2014-40: System-Generated Email to Students about Un-Submitted Applications

The purpose of this change is to implement a way where the system can generate a generic email to all students who have started an application but have not yet submitted it for processing. It is not legal for colleges to have access to the details of the application for the student has provided Consent by electronically signing their application and hitting "submit"; therefore, we will need to gain an understanding of what is permissible and what is legal in order for this generic email to go out to students who have not submitted an application. Patty plans to meet with the Steering Committee to finalize requirements

Steering Committee Response 11/1/16

After discussing the specific text and message content of the emails (many colleges want to provide the content with links to their site) Tim suggested that a few different options:

1. Use the Admissions contact fields i n the Administrator to merge in specific contact information to the emails (colleges had issues with this process as these only include Admissions contacts and they have other support services in mind);
2. Use the functionality in the Rules area:  email messages and email rules that would enable the college to create their own email content;
3. Create a generic email message for the colleges who don't create an email message.

1. Create two generic, merge-field Emails which will be sent to student's email address <email> , using <firstname>+<lastname>
2. System logic is implemented to send Email #1 is sent to student if the application has not been submitted after 24 hours of starting app.
3. Logic is implemented to send Email #2 to Applicant if after 7 days the application still has not been submitted (7 days since start of application and no submission).
4. Phase I: Email Content
   The content of the emails would serve several purposes:
   1. Remind the student that they started an application but have not submitted the application to the specific college
   2. Provide links back to OpenCCCApply for use cases: : 
      1. Link to My Applications page and RESUME the application process. 
      2. Return to My Applications page and delete the application in-progress.
   3. Provide links and information to - alternately - contact the college directly for assistance (to College Admissions contact information that currently appears on the confirmation page, including College name, college URL, Admissions Contact and Admissions phone and email)
   4. Provide links to OpenCCC Helpdesk and CCCHelp.info
5. If after 7 days from start of application process the student still has not submitted the application, send Email #2 with similar links and information.
    
6. Phase II: Allow colleges control over message text and dynamic content through enhanced functionality built into the new CCC Administrator Messaging Module.
7. Phase III: TBD.  Colleges want access to in-progress, unsubmitted application data to better provide support and services to prospect students. This phase involves challenging the current privacy policy and working with CCCCO and State Legal entities to better understand and potentially modify our policy interpreting FERPA.

Phases:  Description, Objective, Future Enhancements

Email subject line:  Action Required: Submit Your CCCApply Application
(Patty rec'd an email from a website (Resume builder.com) where I had started a resume on their site, but never finished it. The email nudged me to return to the site and finish the resume. The body of the email included 4 bullet point reasons why it's a good idea to finish the resume, link to the resume, contact information for questions, etc. 
For un-submitted applications we want to make sure we include <college_name> <app_id> personalized email <firstname>+<lastname> and snippet of information to contact the college if they have any questions about college-specific application or registration information. 

What benefits do we want students to know during nudging?

• No "application" fee to apply to the California Community Colleges
• Help available for applying for financial aid - Financial Aid is available 
• OpenCCC Helpdesk / Call Center Toll Free Number and Email address

What do we want our "Email nudges" to convey and include?

• Link back to My Applications to resume application
• Link to Account Recovery 
• Link to CCCApply "Help" page?  
• Your application can be resumed at any time
• Once your application has been processed, 

http://www.ideas42.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Nudging-For-Success-FINAL.pdf

Awesome article from EducationWeekly about "Nudging Students" to stay on task for various college deadlines:  
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/high_school_and_beyond/2016/10/using_texts_to_nudge_students_on_financial_aid.html?qs=Nudge+Students

<<Research has shown that simple text reminders can help ensure that students who've been accepted to college actually take the steps to enroll. Missing that crucial step can mean a missed connection to higher education. Educators are now experimenting with using texts to send reminders about a variety of college-related tasks.

The White House has gotten on board, too. First lady Michelle Obama's "Better Make Room" campaign includes a feature called "Up Next," which allows students, families, and counselors to request a series of text messages that will prod them with questions about how they're doing in their search for colleges, applying, and getting financial aid. Once they've enrolled in college, they get messages that try to connect them to helpful campus resources. And after they graduate, the messages shift focus on helping them work out their loan repayments.

