Leveraging Text Messages to Support Advisement and Expand Student Success Initiatives for Online and Blended Learning
Concurrent Session 9
Brief Abstract
This presentation will review processes and high-level outcomes of the use of text messages to support online, blended, and at-risk learners. It will outline important considerations for implementing targeted texting. Initially, texting was used for advising and registration; during the pandemic, campaigns were expanded to support at-risk and blended learners.
Extended Abstract
As both traditional and nontraditional students continue to enroll in distance education and blended learning programs, there is a growing need for higher education institutions to find intentional and consistent ways to connect and engage with this population to support two key areas of student progress and retention: (1) academic advisement and registration processes, and (2) student success initiatives. Over the last decade, it has been established that college students spend an average per day of 8-10 hours on their cell phones and 94.6 minutes texting (Roberts et al., 2014). Multiple marketing and business publications across the web highlight that read and response rates for text messages are significantly higher compared to emails (Wozniak, 2022; EZ Texting, 2020; Shibu, 2020). Such context provides an obvious, efficient, and often cost-effective modality for academic advisers and student success professionals to communicate with students in a way that can foster proactivity in their education: text messaging.
During this session, attendees will be asked to consider the following question: In an ideal world, how would you use text messaging to reach out to students taking online classes? Attendees will be given the opportunity to share their thoughts by utilizing an interactive survey application that populates their responses into a word cloud. The presentation will then connect these responses to its purpose as appropriate by explaining how utilization of text messaging for student support developed at a private non-profit university with approximately 5000 students. Processes and outcomes resulting from text message campaigns and targeted texting of at-risk students will be examined with a particular focus on four domains of student support: advising and registration of online learners, new freshmen and transfer students with blended or online schedules, at-risk students in a success coaching program, and at-risk students identified on a case-by-case basis for text message communication. Successful outcomes will include a combination of quantitative data (registration results after text campaigns; blended learner and at-risk student persistence) and qualitative data (student text responses and email communications).
There are important considerations to take into account when exploring text messaging as a viable and effective communication modality to support the student persistence and success objectives of a college or university. This presentation will address these considerations, starting with early steps such as determining what technology is needed or already in place to send texts that are compliant with FERPA, then moving on to discuss how departmental and institutional goals, finances, and staffing considerations should shape text campaigns and targeted texting, and lastly highlighting ways to measure whether text campaigns or targeted text messaging is effective. The session will conclude with a brief outline of areas the presenters’ institution is looking at to further expand text communication processes.
After this session, attendees will be able to…
- Identify ways that text messaging can be used to support academic advisement, registration processes, and student success initiatives for online, blended, and at-risk learners.
- Discuss benefits of utilizing text messages to communicate with online, blended, and at-risk learners.
- Recognize outcomes that indicate a text message campaign or targeted texting was successful in meeting a goal or objective.
- Apply knowledge of institutional or departmental texting technology, goals, finances, and staffing when creating text campaigns or implementing targeted text messages.
- Consider how interdepartmental collaborations can support text messaging processes and costs.
References:
EZ Texting. (2020, October 29). 42 unbelievable text message marketing statistics that will blow your mind. Retrieved June 1, 2022, from https://www.eztexting.com/blog/42-unbelievable-text-message-marketing-st...
Roberts, J., Yaya, L., & Manolis, C. (2014). The invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(4), 254-265. https://doi.org/10.1556/jba.3.2014.015
Shibu, S. (2020, September 2). Businesses, take note: Your customers prefer texts. PCMag. Retrieved June 1, 2022, from https://www.pcmag.com/news/businesses-take-note-your-customers-prefer-texts
Wozniak, T. (2022, May 31). Five tips for leveraging SMS marketing in 2022. Forbes. Retrieved June 1, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/05/31/five...