Student Engagement at MSU

While MSU has had consistent increases in enrollment over the past semesters, student engagement in and out of the classroom could be improved. But how can the academy go about doing this? Many students that seem to have this issue are those that are new to the college atmosphere such as freshmen and sophomores. But more and more often, students seem to be keeping this behavior into their junior year, and maybe even into their senior year as well. While these students are aware that they are paying for this education, they seem to feel that getting by with a C is sufficient for a degree. Many students don't seem to understand that a degree is just half of getting a job in the future. If there is a lack of knowledge that the degree signifies, how can one expect obtain and keep a job?

The question is: How can an institution improve student engagement? One potential way to influence the student to attend class more often could include conducting research to make classes more appealing to students. Many students, myself included, can get lost in a bland and routine presentation or lesson. If the information was presented in a way that would appeal more to the audience, the information could be better retained. The tricky part here would be to find out what would appeal enough to the audience to keep them engaged in the lesson plan.

Learning has been done the same general way for more than the past 100 years. Some innovators are now finding new ways to teach such as online school, hands-on learning, and much more. The way I see it, there are better ways of learning out there, and we are just breaking the surface. What the same principles from marketing were applied to the classroom? Through behavioral analysis and other marketing tactics, the learning experience could potentially be vastly improved.

Innovative Idea Presentation

Today was the unveiling of our product to the rest of our class and a few representatives from the Blackstone Launchpad, a global entrepreneurship program. After the presentation, questions from the audience brought up some points that we had considered, but should further refine. Ways in which to launch the app were discussed among the group, but were never definitive on how we would launch. What we had concluded is that we would pair with pre-established smart-pay platforms such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. These are already well established companies and would be far easier to pair with rather than to compete against. Another group that presented a similar idea had an excellent idea to pair with a specific big bank. Not only would the bank most likely find the services that we provide useful and innovative, but they would also attract new customers because the bank would offer something unique that other banks do not have. Banks could potentially pay a very large sum for this service.

Innovative Idea Revisited

Today, we further discussed ways in which we could better our product. One main thing that we were concerned about was the security of the wearables. After some critical thinking, we landed on integrating fingerprint scanning technology. This would be used in the inexpensive watch option that we would offer and potentially in the future with other smartwatches. This would nearly eliminate the potential of others accessing the user's accounts through the use of our products.

We also had to address how to secure the accounts on smartwatches without fingerprint scanning technology. We had to put some extra thought into this one as the screen on smartwatches are too small to type in a password (especially when one is intoxicated). To solve this issue, we decided to use a simple combination of upward, downward, left and right swipes that  would allow users to enable their smartwatch for payment. 

Innovative Idea

For the past few weeks, my consumer behavior group and I have been discussing ways that we could improve the lives of young adults and to help ease the transition to adulthood. The products that we were coming up with were not targeting any type of young adult in particular, they could be a college student, full-time worker, ski bum, or any other type of person. To come up with ideas, we initially looked at problems that this generation was facing. We tried to look deeply into the issues to find problems that we may not have even realized existed.

Once we found some common key issues with achieving goals, we started exploring ways of helping young adults get into a good habit of meeting and exceeding their goals. We thought about current ways to encourage individuals to meet their goals. One way includes individuals holding each other accountable for meeting goals like going to the gym. I have a friend that was trying to get to the gym more often. She and a friend made a deal that if one missed a day at the gym, they would have to buy the other a gift. This encourages the two of them to go to the gym because money is on the line. Similarly, some websites offer the same type of service. You can put an amount of money to your credit card to encourage yourself to meet a goal. If you haven't met your goal by a deadline that you set, the site will charge the amount to your card and donate it to a charity that you do not like.

We thought that converting a similar system to an app could be very useful and easier to use than a website. The app would also include some sort of rewards system to encourage participation. Later on down the road, we would introduce some wearable technology to track heart rate, calories burned, blood alcohol content, and many other dimensions. Unfortunately, after some concept testing through product pitches, we found that the app and associated technology may not be as successful as we had initially hoped. Many were confused on how the app would be able to accurately track how well one was meeting their goals. It would be easy to cheat the system.

After hearing this, we decided to again brainstorm. We eventually landed on a new and innovative idea. As a college student, I have found that it is very tough to control spending when going out for the night. One drink could easily turn into two or even two for everyone that you are with. Spending over $100 downtown is not out of the question. A correlation can be found between intoxication and amount spent. Once you are fairly drunk, you have far less control over your wallet. In order to combat this issue, we decided to introduce an app that would allow you to link to your checking account and set a spending limit for a certain period of time. The limit could not be exceeded unless you were able to solve some sort of varied problem. If you did elect to exceed your preset limit, you would be reminded that you set the limit there for a reason in order to nudge you to spend less.

Along with this, we took note that many places including convenience stores, grocers, and restaurants are starting to use smart payment technologies such as Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. We began thinking of a way that we could incorporate this technology into our venture. We decided that we could further improve the ease of payment by using wearable technology to pay rather than having to pull a phone out of your pocket. To do this, we decided to go with a wrist band or smartwatch. For those with smartwatches, they could simply download an app for the wearable that would enable access to various cards and allow you to use it to pay straight from the watch. Down the road, we would introduce an affordable alternative for those that do not want to purchase an expensive smartwatch. There would be various models ranging from a very basic model that stores payment information for one card to a deluxe model that included a screen and storage for multiple forms of payment.

This is still a work in progress, and there is much work to be done, but this idea shows huge potential as more and more business move toward smart pay technologies. Is it too early to introduce this product? How much should our app cost? Should we charge a one-time fee for the app or should we charge it as a monthly service? There are still many questions that need to be answered in order to determine the viability of this product. Keep posted for further progress.