Project · iD Tech · Iterable
iD Tech Pathway
A gamified progression system that turns course completions into XP, levels and perks.
- Iterable
- Lifecycle automation
- Custom events
- Lead scoring
- Personalization
The Problem
Holding a young student's attention across a years-long educational pathway is one of the most important parts of the camp learning model. The gap between one course and the next was where students were lost.
The Approach
Build a community-first program that rewards progression. Each course completion earns experience points, tracked through levels 1–10, with perks and a VIP service tier attached to the student's level.
How it works
Level-up Email
Every level-up triggers a custom automated email detailing the new level, what the student accomplished, and the next step on their learning journey.
Level on the Camp Badge
The student's level prints on their badge at camp, so students and instructors can tell at a glance who may need more support and who knows the ropes. The bragging rights aren't too shabby either.
Better Promotions and Opportunities
Pathway students receive targeted and exclusive promotions and course invitations that keep students enrolled from season to season.
Invite-Only Opportunities
High-XP students get preferential enrollment in special initiatives. One example is Academy Next: an invite-only, 3+ week, small-class program that delivers a top-tier academic experience at iD Tech's premier campuses: Stanford & MIT.
Level 10 · Recommendation Letter
Users are tracked along the Pathway all the way to level 10, where they receive a personalized letter of recommendation for college applications.
Why it Worked
For Students and Parents
Gamifying the course-participation process gives students a clear sense of purpose and accomplishment while they earn perks in a system that feels a lot like a video game. At the same time, parents appreciate the ongoing updates on their student's progress and the added motivation to keep studying.
For the Company
The vision at iD Tech heavily revolves around the idea of a tribe: technically gifted students coming together to find their people, interact with the technology they love, and have fun while furthering their development in the STEM space. The Pathway rewards community participation while increasing conversion, improving engagement with regular personalized touchpoints, and fostering a sense that everyone is working toward a shared goal of continual self-improvement as students prepare for college.
Student retention improved by roughly 15% in the first course year that the Pathway was implemented. This represented hundreds of students who otherwise would have paused their course load or failed to move into subsequent classes. New leads are a pain point in the STEM camp ecosystem, being expensive to acquire, and first-year campers were by far the most likely to cancel further courses with roughly 4 of 10 new campers failing to move into subsequent courses. Also, given the long-duration nature of the camp system, retaining a camper is particularly valuable.
Our internal survey data showed that the vast majority (70%+) of parents approved of the system and felt that it was a net positive for encouraging learning outcomes. Almost no parents expressed a direct dislike of the system, though roughly 25% of parents felt that the gamification wouldn’t lead to improved outcomes on their own.
In summation, the Pathway system proved its worth and led to the retention of hundreds of campers in the first year-over-year dataset. The email-based elements of the Pathway system are also completely automated, so the ongoing maintenance costs for that part of the system are low. I’m proud of the Pathway system and feel that it offers tangible benefits, and specifically helps solve retention, which is by far the biggest single barrier to camp profitability.
In the Inbox
