Project Welcome Wagon

Winner of the Ontario University Registrars’
Association Innovation Award

Challenge:

Despite a variety of enhancements to orientation-related activities, new students were still missing critical information throughout their transition which in turn affected their first-year success. There was particular concern from stakeholders about cluttered, disjointed, uncoordinated, and an overabundance of outreach to students over the summer.

Solution:

Strategy

After conducting a content mapping process with campus stakeholders, my team and I set to task: setting out deliverables, creating an editorial calendar, and recruiting our student production team. Over the course of the summer term, we produced a series of emails and YouTuber-style videos whose deployment alternated weekly: one week, an email; the following week, a video. To drive views, we referenced the previous week’s message and always shared teasers about what was to come next. We also heavily leveraged our incoming student Facebook group for that cohort year: this was the digital homebase for students to meet each other, connect with our student eAmbassadors, and our Project Welcome Wagon hosts. It also served as another touchpoint for critical reminders about upcoming deadlines, etc.

Team

We chose two student leaders on campus to act as our hosts throughout the series, guiding students through the ins and outs of the transition into university. Another student assisted with directing, editing, and shooting the videos.

In-Person Activation

We already offered an in-person advising appointment for students, but we overhauled this appointment environment, branding it as a students’ “first day of university”. To make the encounter more engaging, we:

• redesigned the appointment room to create a comfortable, casual atmosphere for this first official encounter with campus;

• strategically built introductions and content about the student ambassador responsible for these appointments throughout the campaign to increase familiarity on appointment day;

• softened all messaging associated with appointment reminders;

• coordinated a discount voucher for same-day campus swag purchases; and

• offered free pizza to students and their parents visiting that day.

Results:

In addition to seeing strong engagement and viewer retention rates with the campaign’s content, the KPIs for PWW were closely aligned with key factors for student retention, including:

• a 16% shift in earlier course enrolments,

• an increase in factors relating to financial preparation for university (defined as an increase in enrolment deposits (+36%), increase in funding grant applications (+45%), 69% more students unlocking access to additional institutional funding),

• and a sharp increase (131%) of students enrolling in pre-university preparation activities and workshops.

Over 80% of first-year students also ranked the campaign as “very to extremely helpful” after they had completed their first semester of university.