Gateway College
Surprise boost for college with JANET txt services
An unexpected drama helped reinforce the importance of registering for the JANET txt service and MoodleMobile also proved a big hit.
As well as keeping students informed about timetable changes and other administrative tasks, a sixth-form college in Leicester found JANET txt services useful during a minor emergency.
“On one occasion the college had to close when our water supply was cut off, and we sent texts early the next morning when the supply was restored to tell the students that the college was reopening,” says Paul Taylor, Network and Corporate Data Manager at Gateway Sixth Form College.
“This promoted an influx of students to correct their mobile numbers with Students Services as they had missed this message. We felt this was a really positive net result and reinforced the message that subscribing to a text service was the correct decision.”
Gateway College selected JANET txt in 2007. It is a secure SMS service launched thanks to a joint venture between PageOne Communications and JANET(UK). The service allows educational and research organisations to distribute individual or group messaging to mobiles, landlines and email through an easy-to-use interface.
The college, which has about 1,200 students, set up all of its administration departments and five academic divisions with their own accounts, buying a total of 20,000 texts.
“Each area differs slightly in the way they use the system, but primarily the academic areas use JANET txt to communicate with their students, for example to let them know about changes to timetables,” says Paul. “Our Finance department text students to lets them know the weekly status of their EMA payments, this has proved very successful. Student Services use texts as an informal reminder to students as part of the application process.”
Paul also welcomed the introduction of PageOne’s new MoodleMobile module, which gives students access to a groundbreaking course management system. “We have embedded this service into the College Moodle site, and it has already enabled our teachers to communicate more effectively with students,” says Paul. “As a matter of course, we now ensure that the collection of current mobile numbers is part of the application and enrolment processes. I have no hesitation in recommending JANET txt as a cost-effective additional communication tool for colleges.”
