Some existing students dropped out or put their studies on hold to look after their finances and families, while many prospective students could not afford to divert time away from these same activities to pursue higher education.
Numerous variables remain uncertain for community college retention, enrollment, and the communities they serve in the buildup towards the upcoming semester. What remains clear is that the technologies that helped these institutions reach students during virtual learning will continue to provide value in the shift to in-person and hybrid classrooms.
Campus mobile apps can help community colleges deliver customized content and support at scale. These communications can make all of the difference to vulnerable community college prospects, who, facing the bureaucratic minefield between application and enrollment, may simply give up. Sending better messaging in real-time to students that are struggling can similarly help institutions prevent dropouts and increase community college retention.
Developing materials to support students and prospects is a cross-departmental effort, and college mobile app usage data provides insights into what content is necessary. Community colleges that use a mobile app can analyze usage data to see which services or resources users want and need, supporting scenarios such as:
In tandem with tactics such as student interviews and reviewing help desk calls, campus app usage data can drive meaningful changes in community college communication retention, and wellbeing practices.
The same app usage data which can be used to reshape student and prospect outreach can also be used to automate the resources and services a student receives through the campus app.
By tying app user data with automatic workflows, community college administrators can provide personalized resources to any number of prospects or students without adding more work for the team.
In campusM, for example, it’s possible to conduct recurring monthly surveys in which the answers automatically trigger changes to the app’s homepage interface. If a community college decides to poll students about their mental health, each answer can be set up to show students relevant resources based on how they feel through new tiles, push notifications and more.
Digital “nudges,” such as push notifications and emails reminding students to complete a task, can encourage students to make smarter decisions about complex processes.
Community colleges can use their campus app as a vehicle for delivering timely nudges to the right groups of students. As an example, students who clicked on a financial aid tile or contacted a financial aid representative can automatically be sent push notifications about:
For some students, this could be the difference between completing their degree or dropping out. To track what works for community college retention, this is important data to have.
The need to increase recruitment and community college retention has been exacerbated by the pandemic, and in some cases, the teams tackling these issues are doing the same work but with fewer team members. A campus app can help community college administrators gain visibility into the barriers their students and prospects are facing, and to solve these issues in real-time with the help of automated processes.
campusM is a powerful campus app and student engagement platform that helps universities improve student engagement on a daily basis. For more information about how campusM is making it simple for universities to provide outstanding mobile student experiences and services, click here.
