This EdTech Startup is Improving Minority STEM Student Success Rates using Collaboration– and GIFs.
Originally published 9/18/2019

- EdTech startup Campuswire offers a communication tool which increases student collaboration and emphasizes a more social media-like experience
- A study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas — El Paso shows that using Campuswire raised the grades of 82% of students who used the tool consistently
NEW YORK — A study conducted by a team of University of Texas researchers at the university’s El Paso campus found that applying methods of communication typically observed in social media settings to a difficult STEM course positively increased the likelihood of students to pass the course.
The course in question, Thermodynamics, has one of the highest student failure rates in UTEP’s Mechanical Engineering department. The researchers used the class communication tool built by EdTech startup Campuswire to investigate the effects of collaborative communication on students’ grades over the course of one semester.
The study found that of the Thermodynamics students who most heavily used the software, 82% improved their grades over the course of the semester. Of the students who used the software infrequently, just 44% improved their grades throughout the term. In the research paper detailing the study’s findings, the researchers wrote, “our conclusion is that the software helps students earn better grades if they use it in a significant way.”
The study, called “Efficacy of Social Media Communications for Enhancing Student Success”, was presented at the America Society for Engineering Education’s 126th Annual Conference and Exposition.
It is worth noting that UTEP is uniquely situated in one of the world’s largest bi-national communities and possesses a majority Hispanic student population. UTEP’s undergraduate Engineering department is nearly 20% female, with the majority of female students being Hispanic. According to the National Science Board’s annual Science & Engineering Indicators report, just 11.9% of all Bachelor’s Degrees in Engineering awarded within the U.S. in 2017 went to Hispanic students. Of that 11.9%, only 22.8% went to female Hispanic students. That’s just 2.71% of the Engineering degrees awarded in 2017, country-wide.
The positive effect that using social media-style communication tools like Campuswire in STEM courses has upon students’ grades, as observed within UTEP’s Thermodynamics course, could prove valuable in retaining female and minority students within traditionally underrepresented majors.
Campuswire, which was founded in 2016 by CEO Tade Oyerinde, offers a variety of features meant to streamline communication in STEM courses. These features include anonymous posting, multi-user chat rooms, a Reddit-like “upvote” system for tracking class participation and scoring student answers, LaTeX functionality, and built-in Emoji and GIF keyboards.
Campuswire is backed by a group of investors including Bloomberg Beta and Rethink Education. Campuswire V3 launched in August 2019. ●

