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Communicating with Students

Communicating with Students. CIT services are critical to student success – We must communicate!. Focus Group Objectives. Target student audience: conducted 4 focus group sessions with twenty-two undergraduates and eight graduates.

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Communicating with Students

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  1. Communicating with Students CIT services are critical to student success – We must communicate!

  2. Focus Group Objectives • Target student audience: conducted 4 focus group sessions with twenty-two undergraduates and eight graduates. • Collect first-hand feedback, ideas, and opinions about best practices for communicating with students. • Use results to improve dependability, speed, availability, quality, and usefulness for communications about: • Planned/unplanned outages • Performance issues • Resource, training, and event announcements • Student software availability, upgrades, et cetera • Security alerts

  3. What Students Said... When asked to list the services they felt were critical to their success at Cornell... Undergrads said... Grads said... 22 were asked 8 were asked * A note about authentication

  4. What Students Said... *A note about authentication Students didn’t know what the term “authentication” meant, but agreed it’s very important to access online services with their NetID and password, because if that service is down, they can’t access other services that are critical to their success at Cornell. When the functionality of authentication was defined, nearly all students felt it should be communicated about during an outage. What about other CIT services? Several were described as nice to know: NUBB, free anti-virus, software discounts, public lab software, HelpDesk, computer labs Others they don’t care to receive communications for include: software training, speakers and events, news about IT topics

  5. What Students Said... When asked how do you want to be notified about outages, both undergrads and grads reported... • First choice: I prefer email (ALL students said this) • “Only communicate for critical services.” • “The subject is really important.” • “It must be short, simple, and to the point.” • “I hadn’t realized it was complicated to email students... I would opt in to receive messages about services.” (ALL students in the room agreed)

  6. What Students Said... When asked how do you want to be notified about outages, both undergrads and grads reported... • Second choice: I prefer text messages (11 of 30 students said this) • “It must be opt-in, because it costs me money.” • “We had this at my undergraduate school and people could subscribe or not and it was pretty helpful if there was an emergency on campus.” • “I don’t know if an IT emergency rises to the level of a text message.” • “I think it would be really annoying.” • Third choice: I prefer info on the lab desktops (8 of 30 students said this)

  7. A Glimpse Into the Student Experience Example: Unplanned Outage • When a service stops working, students want instant information: • Sorry pages should have details (time till restored or until next update, what happened, available alternatives). • Keep it honest, short, and friendly/informal.(oops! that’s embarrassing) If the internet is down, some would like a text message. BUT, for some it costs $ so it must be opt-in. Most will ask a friend why it’s not working, then give up. • Their biggest worries... • Is it my fault? • Is my professor aware? Will I get in trouble for something out of my control?

  8. What Students Said... How aware are students of computing services available to them? Graduates are MUCH more aware than undergrads. Undergraduates assume they will get some type of service, whereas graduates EXPECT services. Students want to be more “in the know” about available services. • Free anti-virus • Net-Print • Software discounts • Blackboard • Email • Helpdesk • NUBB • RedRover Secure What’s the cost? How do I get it? What if it isn’t working? What’s the benefit to ME?

  9. More Insights Available In the Report • In addition to what we’ve discussed, look in the report for information about: • Student recognition of the CIT website • Student recognition of the For Students page • Things that make students tune in and tune out! • Amazingly – All students said they tune in for email! • 18 of 30 tune in for lab desktops. • Only 10 of 30 tune in for posters... and it drops off rapidly from there.

  10. Recommendations Based On the Focus Group Results • Some things CIT should consider: • Improving outage communications • Increasing service awareness on campus • Increasing web traffic to cit.cornell.edu/students • Meeting student expectations for communications style • Minimizing less effective communication strategies

  11. How CIT CanImprove Outage Communications • Build a mobile website with status page content, HelpDesk contact information, and a link to the full website. • Create an e-list for students to receive critical information about service changes/outages. A list of high-priority services is available in the report. • Create managed sorry pages that can be updated with info students want to see during an outage. • Pursue potential Bb community page. • Research opt-in text messaging services being used at other universities.

  12. How CIT Can Increase Service Awareness on Campus • Keep a running list of services students are most interested in and feature those services in a scheduled annual campaign. • Better utilize CIT Public Lab desktops with scheduled rolling campaign – the space should ALWAYS be used to communicate something. • Implement the e-list and Bb community page mentioned previously.

  13. How CIT Can Increase Web Traffic to cit.cornell.edu/students • Change browser homepage in CIT Public Labs to cit.cornell.edu/students. • Along with the CIT student services campaign, run a continual campaign to familiarize students with cit.cornell.edu/students. • Brand cit.cornell.edu/students on everything we publish for students. • Provide HelpDesk bookmarks (with link to cit.cornell.edu) to CU libraries and residence halls for students to take.

  14. How CIT Can Meet Student Expectations for Communications Style • Keep emails to students very short and less formal. • Create messages that feature how services will make student life easier. • Make short how-to videos available for tasks like: • How to sign up for RedRover Secure • How to install Net-Print drivers

  15. How CIT Can Minimize Less Effective Communication Strategies • Limit use of postcards and posters. • Don’t spend time developing a CIT outage mobile ap for the iPhone. The audience is too small to warrant the effort/cost of development. Consider a mobile website instead – can be used by any device. • Don’t spend effort building a CIT Facebook or other social site for students. Students reserve this space for socializing.

  16. Next Steps • Provide specific service feedback to appropriate service owners. • Provide link to full report on CIT internal website. Email Service Owners and Service Managers an update with link to full report. • Share with CIT via CIT Values October newsletter/poster. • Meet with service owners who can help us develop and implement recommendations. • Discuss recommendations. • Determine opportunities. • Schedule projects (build a mobile website, research texting, etc.) • Start using some of our new communication channels. • Try to conduct a new set of focus groups with students every two years...

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