Project Boost

We want to see whether weekly text messages could help you to get more out of your studies, and engage more with someone in your life who cares about you and your success at uni. Specifically, we’re interested in whether weekly text messages and extra support helps you to do better in Spring Semester 2019.

This is a pilot study, which means that if you sign up you might nominate a Supporter and receive text messages, and you might not. This helps us to figure out whether these text messages, and conversations with your Supporter, improve your grades.

A Supporter can be anyone, as long as they're not enrolled in the same School as you at Western Sydney University. So far 40% of our students' Supporters are their partners, 30% are parents and siblings, and 20% are friends! They don't need to have been to university or know anything about your studies. If you're asked to nominate a Supporter we will send them weekly texts, prompting them to ask you questions about the unit you nominated. You'll always know what your Supporter has been texted about every week because you will receive a text with the same information.  

If you and your nominated Supporter receive messages, they will contain:

Your Supporter will not be told anything about your marks or attendance. The messages have been designed to help them understand what you are doing at uni and how they can support you during the semester. The messages will always be positive.

Unfortunately not. At this time you will have to select just one of the eligible units available in Spring Semester 2019 (please refer to below list).

For all of these changes, please email boost@westernsydney.edu.au. Please note that not all units are available as part of the Project Boost pilot in Spring Semester 2019. 

Yes, you can unsubscribe from the text messages at any time by replying STOP. You will be sent a confirmation SMS, but will not receive any future scheduled texts. Unsubscribing from the text messages does not withdraw you from the pilot, or remove your data from the dataset. To withdraw from the pilot, you can email boost@westernsydney.edu.au.

Yes, they can also unsubscribe at any time by replying STOP. 

You can reply to the text messages if you want to, but you are not expected to, and we will only check message replies about once per week. Don’t reply to texts if you are trying to get in touch with your tutor, lecturer, unit coordinator or anyone else at Western Sydney University. You’ll need to contact them directly. If you have any questions about your unit, the unit content, or vUWS, then please contact your unit coordinator - their contact details can be found in your Western Sydney University Learning Guide.

If you would like to let us know what you think about the messages, Project Boost, the conversations you have with your supporter, or anything else, we would love to hear from you. Just reply directly to the texts.

Your responses to the sign-up form are being collected by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and are used to assign you to a study condition (text messages, or no text messages).

At the end of the semester, we’ll see if the text messages and conversations made a difference to final grades. No one except two of the researchers will know who was in the study or what their grades were – your Supporter will never be told about your academic performance. No individual will ever be identifiable in our reporting of the results of the study.

Overall results of the pilot will be shared with Western Sydney University, and may be published in an academic journal. A summary of the results will be published on the Western Sydney University website. The Project Boost pilot has been reviewed by the Western Sydney University Human Research Ethics Committee, approval number H13274.

If you have any further questions, you can email boost@westernsydney.edu.au. You can also contact the Western Sydney University ethical review board at humanethics@westernsydney.edu.au.