Email contact to increase attendance¶
Research question: can increase email contact increase attendance for free online courses?
Experiment 1: Bianca intermediate¶
From the 'Bianca course' data, focusing on the intermediate course, we see:
| Course | Iteration | Course date | Registered | Showing up | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intermediate | 1 | 2023-12-11 | ? | 12 | . |
| Intermediate | 2 | 2024-05-24 | ? | 5 | . |
| Intermediate | 3 | 2024-11-11 | ? | 6 | . |
| Intermediate | 4 | 2025-05-22 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| Intermediate | 5 | 2025-11-18 | 7 | 2 | 29% |
| Intermediate | 6 | 2026-05-22 | 16 | 4 | 25% |
At 2026-10-14 this will be the new communication strategy:
| When | What should be in the email | Goal of email |
|---|---|---|
| Short after registration | Confirmation, event value, date/time in local zone, calendar add | Early contact closes the commitment gap [Abdolrasulnia et al., 2004] |
| 1 week before session | Simple reminder to prepare | Learners need to be prepared |
| 1 day before session | Simple reminder with link and clear message what to do | Most webinar users prefer this timing [Almuzian et al, 2022] |
| 1 hour before session | Very short reminder with join link | Many users want a last-minute prompt [Almuzian et al, 2022] |
We will keep track of attendance rate
Experiment 2: HPC Python¶
Have we ever seen an effect?
Checking the 'HPC Python Day 1' communication and the 'HPC Python Day 1' data we see:
| No | Date | Strategy | Registrations | Participants | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2025-03-04 | B | 67 | 16 | 24% |
| 5 | 2025-10-14 | B | 30 | 12 | 40% |
| 6 | 2025-11-27 | A | 42 | 8 | 19% |
| 7 | 2026-03-03 | B | 57 | 19 | 33% |
| 8 | 2026-04-20 | A | 50 | 19 | 38% |
- Strategy
A: sufficient - Strategy
B: more effort
The data, being very limited, shows no significant difference:
References¶
[Abdolrasulnia et al., 2004]Abdolrasulnia, M., Collins, B. C., Casebeer, L., Wall, T., Spettell, C., Ray, M. N., Weissman, N., Allison, J., C., E., Edu, C., Edu, N. W., & Allison, J. Bmc Medical Education Using Email Reminders to Engage Physicians in an Internet-based Cme Intervention.[Almuzian et al, 2022]Almuzian, M., Mheissen, S., Wertheimer, M., & Khan, H. (2022). Global survey to assess preferences for attending virtual orthodontic learning sessions: Pre-webinar settings. Journal of Orthodontics, 50, 157 - 165. https://doi.org/10.1177/14653125221124622