Undergraduate psychology tutoring attendance: The effects of reminder messages

Abstract

This study explored at archival data from the Psychology Student Success Center (PSSC) to determine the impact of sending reminder messages to undergraduate students who attended psychology tutoring in an attempt to increase reattendance. The results indicated that the rate of returning for tutoring during the semester when reminder messages were sent out was no different than the return rate in previous spring semesters. This study also looked at student outcomes, in the form of final course grades, for the spring term when reminder messages were sent to determine if there was a significant difference between final course grades of students who attended three or more tutoring sessions and those who had not. No significant differences were found. Finally, the PSSC Session Evaluation Forms were evaluated to determine if students found the reminder messages helpful. On average, students reported that they agreed that the text message reminder encouraged them to return to the PSSC. The only significant difference in the session evaluations between students who returned for subsequent sessions and those who did not was the question asking if students planned to return. Students who return for subsequent sessions were more likely to mark that question as agree or strongly agree than students who did not return.