Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Using Chatbots to Increase Student Engagement
If you happen to be a parent, do you have a screenager or know one? If so, how are you communicating with them and is it effective? Sheenah Hartigan deals with this generation of student (a.k.a. Gen Z or iGeneration) all day long every day at Ocean County College. Students are changing as is technology. After implementing a process to map out student processes, inefficiencies and opportunities, the Director of Enrollment Services came up with a modality to reach them quickly and efficiently. It utilizes AI—you guessed it, a chatbot. His name is Reggie. Hear about him and the vendor the college partnered with that brought this virtual assistant to life.
Hello and welcome to our top of mind podcast. In this program, we will sit down with a higher education technology thought leader and discuss the innovative projects they are working on now and into the future. I'm your host, Katelyn Ilkani, vice president of client services and cybersecurity research at The Tambellini Group. I'm joined today by Sheenah Hartigan, the director of enrollment services at Ocean County College. Over the next few minutes, we're going to hear how she now is using chatbot to connect with students. Let's get started. Welcome to the program, Sheena.
Speaker 2:Thank you Katelyn. Thanks for having me here.
Speaker 1:To start, Sheenah, I'd like to ask you first, who is Reginald?
Speaker 2:Reginald is my favorite employee at Ocean County College. He goes by Reggie to his friends and he is our virtual assistant. He's a chatbot that we began using and working with back in November of 2017
Speaker 1:Can you talk to us a bit about what the genesis of Reginald was?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We as a college, began a process called the student success experience and we essentially process mapped all of the different things that a student could or would do at the college. Everything from registration and financially aid, the student life experience, applying. And we mapped it out from the student's point of view. What this allowed us to do was see some inefficiencies within our processes and highlight some opportunities for us to make things better for the student. We decided to move to a one stop shop for enrollment services at that point. Okay. So we launched the hub, which is OCC is one-stop shop and it incorporates admissions, advising, registration, financial aid and cashiering. We realized that in order to reach today's student, and our students today are very different than the students of yesteryear. They are Gen Z, they have different needs than the students we were accustomed to, they, I want instant gratification. They are doing all or most of their enrollment activities from their mobile device. Um, they're actually referred to sometimes as screenagers or the, the iGeneration. We needed to be able to reach them in a modality that they were comfortable with quickly and efficiently. So we began to research different texting options and we happened upon the idea of a chatbot which utilizes artificial intelligence and computer programming in order to be able to automatically answer students either via texting or through a web widget. So in modalities that they were already comfortable with.
Speaker 1:I understand that once you decided to go with this process of using a chatbot that you picked Admit Hub as your partner, how did you decide to go with Admit Hub?
Speaker 2:We had to because of higher education and bureaucracies put out an RFP and discovered that Admit Hub was offering a service that was very unique. They were the only a company that worked purely and only in higher education, whereas other companies that offered a chatbot or virtual assistant service, they worked in various industries and Admit Hub was able to offer us additional insight into the student enrollment process and the work that they had done with other four year institution. Let us to believe that we might be able to utilize a similar service for a two year student. A lot of the okay, things that we would have to build in were already established. Things like financial aid or registration process, questions that a student would have. A lot of those workflows were already built in and because they were the only company that specialized only in higher education, it just made a lot of sense for a partnership.
Speaker 1:Great. Once you picked Admit Hub and you started the process of implementing Reginald, what did the training and implementation entail?
Speaker 2:Katelyn? You can call him Reggie if you want. If you want him to be your friend too,
Speaker 1:I will. I'll call him Reggie.
Speaker 2:Um, the implementation was actually not bad at all. I would, I would go on the limb and say it was good as I've done lots of implementations before. So comparatively it was about a six to eight week process for us and we essentially had to build up Reggie's knowledge base. So what happened was they gave us a list of questions, potential questions that students might ask. They took those lists from other schools and institutions and established, um, what the tentative answers were for these questions. And we went through methodically and either accepted the answer that was given or created an answer of our own. And we did this with a team of staff members as well as students admit hub. Strongly recommended that we involve students heavily in the process and doing so really benefited us because our answers and our knowledge base are really student centered because they're by for students. Um, we then did a series of testing so each week we would get text messages and we would essentially have to quiz Reggie, see if we could stump him, stumped the Bot, um, ask questions and see if he knew the answers. And then if he didn't, we would go back into our knowledge base and essentially train him. So it was about a six to eight week training process. It is organic though. He's always learning new things.
