I love Modern Campus Message because most of my students are a lot more comfortable texting me than actually talking to me. It allows me to respond to them more quickly and easily than I otherwise could.
31,000+
undergraduate students
190+
undergraduate majors
90%
first-year retention rate
Challenges
Before BYU started using Modern Campus Message, first-year students frequently missed important information to aid in their transition to college. The peer mentorship program was designed to solve this communication gap, but mentors struggled to reach their mentees via email and phone call.Peer mentors eventually tried texting from their personal cell phone, but — even though mentees frequently replied — First-Year Experience staff realized that personal texting wasn’t an effective long-term strategy because of challenges with:
- Time Management: Texting from their personal cell phones meant that peer mentors were on call around the clock.
- Oversight: Staff had no way of knowing if and when peer mentors were sending text messages to students.
- Privacy & Security: Communications were spread across hundreds of personal devices instead of one central system.
They needed a superior solution.
Implementation
BYU implemented Message in 2015. Each semester, First-Year Experience staff work closely with a team of select peer mentors to create a calendar of text messages. The purpose of these text messages are to remind students of upcoming deadlines and prompt them to take timely action on required tasks.
Every peer mentor has an account on Message with access to their mentee caseload. When a scheduled text message is sent out, mentors log in to the platform during their assigned office hours to provide one-on-one support to first-year students.
The peer mentoring program now has the oversight it needs without sacrificing personal touch.
Results
Through texting powered by Modern Campus Message, first-year students communicate more frequently with their mentors and report stronger relationships. Students ask more questions in text messages than they previously did in emails or phone calls, which helps mentors provide more meaningful guidance.
Top wins include:
- Increased Engagement: First-year students communicate more frequently with peer mentors using Message.
- Stronger Relationships: Students report stronger relationships with their peer mentors than ever before.
- Better First-Year Experience: First-year students see more value in the mentoring relationship when using Message.
Discover additional ways you can use text messaging to connect students with campus resources, extend limited staff resources and boost retention—and how doing so fits into the entire learner journey—in our free guide:
Related Case Studies
Academic Advisors at The University of Texas at Austin Engaged 98% of Targeted Students in Text Messaging
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Cuyahoga Community College Connects Students with Enrollment Resources 24-7
How Ohio’s oldest community college leverages Modern Campus Message to re-enroll stop-outs & provide students with custom enrollment support at scale
The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Amplifies Academic Advising through Text Messaging
How undergraduate academic advisors use Modern Campus Message to drive student success
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About Modern Campus
Modern Campus empowers 1,700+ higher education institutions to attract, engage, and retain learners for life with software solutions that enable a modern student experience.
The Modern Campus learner-to-earner lifecycle platform powers solutions for web content management, conversational text messaging, catalog and curriculum management, career pathways, student engagement and development, and non-traditional student management. The result: innovative institutions engage their 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-to-earner movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
