Targeted Texts Make Big Impact on Enrollment

Posted Friday, February 14, 2025 @ 11:55 AM

Targeted texting continues to make a positive impact on key moments in the UCF student journey, including enrollment and drop for non-payment.

Nearly 11,150 students who had yet to sign up for classes in Spring 2025 received friendly nudges of upcoming enrollment deadlines from November 2024 to January 2025. The campaign connected students experiencing financial, academic, or well-being barriers with timely one-on-one help from UCF staff.

After the drop/add deadline in early January 2025, 67% of students who answered the texts successfully completed enrollment.

“Texting delivers clear, direct, and actionable messaging. Students respond to this method at much higher rates than mass-emailing or calling because the information is easy to find, relevant and useful,” says Tyler Walsh, director of the Center for Higher Education Innovation (CHEI) that houses Knightbot.

Another recent campaign targeted students at risk of being unenrolled for non-payment. Texts alerted students of their status while providing actionable links and resources to stay enrolled and on track. Over 71% of students who requested help were able to remain enrolled

These wins realize the original vision for Knightbot as a 24/7 one-stop shop that students could text with a question. The chatbot is also available online as a virtual assistant on most Student Success and Well-Being (SSWB) websites.

Scaling and improving Knightbot over 2024 brought online more than 50 partnerships with units in the Division of Student Success and Well-Being (SSWB) and other Colleges and units at UCF. It also prioritizes wellbeing and safety through innovative partnerships with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the UCF Police Department.

More partnerships are on the horizon in 2025 as well as a pilot research study funded by the Department of Education Postsecondary Student Success Grant (PSSG) called TEACH ME. The study — “Technology Enhanced Academic Communication to Help in Math and English” — is a four-year multi-institutional project investigating outcomes of personalized, course-specific chatbot communication in gateway math and English courses. The benchmarks will examine students’ academic performance, sense of belonging, retention, and completion at scale.

Starting in Fall 2024, CHEI partnered with the College of Sciences and the Department of Mathematics to implement “Course Knightbot” in Calculus I, sending nudges to over 600 students in the course to provide a weekly digest of the course and relevant resources. In

Fall 2025, the project will scale to the College of Arts and Humanities and the Writing & Rhetoric Department in English Composition 1 and 2. This project will reach full scale in these two courses by Fall 2026 and is funded through December 2027.

“We have to reach students where they are. Knightbot continues to prove its worth as a creative and effective tool for addressing some of the most common obstacles on the student journey.” says Ryan Goodwin, SSWB’s senior assistant vice president for strategy and chief of staff.