Speaker 1:Did you run into any challenges in this process?
Speaker 2:Of course. Would it would anything be a smooth sailing process and higher education. We found that Reggie wasn't trained in security or counseling trigger words. And so that was something that we had to go back and adjust and it highlighted some inefficiencies in our on-campus processes as well. So, um, is the student texted in a, a word or a phrase that would alert us to a security issue? Um, a threat to self or others? We didn't have a smooth process for that, so we had to really get, get a lot of people together in a room, um, security counseling, our admission staff and learn what to do when we receive those alerts in mid hub now has a list of trigger words and phrases that shoot directly to us as an email, as a high alert. So we're able to address them right away. But the first challenge of that was, oh gosh, we don't have a process. Um, another challenge I would say is that, you know, just constantly training. Reggie, it's not so much a challenge, but students always are coming up with different things to ask and different ways to ask them. Um, they understand Reggie at this point, so they know and count on the fact that if we say humans going to get back to you, a human does in fact get back to them. But we're at a 72% automation rate right now. So there's going to be questioned that he doesn't always know the answer. So
Speaker 1:if you were starting this process with Reggie over, would you do anything differently?
Speaker 2:I would put those trigger words in from the very beginning. I made sure we had a process. I would also more heavily involve some other departments across campus. I of course, um, work closely with all of our enrollment service areas. So I know admissions and registration, financial aid, advising, those are areas that I'm extremely comfortable with. Some areas that I'm less comfortable with, perhaps like counseling or athletics or student life. I think if we had looped them in from the very beginning and allowed them to take part in the training of Reggie, he would have organically known a lot more and less training on those areas have happened later in the process.
Speaker 1:What has the response from your students been to Reggie?
Speaker 2:Our students love Reggie. In fact, we get phone calls all the time from students saying, I was just talking to Reggie on my phone. They think Reggie? I mean he identifies as a virtual assistant. However they, they think it's a person. Okay. Um, okay. They, they laugh when we, when we send text messages out to all of our current students, there'll be sitting in class and everyone's phone goes off at the same time and they're like, oh, it's Reggie. What's Reggie telling us? Reggie is telling us fall registration is open. Reggie's reminding us of our financial aid. So they've grown to know and really love and appreciate Reggie. They know that they can get instant answers. We found through student focus groups and then actually through the analytics that Admit hub provides that about 26% of our students are asking questions in off hours. So the students appreciate the fact that they can ask a question at 2:00 AM they can ask a question at 11:00 PM. Um, and Reggie's going to answer them. And I can't get people to work at those hours. I know, surprising as that may be. The response to being able to have that 24, seven, um, assistance has been really, really great. And our students really trust that. The other piece of that, that's nice. Is it consistent when you have a lot of people? I have a department of 15 and I can train them a lot, but I can't guarantee that it, every single person is going to deliver the same message in the same way. But with Reggie, I'm darn sure of it. If I teach him, he's got it. So there's definitely some advantages and our students really love and appreciate, getting the information, especially in a modality that they're comfortable with. They ask questions that they might not ordinarily ask to a human because frankly they're not comfortable communicating in that way these days.
Speaker 1:Have you seen an impact on your student journey that you have been able to quantify?
Speaker 2:So over the past year, Ocean County College has made a lot of changes in our matriculation process. We've been working to reduce the barriers to enrollment. We've taken the admissions process from 12 steps down to five. We have been doing a lot of things. So attributing our enrollment success. Yeah, two one particular initiative. Would it be difficult? However, we do know that our engagement rate, um, for Reggie is much higher than any of our other modalities. We know that over the past six months, students have asked over 16,000 questions and Reggie has received, um, you know, 16,000 questions and messages. We've contacted 33,000 current and potential students and year to date, we're up almost 2% in enrollment. And that's in an economy and a market right now where most of our sister schools are down in enrollment. Um, our summer registration right now is up about 4% and it's way early, but for fall we're up almost 23%. Right now. I'm sure that'll even out, but we've definitely, we've seen increasing enrollment where other schools are not, so we can't say directly it's Reggie. But I definitely think that the communications have had a major impact on our students receiving information in a more timely and efficient way.
