About Utah Valley University
40,000+
students
37%
first-generation students
30%
students age 25+
The Challenge
The first-year experience (FYE) and retention team at Utah Valley University wanted a better way to engage with students. The team found that first-year students were overwhelmed and unresponsive to email. First-generation students were particularly overwhelmed and presented a retention risk.
Staff knew that texting would be a great solution—a way to connect with modern learners and provide essential tools to support persistence.
The Implementation
The FYE team focused their intial texting efforts on first-generation students and first-year students at large, with a different communication path designed for each.
The goals were to communicate with students before they arrived on campus to ensure they were registered, had the pertinent financial aid details, and started acclimating to student life.
The programs followed the following paths:
Communication path for first-generation first-year students
Communication path for all first-year students
The Results
Utah Valley University saw great initial engagement results and continues to monitor retention performance to measure impact. The first-generation student segment had an engagement rate of 70%, with many students asking questions before reaching campus.
The broader first-year group had a lower engagement rate but, although students did not directly respond to messages, they still followed the nudges and acccepted invitations. In addition, the team saw some great qualitative feedback from students and proof that texting helps surface challenges and opportunities that impact retention.
Sample text responses from Utah Valley University students
Related Case Studies
SOWELA Technical Community College Re-Engaged Students After Hurricanes and COVID-19
How a public college leveraged Modern Campus Signal Vine to re-enroll 46 otherwise-unresponsive students
The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Amplifies Academic Advising through Text Messaging
How undergraduate academic advisors use Modern Campus Signal Vine to drive student success
NCAN Connects with Students Via Text Message to Reduce Summer Melt
How a college access non-profit leverages Modern Campus Signal Vine to increase matriculation
Connect with your students, prospects, and alumni at each stage of their educational journey.
Explore the leading texting platform for higher education.
About Modern Campus
Modern Campus is obsessed with empowering its 1,200+ higher education customers to thrive when radical transformation is required to respond to lower student enrollments and revenue, rising costs, crushing student debt and even school closures.
Powered by Omni CMS, DIGARC, Presence, Signal Vine, and Destiny One, the Modern Campus modern learner engagement platform enables innovative institutions to create a “learner to earner” lifecycle that engages modern learners for life.
Delivering massive personalization, AI-driven recommendations and a modern e-commerce engine, Modern Campus creates a student-first digital experience and removes silos across campus. Presidents and provosts, marketing and IT teams, admissions, registrars, student affairs and CE divisions can partner to attract, enroll, empower, retain, credential and re-engage students with pathways for lifelong learning.
Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner engagement movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn.