Olympic College Re-enrolled 100 Students At-risk of Stopping Out

How a multi-campus community college leverages two-way text messaging powered by Modern Campus Signal Vine to help students at risk of dropping out due to nonpayment

Because of Signal Vine and the ability to text our students with timely nudges, we’re helping them stay enrolled in college.

Shawn DevineDirector of Communications & Web Services, Olympic College
 
About Olympic College 
 

 

3

campuses

 

13,000+

students

 

28%

students age 30 and over

The Challenge

Olympic College experienced a consistent enrollment decline spanning several years, prompting staff  to review resources that could increase attract more students and increase retention. 

First, staff tried reaching correct and prospective students via email... but they quickly found that students rarely responded to emails, if they even read such messages in the first place.

Next, they tried text messaging, with faculty sending out texts from their personal phones. This proved to be an ineffective solution as there was no high-level, central location to house students’ messages. This made it nearly impossible to form a campus-wide texting strategy. 

With these challenges in mind,  Olympic College turned to Modern Campus Signal Vine to leverage two-way conversational text messaging at scale.

 

Implementation

Olympic's Student Services department led the implementation.

First, staff launched a one-year pilot project to test the effectiveness of texting. During this phase, staff targeted students who needed to complete various steps before being dropped from classes for nonpayment.

The program quickly proved to be effective at keeping at-risk students enrolled. Students appreciated the nudges, with specific tasks, and staff loved the robust data provided as a result of the campaign. 

Results

The pilot program proved successful in increasing the college’s revenue! In fact, it saved 100 students from being dropped due to nonpayment. As a result of implementing the Signal Vine texting platform, the school secured $280,000 in tuition revenue in one academic year that would have otherwise been lost.

Additionally, Olympic College staff have found that texting has led more students to use student support services in person.  Students frequently come to campus and interact with staff to resolve challenges. And the response is speedy too; staff note a consistent influx of student traffic on campus just after a text message is sent.  

Since the original pilot program, Olympic has expanded the reach of texting to encompass all students. They now send students texts about financial aid, enrollment, course registration, and more. 

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About Modern Campus  

Modern Campus is obsessed with empowering its nearly 2,000 higher education customers to thrive when radical transformation is required to respond to lower student enrollments and revenue, rising costs, crushing student debt, and administrative complexity. 

The Modern Campus engagement platform powers solutions for non-traditional student management, web content management, catalog and curriculum management, student engagement and development, conversational text messaging, career pathways, and campus maps and virtual tours. The result: innovative institutions can create a learner-to-earner lifecycle that engages modern learners for life, while providing modern administrators with the tools needed to streamline workflows and drive high efficiency. 

Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner engagement movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

 

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