Speaker 1:That's really exciting. That's huge improvement.
Speaker 2:It huge improvement. We were declining and that's why we knew we had to make a change. Our students have changed, technology has changed and enrollment was declining. If we continued to do the same thing year after year, we were going to see the same results.
Speaker 1:And Sheenah, do you see all ages using Reggie equally? So I'm sure that your student population is made up of generation z but also older students as well.
Speaker 2:It's actually so interesting. So I just was looking into that. I haven't detailed in to the analytics of whom is using Reggie more. Our traditional or nontraditional students. We do a lot of engagement for high school students specifically saying we're coming to your high school or check out this event. And we know they participate and, and respond effectively. We know that they use emojis to communicate and it's great cause Reggie, Reggie uses gifts and emojis as well. I haven't done the analytics to determine if what I see anecdotally is quantifiable. I do know that there are differences in socioeconomic gaps though that students that are of lower socioeconomic status, that are pell eligible, our ELS students, they're more likely to engage with the bot than other students.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. It seems like there would be room for study here into what makes some students more likely to engage with a chatbot than others.
Speaker 2:Totally. And it depends on the messaging too. Students are much more likely to respond if we're writing about their financial aid or billing or messaging, hey, if you don't pay by the next 48 hours, you're going to lose your classes. Hey, you're missing your high school diploma. We can't award your financial aid until we get that. Um, we did a big campaign saying you're missing information. You're financially can't be awarded yet and we had 700 responses in less than an hour. That's not a response rate you're going to see with any other modality. So, um, yeah, the type of communication is also really indicative of the response rates.
Speaker 1:What advice do you have for other institutions that are considering a chatbot?
Speaker 2:I would suggest involving students heavily. Okay. A lot of times I think that my response to a student that's maybe trying to banter with Reggie is hilarious. And our students that are working or student workers will be like, no, that's, that's not funny at all. So they keep me in check. So I would definitely involve your students heavily. Um, I would be cautious of how feisty you make your bot or how professional we found that because Reggie speaks to the students in their language, they're much more responsive. Uh, it can also cause problems. We had a situation where we texted the students and let them know that the open house is occurring on x day, you know, at 10 o'clock and a student wrote back, well, what time is it Reggie sent back a watch Emoji and let them know it's time to get a watch. So there's definitely situations where, um, your bots personality can really take on a life of its own. So I would be cognizant of it and I would say just to involve the whole campus, it's, it's indicative and representative of the entire college. And the other piece I would suggest is if you're trying to purchase a bot is to look at the fiscal piece of it. Financially, it makes a lot of sense for us in the amount of staff hours that we've saved in the amount of time we're able to give back to our tier two departments. So financially it makes a lot of sense and present it in that manner because it can be a hard sell to your upper management.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. Well, Sheenah, do you have any last thoughts for our listeners?
Speaker 2:Um, no, just that we are really happy with the direction that we've gone in. We actually renewed our contract not only for enrollment services, but now we can use Reggie for retention. So over the next year we're going to be the first community college in the country to be using Reggie for retention purposes, going after engagement for student life as well as on campus events, early warning and intervention."Hey, you're not doing so well in class. Did you know that there's tutoring? Um, there's an instant decision day on campus right now. I know you're on campus." Those kinds of things. So we are optimistic about increasing retention rates as well as our enrollment numbers.
Speaker 1:That's great. It sounds like Reggie has made a big difference to your constituents and your campus as a whole.
Speaker 2:He absolutely has. He is a favorite employee by and far for most of the college.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for your time today, Sheenah. It's been great having you on the podcast.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for having me, Katelyn. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:The Top of Mind Podcast just celebrated its first anniversary, so we also want to thank you, our loyal listeners, see you next time, and keep a look out for exciting Tambellini announcements, including more details on the Tambellini Cloud Transformation Summit, which will include content on student engagement in the student journey, like chatbot.