Missouri State University Increased Retention & Course Attendance Rates Through Texting

Missouri State University students were often no-shows to their appointments with academic advisors. Staff also found that students with a 2.5 GPA or lower were more likely to stop out. 

The Student Success team first tried solving both of these challenges through email outreach; they emailed students appointment reminders and offered academic support services. But the intervention largely failed. Students rarely responded or answered emailed calls-to-action.

Fortunately, Dr. Kelly Wood, now Associate Provost for Student Success, along with her colleagues in enrollment heard about nudging. They read the research showing that nudges sent through texts can inspire students to take action. With this research in tow, Dr. Wood and a small staff team turned to Modern Campus Message to help achieve student success with texting. 

Implementation & Results

By being able to segment and target the right students with the right message at the right time through Modern Campus Message, MSU helps keep learners on the right path toward graduation. 

 

Dr. Wood collaborated with staff from each advising program, the registrar’s office, the office of financial aid and Student Success to launch MSU's texting intervention powered by Modern Campus Message. They sent their very first text to students on May 16, 2018—the last day of finals.

One of the first interventions involved intersession—2-week courses held between semesters. Staff noticed that many students who registered for an intersession course would forget about it and, thus, be billed for a class they didn't take. The registrar’s office texted reminders to students who registered for an intersession class to attend. The texts also offered to help students drop the class if desired. As a result of this outreach, fewer students dropped their intersession classes, there were fewer appeals and, overall, the registrar's office had to deal with significantly fewer concerns related to intersession than they were used to. 

Staff also used texting to put students with lower GPAs in touch with academic advisors who could help students stay enrolled. As a result, MSU boosted  fall-to-fall retention by one percentage point during the first year of texting. In other words, texting saved 32 students from stopping out.