Student Onboarding

Challenge

In a highly competitive sector Universities are increasingly seeking to attract, enrol, support and retain International Students as they seek to diversify their campuses and attract students who pay full tuition.

International Students are often challenged to make adjustments both in and outside of the classroom, from bridging language barriers, settling into life in a new country and joining and becoming part of campus communities.

Students are also, like many audiences, fatigued by an over saturation of messaging from marketing, administrative and academic functions delivered through a growing number of channels.

The university was seeking to help students connect with University life and their peers, ensuring they are supported, well cared for and equipped with the knowledge and resources to provide a foundation to academic success across the entire student journey.

Solution

The solution was to provide a valuable gamified experience to the student that would reward them for their engagement and ongoing participation, both initially and then throughout their student journey.

Students signed up to a mobile responsive, web-based application, built in 3radical’s Voco platform, that became their ‘companion in the pocket’

Students received a targeted set of challenges and activities, customised to their specific situation with fresh challenges released across the first 8 weeks.  Students were asked to interact with content, check in to events and locations around campus, follow and share on social and test and reaffirm their knowledge across a number of areas including:

  • Social programmes and cultural activities to help international students feel part of a community and get to know their domestic classmates
  • Support services such as mentoring programmes to develop English fluency, addressing the language barrier that can be a major challenge both in and outside the classroom
  • Adapting to life in Australia
  • Orientation with key campus services such as the library and how to navigate around campus

The application included a fun board game experience that was tailored to different segments of the student population. It provided students with dice rolls each day, where by completing various fun tasks, students could earn digital currency.

This currency could be exchanged for rewards such as Pre-Paid Travel Cards (Opal Cards), Grocery Shopping and Coffee Vouchers to spend on Campus, together with branded University merchandise. Regular repeat visitation was also rewarded with prize draw entries for weekly prize draw events in which students could win tickets to local sporting events and activities.

Benefits

  • Registration
    • The application was voluntarily downloaded and used by 476 International students (and 149 Domestic students)
    • Over 32% of all International students enrolled
  • Services
    • On average International students completed 15 onboarding activities and challenges
    • 45% of International students averaged the completion of 30  onboarding activities and challenges
    • On average International student engaged on 8 separate days during the 8 week programme
    • 24% of International Students logged in excess of 15 visits
    • Dwell time or ‘time on task’ averaged 30 mins across all International Students
    • This rose to 53 minutes for the 45% of the cohort that visited on at least 3 weeks of the programme
  • Development
    • Over 20% of students confirmed that Peer Promotion was the reason they found out about and started to engage with the experience
  • Wellness
    • Through periodic pulse check/ mood surveys the University was able to check student perception at different stages to understand
      • Levels of Awareness of free university programs and services
      • Awareness of what to expect in academic units and classes
      • Levels of confidence in practical aspects of day to day university life such as finding their way around campus

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