Engaging Accepted Students Through WordPress

A case study of how Bravery Media helped a university engage accepted students in the run up to enrollment. This talk deals with how we integrated internal university systems with a WordPress install to target content, tasks, and alerts in order to combat melt.

This talk was presented at WPCampus 2018 in St Louis, MO.

1. ENGAGING ACCEPTED STUDENTS THROUGH WORDPRESS @JOELGOODMAN BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
3. Bravery is a service design and product development studio planted squarely in the higher education sector. We create daring solutions to the core challenges facing institutions of higher learning. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus *Location of Austin is approximate
4. @JOELGOODMAN BRAVERY.CO | @BRAVERYMEDIA
5. ENGAGING ACCEPTED STUDENTS THROUGH WORDPRESS @JOELGOODMAN BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
6. A QUICK ROADMAP BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
7. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 1.Framing today’s conversation 2.Planning the product 3.Political intrigues 4.Good intentions, stupid scale 5.Lessons learned A QUICK ROADMAP
8. SOUND GOOD? BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
9. WHAT'S THE ONE THING EVERY ADMISSIONS OFFICE FEARS FROM THEIR ACCEPTED STUDENTS? Framing today’s conversation BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
10. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
11. Melt is the phenomenon wherein a student accepted to your institution disappears during the lead-up to registration (and deposit), never to be heard from again. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
12. WHAT REALLY HAPPENS BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
13. HOW EASY IS YOUR REGISTRATION PROCESS? BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
14. HELPING 
 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 
 UNIVERSITY BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
15. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2015 LMU Digital Viewbook
16. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2015 LMU Digital Viewbook
17. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2015 LMU Digital Viewbook
18. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2016 LMU Digital Viewbook Redesign
19. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2016 LMU Digital Viewbook Redesign
20. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2016 LMU Digital Viewbook Redesign
21. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2016 outcomes.lmu.edu
22. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 2016 outcomes.lmu.edu
23. SO HOW DO WE SLOW MELT? BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
24. “The idea is to incorporate this into the system in a way that is unique and fun so students will want to come back and see what updates have been done, and to check their lists.” BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
25. DEFINING THE 
 REQUIREMENTS BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus Planning the product
26. REQUIREMENTS 1.Sign in and data sync via Slate
27. REQUIREMENTS 1.Sign in and data sync via Slate 2.Video greeting from president
28. REQUIREMENTS 1.Sign in and data sync via Slate 2.Video greeting from president 3.Letter/video from dean (targeted)
29. REQUIREMENTS 1.Sign in and data sync via Slate 2.Video greeting from president 3.Letter/video from dean (targeted) 4.Ability for student to see what tasks have been completed and still outstanding
30. TASKS TO COMPLETE 1.Survey completion 2.Placement test completion 3.Registration 4.Orientation session RSVP 5.International documents required (list TBD)
31. REQUIREMENTS 2.Video greeting from president 3.Letter/video from dean (targeted) 4.Ability for student to see what tasks have been completed and still outstanding 5.A method to distribute survey unique to each college and for completed surveys to be transmitted to the college representative.
32. REQUIREMENTS 4.Ability for student to see what tasks have been completed and still outstanding 5.A method to distribute survey unique to each college and for completed surveys to be transmitted to the college representative. 6.“How to” video tutorial display
33. REQUIREMENTS 5.A method to distribute survey unique to each college and for completed surveys to be transmitted to the college representative. 6.“How to” video tutorial display 7.A notification section that allows us to communicate with a targeted group of people
34. REQUIREMENTS 6.“How to” video tutorial display 7.A notification section that allows us to communicate with a targeted group of people 8.A Social media page that can use their Facebook login to show the class of page so students can communicate without having to go to Facebook.
35. REQUIREMENTS 6.“How to” video tutorial display 7.A notification section that allows us to communicate with a targeted group of people 8.A Social media page that can use their Facebook login to show the class of page so students can communicate without having to go to Facebook.
36. BOSSES GONNA BOSS. Political Intrigues BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
37. REQUIREMENTS 6.“How to” video tutorial display 7.A notification section that allows us to communicate with a targeted group of people 8.A method for students to opt in to share certain data, like hometown, etc. so students can find other people from their area and communicate with each other
38. REQUIREMENTS 8.A method for students to opt in to share certain data, like hometown, etc so students can find other people from their area and communicate with each other 9.A method for student to return to where they left off, and not have to start over each time they login.
39. AND, OBVIOUSLY, 
 WCAG-COMPLIANT BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
40. WE IDENTIFIED THE STUDENT ROLE TYPES THAT NEED ACCESS BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
41. WE IDENTIFIED STATIC REFERENCE CONTENT BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
42. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
43. NEXT, WE STARTED DESIGNING BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
44. LOGIN Newly accepted students are first sent to this Future Lions login page and asked to login with the credentials they used when applying to LMU.
45. FIRST LOGIN When logging in for the first time, we take users to this greeting from the president. The video should not autoplay, but does give them the option to watch immediately.
46. ONBOARDING When the video greeting is finished, users are taken to the onboarding screen which asks them to connect their Facebook, turn on notifications, and follow LMU Admission social accounts.
47. ONBOARDING On touch devices, these cards are swipe-able, but also progress as tasks are completed. Admission staff have control to change, remove, and add cards to this process as they see fit.
48. USER TRACKBOARD After onboarding, the user is presented with their home base where we show them available tasks, targeted links to relevant content, and a central feed area with targeted greetings and task content, as well as social media integration.
49. TRIAL AND ERROR Good Intentions, Stupid Scale BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
50. WHEN YOU DON’T OWN THE STACK END-TO-END… BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
51. OUR TROUBLES WITH AUTHENTICATION BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
52. MAGIC BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
53. MAGIC BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus WRONG
54. OUR TROUBLES WITH AUTHENTICATION BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
55. SIDENOTE BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
56. WHAT DID WE DO? BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
57. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 1.Seek out a CAS dev that could extend the plugin we were using
58. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 1.Seek out a CAS dev that could extend the plugin we were using 2.Try a plugin that supports extra CAS attributes
59. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 1.Seek out a CAS dev that could extend the plugin we were using 2.Try a plugin that supports extra CAS attributes 3.Find a workaround
60. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus 1.Seek out a CAS dev that could extend the plugin we were using 2.Try a plugin that supports extra CAS attributes 3.Find a workaround
61. TARGETED, PERSONAL TASKS BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
62. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
63. REMEMBER WHEN FACEBOOK HAD THAT DATA BREACH? BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
64. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
65. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus FLY TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN… Good Intentions, Stupid Scale
67. WE WERE GONNA BUILD
 A REALLY COOL 
 NOTIFICATION ENGINE BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
68. YEAH RIGHT. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
69. WE SCALED BACK BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
70. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
71. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus SCOPE CREEP KILLS Lessons Learned
72. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus SCOPE CREEP KILLS 1.Questionnaires were multipage (easy) 2.Questionnaires required long-form text 3.Questionnaires required targeted content in some cases (kinda easy) 4.Questionnaires required tutorials to be interspersed with the forms. 5.We needed to limit submissions, and be able to clear that limit.
74. LMU ALSO ASKED US TO INTEGRATE AN IMAGE GENERATOR. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
75. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
76. GUESS HOW WELL THAT PERFORMED. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
77. BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus UNKNOWNS KILL Lessons Learned
78. ANY QUESTIONS? BRAVERY.CO #WPCampus
79. @JOELGOODMAN BRAVERY.CO | @BRAVERYMEDIA