An Examination of Integrated Marketing Communications and Student Integration at Online Universities: A Phenomenological Approach

Growth in online education provides new opportunities for marketing agents and college administrators to increase the institution's student enrollment. This research offers a contemporary framework of integrated marketing communications (IMC) by promoting the specialized messages to customers. Attracting and keeping existing students through graduation is particularly important in online education. In 1975, Tinto reported on the importance of students properly integrating within the college community. According to Tinto's student integration model (SIM), if a student socially integrates into the college community, the likelihood of withdraw from school before completion decreases. While attending traditional (face-to-face) classes, students have opportunities to engage in routine in-person communications with their professors. For students attending online classes, the ability to engage in one-on-one communications with the professor are less likely to occur. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to expand Tinto's 1975 SIM, which addressed attrition rates in the traditional college environment, to the online college environment using text messaging. Participants for this study involved three professors who sent weekly text-messages to four students during an 8-week summer online course. The researcher conducted bi-weekly interviews with each student to learn of his or her lived experiences. Data analysis occurred through examination and in-depth review of each student's responses to a series of open-ended interview questions. Although it would be difficult to reach data saturation with four students, the results of this exploratory study showed agreement on several of the examined global and sub-themes. The results suggest students are in favor of receiving text-messages from their professor and as a result, feel a stronger sense of institutional commitment to the University. There was also evidence suggesting students developed a sense of feeling connected to the professors after receiving weekly text-messages. The findings of this research contributed to the body of literature by expanding Tinto's SIM framework to the online environment. The results also provide helpful information to marketing agents, college administrators, and online students. Future research is needed to (1) explore student's long-term institutional commitments, (2) measure the change in social integration after receiving text-messages, and (3) examine the frequency and content of preferred text-messages.