“How to send messages to students?”
This, in fact, is a frequent and common question that schools, educational institutes, universities, private tutors, all face, especially these days where almost all teaching and learning happen online. Remote schooling, virtual lectures have become such a common practice. It’s not easy to say if it is for the better or worse, however, online learning is not going to go away. It is a fact.
With this context, comes several more requirements. All that was previously done physically, face-to-face, in-class, now needs to be done online, remotely, virtually. The need arises for an alternative mode of communication for students, staff, parents, and teachers.
Why Use Text Messages to Communicate with Students & Parents?
Simply, because it’s the easiest way to talk to anyone! People cannot answer phone calls all the time. So, the chance to miss a message is higher. Even if they do answer, they will be engaged in some other work and mishear the message. Send them a text, the message is there whenever they can and need to look at it.
Why not use emails, social media, or messaging apps, you may ask.
Well, an SMS alert requires just any phone out there, be it smart or basic!
The others – emails, social media, messaging apps – require a smartphone. They also require an internet connection. Internet connections are not always stable. And do not get me started on social media and messaging apps. They are not as stable or reliable as the old school, simple, text message.
How to Use Text Messages to Send Messages to Students & Parents?
You can use text messages for any type of communication in your school, educational institute, university, or personal classes. The best thing is, you only need to type just one text message to send to your hundred + or thousand + contacts. If you need a bit more insight, look at the following.
Send online class links to students
Trying to get several hundred students into a Zoom or Google Meet class is not easy. But, you can make that process easier by sending them the link through a text message. From the point of view of the students, too, this is the ideal method. The reason being, they do not have to download any third party app to receive all class updates.
Send time table changes and class cancellation notifications
It is essential that you inform of class time changes and sudden cancellations as soon as possible. The easiest and quickest way would be a text message. If you use some other messaging app, the student or parent will not receive it if their internet connection is switched off or not working. This could lead to many inconveniences for both parties.
Send course enrolment and fee reminders
Make sure that students and parents do not miss on any deadlines or delay payments, by sending them reminder SMS alerts. What’s more, you can also include the links to enroll or make payments, in the same SMS notification.
Inform and respond to parents about absences, student progress, questions, and more
Parents cannot walk to the school for parents’ meetings anymore. Addressing that barrier, you can inform parents via text messages about students’ progress and class absences.
Well, these are only some of the instances where you can use SMS alerts to send messages to students and parents. With bulk SMS services for schools or basically any education related institute, you can do more.
Bulk SMS Features that Make Communication with Students and Parents Easier and Quicker
Send custom SMS messages to students
“Can I send custom SMS messages to my students?”
This is a common question you can see in online forums and online learning platforms.
Yes, you can!
With a bulk SMS service like ShoutOUT, you can send personalized messages to students, parents or anyone you need. Although you will be typing just one SMS, each student’s name will be automatically added to each SMS when it is sent.
Send SMS to different students / parents groups
There is no point in sending physics lecture details to history students, right? It is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of credit. Most of all, students who continue to receive such irrelevant SMS would find it annoying.
This is where segmentation comes in handy. You can segment or group your students, parents, or anyone in the contacts list into as many groups as you need: physics 101, final year, parents (humanities). You can save and edit these groups and continue to use them as long as you need.
Send scheduled notifications
If you need to use class reminder messages every day or week, this is an ideal feature. If you send a reminder message 10 minutes before the class starts, you can save that message and set it up to be sent at the required time.
Send and receive messages – two way communication
You can both send and receive SMS with the ShoutOUT messaging platform. This way, it makes it easier for you to communicate with students as well as parents quickly and easily.
Send messages using a virtual number or a custom sender ID
Your students or parents will surely read your messages without missing when your number – or, in this case, custom name – is unique and therefore easier to recognize. With ShoutOUT, you can get a 10 digit virtual number that is unique to you, or a custom name of 11 characters like “Physics101”. This way, recipients can easily notice your mobile alerts!
Send text messages to an unlimited number of contacts at once
This is another perk of using bulk SMS for education over messaging apps. Many apps have limitations as to the number of participants in a group, to name one instance. For example, a Whatsapp group limits the number of members to 256. This is clearly not enough for a school, university or a large educational institution. However, with the ShoutOUT messaging platform, you can send SMS to an unlimited number of recipients.
ShoutOUT as an SMS Tool for Schools, Universities, Educational Institutions, and Private Tutors
Most other services such as healthcare, banking etc. slowly progressed into online modes along with using SMS alerts to communicate with their respective recipients. With the recent situation in the world, online learning and teaching saw a sudden increase in popularity everywhere, too. And, as I mentioned previously, this is only going to develop. The reason being, most parents and students have got used to the new online system and become comfortable in it.
This, in turn, means that you, as educational institutions and tutors, need to prepare yourselves to be comfortable in this fully online education system. It is much easier when you start familiarizing yourself with the necessary tools from the start itself. Moreover, when your student base grows, it becomes even harder to manage and communicate with them all. So, now that you know the features and how you can use SMS alerts to communicate with students and parents, give it a try with this easiest bulk SMS software for schools, universities, private tutors, and any other related institutes.
If you want to know more uses of SMS, read about how you can use SMS alerts for weddings.
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