Data on Text vs. Email

9_Castleman_SummerTextMessages.pdf

<<Text messaging is a promising approach to inform students of college-related tasks and to connect them to professional help when they need assistance. It is the predominant means by which young people communicate with each other. Whereas only six percent of teens exchange emails and 39 percent talk via mobile phones, 63 percent send texts on a daily basis (Lenhardt, 2012). Further, counselors who staffed the prior summer interventions cited texting as the most effective means of contacting students (Arnold et al, in progress). In addition, texting is a potentially cost-effective means to provide information and connect students to assistance. In the text message intervention discussed in this paper, for example, the marginal cost of each message was $0.01. Moreover, text-based outreach may increase counselors’ efficiency. >>

Research on Student Behavioral Challenges Related to Attending College

<< Recent behavioral research suggests that people often over-weight immediate costs, both monetary and non-monetary, and forego investments that would be in their long-term interest (see, for example, Chabris, Laibson, & Schuldt, 2008). Faced with the time and cognitive burdens associated with college and financial aid applications, for example, students may delay addressing or abandon a key step in the admissions process — particularly if the alternative is something more enticing in the present moment (Madrian & Shea, 2001; Beshears et al, 2012; Scott-Clayton, 2011). Thus, even minor cost and process barriers may deter qualified students from successfully applying to and enrolling in college, despite a high probability that the lifetime benefits of higher education would far outweigh short-term investments.

With a text platform, message delivery can be automated and content can be personalized to individual students and their postsecondary plans, Castleman – Summer Nudging EdPolicyWorks Working Paper Series No. 9. April 2013. Available at http://curry.virginia.edu/edpolicyworks/wp Curry School of Education | Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy | University of Virginia 7 eliminating the need for counselors to invest substantial time conducting student outreach and ensuring that outreach can occur on a schedule that aligns well with when students are available (e.g. nights and weekends).

Personalized text messages could improve successful matriculation among college-intending students via several potential mechanisms. As we note above, it may be an efficient strategy for connecting students to counselors who can assist them to address summer obstacles that arise. Enabling students to request assistance via text mitigates several potential barriers to help-seeking. For instance, in schools where counselors have large caseloads and minimal time to focus on college planning, students may lack personal relationships with counselors (Civic Enterprises, 2012).

Without a personal connection, students may be unlikely to initiate contact over the summer. In contrast, taking up the offer of help by responding to a text message may require considerably less interpersonal effort. Personalized text messages may also inform students of required tasks about which they were unaware and/or may simplify the steps required to complete these tasks.

With a modest investment of time to assemble the required tasks and deadlines for institutions most common among each partner district’s graduates, we consolidated the set of required summer tasks into a series of ten institution-specific text message reminders. Most of the messages included institution and task-specific web links that guide students directly to the web page relevant to a given task (e.g. registering for orientation).

Finally, the text messages may impact students’ college outcomes simply by nudging them to complete required tasks at the appropriate time during the summer. Personalized messaging effectively may turn adolescents’ greatest liability during the college choice process—their impulsiveness—into an asset.2

By providing simplified information and task-specific links, each message potentially allows completion of required steps in the moment, before students’ attention is otherwise diverted.

For several reasons, socioeconomically disadvantaged students may be particularly prone to behavioral challenges related to attending college.

• First, the intricacy of the college application process itself may contribute to the persistence of gaps in college entry and success by socioeconomic status (Hoxby & Turner, 2013, Ross et al., 2013).
• Second, the complexity of the federal financial aid application may prevent students from obtaining the substantial federal, state, and institutional grant aid for which they are eligible (Bettinger et al, 2012; Dynarski & Scott-Clayton, 2006). The process of applying for financial aid is often even  more difficult for the lowest-income students, compared to their middle income peers, because atypical income streams and household circumstances often trigger additional financial-aid related tasks, such as federally-mandated verification of the information students provide on their FAFSA (authors). Therefore, in the process of applying to college, the lowest income students are required to complete a broader array of complex tasks, furthering the probability of behavioral responses that lead them to put off or abandon entirely college and financial aid applications. 
• Third, students from disadvantaged backgrounds often have to devote their time and energy to addressing immediate stressors like supporting their families financially or dealing with neighborhood violence (Casey, Jones, & Somerville, 2011; Keating, 2004; Steinberg, 2008, 2009); the experience of dealing with scarcity on a daily basis may lead them to be particularly sensitive to incurring even seemingly small costs, such as those associated with college applications (Mullainathan & Shafir, 2013). Fourth, they are less likely to have access to college-educated family members or college counselors who can help them weigh short-term investments against long-term gains (authors; Schneider, 2009).