10 reasons why your college should have a mobile app

Student Engagement App

There are over 26,000 colleges and universities all over the world and around 4,000 in the US, according to National Centre for Educational Statistics. For students who aspire to pursue higher education, there seems to be plenty of colleges and universities to choose from.  Because of the competitive nature of the higher education sector, ‘student engagement factor’ has more recently become a significant aspect for students to choose a college or a university, along with facilities, curriculum and job opportunities.

In order to improve the student engagement factor, colleges and universities need to make sure that information influencing student decision is readily available at the right place and at the right time, starting with the admission process. In order to accomplish this, the institution needs to switch to the medium that appeal to millennial students. Having a mobile app can help you engage your students in ways you haven’t even thought before. Here are 10 reasons why you should consider having your own college-branded mobile app in the app stores:

#1: Speak where you’re heardIt’s just not that 90% of the student population own a smartphone, but also spend 86% of their time in a day on browsing through mobile apps. Clearly, students and their mobile phones are inseparable. Because of this, having your own college-branded mobile app is the best way to catch their attention and build your brand in a crowded market.

#2: Be accessible anywhere, anytimeThough a student portal serves as a good means of communication, it’s the accessibility factor which makes a mobile app far more effective. Students will have access to all of your college resources at all times. More importantly, during emergencies and situations that need immediate attention, mobile app is much handier as compared to browser-based support.

#3: Streamline your communication channelsWhy go through the pains of designing and printing brochures, pamphlets or sending an email and hoping that your students would see it, when you can easily push content right to their mobile app? Save a lot of time and resources, while seamlessly tracking student engagement levels.  Even bigger draw with mobile apps is that you can send customized content to chosen student demographics and thus nurture student engagement.

#4: Automate your routine administration activitiesSetting up appointments, scheduling events and the following up with the registration process can be pretty hectic. Even after multiple rounds of announcements and flyers, you might still not get the required registration or the attendance. A mobile solution can not only get you quick responses but also save your time and effort by automating the process.

#5: Get instantly connected to your students whenever you wantWhen you have your own college-branded mobile app, you never have to worry about last-minute announcements, notifications or any information that need to be conveyed immediately to all students or target groups. You can easily send push notifications to your preferred target group on their mobile apps in seconds.

#6: Be always available with online helpdesk and knowledge baseWith the help of a mobile app, you can automate your entire ‘student inquiry’ process, saving a lot of time and effort of yours. Prospective and enrolled students can easily create service tickets regarding issues that require support via their mobile app, anytime, anywhere. They can also have access to your knowledge base, FAQs and links all useful information that they might require on-demand.

#7: Let them know you careYour students have diverse backgrounds, interests and personalities. With the power of mobile technology, you can create content that’s relevant to these diverse groups to improve the student engagement factor. Such personalized pathways created based on the characteristics of the targeted group, makes students feel more inclusive and heard. A persona-based approach will maximize engagement, retention, and student success efforts.

#8: Improve the engagement levels of student groups and communitiesWith your own college-branded mobile app, you can have student groups and communities, both for learning and leisure, which would engage your students by encouraging participation, real time. They’ll be able to easily share content, like and comment which promotes more social interactions. Give them the ability to create communities and run them on their own.

#9: Get quick access to relevant student information for useful insightsWhile your SIS/LMS system helps you keep a record of all the information, you still can’t find what you need at the right place at the right time. This is exactly why you need a system which integrates with your SIS/LMS systems that collates this data and provide you with meaningful insights. These insights will help you to quickly tap into any information you want about an individual student with just a click, and be there to extend a hand.  This is how even large colleges can make student experience very special.

#10: Have a centralized system for all your student needsOne of the main benefits is that your entire communication, content, staff and student directory is available in one centralized system. Instead of using multiple platforms for different kinds of communication and information, you can use one solution for all your student engagement needs. From raising an inquiry request to responding to polls and surveys, you can manage everything from a single admin console.

With all these countless benefits, the best news is that you don’t have to invest time and efforts in building your own campus-branded mobile app. Many colleges and universities don’t have the resources to build a full-fledged app right from scratch.

e2s Mobile+ helps you get your own college-branded mobile app without writing a single line of code. Easily design and customize your own app and get started instantly by signing up for e2s Mobile+.

If you would like to know more on getting your own campus-branded mobile app, please write to us at info@engage2serve.com