Running Head: BALANCING WORK & SCHOOL 1

Balancing Work & School

Kaytlin McEntire

Kylie Marsing

Salt Lake Community College

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Balancing Work & School

Balancing work and school can be very difficult for many people. There are many ways to

stay organized and help yourself be successful, however not many people know how. The

information in this document was made to help students balance working part-time or full-time

jobs with their education.

Purpose / Objective

The purpose of our communications campaign is to inform Salt Lake Community College

(SLCC) students on how to be successful while juggling school and work. In order for our

communications campaign to be successful, we need our audience to be open to new ideas and

improvement. Our main channel for communication with our target audience is social media.

Other channels include a bookmark/success guide, and website articles. There are many

struggles’ students face when trying to manage a full-time or part-time job in addition to

attending lectures, and turning homework in on time. We want to inform students on steps they

can take to help them succeed.

Audience

The target audience for this communications campaign is students at Salt Lake

Community College taking online classes while maintaining a part-time or full-time job. Our

audience consists highly of younger students who are trying to pay off debts along the way.

Demographics

o The median age of Salt Lake Community College students is 22 years old. Most students

fall into the GenZ category.

o On average, SLCC students take about 8-9 credit hours per semester.

o The ratio of female students to male students at SLCC is 1.25:1

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o More than 66% of students are white, 20% are Hispanic, 4% are multiracial, 3% are

Asian, 2.3% are Black Non-Hispanic, with the remaining slim percentages spanning

across: Pacific Islander, Unknown, Non-Resident, and American Indian.

o Female students, white students and continuing or returning students are more likely to

take online courses.

o Roughly 70% of SLCC students have a job whether it is part time or full time.

Psychographics

o A study done by Jeff Webb and Tom Meyer, from the Office of Institutional Research

and Reporting at Salt Lake Community College revealed that students who have taken

some or all online courses tend to graduate more quickly than those who take only face-

to-face classes.

o According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), the average tuition

costs students paid in 2018 totaled $42,681 annually. According to these statistics, that

means that about 7 out of 10 students would have to work full or part-time to be able to

afford tuition costs.

o A study conducted by M. Barbenza and Montoya in 1974 revealed that introverts

received lower academic results than extroverted students. They also discovered that

students with anxiety are not as successful as those without.

o According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Extracurricular activities

provide a channel for reinforcing the lessons learned in the classroom, offering students

the opportunity to apply academic skills in a real-world context, and are thus considered

part of a well-rounded education.” Although about 51% of students with student loans,
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and 49% without student loans believe they do not have time for extracurricular

activities, it is highly beneficial and, if possible, should be added to your schedule.

o On average, 63% of full-time students in 2017 worked at least 10 hours a week, (Perna &

Odle, 2020). A recent study explained that 50% of students would not continue to work if

they did not have to. In addition, this study presents information that suggests that when

comparing students who have, and do not have student loans, 13 percent more of those

who have student loans believed that it was harder to balance their education and work,

and have also skipped class for work, (Safier, 2021). This study shows that students who

have student debt are more likely to believe that work, in some cases, is more important

than attending class.

o Before COVID-19, ProctorU, an online test taking proctoring software, administered

about 340,000 exams, and only caught 1% of students cheating (3,400 students). When

colleges started using popular online proctoring software, ProctorU specifically,

administered about 1.3 million exams between April and June of 2020, (Newton, 2021).

ProctorU caught over 8% of students cheating (104,000 students).

Social Context
Students in online learning environments typically have to rely on digital social

interactions with their professors and classmates. Our project will focus on these

relationships in order to achieve success.

Cultural Context
Many online students choose this form of learning because of the convenience of

scheduling. They are often busy. Our project focuses on giving tips for success in a

simple and convenient way that isn’t time consuming in our audience's already busy

schedule.
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Temporal Context

Because this campaign pertains to being successful in balancing work and online

schooling, we will provide our materials throughout the semester. If we put all our

materials out in the beginning, they may be overlooked, but as the semester goes on,

students can feel more overwhelmed and may benefit more from our materials.

Physical Context

Because this campaign is targeted towards SLCC students in online environments,

we will use and create online content that can help our target audience to be more

successful in finding balance between work and school. Because these students already

are drawn to the online environment, we hope our materials will be more effective.

