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.

Transcript

1. ENGAGING ACCEPTED STUDENTS
   THROUGH WORDPRESS
   @JOELGOODMAN
   BRAVERY.CO
   #WPCampus
   

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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
   

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4. @JOELGOODMAN
   BRAVERY.CO | @BRAVERYMEDIA
   

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5. ENGAGING ACCEPTED STUDENTS
   THROUGH WORDPRESS
   @JOELGOODMAN
   BRAVERY.CO
   #WPCampus
   

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6. A QUICK ROADMAP
   BRAVERY.CO
   #WPCampus
   

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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
   

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8. SOUND GOOD?
   BRAVERY.CO
   #WPCampus
   

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9. WHAT'S THE ONE THING EVERY
   ADMISSIONS OFFICE FEARS FROM
   THEIR ACCEPTED STUDENTS?
   Framing today’s conversation
   BRAVERY.CO
   #WPCampus
   

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10. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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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
    

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12. WHAT REALLY HAPPENS
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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13. HOW EASY IS YOUR
    REGISTRATION PROCESS?
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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14. HELPING 

    LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 

    UNIVERSITY
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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15. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2015 LMU Digital Viewbook
    

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16. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2015 LMU Digital Viewbook
    

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17. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2015 LMU Digital Viewbook
    

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18. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2016 LMU Digital Viewbook Redesign
    

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19. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2016 LMU Digital Viewbook Redesign
    

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20. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2016 LMU Digital Viewbook Redesign
    

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21. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2016 outcomes.lmu.edu
    

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22. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    2016 outcomes.lmu.edu
    

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23. SO HOW DO WE SLOW MELT?
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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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
    

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25. DEFINING THE 

    REQUIREMENTS
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    Planning the product
    

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26. REQUIREMENTS
    1.Sign in and data sync via Slate
    

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27. REQUIREMENTS
    1.Sign in and data sync via Slate
    2.Video greeting from president
    

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28. REQUIREMENTS
    1.Sign in and data sync via Slate
    2.Video greeting from president
    3.Letter/video from dean (targeted)
    

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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
    

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30. TASKS TO COMPLETE
    1.Survey completion
    2.Placement test completion
    3.Registration
    4.Orientation session RSVP
    5.International documents required (list TBD)
    

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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.
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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36. BOSSES GONNA BOSS.
    Political Intrigues
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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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
    

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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.
    

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39. AND, OBVIOUSLY, 

    WCAG-COMPLIANT
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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40. WE IDENTIFIED THE STUDENT ROLE
    TYPES THAT NEED ACCESS
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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41. WE IDENTIFIED STATIC
    REFERENCE CONTENT
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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42. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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43. NEXT, WE STARTED DESIGNING
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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49. TRIAL AND ERROR
    Good Intentions, Stupid Scale
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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50. WHEN YOU DON’T OWN THE
    STACK END-TO-END…
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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51. OUR TROUBLES WITH
    AUTHENTICATION
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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52. MAGIC
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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53. MAGIC
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    WRONG
    

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54. OUR TROUBLES WITH
    AUTHENTICATION
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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55. SIDENOTE
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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56. WHAT DID WE DO?
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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57. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    1.Seek out a CAS dev that could extend the
    plugin we were using
    

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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
    

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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
    

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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
    

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61. TARGETED, PERSONAL TASKS
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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62. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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63. REMEMBER WHEN FACEBOOK
    HAD THAT DATA BREACH?
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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64. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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65. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    FLY TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN…
    Good Intentions, Stupid Scale
    

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67. WE WERE GONNA BUILD

    A REALLY COOL 

    NOTIFICATION ENGINE
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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68. YEAH RIGHT.
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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69. WE SCALED BACK
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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70. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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71. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    SCOPE CREEP KILLS
    Lessons Learned
    

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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.
    

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74. LMU ALSO ASKED US TO
    INTEGRATE AN IMAGE GENERATOR.
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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75. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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76. GUESS HOW WELL THAT
    PERFORMED.
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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77. BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    UNKNOWNS KILL
    Lessons Learned
    

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78. ANY QUESTIONS?
    BRAVERY.CO
    #WPCampus
    

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79. @JOELGOODMAN
    BRAVERY.CO | @BRAVERYMEDIA
    

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