A practical guide to next-level student engagement

Unlocking the secret tolong-term student success Your institution’s ability to drive student outcomes depends a lot on your engagement

strategy. Delivering the right communications at the right times can help lead students to

complete the FAFSA by the priority deadline, meet with an advisor to plan an academic path,

or declare a major on time.

A growing body of research proves that engagement strategies that leverage behaviorally

intelligent chatbots are more likely to motivate students, increase quality applications,

reduce summer melt, and improve retention rates.

However, building an inspiring student engagement strategy takes more than just the right

technology. Following a proven framework is the key to taking your communications to the

next level.

Copyright 2021 AdmitHub, PBC dba Mainstay

Mapping your student engagementmaturity path

Henry Kissinger

“If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.”

Mainstay’s work with our partner institutions, industry research, and a thorough examination of tried-and-truetechniques has enabled us to establish, a proven student engagement maturity model based on two essential dimensions of communication:

Student-centricity: The degree to which your college or university is focused on student-driven communications.

Organizational cohesion: The level of organization across your institution’s communication practices.

This intuitive framework makes it easy to determine your current engagement strategy’s level of maturity across five distinct phases by pinpointing areas of strength and opportunity. Knowing where your strategy stands today enables you to align your next steps with your institutional goals and long-term student success.

As your strategy matures and advances through the framework, your communication process, your focus on student success, and the ways your strategy aligns with your objectives will also improve. Over time, this incremental growth will enhance your ability to meet your objectives and drive positive student outcomes.

Let’s explore the definitions of the various stages of student engagement maturity and what each phasemight mean for your institution’s ability to impact student success.

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Definition:A reactive communications plan that is intended to engage

students through mass communications and is carried out

by individual contributors or siloed departments.

Unstructured studentengagement strategy

Is your strategy unstructured?

Starting at an unstructured stage is not necessarily a disadvantage — it just means your student engagement strategy has room for improvement.

If your staff members find themselves answering the same questions repeatedly with little time to prioritize more complex student challenges, your strategy may be in an unstructured phase. As a result, your students may experience confusion from receiving a high volume of disparate communications — or worse, they may start ignoring your outreach and missing important updates.

Here are steps you can take to move your student communication efforts out of “survival mode” and mature your strategy to the next phase:

• Analyze what’s working well — and what is not.

• Develop a basic organizational structure and communication process that builds on your current strengths.

• Adjust your messaging to the specific audiences you communicate with most frequently, to ensure you’re capturing your students’ attention and driving them to take positive action.

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Definition:A roadmap for student engagement that is based on

a basic communication process, an established

organizational structure with the right people in the

right roles, and adequate technology to drive some basic

student outcomes.

Aware studentengagementstrategy

Is your strategy aware?

Your current student engagement strategy is defined, you’ve got the foundational elements in place, and things are functioning fairly smoothly. However, it may feel like you’re missing the bigger picture.

One hallmark of institutions with aware strategies is a tendency to focus on individual projects. If this sounds like you, an important first step is prioritizing cross-department collaboration. Doing so will help ensure students get all of the information they need, when they need it, without repetitive or irrelevant messages that dilute impact.

In order to advance your strategy to the next phase of student engagement, you’ll need to gain a strong understanding of the process your students go through from pre-enrollment, to persistence, all the way through to graduation, and beyond. From there, take these steps:

• Use the student lifecycle information you identify to build specific, repeatable communications for each point throughout the student journey.

• Establish metrics and processes related to each step to identify potential gaps in your current strategy.

• Simplify cross-department collaboration by deploying automated communication tools and systems.

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Aware studentengagementstrategy

Definition:A comprehensive approach to student engagement in

which institutions track student success metrics and apply

their insights to drive positive outcomes throughout the

entire student lifecycle.

Proactive studentengagementstrategy

Is your strategy proactive?

Your students’ attention is fleeting — you have just seconds to capture interest, engage, and spark action. Are you moving fast enough?

If you’re like most colleges and universities at the proactive level, you’ve integrated student communication technology across multiple departments and you have standardized the information you’re delivering to your students.

However, if your ideal state of student engagement includes seamless cross-functional collaboration and real-time measurement of student insights, here are some actions you can take to achieve the next phase in the maturity model:

• Double down on collaboration to ensure all departments are working together consistently across every stage of the student lifecycle.

• Examine why SMS text messaging is the most effective way to engage today’s students, and how you can use texting to improve student outcomes.

• Do your homework on potential technology partnerships. Beyond offering a world-class tool, are you considering companies with extensive expertise and a deep interest in your institution and students?

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Definition:A comprehensive set of student engagement processes

that are executed by qualified, cross-functional teams

who use world-class technology to measure insights and

drive positive student outcomes.

Consistent studentengagement strategy

Is your strategy consistent?

You place a constant emphasis on finding new ways to improve results, and all aspects of your communication processes involve cross-departmental collaboration.

Innovation is woven into your institution’s culture. You’re constantly looking for ways to optimize results, and view cross-functional collaboration and access to real-time student insights as mission-critical capabilities. To propel your strategy to the highest level of maturity, you’ll need to:

• Embrace automation and personalization as key drivers for organizational change.

• Continuously embrace deeper collaboration across all campus-wide functions and departments.

• Take a centralized technology approach to student advocacy and student success tracking.

• Examine additional ways to align institutional objectives with student success.

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Definition:An aspirational approach to student engagement

characterized by a centralized student advocacy

and communications function that enables the institution

to maximize predictive analytics and interventions to

drive student success.

Inspiring studentengagement strategy

Is your strategy inspiring?

You refuse to settle for anything short of student engagement excellence.

Institutions that reach this pinnacle are entirely driven by — and aligned with — their students’ needs. These colleges and universities have a student advocacy program in place, and every department’s work is cohesive and built around a single, comprehensive plan for student success.

Additionally, world-class communications technology is leveraged institution-wide, and it is viewed as foundational to aligning people with processes, overcoming complexity, and fully realizing the connection between the student experience and student outcomes. As such, these institutions seek long-term partnerships with trusted technology partners who can guide them along the path toward their goals.

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The student engagement framework in action

In 2015, Georgia State University set out on an ambitious journey to reinvent the way it served students. Its first challenge: Stop summer melt.

Summer melt had increased to nearly 19% in a few short years. The GSU team realized text messaging was the most effective way to engage students, but they couldn’t manage personalized conversations at scale.

By implementing a behaviorally intelligent chatbot from Mainstay (formerly AdmitHub) to support students through the admissions process, GSU realized a 24% reduction in summer melt — with strong engagement from Pell-eligible, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students.

Energized by this initial success, GSU set out to mature its engagement strategy, with a focus on reversing retention woes:

• Comprehensive research revealed several behaviors closely tied to GSU student success, such as resolving FAFSA verification.

• The GSU team worked with Mainstay (formerly AdmitHub) to launch a student retention chatbot that would nudge students to adopt these key behaviors.

• Students who received targeted messages from the retention bot proved to be 3% more likely to register for the fall semester — translating to an annual retention boost of 1,300 students.

“For the team at Georgia State, realizing the potential of AI for student success began by mapping our capabilities, developing a clear plan of action, and understanding where the use of the tool was helped or hindered by our own structure and capacity as an organization.”Tim RenickExecutive Director at the National Institute for Student Success

Georgia State University

Here for the journey.

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