Audience Analysis

The primary audience of our campaign focuses on online students with jobs and

busy lifestyles. They tend to choose online learning for the benefit of being able to

schedule when they work and do their schooling and often are able to graduate more

quickly than those in face-to-face classes. While they gravitate towards the online

environment for these conveniences, online schooling can allow students to potentially

cheat more than they’d be able to in an in-person class. Because they are busy and lean

towards the online environment, they are typically comfortable in a digital environment

and seek learning and connections from similar environments. Using social media,

infographics, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. will allow us to publish our content in a

place where they are more likely to access and implement our advice. Using channels,

they are already active and familiar with will allow for more engagement.
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Messaging Goals

This campaign will help students through the KNOW/FEEL/DO process as follows:

Know

o How to find a balance between work, schooling, and life

o Ways to reduce everyday stress

o Strategies to succeed in school and at work

o How to effectively plan a schedule to stay on track

Feel

o Motivated to stay in school even while working

o Confident in their abilities

o Able to use healthy ways to reducing stress and anxiety

o Organized in their schedules and studies

Do

o Create a schedule to stay on track

o Push themselves to complete their degree

o Understand how to be a more successful student

o Practice healthy stress reducing habits

o Plan a schedule ahead

o Push themselves to reach their career goals

o Feel more confident in their abilities to work and go to school

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Channels / Media

Channels are an important aspect to consider when trying to reach your intended

audience. As we took our audience, younger generation students, into consideration, we wanted

to make sure our channels appealed to such a group.

o Bookmark / Success Guide

o A bookmark or success guide is valuable to our audience, as it gives them

a physical source for information needed to be successful. This document

will provide tips on how to juggle work and school.

o Website Articles

o Website articles are another channel of communication we can use to

reach our intended audience, as the younger generation students are on

electronic devices more than any other generation.

o Social Media

o Social media is the preferred method of reaching our audience. According

to a recent study, “98% of college students use social media on a daily

basis.” (Dossett, 2020). This confirms that social media will be our most

useful source of communication.

o Infographics

o Infographics are a great way to display important information to your

audience. They present the information in a fun way that is quick and easy

to read.
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Branding Guide

All communication channels will follow the same design and branding elements. The

fonts, graphics and color pallets have all been developed through the Canva app. Glacial

Indifference font will be utilized as our primary font choice. Titles, Headers and other important

information will all be bolded.

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Tactical Planning

In order to establish a successful communication campaign, we need to be able to provide

the audience with correct and helpful information through relevant channels of communication.

Audience Message Channel Timing

Students with full-time jobs o Create a schedule to stay on track o Success Guide Beginning of class

o Ways to reduce everyday stress o Social Media (As needed)

o Motivated to stay in school even o Website Articles

while working o Infographics

o Understand how to be a more

successful student

o Plan and schedule ahead

Students with part-time jobs o Create a schedule to stay on track o Success Guide Beginning of class

o Confident in their abilities o Social Media (As needed)

o Able to use healthy ways of o Website Articles

reducing stress and anxiety o Infographics

o Organized in their schedules and

studies

o Plan and schedule ahead

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References

Dossett, J. (2020, October 26). Jason Dossett. Greenville University Papyrus. Retrieved

November 1, 2021, from https://papyrus.greenville.edu/2020/10/is-social-media-damaging-

or-helping-college-students/.

Newton, D. (2021, April 8). Another problem with shifting education online: Cheating. The

Hechinger Report. Retrieved October 17, 2021, from https://hechingerreport.org/another-

problem-with-shifting-education-online-cheating/.

O'Brien, E., & Rollefson, M. (1995, June). Extracurricular participation and student

engagement. Extracurricular Participation and Student Engagement. Retrieved October 17,

2021, from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs95/web/95741.asp.

Perna, L. W., & Odle, T. K. (2020, February 6). Recognizing the reality of working college

students. AAUP. Retrieved October 16, 2021, from

https://www.aaup.org/article/recognizing-reality-working-college-

students#.YW767RrMLIU.

Sanchez, M. M., Infante, E., & Rodriguez, Y. T. (2001, January). Personality and academic

productivity in the university ... ResearchGate. Retrieved October 16, 2021, from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233710948_Personality_and_academic_producti

vity_in_the_university_student.

The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National

Center for Education Statistics). National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home
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Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2021, from

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76

SLCC Student Demographic Fact Book 2020-2021. Salt Lake Community College Fact Book.

(n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2021, from http://performance.slcc.edu/Factbook/2020-

21/B_student_demographics/index.html.