AI Trip Messaging Service Texting Students

 New Information On What The Data Is Being Used For And What Students Think

by Julieanna LaDuca

SUNY Niagara has been sending a survey to every student’s personal cell phone asking them questions about how they are feeling. The questions are often altered with new semesters asking students how they feel about the new classes. This may seem like a normal thing for the college to use AI, but I decided to dig deeper looking for as much specific information as possible.

This new service is called Talk To Trip (T2T) which assists students with questions they may have about the college itself and outside factors such as: food security, safe housing, and financial aid. This service has seen to be very successful as the college rates of students opting out is 4% while 60% are actively texting Trip throughout their college journey. That total engagement number of students comes out to 14,168 student texts received at the college within the time span of 12 months.

Most students who took a poll checked off that they often wondered why the school was collecting this data. The data collected is often students’ answers to the questions sent through the prompt and most of the time this actually helps give students services quicker than if they would send an email or, try and get someone on the phone. According to Caitlin Wetherwax from the Student Success Center, “Sometimes by the time a faculty member or academic advisor is aware there is a problem it is too late to intervene.” While this direct information may not seem that valuable to the school it helps students solve their problems earlier making the problem a higher chance of being solved.

The school works with an education program called, “Edsights” which focuses on getting the data directly from the students instead of just relying off of past records and files included with their application. Edsight bundles with AI to bring fast assistance through a special messaging system. This program is highly educated-researched based especially with the texting feature being embedded in the current software. System administrators often work with this program along with other departments and tests through other campuses to deliver the most helpful information they can bring into students’ lives.

This program is still in the beginning stages and may be changed when new ideas are brought to life as this is extended to other SUNY campuses around the US. I personally find this program to be very interesting and may use it when I need a quick helping hand to point me in the right direction. A few of the most asked questions focus on getting students help with classes and assisting them in figuring out the financial aid system along with contacting their success coach. Even though this program has just started it has already made such an impact on a ton of students who decided to actively communicate with Trip and are receiving fast, and beneficial, information.