By the time of this article’s publication, the Complete and Compete Challenge will already be underway.
Despite the daily emails, last semester’s Dr. Chatbot rates weren’t great, with about half of the student body filling it out on any given day.
This spring, UR is looking to promote Dr. Chatbot usage through positive reinforcement: a semester-long competition with some eye-catching prizes, such as a free dining plan for a semester.
Dr. Chatbot is a daily COVID-19 screening questionnaire that is mandatory for all students and employees who will physically be on campus that day. A more detailed version is also used by UR Medicine staff.
To encourage participation, Wilson Commons Student Activities developed the Complete and Compete Challenge, which began on Feb. 5, the start of Winterfest Weekend, and runs until May 7.
The Complete and Compete Challenge is a University-wide initiative and expands beyond undergraduate students, to students from Graduate AS&E, the Eastman School of Music, the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the School of Nursing, and Simon Business School. Students can enter the competition through an online survey.
The grand prizes, which will be available to students who complete Dr. Chatbot every day during the competition, include a Blue Unlimited Dining Plan for a semester, worth $2,741 dollars, and a Year-Long Parking Pass. There will be three grand prizes available.
Raffles for prizes will be held bi-weekly and monthly, for students that complete Dr. Chatbot every day during that time period. Departments and groups throughout the UR community have also chipped in prizes to promote Dr. Chatbot usage. These prizes include iPads, Airpods, Starbucks gift cards, T-shirts, hats, and more.
The competition will not only be limited to raffle drawings but a “Prize Patrol” run by UHS Public Health Ambassadors. These ambassadors will appear around campus to reward students who have completed Dr. Chatbot for the day. Participants in the competition will be given clues on where the Prize Patrol may be hiding for the day.
When UR reflected upon fall semester student feedback on their COVID-19 performance, one complaint rose above the rest: Dr. Chatbot, and the incessant reminders that left students feeling nagged and gave them a negative outlook of the whole system.
“We were super proud of our students for making it through Thanksgiving — so many of my counterparts had pauses or had to send kids home,” Anne-Marie Algier, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Activities said. “[Students] want to be with their friends, they want to experience the college environment, and Dr. Chatbot is a big part of that. We do want to increase the participation, so we thought we’d try something fun, and that’s why we’re launching it.”
Algier wants to change students’ negative perception of Dr. Chatbot.
“I think people were just seeing it as this nag […] That’s not really the message or tone we want to send out,” Algier said. “We want students to do it for the right reasons. We want them to do it because they want to protect the hive. When you are thinking about those questions, all the symptoms are different. You have to think about ‘did I travel,’ ‘do I feel this,’ it’s really good to think about that before you step out onto campus.”
To promote the competition, organizers have given RAs an incentive to have all their hall members sign up to win dessert boxes from Dining Services for the entire hall. Promotion for the Complete and Compete contest will continue throughout the first week of classes.
“My humble goal is to hit 500 [enrollments] in the next week with people returning to campus and more promotion and campaigns,” junior Madelyn Candela, Student Lead for Complete and Compete, said. “I think students are going to get talking about it, but I think that is what I want to see from the undergraduate community.”
To sign up for the Complete and Compete Competition, you can visit https://www.rochester.edu/college/wcsa/programs/complete-and-compete.html.
