Texted ‘Nudges’ Keep STEM Majors on Track

According to a 2013 study by the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, more than two-thirds of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) associate’s degree candidates fail to complete their studies, with about half of those switching to a non-STEM major and the other half leaving without obtaining any degree or certification. Overall, fewer than 30% of community college students complete their program in three years.

Sometimes, all it may take is a nudge to keep such students on track and on time.

A trial involving almost 2,000 STEM students at four community colleges over the summer of 2017 found that those who received personalized text-message “nudges” returned for the fall term at a rate 10% higher than a control group that didn’t receive the messages.

The nudges, created and delivered by Persistence Plus LLC, were designed to help students manage their time better, access resources for registration and financial-aid renewal, and increase their sense of connection to the school.

The initiative was a joint effort by Persistence Plus and Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit that develops programs and policies to improve college readiness and career success for underserved populations in the U.S. The organizations chose STEM majors to address the high attrition rates in those fields, and community colleges because two-year programs produce more than half of all STEM degree-holders, according to The Brookings Institution.

“In an era where STEM knowledge matters more than ever,” Persistence Plus President Jill Frankfort said in a statement, “we are thrilled that our behavioral nudging model is helping community college students interested in STEM make greater progress to a degree.”

Are Mobile Devices Addictive?

A new survey from Common Sense Media reports teens think they may be addicted to their mobile devices. The poll of 1,240 parents and teens from the same household found that half of the teens said they were addicted to their device, while nearly 60% of the parents agreed.

About a third of the kids said they try to reduce the amount of time they spend using a mobile device and 66% said devices were not allowed at the dinner table. However, 72% of the teens said they felt it was necessary to respond to texts, social networking messages, and other notifications immediately, while 78% said they check their devices hourly.

The parents may be addicted as well, since 48% said they responded to messages immediately and 69% check their device hourly.

“What we’ve discovered is that kids and parents feel addicted to their mobile devices, that it is causing daily conflict in homes, and that families are concerned about the consequences,” said James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense, in a report for eSchool News. “We also know that problematic media use can negatively affect children’s development and that multitasking can harm learning and performance. As a society, we all have the responsibility to take media use and addiction seriously and make sure parents have the information to help them make smart choices for their families.”

Texting May Keep Students on Track

Texting may be a new way to keep students engaged with their education, especially as they move from high school to college. It’s cheap, available nearly everywhere, and can be used to boost achievement and study habits, according to Benjamin Castleman.

Castleman, University of Virginia education professor and author of The 160-Character Solution: How Text Messaging and OtherBehavioral Strategies Can Improve Education, studied enrollment rates of students who were accepted into college but did not enroll for fall classes. He and his colleague, Lindsay Page of the University of Pittsburgh, reported that the number of students who decided not to attend college reached 40% in some school districts, particularly among lower-income and first-generation college students.

Castleman and Page used software that could send weekly text messages to high school graduates with deadline reminders, links to documents, and connection information for advisors. They found that 70% of students who received the personalized messages ended up enrolling for the fall semester, compared to 63% of students who didn’t receive the messages.

Other studies have revealed that texting student performance information to parents of middle and high school students in Los Angeles helped increase homework completion rates by 25%. Text messaging was also found to help lower dropout rates for adult learners in England by a third.

White House research uncovered similar results. A 2015 report discovered that low-cost text messages and emails got more kids to enroll and helped college borrowers to manage their student loans better.

“These types of strategies work well with some students and educational settings and not well for others,” Castleman said in an article that appeared in The Hechinger Report. “It’s not texting itself that makes these nudges successful; it’s attending to details like frequency, timing, and framing of messages.”

One App to Teach Them All

Mobile 3.0 is a free app created to provide students at the University of Maryland, College Park, with ways to produce and post multimedia content in journalism classes taught by Ronald Yaros. The app includes built-in tools for photos, audio, and video, along with a way for the instructor to send push text notifications to students without their phone number.

Yaros, associate professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, designed the app for his students as a way to prepare them for a future where technological skills are paramount.

“While we know that any device can distract from learning, we don’t know how to change the way a device can be used for sustained engagement and more effective learning,” Yaros said in an interview for Campus Technology. “That’s why we need a mindset shift to adapt a tool’s use to class meetings, assignments, and activities that require technology.”

