Day:
Monday, November 4, 2019
Time:
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Location:
Topaz, Lobby Level
First Learning Outcome: Attendees will get a first-hand look at this emerging technology and ability to explore real-time activity
Second Learning Outcome: Attendees will learn how chatbot technology increases student engagement and contributes to increases in enrollment yield
Third Learning Outcome: Attendees will learn how chatbot technology can be easily implemented in postsecondary institutions
Core Competencies: Change Management, Technological Knowledge
Proficiencies: Admissions: Evaluating Emerging Technologies, Enrollment Management: Enrollment Technology
Intended Audience: Significant experience in the profession, Senior management (President, Provost, Vice President, Vice Provost)
Using Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots for Enrollment Success
Category
Session
Description
Prospective students consistently seem to beat enrollment managers to a new platform which has made communication challenging and results declining. We have seen open and response rates to emails go down over the past several years and everytime we go to a social media platform, students seem to migrate elsewhere. Many schools have even brought back phone calling and postal mail to try to get responses to the all-important enrollment steps. The University of South Carolina Aiken Division of Enrollment Management began examining how we could meet students where they were (technologically) and stop trying to force them to where we wanted them to be. This process lead us to how we might utilize both artificial intelligence and the one thing students have with them at all times ... their smartphone!
The one thing that seems with us to stay is the cell/smartphone. Despite numerous innovations and models, text messaging has changed very little and represents the instantaneous reading that colleges and universities desire in their communication efforts. The challenge is how to manage a sophisticated texting program without having staff members constantly encumbered with additional work. Enter artificial intelligence and chat bots to reach students where they are and provide 24/7 service in a world that demands instant answers.
The University of South Carolina as a highly-ranked comprehensive university competes with many larger, better staffed, and more well-funded universities. We constantly are seeking ways to maximize our outreach to students in the most effective and cost-efficient methods. The implementation of artificial intelligence via our chatbot has dramatically increased engagement with our prospective students and, more importantly, increased action on all of our various enrollment steps. In our first year of implementation, we are already seeing double-digit increases in key enrollment indicators! Equally important, we have actually seen a lessening of staff time needed to answer questions while achieving a much higher level of results!
The session will offer participants the opportunity to test drive an enrollment virtual assistant (the USC Aiken chatbot ... Ace) by interacting with the chatbot over Facebook Messenger or text. They may ask questions and see in real-time how the system helps individuals scale one-to-one mobile message advising with a vast audience. Participants will learn how to send nudge reminders, helpful tips, and questionnaires to gather both structured and unstructured data directly from students via text message or Facebook Messenger. The power of this new technology will be obvious and, we think, exciting to schools of all sizes.
Submission ID:
6534
Presenter(s):
Daniel Robb University of South Carolina Aiken
Winner Status
- Session