Moorpark Adult School
Submitted By: Sean Abajian
Ventura County Adult Education Consortium
Website: https://www.mrpk.org/adulted
Type of Practice: Leadership
Program Area(s): ABE / ASE, ESL / EL Civics / Citizenship, CTE / Workforce Prep / Pre-apprenticeship, Adults with Disabilities, K12 Success
Region: Central Coast
Consortia Involved: Ventura County Adult Education Consortium
Program Overview
Moorpark Adult School created apps to boost student engagement and to address adult education needs using no code and low code Software As A Services (SAAS) such as Airtable and Twilio.
The Program of Practice
With the number of student registrations impacted by the pandemic, we have been seeking to better tap into our existing networks to better market our programs. We know from the data we collect from student surveys that most of our new students hear about our school from family and friends.
The Response
Using low code and no code software, we have built an application that is helping us track student referrals from our current students. The way it works is that whenever returning or new students register for classes, they will automatically get a personalized text message and email the following day that says:
Hello/Hola
{Student First Name/Nombre}, do you have any friends or family interested in taking classes at Moorpark Adult School? If so, please share this link with them:
{Unique Referral Link}
¿Tiene algún amigo o familiar interesado en tomar clases en la Escuela para Adultos de Moorpark? Si es así, por favor comparte el enlace de arriba con ellos.
Thanks/Gracias!
Best,
Sean Abajian
Principal, Moorpark Adult School
When the student shares that unique URL with their friends and family, we automatically get a tally of how many people have completed the online registration using that specific link.
The Unique Features of the Program
We're creating apps to boost student engagement and to address adult education needs using no code and low code Software As A Services (SAAS) such as Airtable and Twilio.
We have a dashboard of the Top 10 referrers which automatically organizes the data from referrals and provides us with live updates. This subsequently enables us to publicly recognize and show appreciation for people who are getting the word out the most to their networks and our larger surrounding community about our school programs. An added objective is that this will then create a positive feedback loop which encourages our students to share even more about our school to more people.
The Outcome
We are just beginning to see the results of this new referral program launched in August 2022, but as we communicate more and more using personalized Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and bi-directional text messaging we are seeing two primary trends emerge: first, an increased response rate as compared with emails and phone calls; secondly a reduction in repetitive tasks by staff. Additionally, the automation component where students get an email/text after registering reduces stress for staff who no longer have to worry about inadvertent errors resulting from copying and pasting messages. This frees up staff to focus on more valuable work. Our goal is for the referral program to be a new way for us to authentically engage with our students by building a sense of community and school spirit while also crowdsourcing our marketing efforts.