Google Voice allows advisors to communicate with students via text message while avoiding issues like cost and privacy. Advisors can receive and respond to text messages through their email or a third-party client. When an advisor responds by email, the student receives the response as a text message on their phone. This allows advisors to meet students where they are most comfortable communicating through text, while integrating the service into the advisors' existing email and workspace.

1. Google Voice
#NACADA13 - Salt Lake City
Tobiah Deutsch - Senior Academic Advisor
School of Information Studies - Univeristy of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

2. How do students communicate?
● Philosophy: Allow students to contact us
where they feel comfortable.
●
● What are students using? Comfortable with?
○ Email?
○ Phone?
○ Social Media?
○ Text?

3. How do students communicate?
● TEXT!
○ We KNOW
they’re texting!

5. NACADA Research Grant Data
● Rey Junco
○ Twitter: @reyjunco
● What do communication
patterns tell us?
- Texting with your advisor
is the best predictor of
students meeting with
advisors.
- Email? It’s the pits. :(

6. Issues?
● Cost?
○ Software?
○ Phones?
● FERPA?
● Your personal phone
number?!?!

7. Google Voice
● FREE!
● Integrated as Google Suite of products
● FREE!
● Messages are sent/received via email
○ Works with mobile and desktop
● FREE!

8. Google Voice

9. Students send a text…

10. You receive the text… as email!

11. You respond as email…

12. ...Students receive as a text!

13. ...or get text into Gmail!

14. ...or in a third party client!

15. … and respond from that client!

16. ...students still receive a text!