In higher ed, providing authentic and proactive support services is vital for student success and wellbeing. With Ana, Upswing’s SMS engagement tool, students receive holistic support for all aspects of their student journey. In this blog post, we’ll be covering six Ana features our prospective and established Ana partners may not know about. You’ll learn everything you need to start fully supporting your students on their journey towards graduation.
Personalized Messaging Categories:
As an SMS engagement tool, it’s no secret Ana delivers cohesive and consistent messaging. However, Ana has been designed to strategically deliver four types of distinct messages, all tailored to each individual student. Ana’s reminders ensure students stay organized by highlighting critical deadlines and dates. Ana’s resources promote available services, including tutoring, mental health support, and career advising as well as on-campus resources. Ana’s surveys gather valuable insights into student well-being, needs, and intent to continue their education. Ana also provides authentic and motivational messages, inspirational quotes to empower students, and light humor to help uplift and support students.
Strategic Message Cadence:
At Upswing, we know that our students’ journeys are not always straightforward. For general assistance, Ana delivers roughly one cohesive message per week. In this way, Ana communicates consistently without overwhelming students. However, we acknowledge that there are times students might need more support than usual. In more intense circumstances, Ana can dispatch more than one message per week to address urgent matters effectively.
Customizable Additional Messages:
Upswing also acknowledges that each higher ed institution has unique needs. Each of our partners can enhance their message plans by incorporating up to three additional templated messages per semester. These messages can cover diverse topics, including upcoming deadlines, important announcements, campus activities, special population reminders, academic support, and inspirational quotes. Partners can select from our pre-written additional message templates, or write the additional messages themselves, allowing for ease and flexibility.
Emergency Handling and Escalation:
Ana is not an emergency notification system and should not be utilized for urgent matters requiring immediate action. However, Ana implements successful and strategic measures to support students whenever they show signs of distress, quickly putting the student in contact with an administrator or someone who can help. Ana has been instrumental in assisting students experiencing professor or academic-related issues, self harm, basic needs’ insecurities, and financial issues.
Flexibility for Message Changes:
Academic calendars are always subject to change, and Ana is built to implement changes seamlessly. Partners have the flexibility to request message adjustments throughout the semester or academic year. Whether updating deadlines or refining content, Ana ensures students receive accurate and timely information tailored to their evolving goals and needs.
With a variety of unique and powerful capabilities, some of our administrators have reported that Ana has reduced up to 50% of student questions that they normally would have received. Being completely aligned with our mission to end attrition, Ana increases the likelihood of graduating by 13.7%. See the difference Ana can make on your institution by scheduling a demo today!
