Kent-based theology college boosts taster course bookings by sharing real student experiences

St Augustine’s College of Theology is a theology college with campus’ based in both London and Kent.

They train ordinands, but also offer theology courses which students can choose to study independently of an ordination pathway.

One of the key ways they recruit independent students is through taster terms; individual modules which prospective students can study to sample what it would be like to study the full BA or MA course.

St Augustine’s wanted to promote their new taster term, Spirituality & Discipleship. A number of students had studied this module already, so I suggested we gather some testimonials to share their authentic experiences of studying the module.

Students share their practical experiences of the course

One of the main selling points of the taster term is that it’s a practical look at Christian spirituality, and students are asked to undertake spiritual practices.

We decided to get this across by asking students to share what they practically did as part of the course, and the impact their chosen spiritual practice had one them.

We used these student experiences to make a course promotional video for the website, as well as a series of social media and blog clips to promote the course among a new audience.

Course promotional video featuring student testimonials

The course had its own webpage for prospective students, so we wanted a video which would sit at the top of that page, and be a compelling first introduction to the taster term.

Therefore the course promotional video had two main aims: to educate about course content; and to convince prospective students to undertake the course.

I used an interview with course leader and college Principal, Rev Dr Alan Gregory, to hit the first aim; asking him to explain what the module is all about.

And then the convincing element comes from the engaging student testimonials, where they share the impact of studying the module.

Student testimonial social media and blog videos

A main course promotional video is all well and good for prospective students who are already on your website.

But in order to get your course content in front of a wider audience, you need a social media and blog campaign to get them to your site in the first place. We decided video content would be at the heart of the strategy for promoting this course.

We took five of the best individual student testimonials, and split them into individual shorter clips.

Attention spans on social media tend to be a little shorter; and doing this means blogs can be in ‘listicle’ format: e.g. ‘5 students share their experiences.’