Keeping students on the hook can involve something as simple as letting them start and finish the enrollment process with the one thing they rarely put down: their cellphones. Students can enroll in four online programs at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology without ever having to log on to their laptops. That might not seem like a big deal, but simplifying and streamlining enrollment is key, says Luke Phillips, executive director of marketing and enrollment at the graduate school in Malibu, Calif.
“Every action you make a student take
in the enrollment cycle causes them to
be exponentially less likely to be in their
seat on the first day of class,” he says. The
university enlisted the help of Emma, Perdia
Education’s artificial intelligence-powered
mobile enrollment tool. Students who don’t
answer emails and don’t have time for face-to-face meetings are more likely to respond
and follow through on enrollment, advocates
of the technology say, when the whole
process fits in the palm of one hand.
