Yorkshire Coast College: The educational impact of SMS on safeguarding and retention

An Excellence Gateway case study

Published: 11 February 2010

This case study was produced by JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire & Humber on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.

Sector relevance: Further education and Sixth Form colleges

Keywords: Improving responsiveness to learners, improving institutional effectiveness, marketing (recruiting learners), personal support, safeguarding learners, retention improvement strategies, retention rates, induction support system overview, procedures and responsibilities (equality and diversity), child protection (health and safety), evidence requirements (inspection preparation), evidence gathering (quality improvement), management of resources, managed learning environment, mobile technology and learning, disaffected learners

Summary

Yorkshire Coast College’s use of short message service (SMS) to communicate with learners has seen real results in many areas, including safeguarding and improving learner welfare and retention. The system provides a simple dialogue mechanism that enables the College to be more responsive to learner needs and has, as a result, improved College services and the learner experience.

About Yorkshire Coast College

Yorkshire Coast College provides a variety of full-time, part-time, work-based and distance learning courses in a range of subjects. Courses run in the two main campuses in Scarborough and venues across the North Yorkshire region in the heart of the community. Yorkshire Coast College became part of the Grimsby Institute Group on 1 January 2010.

The challenge

With the growth of mobile phone use amongst learners, Network Services Manager Mick Mullane was keen to explore this to enhance College communications.

The activity

Mick first researched text messaging as a college communication method four years ago when there was a danger that a costume course would not run, even though it had proved successful in the past. Mick manually sent text messages to 400 contacts that had been collected at a higher education fair. 20 responded and the course ran. This led Mick to work with Txttools to set-up a formal text messaging system connected to the College’s management information system (MIS).

The system works using keywords. A text message featuring a keyword triggers an email to the appropriate person. For example, a text message to the College SMS number from a learner containing the word ‘Safe’ will automatically generate an email to the College’s Welfare Team. This enables the Welfare Team to contact the learners directly. Likewise, if enabled, an email can be sent to specific tutors if a text message contains their name as a keyword.

Another aspect of the system allows inbound text messages to subscribe mobile numbers to certain keyword messages. For example, users can register for the keyword ‘Snow’ so they can be put on a mailing list to receive College updates on their mobile phones on bad weather.

The cost to the College is £1,000 per year for the software and five to six pence per text. This can be balanced against savings made by reducing other forms of communications, such as phone calls and paper mailings. It costs learners the price of a text to send a message to the system.

The system is easy to use. Users do not have to log in to the system once a rule is created, as notifications of text messages received are emailed to inboxes. Likewise, the system is synchronised so that staff can send text messages to mailing lists through the College’s MIS instead of logging on to the text message system. The timing of these texts can be set-up in advance.

The scheme is promoted via posters displayed around the College listing the various keywords. It is also part of the general induction into the College.

The outcomes

The College can use the system in a variety of ways:

• Learners to easily contact the Welfare Team at their own convenience
• Learners can text to say they will not be attending College
• Learners can subscribe to information about College news and events
• The Library can send reminders
• The College can initiate contact with learners on key issues, eg news of learners not getting Education Maintenance Allowance due to lack of attendance
• The College can use text messages to confirm places at the College
• Tutors can send reminders to learners about deadlines and coursework
• When students are on work placements, they can contact their tutor directly about any problems or issues

Mick says the cost to the learner of sending text messages "has not been a barrier. That’s the way learners communicate". Tutor class mailing lists are opt-in but all students have been keen to sign up to communicate this way.

Debbie Williams, Young Apprenticeship Co-ordinator, uses the system as part of the Welfare Team. She reports no problems with overuse or learners abusing the system.

"They use it for what it’s intended for. They understand and respect the reasons why we do it."

Debbie Williams, Young Apprenticeship Co-ordinator

The impact

The system enables the College to respond to learners more quickly using a method that learners prefer.

Improved learner welfare

The Welfare Team respond to messages within the same day, usually instantaneously.

"The key thing is that, if you’re being bullied or you don’t feel safe at College, your traditional route would be to try and find a counsellor. It may be that you’re not prepared to do that because you don’t want to be seen queuing up outside Student Services or you can’t get hold of someone. So we thought we would use the technology that learners have in their pockets to be able to facilitate these kinds of services."

Mick Mullane, Network Services Manager

Debbie agrees that the SMS system has had a major impact, particularly on the work of the Welfare Team:

"It’s trying to reach those students you might not always get in contact with, especially boys. Girls are quite up to talking. For males, that is not always the case. I think they feel a bit happier using that facility first of all before meeting somebody face to face."

Debbie Williams, Young Apprenticeship Co-ordinator

Addressing safeguarding

The system helps the College address safeguarding issues.

"For my learners out on work placement, it’s a marvellous facility for me to access them at any time. If there is anything that has come up at work that they’re not sure about, then they can text me and I can respond straightaway."

Debbie Williams, Young Apprenticeship Co-ordinator

The system is also useful for Ofsted inspections that require measurable outcomes, as the College is able to track usage of the scheme.

Increased retention

The College has seen a major impact on retention rates.

"A tutor can quickly follow up with a text asking why the learner isn’t in College. We saw an 8-9% increase in retention following that… Often you find that your students want to have a two-way dialogue about it. They don’t want to be off. If you, as a college, don’t try to engage with them about problems they’ve got then it becomes easier not to attend and subsequently drop out… It’s a supportive environment.”

Mick Mullane, Network Services Manager

The future

Mick sees text as a transitory medium that other forms of communication, such as Twitter, will overtake. However, until most students have smartphones (mobile phones that offer advanced capabilities, often with PC-like functionality) and cheap internet access on their mobile phones, the College will continue to use this method of communication. The College has free Wi-Fi (wireless local area network) so any smartphone can link to the College network within the building.

The system can also be developed to create and complement learning materials. Web links to short videos can be texted or RSS feeds from the college VLE (virtual learning environment) can be set-up to send a text message when new material is added. There could also be location-based resources, with ‘hotspots’ around the town creating a ‘treasure trail’ of information and activities.

There are also developments from the software where feedback can be gained via a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ text message. The sender asks a question and the system analyses and presents the results, making it simple to gain learner feedback.

Useful links

• Yorkshire Coast College website
• Txttools website
• JANET Txt website
• For more information about this case study, email the JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire and Humber.
• View all Yorkshire and Humberside good e-practice case studies on the Excellence Gateway.

Read other related case studies

• RNIB College Loughborough: Using text-to-speech software on mobile phones for visually-impaired learners
• RNIB College Loughborough: Visually-impaired learners benefit from audio and synchronised text on their mobile phones
• City of Sunderland College: Latest technologies inject fun into learning

Disclaimer: The Regional Support Centres (RSC) and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) support the development of educational e-learning. In the case study, we may refer to specific products, processes or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise, or link to websites or supporting material. Such references are not endorsements or recommendations and should not be used for product endorsement purposes.