Sentiment Analysis: The Key to Boosting Your Student Engagement Rate

If you’re in higher education and looking for ways to increase your student engagement rate, consider using an AI tool capable of sentiment analysis. 

Sentiment analysis is an increasingly popular function of AI technology. Using an algorithm, AI can parse large amounts of data, like text messages and chatbot interactions, to recognize patterns and emotions throughout the data set. This is a beneficial function of AI, especially if you want to understand students’ feelings toward your institution.

In this post, we’ll discuss four ways you can use sentiment analysis to give your student engagement rate a boost. Plus, learn how Cadence, a holistic student engagement platform, can help you better connect with your students.

3 Ways to Use Sentiment Analysis to Boost Your Student Engagement Rate

1. AI Chatbots

Incorporating an AI chatbot into your campus website is a great way to increase student engagement and enrollment.

Many students find applying for college or enrolling in classes challenging, which can sometimes lead to frustration. Incorporating an AI chatbot onto your website is a great way to understand how students feel when they are registering for or enrolling in classes.

Not only can the chatbot guide students through the process, but it can also collect data for sentiment analysis so you and your team can better understand the touchpoints in the process that cause friction. With this information, you and your team can make the necessary adjustments to eliminate negative feelings toward enrollment and increase student engagement.

Pro tip: Cadence’s AI Assistant functions as another member of your team. Embedded into Cadence, it can generate responses and suggest replies, making conversations with prospects, students, alumni, and donors more personal and effective.

2. Early Intervention

60% of college students report feeling anxiety. Anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues can be challenging for students to navigate and can lead them to become disconnected from their studies and on campus. Sentiment analysis can help you prevent them from ever getting to this point. 

How? By proactively identifying negative thoughts and feelings that arise in their communications. This is helpful when identifying students who may be at risk for or facing mental health challenges. Understanding students’ emotions can help you and your leadership team plan student support initiatives, like extending counseling office hours or promoting events around mental health awareness.

Pro tip: You can explore the sentiments and motivations of students, alumni, and donors within text and chat conversations in Cadence. When a student’s sentiment identifies them as displaying depressive emotions, you and your team can easily step in to provide timely and effective support.

3. Personalized Support

Combining the power of AI’s sentiment analysis with your talented team of academic leaders is a fantastic way to provide even more support for your students. Sentiment analysis can help uncover students’ true feelings about their degree program and help counselors suggest courses or degree tracks that better align with their interests and aspirations.

By understanding students’ sentiments such as their goals, frustrations, and aspirations, you can easily provide personalized support to help them make the most of their time on campus. 

Pro tip: With Cadence’s ability to segment lists and analyze interactions, you can send your students communications that you know they’ll care about. If your text or chat concerns a topic they’re interested in, they’re more likely to open and interact with your campaign.

Bonus: Need some ideas to get the conversations going with your students? Here are 15 texting templates for student success.

Boost Your Student Engagement With Cadence’s Sentiment Analysis 

Student engagement is a key factor in retention and graduation rates. So, it’s imperative to pull out all the stops to keep students engaged and motivated on campus.

Think of sentiment analysis as a superpower. It can help you read and understand the minds of your students. And, when you know how and why your students think and feel as they do, you and your team can better support them in their academic endeavors. Remember, supported students are more likely to be engaged students. And engaged students graduate. It’s a win-win!

Ready to talk about how you can bring Cadence to your campus? Book a demo with our team to learn more about how Cadence can help boost your student engagement rates. Contact us today! 

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