ABSTRACT

Universities websites have become a recruitment tool that is popular with students. Recruitment pages often seek to demonstrate the benefits of studying at the institution by adopting an objective approach that makes use of textual content that emphasises facts and data. Story-based text consisting of alumni experiences of a programme of studies represent an alternative textual approach to argument based content that can put across a personal view of experiences. The research proposes hypotheses about the impact of these two types of content on website stickiness and the role of gender, using an experimental methodology. We use Facebook ads over 24 days to recruit participants and to collect gender and stickiness metrics using Google Analytics. Analyses show stronger stickiness results for story-based content and differences between the two types of content by gender. The results support narrative paradigm theory that suggests that story basedcommunication is more effective than argument-based communication. The results suggest the usefulness of story-based content supported by online ads to attract international student applications. The findings provide a solution to student recruiters at tertiary institutions who often struggle to identify the themes and type of content that prospective students find engaging.

摘要

大学网站已成为深受学生欢迎的招聘工具。招聘页面通常试图通过采用强调事实和数据的文本内容的客观方法来展示在该机构学习的好处。基于故事的文本由校友在学习项目中的经历组成，代表了基于论证的内容的另一种文本方法，可以表达个人对经历的看法。该研究使用实验方法提出了关于这两类内容对网站粘性和性别作用的影响的假设。我们在 24 天内使用 Facebook 广告来招募参与者，并使用 Google Analytics 收集性别和粘性指标。分析显示，基于故事的内容具有更强的粘性，并且两种类型的内容之间存在性别差异。结果支持叙事范式理论，该理论表明基于故事的沟通比基于论证的沟通更有效。结果表明，在线广告支持的基于故事的内容对于吸引国际学生申请非常有用。研究结果为高等教育机构的招生人员提供了一个解决方案，他们经常难以确定未来学生感兴趣的主题和内容类型。结果表明，在线广告支持的基于故事的内容对于吸引国际学生申请非常有用。研究结果为高等教育机构的招生人员提供了一个解决方案，他们经常难以确定未来学生感兴趣的主题和内容类型。结果表明，在线广告支持的基于故事的内容对于吸引国际学生申请非常有用。研究结果为高等教育机构的招生人员提供了一个解决方案，他们经常难以确定未来学生感兴趣的主题和内容类型。