The Value of a Nudge: Key Takeaways from The Hope Center & Amarillo College

Late last month, our partners at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, founded by Edquity’s Chief Strategy Officer Sara Goldrick-Rab, released a report that takes a closer look at a strategy implemented at Amarillo College that has seen impressive results related to student uptake of campus resources to address basic needs. This post breaks down the key takeaways for institutions looking to help provide more students with the resources they need to persist and complete their education.

Background

Building upon a 2018 collaboration with Amarillo College’s Advocacy and Resource Center (ARC),  as a case study for a 2018 report, the Hope Center partnered with the school to explore what tactics and philosophies have been most effective in increasing awareness and use of available resources. This effort was rooted in a troubling finding: only a small number of the students who are experiencing basic needs insecurity are accessing resources currently available on campus. Could email nudges, carefully crafted to help point students toward the appropriate next step, help more students take advantage of those support systems?

What the Study Found

Using a randomized encouragement design during the 2018 and 2019 academic years, Amarillo College and the Hope Center found that gentle email reminders to target populations of students can be an effective, both in terms of cost and response, method of making students aware of ARC offerings and other campus resources. Referred to as “nudging,” this approach has been used to encourage students to complete FAFSA filings and serve as a motivational tool. 

ARC’s nudge emails were thoughtfully designed to include the following elements:

• Personalized greetings, addressed to a student’s first name;
• Content tied to particular academic junctures, such as holiday breaks;
• Descriptions of supports available to all students to prevent misconceptions about eligibility requirements;
• Emphasis on existing supports to counter concerns about resource scarcity
  

Over the course of the experiment, the information collected indicated that 56% of nudged students visited the ARC at least once, compared to 22% of students who had not received nudges, and on average, nudged students visited one additional time and used two additional services. 

Recommendations and Next Steps

What do these findings mean for institutions looking to boost usage of basic needs resources? Armed with the insights and outcomes of the nudging experiment, The Hope Center shares the following recommendations for others to factor in as they design similar programs for their student communities: 

• Colleges and policymakers should invest in supports for students’ basic needs. For example, all of California’s public universities have state-supported basic needs centers. Colleges and universities may use federal dollars from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) for planning and initial implementation of basic needs centers. The California legislature recently provided $30M to the state’s community colleges to create centers on those campuses.
• Colleges and policymakers should invest in thoughtful marketing and outreach to connect students to basic needs supports. We recommend using personalized nudging.
• The many entities working to improve outcomes for underprepared students should integrate basic needs supports into their work and evaluate the outcomes. Researchers should continue to examine how to connect students most effectively to basic needs supports with a focus on potential differences in impacts by gender. 
• Everyone—colleges, policymakers, researchers, etc.—should carefully consider equity in their design and funding of basic needs supports. For instance, community college students tend to have greater need than students at four-year institutions, but their colleges receive much less funding on a per-student basis. The report also indicates that male students and structurally marginalized students may require additional efforts to help address their basic needs. Disaggregating data can help reveal where gaps exist for specific student groups.

For those interested in learning more about The Hope Center’s recent work, their recently published report “When Care Isn’t Enough: Scaling Emergency Aid During the COVID-19 Pandemic” is available for review.  

Are you an administrator? Get in touch with us at inquiries@edquity.co to learn more about how you can bring equitable emergency aid to your institution today.

Are you a student? Contact support@edquity.co or click the blue bubble in the bottom-right corner of edquity.co for assistance.