Laptops were a distraction to Yaros, so he banned them in favor of tablets and smartphones that use his interactive app. The app provides students with instant polls, open-ended questions for discussion, live web sites and Twitter feeds, and quizzes that send scores back to Yaros. All course-related content is viewed on the students’ devices.

“From week one, they are repeatedly reading, researching, interpreting, writing, posting, and discussing the content produced by me and by their peers,” Yaros said. “I scaffold these skills so that students constantly build on and improve their previously learned techniques for effectively communicating digital content on the web and on mobile devices.”

Students have to apply all those skills to produce and post multimedia reports related to their major for their final project. Yaros has found his classes have improved attendance and participation, along with better evaluations by students.

“The bottom line is not the technology itself but how the technology is used—and there are countless ways to use it,” Yaros said. “My hope is that students leave my course with the professional skills they can apply in their field of work and not think Twitter or Blogger is useful only in social circles.”

Texting May Not Always Be a Distraction

While studies find that mobile devices in the classroom can be a distraction, they are not going away any time soon. Jeffrey Kuznekoff, professor of integrative studies at the Miami University branch in Middletown, OH, decided to take a closer look. He found that students who used their smartphones to text about course content earned scores on par with those who put their phones away in class.

In his study, Mobile Phones in the Classroom: Examiningthe Effects of Texting, Twitter, and Message Content on Student Learning, 145 randomly selected undergrads in communications classes were asked to take notes while watching a 12-minute video lecture on interpersonal communication theories. Students were divided into groups and exposed to different smartphone distractions during the video.

After the distractions, students were allowed a short review period before taking two tests. The first asked students to recall as much information from the video as possible and the second was a 16-question multiple-choice exam on the content.

Students in a control group did score a letter grade higher than those texting on topics unrelated to the lecture, but students who texted about the content had scores similar to the control group. In addition, students asked to tweet every 60 seconds on the content of the video scored higher than those who tweeted every 30 seconds.

“They’re still engaging with the content in some fashion, still mentally processing it,” Kuznekoff said in an article for Inside Higher Education. “That appears, in this short-term experiment, to not have a significantly detrimental effect on learning.”

Text Messages Used to Boost Student Success

Most schools use technology to push information to students. A Texas college is using text messaging to get the word out.

A study conducted at Cisco College provided text messages to half of a class of developmental psychology students. The messages included notes on readings and quizzes that would take place during the upcoming week, current events the students should review for the class, student-specific notes on ongoing work, and a message asking students to send questions, comments, or concerns to the instructor.

The students who received the text messages scored higher on quizzes, papers, and exams than the control group, which did not receive the messages. Students also reported they spent more time on assignments because the information was made convenient.

“Digital natives—basically everyone in a K-12 classroom today—are comfortable using handheld devices to interact and communicate,” Scott Hamm, director of online education at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX, wrote in an article about the research for EdTech Magazine. “Staying connected through one’s smartphone is an ambient part of communication habits today, and texting is the primary communication medium of 14- to 18-year-olds.”

Study Finds Texting Helps Students Succeed

Researchers at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX, found that text messages can help student learning. The study focused on communication formats used by students as a way to get them to learn outside the classroom setting, according to a report in eClassroom News.

“A text from a friend saying ‘LOL’ isn’t on the same level as an email from a professor trying to impart some knowledge necessary for the future,” said Scott Hamm, director of online education at Hardin-Simmons. “It doesn’t matter how important the email is, they won’t pay as much attention to it as a text message.”

Initially, the researchers used texting to assign classwork and to engage with students in real time. Now, they use it to give quizzes, while students complete assignments and have questions answered by the instructor.

“It’s really a personal connection where if I need to get a hold of such-and-such student, this is how I can do it,” said Chuck Ruot, professor of fitness and sports sciences. “It sounds weird, but it builds a rapport with the students.”

Text messaging statistics

The Mashable website recently featured an interesting article about text messaging and how it has become one of the most popular forms of communication. The article includes a graphic to illustrate the texting trends and averages in the U.S. and around the world. Some interesting stats include:

• Texting has surpassed e-mail, phone, and face-to-face conversation as the main communication vehicle for 12-17 year olds.
• In the U.S., 14-17 year old girls send about 100 texts per day while boys in the same age group send about 30 texts per day.
• By 2009, 5 trillion text messages were being sent annually worldwide.

For more statistics, visit the Mashable website.