we intended in our rubric,” shared Bracken. “That’s due in part to the training that the Kira team does with the reviewers, familiarizing them with what we're really looking for.”
“When we were first considering Reviewer Services, it seemed almost counterintuitive that people outside the organization could accurately assess our applicants,” he explained. “But it all goes back to the design and the clarity around the rubrics that Kira helped us build. There’s so much thought and detail put into each competency and score description, it enables an external reviewer to align very closely to how our internal reviewing team scores applicants, and results in very accurate evaluations.”
Finding the right rhythm for your team
“Reviewer Services gives us the resources we need without removing us from the admissions process,” Bracken added. "Everything is recorded and accessible in Kira. It's quite common for us to pull up an applicant’s responses when we’re making those final decisions."
"Kira has been incredibly easy to pick up and use,” shared Bracken. “The platform is very accessible for our applicants, our reviewers, and our admin team."
“It isn't a ‘one and done’ platform. It's highly collaborative, and the Kira team is just as invested in your success as you are.”